Liverpool Powerhouse — Attraction in Sydney

“When there are local people doing awesome things, we use them,” barista Carlos Ojeda Nino says, as he places Bellbird Dining's House Made Falafels ($15) before me. The dish plays homage to local artisan maker, Hammoud 1, by using their excellent falafel mix, cooking the crisp spiced chickpea balls in-house with fried cauliflower florets, before presenting them with lightly pickled red onions, tangy labneh and golden shards of crisp bread.

The new enclosed awning has expanded the table space at this riverside eatery located inside Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. However the increased space has also come with an increase in Bellbird Dining’s popularity with local residents and visitors, so it’s advisable to book. It’s easy to see why the multiculturally diverse crowd flocks to this pretty, light-drenched setting with its succinct, well-priced menu where no dish is more than twenty bucks.

Part of the attraction is Bellbird Dining’s abundant kitchen garden, which now produces more vegetables than the kitchen can use. You’ll find them selling the excess to visitors for a very reasonable price in a wooden stand right by the counter.

We’re quickly settled at our pre-booked table with complimentary bread, oil, vinegar and butter. The drinks list might be short, but across the cocktails, wines, ciders and craft beers, you’ll find plenty to tempt you, including a number of drinks sourced from the local area. Chop Shop Pale Ale ($9) is made by Stockade Brewing Co. who started brewing beer in nearby Smeaton Grange. It's a super hoppy, pretty beer with pleasant bitterness – just the ticket for quenching your thirst on a hot day in this dining room's flowery surrounds. For those that prefer something other than beer, the 2015 Artemis Riesling ($7/glass) from the Southern Highlands is a daytime drinker with good acidity that suits the cooking, or there's Sydney Calling ($12) a grown-up gin cocktail with verjuice and honey made by Archie Rose Distilling Co. in Rosebery. Bellbird Dining serve it up with plenty of ice and edible blooms grown in the garden wall right by the kitchen.

Across a couple of visits, I’ve worked my way through Bellbird Dining’s complete menu. While it does shift weekly according to what’s plentiful and in peak season, you can always expect to find five or six meat or seafood-based dishes, four vegetarian dishes and a handful of sides. Smoked Black Angus Sirloin ($20) was an easy favourite, with slices of house-smoked beef, cut super fine on the deli slicer, teamed with garlic aioli, fennel, flowers and different textures of onion on the well-presented plate.

A glut in asparagus from the fertile kitchen garden was employed in Sous Vide Fremantle Octopus ($20) on one visit, and with a generous slab of Eco Farmed Roasted Pork Belly ($18) on the next. Both proteins shone against the bed of charred asparagus and juicy blackened corn kernels, united by sesame dressing, so I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite - perhaps the well-rendered, crisp skinned pork belly set off by more fennel leaves by a nose.

Charred Asparagus ($15) also made its way onto the vegetarian menu with poached free-range eggs, chalky goats' cheese and long ribbons of juicy zucchini. You can really taste the difference that having the kitchen a hop, skip and a jump away from the garden makes in this dish. It's also evident in the Pear, Walnut and Apple Cider Dressing Salad ($5) side that I ordered on both visits. The springy, vibrant green leaves on offer here for the princely sum of five bucks leave most restaurant salads in the dust.

The only dish that didn’t quite live up to expectations on this visit was the Handmade Ricotta Gnocchi ($16). Rather than little lumps, the ricotta dumplings had spread into slabs of golden fried cheese, perhaps due to the hot and steamy weather. Against smoky eggplant, kale (from the garden) and blistered cherry tomatoes however, the gnocchi did eat better than it looked.

At these prices Bellbird Dining is a very easy place to sit back and kill a few...

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre is located in a repurposed power station in the heart of Liverpool and is a cultural facility to showcase a range of exhibitions, theatre, music, performance and events. We attended the opening of the new restaurant, introduced by Director of the Powerhouse Museum, Craig Donarski in late 2017, but returned for a second visit (and certainly not the last). The Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre has opened a new restaurant called "Bellbird dining and bar" open 7 days a week from 10am – 3pm, offering seasonal dining and using farm fresh ingredients, the restaurant is promoting sustainability, seasoning their foods with an array of the plentiful herbs and vegetables from their own garden. At the opening, we sampled Hawkesbury River Oyster, Eco Farmed Pork, bruschetta and much more, with ingredients being sourced from their own garden or artisan suppliers from across NSW. Drinks were on offer from South Western Sydney Brewery; Stockade Brew CO. and wines from Artemis in the Southern Highlands. We were genuinely impressed by our restaurant visit on our return and we cannot speak highly enough of Bellbird Dining at the Casula Powerhouse Museum. The kitchen is run by two passionate chefs; Cordon Bleu trained Federico Rekowski and sous chef Steven Pham. We consider Bellbird to be a destination dining venue well worth a visit. With everything under $18, many of the ingredients used are sourced from their very own garden on site.

At an amazing price combined with beautiful plating and an amazing display of technique makes for a truly special dining experience. This also evident in the feedback from fellow diners which we witness during our dine. Bellbird is hands down the best value menu in Sydney. The menu we sampled was super fresh, light and perfect for summer and there is also an extensive menu that caters to vegetarians. The South Coast Kingfish with gazpacho broth was an automatic pick for us on that hot summers day. A beautifully presented dish, a refined broth with a nice spice kick and summer flavour provided by fresh herbs, tomatoes and cucumber fresh from their own garden. Chef Pham's skill with seafood were learnt from his time at FishFace and clearly on display, with the prawn stuffed squid. This was a favourite, very flavoursome, also beautifully fresh, the flavours from the squid and prawns infusing nicely into the delicate clear broth, again fresh seasonal produce used in this dish. The zucchini flower had a synergy of flavours, with a noticeable crunch from crisp batter in contrast to the creamy goat cheese filling. Sweetness was provided from the balsamic, honey and beetroot gel, this combining nicely with earthy flavours fom pastel pink beetroot and sprinkle of walnut crumb. We loved the Gnocchi as a vegetarian option. The Gnocchi was light and fluffy, sauced with sage and nut butter, flavours further enhanced by roast fig, caramelised onion and shaved parmesan. You can order sides as well, and the fries were nice and crispy with a wasabi salsa. The desserts were just as impressive as the other meals on the menu. It was hard to choose between the mango sorbet and the olive oil cake. On this occasion the mango sorbet won out. The sorbet had a silky smooth mouth feel, the mango sphere served atop of a coconut gel and sprinkled with roasted white chocolate, which provided texture and a toasty flavour which was perfect o complement the sweetness of the sorbet. Bellbird is a must visit, a great restaurant with amazingly fresh produce, beautifully prepared and even better, the food is offered at a great price. Not only is this a great restaurant, it is situated in the Casula power house museum. With no admission fee, it is a great place to visit if on a budget. There is also a train station if you don't drive, and ample parking if you do. When we visited the powerhouse had some cool pop art exhibitions, along with a very interesting manga exhibition, and a display curated by...

Along with my family, I attended a display of work from all the local child care centres. Toward the end of the night we headed upstairs to the only displays we hadn't seen. When we got up there, one of the other mothers (who also works at our centre) was already there with her daughter. Her daughter was receiving instruction from one of the staff about touching the artworks. It was a piece of linen that the mother had asked to hold for a photo. The mother was unaware it was actually artwork and part of the display. The only thing I heard was the staff member saying "How would you like it if somebody touched your artwork, that you worked so hard for?". She wasn't being aggressive but the 'chat' went on for a few minutes. I felt that this was excessive but chose not to intervene because the mother was present. I wasn't aware that she couldn't say anything because she was in uniform. Regardless, surely commonsense would dictate that you approach the parent, not the 3 year old. I commented to the other staff member that 3 year olds by nature are curious, and want to touch things and learn. Clearly, the staff have had no experience in dealing with children. I think that training is desperately needed. Particularly, after running into the mother and daughter downstairs; and both were upset. I found out 2 days later that the staff member approached the mother downstairs because she saw she was upset and asked if she could speak with her. Even though she replied that she didn't want to because of her distress, the staff member pushed on regardless. Whatever happened to empathy? As I said....