Hopscotch Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in New South Wales

Went here for breakfast and was quite disappointed… the atmosphere and staff I talked to were friendly and lovely it was just the food that threw it off for me.

I ordered their “Turkish Eggs” as I saw labneh was in the dish and got excited to try it, but when my dish came it was a puddle of vanilla yogurt. - or at least tasted like it as it was super sweet for something meant to be “garlic infused”.

(The photos are me trying to show it looks a lot more like vanilla yogurt than a thicker Greek yoghurt and when compared to an even thicker labneh)

I thought it might’ve been a mix up so I asked to waitress to check with the chef. She said to me that it was meant to be that way and it was Greek yogurt and to these words exact “he said without the fancy name it’s Greek yogurt” … this left me quite annoyed as a Turk I knew that wasn’t what labneh is, and I wasn’t sure whether the chef was clueless as to what labneh was or if they were trying to pull one over me hoping I didn’t know what labneh is.

Labneh is strained yoghurt making it super thick and spreadable id say it’s a similar texture to cream cheese but sometimes even thicker as it’s more dried out - it doesn’t always have a garlic taste but it is possible. It’s usually drizzled with olive oil and tastes almost sour, like tangy and acidic.

It was a bit upsetting as I did believe the chef was hoping I didn’t know what I was talking about, I can imagine them serving something with a berry compote with it just being warmed up milkshake syrup to the chef saying “without the fancy name it’s berry syrup”

The food was completely inedible, as It’s hard to eat chorizo covered in vanilla yogurt. - I recommend changing the description on the menu, or tasting that yoghurt as it’s definitely too sweet (tasted like vanilla/honey) and shouldn’t be labelled as “garlic infused” or even as “labneh” to make the menu sound more sophisticated and authentic. Ontop of this the poached eggs were way too runny, the outside looked lovely but on the inside it was watery and inedible so I just had to eat my toast, hash brown, and wipe the yogurt off of the chorizo. - my chai latte was a unique blend but was a little too sweet and a little too cold.

I think this was just my personal experience - and I’m being extra harsh and somebody that works in a kitchen and was raised with Turkish cuisine. I’m sure the rest of the menu is great, but I couldn’t help but...

(3.5 stars) “Buddy! Here you go! Slip that into you,” our jovial waiter exclaims as he hands over our cocktails. Drawn from a six-strong list of New York-style margaritas - not quite what I expected to be drinking in Tamworth - The Harlem ($15) and The Soho ($15) are straight-to-the-point cocktails. With no salt rims, ice or garnishes to navigate, they’re big glasses of crudely combined liquor – tequila and triple sec – turned with watermelon juice to represent the northern Manhattan neighbourhood of Harlem; and with ruby red grapefruit juice to reflect the bitter proclivities of trendy Soho fashionistas.

While normally I prefer a bit more elegance, there’s something about a spiked fruit juice that works on a hot day, particularly when you’re sitting in a light-filled glass house set inside the town’s Bicentennial Park. You’ll find Hopscotch Restaurant & Bar overlooking the whizz-bang $2.2 million Tamworth Regional Playground. While you can order from their outdoor kiosk and hang outside with your kids, I reckon the cutting-edge playground is close enough that you could legitimately parent from an indoor table with a quaffable cocktail in hand.

Owned by business and life partners, Dwone Jones and Jay Lynch, Hopscotch is a daytime affair with a menu more geared towards café-style dishes. They do make a point of buying local, sourcing the Piallamore beef for their Steak Sandwich ($20) from about fifteen kilometres away on the road to Nundle, and the tomatoes it’s served with, from Guyra, north of Armidale. The Angus eye fillet is teamed with pickled onion, creamy farmhouse Cheddar, mixed leaves and mustard on fairly standard toasted Turkish bread, accompanied by a big helping of skinny fries.

Made with locally cured lightly peppered beef, smoked ham and (sadly unmelted) provolone, rounded out with pickles and remoulade, the lightly toasted Cuban ($16) is a bit more Miami nice than it is Havana spice. I suspect though I might be missing the point. Maybe if I had kids, this family-friendly spot would win me over on proximity to playground...

There were 4 of us that were after a table for lunch without a booking. We waited 10 minutes for staff to even acknowledge us to than be hold they couldn’t seat us for a further 15 minutes because they had so many dirty tables with no one at them. We had a baby and seen a clean table with no one there and just asked if we could sit there and we were happy to wait until they were ready to serve us. They ended up serving us quite quickly with drinks coming out straight away but were poorly made. We ordered 2 burgers that were very average, an acai bowl that was liquid in the bowl and the lamb shish kebab which was absolutely inedible and $30! It was so dry and flavourless that we didn’t eat any of it. We weren’t asked at all how everything was after sitting there for 10 minutes with our dirty plates on the table trying to get staffs attention. When we got up to pay we explained about the shish kebab and asked to take it off our bill. The manager was happy to take it off and did apologise but didn’t seem too worried about it. We seen 2 meals get taken back to the kitchen while we were there. Although they didn’t seem very busy, they looked like they were struggling maybe due to understaffed. We watched many groups of people line up to be told a 15 minute wait to be seated and when they came back they were told the same thing. This happened several times. We left feeling really disappointed in the food and service and...