Ladies & Gentlemen Cafe Diner is a cafe on Enmore Road in Marrickville. The menu has a mix of cafe brunch and lunch offerings like omelettes, breakfast wraps and avo toast but there are also interesting Taiwanese offerings thanks to cafe's owner, a former fine dining chef in Taiwan! Think juicy pork belly sandwiches or crispy Taiwanese chicken pockets washed down with white chocolate matcha lattes.
A few weeks ago Monica had forwarded me a pic of a chicken pita pocket from Ladies and Gentlemen Cafe diner on Instagram. She knows how much I love Taiwanese fried chicken. Although she was on her 2 month holiday in Italy if she couldn't eat with me, she could help me eat find places to eat out at. A few days later it was a Saturday when Mr NQN and I decide to face the rain and go out to eat.
Ladies and Gentleman is run by couple Fiona Chiang and Benjamin Li. Fiona studied French cuisine in Paris and mostly worked in fine dining restaurants there and after a stint in Singapore moved to Australia. She and Ben met through a mutual friend and got married. Ben says, "I have been working as a medical scientist for 17 years now but I was interested in coffee and always dreamt of opening a small cafe so it was after I met Fiona this dream started to become more achievable." This is the couple's first cafe. The name Ladies & Gentleman is based on the name of a song by English space rock band Spiritualized called "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space". The cafe is located on a Marrickville end of Enmore Road There are two outdoor tables as well as a bigger indoor section. You can order at the counter or at the table but if you sit outside you will have to go in and let them know that you're sitting outside.
Popular items are marked on the menu and the selection consists of their takes on classics like burger, big breakfasts but there are also Asian themed dishes like a millet porridge, pork belly sandwiches, rice bowls and curry rice. Service is friendly and polite and while drinks come out quickly, the food takes a bit of time to arrive.
We start with a pot of Oriental Beauty oolong tea and a white chocolate matcha latte. The tea is served Chinese style aka black with two small cups. The matcha latte is strong in matcha with the creamy sweetness of white chocolate.
The first thing I made sure to order were the Taiwanese pockets as they were the item that Monica sent me a photo of. They're pita pockets filled with a piece of Taiwanese style fried chicken, shredded cabbage, sweet and sour cucumbers and aioli. Taiwanese fried chicken is one of my favourite types of fried chicken due to the delicious seasoning and juicy texture and this does not disappoint. The bread is soft and fresh with just the right amount of dressing, salad and that delicious chicken. I also ordered these with the optional fries. I am that person that always asks for their chips or fries to come out super hot and they come out piping hot and moreish.
Mr NQN will surprise me at times. He usually doesn't like pork belly because he finds it too fatty so I usually get all of the pork belly dishes to myself but he really swooped in and ate most of the porky belly sandwich. It's soy caramelised pork belly slices with with house-made pickled cucumber and pickled purple cabbage slaw, Kewpie mayo, spring onion and sliced apples on lightly toasted, crustless Japanese milk bread. In fact he enjoys it so much that he starts admiring its structure and composition,"It's put together so that you get a bite of everything in each bite and it's easy to eat." Well the man has layers!
I really didn't need to order the yakisoba but I was craving noodles. You can order the yakisoba with either chicken or tofu and we went with the chicken version. They're stir-fried buckwheat noodles with egg, chicken tenders, onion, cabbage, carrots, spring onion with seaweed and capsicum shreds. It's quite strong in garlic but the noodles have a lot of flavour to them and they're tasty with carrot, egg white omelette and spring onions. Alas there's not enough room for something sweet but I'm happy to end on savoury.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you tend to order classic brunches or something that the cafe specialises in? Do you ever ask for super hot fries or food?
Ladies & Gentlemen Cafe Diner
295 Enmore Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204
Tuesday to Friday 7am – 3pm
Saturday to Sunday 8am – 3pm
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