This weekend I am resting at home because I am sick. I was suppose to be at work but due to my blocked nose and wailing "I'm siiiiiiiick" all around the house I am at home reminiscing about last weekend where I was well and out having brunch and shopping. Last weekend I took my family out to brunch at The Cove at Drummoyne. It was the first day of sunshine after weeks of rainy Sydney weather and there was much excitement among my siblings.

The restaurant is beautifully situated facing Iron Cove with glimpses of waterfront views no matter where you are sitting! Sadly the restaurant did not do bookings on weekends so we had to wait 40minutes as we needed a table of 5. If you are looking to go I can't stress enough that you should book on weekdays and be prepared to wait on weekends if you have a big group. The place was very popular due to it's great location and the customers appeared to be mostly mothers and joggers.

After finally getting a seat we were eager to start ordering. Food came out in a reasonable time.


I had the speciality home made baked beans with spinach and bacon on house loaf and topped with a poached egg $18.50

This was very yummy and my brother was taking a large portion of my baked beans away because it was so delicious! Baked beans are a great source of fibre and protein which both help to keep you feeling full for longer. They are also low GI, fat free, has been shown to lower your cholesterol and are a great source of vegetable/legumes. This means that incorporating baked beans in your breakfast will give you slow releasing sustained energy, contribute to a serve of vegetables and thus keep you going until lunchtime! Is there any other reason not to eat beans?? (Okay it may cause flatulence.....)

I'm not a big fan of bacon, not only because of the fat and salt content but I just don't like the taste so I shared most of my bacon with the family. The bacon in this meal wasn't the leanest I've seen but the fat could easily have been trimmed off.

The spinach is another great vegetable serving! And the poached organic and free range egg was perfection. Eggs are a great source of nutrients. Just imagine it's suppose to nourish a growing chicken! The heart foundation recommends it's healthy to consume up to 6 eggs a week.


This is the dish my dad originally ordered. It was another house specialty of smoked Tasmanian salmon with rocket, avocado and fetta cheese on house loaf $18.50. My dad doesn't like fetta cheese so gave this to my mum.

Funny story while eating:
Mum: This salmon isn't very salty compared to some other salmon I've had
Dad: It's Tasmanian salmon
Mum: Is the water in Tasmania less salty?  

Salmon is a great source of good omega 3 fatty acids!


My dad swapped the salmon dish for this: Panini with fried egg, bacon, onion jam, rocket and aioli $12.50. My dad called this the rich man's bacon egg roll.


My sister decided to go for a sweet dish: Crumpets with ricotta, strawberries and honey $13.50.

Ricotta is a really great low fat cheese that is soft and easy to spread. Use it instead of cream. However the calcium content of ricotta is not as great as for hard yellow cheeses like cheddar.


My brother wasn't adventurous enough to try ricotta cheese so he had the scones with cove berry jam and cream $5.50

We also had a few coffees that I didn't get to take a snap of it. I am not a great coffee drinker (It gets me jittery) so I can't really comment on how great the coffee is but my parents are both baristas and drink coffee daily. They said the coffee was really good and creamy and they used a good quality chocolate powder.

I had previously been to the cove once to have breakfast and had: 


Chorizo, mushroom, fresh tomato, rocket and sweet paprika omelette $17.50
The omelette was great and filling but I felt the eggs were a bit dry. See that yellow slice between the bread? It's butter. Lots of it. Don't judge me but I've never had butter on toast until a couple of days before this outing! With the new discovery I got a little too happy with the knife and slathered too much butter on... It wasn't pretty....


Also had a slice of banana bread with banana, ricotta and honey $5.50 that day. It was just ordinary to me.

The bill for our family brunch was over $70 so I wouldn't say it's the most affordable brunch but the food was delicious, the service was courteous (despite the long wait) and the view was fantastic.

Health factor?

• The breakfast menu included a number of healthy choices and many meals had at least some vegetable addition. 
• There is wholemeal bread options and also gluten free breads for those with coeliac disease. 
• They have some nice berry smoothies as well  
• Ask them to trim the bacon or pick dishes with no bacon 
• Avoid spreading too much butter on the bread (Like me!)
• Choose dishes without the béarnaise sauce 
• Choose dishes with the vegetables such as rocket, spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes and avocado

Look at this view! I would happily go and have breakfast or try their lunch and dinner options again but with my student budget it might have to be reserved for special occasions only!

What have you been up to this weekend?