Danks Street Depot (again!), 9 Jan 2010

There are some friends whom you are more likely to dine with at ‘special’ places. By special I don’t necessarily mean fancy or expensive, but rather places that do certain things particularly well or who source particular ingredients which you know only some friends of yours will appreciate. There is nothing worse than excitedly taking friends to a place you deem ‘special’ only to have them be all blasé about it. Luckily, between Monsieur Poisson and myself, we have many friends who appreciate the finer details of food. Two of these friends are Weirdo and Ms Sourdough whom we decided to have brunch with at Danks Street Depot to celebrate their newly married status after having returned from holidaying overseas.

Ms Sourdough has heard me rave about Danks Street Depot previously but unfortunately has had limited opportunity to dine out in Sydney due to having been based in Canberra for work for the past few years. So now begins not only a new phase of life together with Weirdo, but hopefully some newfound food adventures in Sydney as well!

We are lucky to score a table in the corner of an otherwise packed out café not long after some people leave. Ms Sourdough and Monsieur Poisson both decide to have the ‘Poached eggs with bacon hash, herbed tomato and sourdough toast’. The eggs are nice and soft but the bacon hash is pleasantly not quite what we expect. Instead of the commonly seen grated potato ‘pancake’, this is a fry-up of chunky potato and big cubes of bacon – very hearty indeed.


Weirdo gives in to our slight persuasion (read: pressure) to order the ‘Pepperonata with eggs and lamb merguez sausages’. There’s just something so attractive about a one-pot dish involving sauce with eggs cracked in at the end. The sausages are spicy and firm but not too ‘lamby’, to borrow Weirdo’s words.


I’m not feeling terribly hungry which is most unusual so I order a serve of ‘Garlic bread with nut brown butter and fresh parsley’ for the table to share as well as the ‘Saucisson sec with cornichons’. The garlic bread is from Brasserie Bread and is studded with whole cloves of roasted garlic which are sweet, mellow and earthy. Combined with the nutty butter and deep green parsley, this is heaven on a plate and – I would like to theorise – a perfect cure for a hangover.


The ‘Saucisson sec with cornichons’ is like part of what makes up a Ploughman’s lunch but done French-style. I have a long standing love affair with cured meats and this salami-style sausage with its visible globs of fat and whole black peppercorns does not disappoint. Cornichons, in my book, apart from being rather cute to look at also provide a much needed tartness to cut through the fattiness and strong flavours of most cured meats.


We enjoy some further conversation following our food but, despite us all claiming that we’re full, decide to drive up to Bourke Street Bakery for a bit of a look-see…

2 Danks St (cnr Young St), Waterloo NSW
Tel: (02) 9698 2201

Opening Hours:  Mon-Wed  7:30am-4pm
Tues-Sat  7:30pm-10pm
Sun  9:30am-3pm

Danks Street Depot on Urbanspoon

happy eating!

14 comments:

  1. That garlic bread looks amazing. I would love to eat that with the salami. Mmmm delicious.

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  2. Danks St Depot is on my list of top 10 places to try this year. I can't get their chocolate tart out of my head.

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  3. Ooh even something as humble as a hash sounds delicious (you had me at bacon). Also can't wait to see what you bought at BSB! ;)

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  4. I love that garlicky bread from Brasserie Bread (and I also love some mouthwash afterwards!). And it's great that you can get to Danks St so often, and get a table :)

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  5. That garlic bread looks to die for! As if the original Brasserie Bread garlic bread wasn't good enough already, but to add butter and fresh parsley I can definitely see why it would be heaven on a plate!

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  6. My boyfriend's mum sometimes buys that Brasserie Bread garlic bread! It's amazing with everything, especially eggs benedict!
    This looks like a mean breakfast, I must check it out.

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  7. Sounds like the bacon hash was a surprise winner! Bread with whole cloves of garlic would be brilliant too.

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  8. Oh my goodness me, that garlic bread looks good. Worth getting a terrible hangover just to go and cure it with some of that!

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  9. Eating out of your own mini breakfast pan is always fun and lol, I use the word "lamby" all the time too.

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  10. Delish! I haven't been to Australia yet, but your blog inspires me to make a trip plan for the awesome food experience :)

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  11. I love it when you find friends who share the same interests - especially food. I need to go to Dank Street one day.

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  12. i actually have both cookbooks by jared ingersoll - i couldn't resist buying them when I saw the pictures of the food. still need to actually eat at danks street depot but this post has given me an idea of what i should be ordering! and lol to describing something as 'lamby'...i do that a lot too!

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  13. Hey Mark, that garlic bread is beautiful as is but paired with that butter...mmmm!

    Hey Rose, I'd really like to try there for dinner as well. Only ever been for brunch/lunch so far.

    Hey Lorraine, loved the hash! Quite filling though.

    Hey Belle, that garlic bread! You really need to go try it Danks Street Depot-style sometime soon =)

    Hey Jacq, I cannot rave enough about the bread. It's bread, but it's not just bread!

    Hey Lily, that garlic bread is so sweet and more-ish!

    Hey Arwen, you don't expect much from a hash so it was definitely a pleasant surprise. And sweet roasted whole cloves of garlic in the bread!

    Hey Conor, haha, although a hangover isn't a prerequisite here!

    Hey Helen, love a one-pan meal. Heheh, and my friend who used the word 'lamby' isn't even Asian either!

    Hey the lacquer spoon, there is a great mix of excellent food should you ever decide to travel here =)

    Hey Trissa, food is always better when shared =)

    Hey Panda, wow, I don't own any of his cookbooks!

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  14. Hi simauma, thank you for visiting =) Had a look at your blog and the photos are very nice. Wish I could read Japanese though!

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