After reading the Daily Telegraph article titled "American food pitches up: The cuisine of Major League Baseball arrives in Sydney" in relation to American cuisine popping up in Sydney, I decided I should check out a couple of places on the list. The first place that stood out was Coogee Diggers. Wow! Who would have thought. After doing a little extra research, the pic of the menu on their website was too small to read but when I did make it larger I didn't notice any real American fare on the apart from ribs. I figured because they had opened the Bunker Bar maybe they had a separate menu, so i thought i'd check it out and go watch the footy at the same time.
I rocked up into my old neighbourhood remembering my last visit to Coogee Diggers for a trivia night about 2 years ago. It has been revamped since then and is looking a little more swish now with the open air lounge area and the Bunker Bar downstairs. A new bar that is filled pin ball machines and to my surprise there are actual pinball leagues where they compete to decide who the best is. Walking in there kind of gave me an "Over The Top" Stallone sort of feel except with less muscular, however no less passionate people who love their pinball. Unfortunately I found no menus down there and nothing on a chalk bar indicating there was any sort of American style food in the place.
Already slightly disappointed I wandered upstairs into the bistro area and was again disappointed to see they only American style food was ribs - eh I wasn't here for ribs... I wanted WINGS! and a killer CHEESEBURGER! Despite the terrible news I put on a brave face and didn't begrudge them because they weren't trying to mislead me, it was the Daily Telegraph who had mislead me.
I ordered their Beef Burger and added the egg and bacon - I think it should have probably already been on the burger. It included everything you'd expect on an Aussie Burger, so I was expecting an okay burger but nothing special.
The burger was ready in approximately 20 minutes and as I walked up to the kitchen to pick it up, I was impressed with the size. If I had 3 hands, it probably wouldn't have been enough to secure it without it spilling out anywhere. It definitely required a man to handle this burger as it looks a little too messy for the fairer sex. The combination of ingredients is always a winner however I was disappointed with the beef. Another soul crushing patty that had destroyed the flavour of the main ingredient. I was impressed upon opening the burger and watching the melted cheese pull away from the well cooked fried egg. This was food porn at it's best. The damper style bun was a nice change from the usual, but extremely filling along with the side of hot chips.
Definitely a good experience, almost ruined by misinformation from this particular article who hasn't provided me with any feed back to date. read more