The Palms Cafe

Looking from the outside I feared this was going to be an overpriced tourist trap. The temptation that lured us in was Allpress coffee. My partner had the beef brisket burger which was scrumptious. The sauce of the brisket was sweet & tangy & the meat was cooked perfectly. I had the lamb shoulder salad. Hands down, one of the best salads of my life. Delectable pieces of soft lamb shoulder falling apart on a bed of hommus. A sensory delight of crunchy snow pea sprouts, chickpeas, peas & pomegranate seeds. Definitely worth the drive. My only regret was having no room for sweets.

This has been a reliable cafe for a meal for some time along the coast road between the national park and Wollongong. It's set in a small cluster of shops that include two art galleries so an interesting place to stop anyway and just a short distance from Stanwell Park beach and Stanwell Tops, where the hang gliders and parasails take off. They have indoor and alfresco dining with a good variety of drinks: teas, coffee, juices, kombucha etc. The menu too is an interesting one with a variety of tempting dishes, cooked well with good ingredients. I had the chipotle chicken and black beans with tortilla chips - a delicious simmering savoury hot pot - that had just the right amount of oil in it and a good balance of ingredients. It looked great too. We also had the beef brisket roll, a child's ham sandwich (not on the menu but made on spec by the kitchen) and a vegetarian portobello mushroom burger. The brisket was very filling and the mushroom burger, with an impressive carbonised black bun and bright pink beetroot purée, was delicious although difficult for a small mouth to eat without it falling apart, so laden was it. The mains are between $18-26, which is ok given they're good, but unlike most places don't come with sides. They don't appear to have chips on the menu, which most parents find indispensable when trying to get kids to eat. Whether this is a conscious health choice I don't know, but certainly their brisket and burger plates would have been improved with the addition of a small leafy salad. Otherwise all good.