Cicco Chocolaterie @ Broadway

I only found out about this place because of my cousin who started working there after she came to Sydney from Korea (although now she's gone back after staying 8 months in Aus!).

To be honest, I only been to Broadway Shopping Centre like once or twice in my whole life because I never really had any reason to go there.

But this time when I went I was quite surprised at how new / modern it was! (Has it been renovated recently?)

Anyways, Cicco Chocolaterie is located on Level 3, near the Apple Store, Kikki K and L'Occitane.



They have plenty of seating all across the edges of the floor.





As you can see ,they even have a cute chocolate fountain! yum :)



Although the name suggests that the cafe would be something similar to Max Brenner, it has a lot more variety and doesn't only sell chocolate - it also has a variety of great meal options as well.



As soon as we sat down, we ordered a weak skim mocha and a latte.  The coffee was great - nice and smooth and not too bitter as well.



For our lunch we ordered a chicken pesto melt, a salmon focaccia and a side of curly fries w/ aioli.







The melt was great, with heaps of cheese (yum) and some salad on the side.  The salmon focaccia was fresh and also really delicious! And for the fries.....YUM YMU (but maybe I'm biased because I love love love chips/fries).  It was super crunchy and went so well with the aioli :)

Then we had the dessert. And being a "chocolaterie" we had to have some chocolate!! The first one was recommended by our cousin (so I don't know what it's called unfortunately).  It was like a little package of chocolate heaven with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream.



And last but not least, some strawberry dip! After seeing the chocolate fountain, we knew we had to have some of it.  The strawberries were really refreshing after all the chocolate (although they were dipped in chocolate as well hehe).



So there you go guys, a hidden gem of a chocolate / brunch cafe in Broadway Shopping Centre.  Needless to say, we went and shopped around to burn off all the yummy things we ate hehe!

Will I come back? Yep, the menu was pretty extensive and there were definitely other things I wanted to try!

D xx

Chanel Ombres Matelassées 51 Montaigne & Chanel Chance Perfume

Today I want to introduce you to two wonderful Chanel products (thanks to my sis for letting me review them!)

The first is the Chanel Ombres Matelassées in 51 Montaigne.



This palette is a limited edition, exclusively created to celebrate the opening of a new store on 51 Avenue  Montaigne, Paris in March.



It is a palette of 5 eyeshadows from a pearly light cream, light gold, yellow gold  to khaki and black.





It comes with 2 applicators - one with sponges and one with a sponge on one end and a brush on the other.

I usually apply my eyeshadows with my fingers because I feel that the colours come out better using fingers rather than a sponge or a brush.

So here are some finger swatches!



The colours are quite subtle and the soft powder texture of the eyeshadows feels so smooth and heavenly!

I reckon this palette would be a really great autumn / winter palette - however, I heard that since it is a limited edition, they are no longer selling these...but you could always find "limited editions" on eBay!

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Next is a great travel sized version of the delicious Chanel perfume, Chance Eau Tendre.  Chance Eau Tendre has a sweet fruity & floral scent which is very subtle and "tender" as the name suggests.

This is also a limited "twist and spray" edition of the perfume which you can literally twist and spray! So it's small and convenient to take around :)



The best thing about this edition is that you get 2 extra refills with it!



This product is still available to purchase on StrawberryNet for $146.50!

D xx

Seafood buffet @ Four Points by Sheraton

My friends and I were lucky to grab a deal for the seafood buffet at the Corn Exchange Restaurant located inside the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel on Sussex St, Sydney.

The deal allowed us to have unlimited seafood (and lots of other yummy foods) for $35 each! Yum! We were so excited.

The Four Points by Sheraton is located at 161 Sussex Street, Sydney.  It's located at the part of Sussex St which is between King St and Market St so you can easily get there from Wynyard Station or Town Hall Station.

The Corn Exchange Restaurant is located right at the entrance of the hotel so you can see it as soon as you walk in.



The restaurant was decent in size, with an outdoor patio area as well. The place had a mixed crowd - small and big families, couples, friends!





There was a large selection of bread to start with - unfortunately the one I tried was slightly stale.....:(



The antipasto selection was great! I didn't really expect to see such a wide range at a buffet! As a sucker for salami and sun dried tomatoes, I stacked my plate with them hehe



The soup of the day was Pumpkin! It was quite nice and creamy.



They also had a selection of hot food which I didn't actually try because I told myself I would try to fill my tummy up with mostly seafood!



I did try the mashed potatoes though....it looked / smelt  soooooo good when I opened the lid...but then it was super salty ><!!! So salty that I had difficulty eating it...



The salad bar was decent as well.  They had sales like squid salad, baby potatoes, caesar, pasta salad and mixed greens.





And now for the HIGHLIGHT!  The cold seafood selection!!!! The reason we came to the buffet!





There are prawns, crabs, mussels, oysters, crayfish and smoked salmon.  The smoked salmon didn't look too fresh so I didn't eat any of it.

I also don't like oysters very much so I didn't have any either! But my friends thought they were quite nice.

I went nuts on the crab and the prawns!  They were quite delicious.  The crayfish was nice too but  it was slightly dry....The mussels were yummy too because they had been marinated in a sweet chilli type sauce.

Here is a selection of the things we ate:





And finally!

DESSERT!!!!! To be honest I was absolutely stuffed full of crabs and prawns (and maybe salami & sun dried tomatoes) so I didn't have any dessert......I kinda regret it now looking at the photos!! ><!

Apparently the creme brûlée is yum as....!



They also have MOVENPICK ice-cream! My friends tried it and they thought it was slightly hard when they tried to scoop it out.  There was also a selection of toppings for the ice cream like white chocolate, coconut flakes and sprinkles.





So at the end of it we were SOOOOO FULL that we went to Westfield Shopping Centre to shop but ended up sitting down because we were so full hehe

Will I go back? Hmmmm probably not at full price (which I think is $50pp). We expected the buffet to have sashimi and sushi but they didn't which was slightly disappointing for us! But I guess we can't complain for $35.

D xx

Revlon Mix & Mingle Lip Palettes & Ulta3 matte lipstick

I recently bought some more lip products for a BARGAIN @ Terry White Chemist and want to let you guys know about them before they're all gone!

Firstly, they had these Revlon Mix & Mingle Lip Palettes for A$2.99 a pop!  To be honest, I had never ever come across these before....so I thought "why not" and bought two of them - one in "260 R.S.V.Pink" and "270 Tango with Mango".





As you can see, each palette contains 3 different colours. The point of this "Mix & Match" Palette is to give you a palette of lip glosses which each colour can be used on its own, or you can "mix and mingle" the colours to create a "one-of-a-kind" lip colour to suit your lips!



You can see that most the colours have a very sheer look so they're really easy blend with each other as compared to having a lot of really strong colours that bring out a weird dark colour when blended together!  The champagne colours in the 260 palette looks great on its own because it gives a tinge of gold to your lips! Pretty :)

The lip gloss itself is of a slightly thick texture, and is slightly sticky (like most lip glosses). I don't really like having lip gloss on my fingers so I prefer to use a lip brush instead!

The other bargain buy I want to introduce to you guys is the Ulta3 Matter Lipstick.

I had seen this brand previous in the Terry White chemists and some other pharmacies and thought "WOW.SO CHEAP."

The nail polishes are like $2 and the lipsticks are like $3-4!!!!! I thought to myself, 'there is no way something so cheap can be any good'. Typical shopping mentality.

But then, I had a closer look this time and saw that the range of colours in the lipsticks was just unbelievable! They have two types - Moisturising and Matte. I didn't have time to try the testers so I just grabbed a colour ("Harem Pink") which I thought "hmmm I don't really have this kind of colour in my lipstick collection" and bought it (since it was only $4, there was no hesitation involved).

The lipstick case is very simple - a black cap and a clear plastic base.





The colour is a really bright pink...with a rosy tinge - kinda like a "brink pink" colour!



and when I tried it on...

WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE!

The colour came out so well and so matte! Usually when I try on matte lipsticks, the cracked on my lips become so defined... but with this lippy that didn't matter - you couldn't tell that my lips were chapped at all after application.

The staying power was also quite decent :) :)

For $4.....it actually was similar to a lot of the more expensive lipsticks I have (quite similar to the M.A.C lipsticks...which are like $30+)..!!

I am for sure going to go back and buy more colours...which I aren't in my collection of lipstick colours!! Hehe :)

So if you feel like "splurging" on some lipstick and buying lots of different colours of lipstick to vamp up your lippy collection, head to a Terry White Chemist and look for the Ulta3 stands!!  Seriously, for $3-4 you can buy 10 colours and it will only cost you $30-40...the price of one high-end lippy.

Click here to read more about the Ulta3 brand.

D xx

Grandma's Little Bakery, Alexandria

I literally stumbled upon this little gem when I was on my way to Mascot.  We were at a light on O'riordan St and I was looking outside the window and saw this cute little shop with cute red & white chairs called "Grandma's Little Bakery". I was like "ooooh mental note to self - visit this place sometime!". So I did :)





Grandma's Little Bakery (I shall call it "Grandmas" from now for sake of ease) is situated on the corner of Collins St and O'riordan St in Alexandria. Be careful when using Google Maps because it actually shows the wrong place!!! We took a while to find the place.....because the map was incorrect!

The interior of Grandmas is super cute - the ceiling is quite high, the tables are large and the chairs are very "country", giving you are very cute, cosy feeling.



As you can see written on the pillar, Grandmas is all about wholesome "homestyle" foods that are low in salt, free from butter, deep frying, added sugar etc.

The menus are pretty funky as well - as we are seated, we are handed an iPad which contains the menu!



You can press on the menu item and see a picture the dish - super convenient.  They also have a few vegetarian options on the menu as well which I was happy to see.



We ordered a capp and a latte to drink ($3.50 each) and were quite pleased with what we got! A nice coffee with the right amount of froth - and no need to add any sugar!



Then out came our Shakshuka ($14.50), a dish made of poached eggs, peppers and tomatoes (said to have an Algerian / Tunisian origin, but is now a favourite in Israel).



It smelt AMAZING when it came out sizzling in the pan. You also get some coriander pesto to go with the dish...it was delicious! The tomato and egg combo went very well with the freshly baked organic multigrain sourdough bread and the coriander pesto provided an extra zing to the dish.

We also ordered the pumpkin & carrot soup ($9.50), which also came with the sourdough and the coriander pesto.



It was super creamy and not too salty or sweet - definitely would be a great dish to have on a cold, rainy morning....too bad it was sunny! (it was still yummy nonetheless hehe).

After we ate we went to pay for everything at the counter (cards accepted! yay)



They also sell freshly made baked goods on the counter as well (you can see the sourdough loaves at the back!)



After paying for the meal at the cute little (or should I say large) counter, we headed to the shop section of Grandmas which is behind the counter section.





There were just so many different homemade goodies...I didn't know where the start! Luckily they came and offered us some samples of the pistachio butter cookies and the pistachio biscotti (by then we were also sold and ready to BUY BUY BUY).  But just to make it that much better, they had a sampling table!!!!





EVERYTHING was just so delicious - even after being full on food! The various different olive oils were just amazing...I kept filling myself up with more and more bread...just to decide which olive oil to buy!  The lemon butter sounded quite funky....and I was a little reluctant to try it but when I mustered the courage to try it was HEAVEN. It was so zesty, yet sweet and savoury. I just knew I couldn't leave without getting one of those! Here are our purchases of the day:



Am I going to be back? DEFINITELY. I need to get my hands on more of those homemade goodies!!!

I will leave you with the "philosophy" behind the Grandma's menu (which actually originated from their original cafe / restaurant in Collector. NSW)



D xx

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