Keeping Things Simple

I’ve been out for quite a few meals over the growing months I’ve spent in Sydney. There was one particular experience that stood out from the rest. Stella Blu (Dee Why, Northern Beaches) may have the best cake I’ve seen and tasted so far in Sydney, but there’s only one place you can go for meat…

R and R indeed!

What you see is what you get. You want ribs, you want rump, you want them at the same time, then Ribs and Rumps is the place to be.

Mel and Steff went here on Valentine’s Day. They wanted to go somewhere good but not lah-de-dah. Restaurants usually go all out for Valentine’s Day in a bid to make loadsa money. Ribs and Rumps, on the other hand, made no effort to follow everyone else and stuck to their usual menu.

My roommates raved about this place and said it was the best food they’ve ever had. Mel in particular can be quite fussy with her food so I was surprised. Steff apparently made sex noises and actually claimed that the food was better than sex, to Mel’s annoyance. It sounded too good to be true and I wanted to find out what all the fuss was about.

We all got dressed up and took the bus across to Manly. We got slightly sidetracked by the beautiful skyline.

Such a nice night.

Ribs and Rumps is a place that gets pretty busy so I made a reservation. I requested a window seat which we happily received but the weather was a bit murky.

We ordered drinks and I scoped the menu. I needn’t had rushed as the drinks took a lifetime to arrive. Since I’ve been waitressing, I tend to notice a lot more discrepancies in the service I receive in restaurants. I usually think, “If I’d have done that, a customer would definitely have complained to me.” Not that it takes much for some customers to complain. I guess it’s like the analogy where doctors make the worst patients. I think waitresses can make the worst customers in a restaurant. With time to kill, we took some photos. 

Don't my roommates scrub up well?

Mel's imitation of Steff's grumpy demeanour when it comes to having his photo taken.

It wasn’t me that ended up kicking off though. I ordered the lamb and pork ribs, for Mel beef and pork and for Steff lamb and beef. We each ordered the combo which meant we also got a rump steak and chips with it. My stomach was running on empty so I was ready to dig in.

I attached my bib in preparation. Bring. It. Ooooon!

When the food arrived I was quite surprised that it was served on a wooden board. As the portions were understandably huge, I would have thought the meat would come on a sizzler plate like fajitas do. My chips were cold, which was a shame. but I was so hungry that I just started eating. My meat went the same way soon enough but, again, I just kept eating in a bid to alleviate my hunger. I had no standards!

I'm ready to chow down!

Mel didn’t like the peppercorn sauce and asked for another. Steff’s lamb ribs were so fatty it made them inedible and Mel’s beef smelt and tasted weird. They weren’t enjoying their feast either and their disappointment was clear to see. It was no Valentine’s Day sex session!

We felt incredibly awkward but Mel felt the need to say something as they couldn’t eat half their meal. In the end, the manager knocked one of the meals off as both Steff and Mel left half of their food. I completely demolished mine and couldn't really tell if anything was wrong, that's how hungry I was. I couldn’t exactly complain.

There was no way of avoiding the mess. There were no wet wipes like KFC, nor was there a dipping bowl. I had to wash my hands in the ladies which was a bit awkward!

It was deflating that Mel and Steff didn’t enjoy their meals. It tainted the evening. We ended up skipping dessert and headed out. We still left a tip though as the manager was really understanding.

Mel and Steff had a craving for cider so we went to the nearest liquor store to see if they had what we wanted. There’s a Swedish cider that Mel and Steff adore, Rekorderlig. Despite their doubts, the store actually stocked the flavour they wanted - Winter Time. As it’s so popular, they rarely find a place with their favourite type. There was an offer on so I chipped in and got myself two bottles. I was looking forward to drinking these later.

As we waited for a bus, the sky grew angrier by the minute. I saw a few flashes of light but hoped that it was just my eyes playing tricks on me. Suddenly a bolt of lightening struck just behind a block of flats in front of me. I’ve never seen lightening like that at such a close range. I papped myself!

Before it came to the point where I would be cowering in the corner, a bus came. Moments into our journey, it bucketed it down. With rain like that, it didn’t take long for streams of water to build up in the streets. The bus couldn’t cope and water started gushing in from the sides. 

As we headed closer to where we were staying, everything outside turned from dimly lit to pitch black. I had no idea where we were and couldn’t understand why everything was so dark outside. It suddenly dawned on me that there had been a power cut. Everything from the traffic lights to shop windows were all cloaked in darkness. It was rather worrying.

The bus driver kindly told us when to get off. We couldn’t see a thing. We each got our phones out to use as a light. I also got my camera out as I needed some form of evidence to show for this craziness. The film from my previous post – Sydney Summer? – shows the madness and eeriness of that evening.

The automatic doors were pinned open so we safely entered the hostel without any dramas. There was some emergency lighting within the hostel which was good. Our rooms had no electricity, nor did the toilets (that was fun!). People in the common room had candles and some used their laptops for light.

One backpacker warned me not to open the balcony door as spiders will come in. He said that, due to the extreme weather, they’ll be looking for better shelter. He said he saw a huntsman in his room earlier. Yikes!

We went back to our room with no intentions of opening the balcony door and sipped our ciders. We bloody needed it! I decided to save my other bottle for another night. We used our laptops for light as well as my head torch. That came in pretty handy during our toilet runs. 

I was beat and needed to get to sleep. Although it was raining the humidity was unbearable. With no fan to cool us down, I lay in bed melting away amongst my sheets.

What a bizarre end to the evening. It’ll be one day I won’t forget in a hurry.