I’ve got a massive chip on my shoulder the metaphorical equivalent of three packs of Pringles. I’m not sure when it started but I can think of a number of incidents that contributed to it.

Let’s go back to fourth grade for a bit. School photos had just arrived and my teacher was handing them out to all the kids in my classes accompanied with little comments.

“Oh my, look at how handsome you are.”

“Oh, you’re going to be a heartbreaker down the line”

“Beautiful, just beautiful.”

Then she got to my portrait and paused. I will always remember what she said: “mmm” with a hint of pity. I didn’t think much of it at the time but it’s always sort of stuck with me. I feel like the suburb of Redfern embodies that spirit of wanting to prove people wrong.

I never rated Redfern before I started working there.

For me, Redfern was just the station before Central and nothing more.

As usual, I was very wrong. Redfern is an incredibly underrated foodie destination much in the vein of Newtown before it became NEWTOWN. Why is it an underrated foodie destination? It houses an assortment of killer cafes (shout outs to Three Williams and Coffee Tea and Me) that don’t get as much love as they should. They’re like the eatery equivalent of myself, I’m f*cking amazing and only a handful of people know it (ok, I’m not that amazing but still).

The latest murderer? Tapeo on Redfern Street.

Tapeo is a wine and tapas bar that doubles as an excellent brunch/breakfast destination. It’s set up a little empire with two bakeries (Tapeo Bakery and Breadfern) and it’s influence is slowly spreading. Soon, you’ll have to support the Rabbitohs as well as drink coffee from Tapeo in order to escape the suburb in one piece.

Alright, enough foreplay. Let’s get straight to the sex food.

Yes, I always gauge how much I’ll like a place by sampling it’s sweet potato fries. These were quite thick yet crunchy and came with some killer aioli.

Simple combination but incredibly tasty and effective.

Warning: this is a big salad. My buddy tried to finish this and she got through about half of it before wheezing like a smoker attempting a marathon after thirteen years of inactivity and Malboro Reds. It’s stacked with haloumi so this ends up cheesier than one of my Instagram posts about girls.

The eggs were poached perfectly (sorry, no yolk porn. Can’t afford to lose the traffic I get from the under 12 demographic) and the garnish on top of the eggs were great. This was a solid take on a classic but I will never object to more avocado on anything. My buddy said it didn’t blow him away but he didn’t leave Tapeo unsatisfied (not with food anyway).

I forgot to mention that I’ll be covering an incredibly large variety of dishes due to the fact that this place would be a stone’s throw away from my office if I hadn’t hurt my shoulder playing basketball (ok, it was during golf but still).

This is a large plate of eggs, potato and sausage. I would’ve loved a bit more spice in the egg component but the sheer volume of chorizos made up for it. Though it was a little plain, this was an extremely hearty meal and kept me so full that I skipped dinner. I also need to mention that I actually failed to finish this dish.

I should rename this blog iFail.

I love every individual component that goes into making this dish. I was hatched from an egg so I’m grateful (yeah, I didn’t do very well in science. Why do you ask?), I want to swim like a salmon, asparagus and I have some very fond memories together and I respect any food item with sour in its title because I’m an incredibly sour individual due to all the injustices that have occurred in my life.

…what was I talking about? Right, this is my food blog and not my eighth grade journal.

I really like the sourdough that serves as a foundation for many of Tapeo’s breakfast selections. It’s not too thick or crunchy to the point of jaw breaking. With a soft centre and pleasant taste, it’s a great base to laden with other delicious morsels. The scrambled eggs were really good and would’ve been even better with some more butter. I dug the cooked salmon as well even though I generally prefer my smoked salmon uncooked.

Did that even make sense? I make dollars but I don’t make sense sometimes..

I’ve been meaning to add “wedding photographer” to my LinkedIn profile. Why? Because I snapped a photo of Tapeo’s Catalonia dish and it is love served on a plate which is exactly how I describe weddings. It’s two people shoving the fact that they’re in love and happy down your throat. As sweet as love is, it’ll never be as sweet as this incredible combination of impeccable poached eggs, a generous serving of chorizo, mushrooms and all splashed in a sweet Dijon and honey sauce.

Oh and don’t sleep on the soggy sourdough that absorbs all the amazing flavours that come together in this dish. It is divine and probably overshadowed by its more colourful dish mates.

Excuse me, got to log into LinkedIn now.

Here’s the TL;DR for everyone curious to see what I looked like in fourth grade:

– I wasn’t a good looking kid.

– Disclaimer: I’m not actually a wedding photographer

– All the dishes are worth trying, but Catalonia is love. Isn’t that what we’ve been looking for all this time?

***

Tapeo, Redfern

82 Redfern St Redfern, NSW 2016

Opening Hours:

Follow my food adventures on Twitter

Don’t like my words? Hope you like my pictures on Instagram

If you would like me to visit a specific restaurant or have any other questions don’t hesitate to contact me by leaving a comment or clicking the ‘contact me’ tab above this post.

You an also email me at  iFat – Food Chronicles You can also follow me on WordPress so you get notified whenever I write something new.