I don’t get out to the “On Trend” restaurants much these days. It’s all about the clubs with the playgrounds and the occasional suburban restaurant for dinner with girlfriends. And considering I live in Tuggeranong, I rarely get to the other side of town unless it’s for a specific event. But my team wanted to go somewhere nice and trendy for a mini farewell, as I was leaving them to come back to work in Tuggeranong for a couple of months. Yay, blessed Tuggeranong. For the next 3 months, my whole world is within a 20km radius, which is perfect for the warmer weather and my kids. I may not have to leave Tuggeranong at all. But I will. So, one of the younguns booked a table at Penny University for lunch. I drove, seeing that I have the soccer mum 7 seater, and assumed I knew where it was in Kingston, it’s not a big place, afterall. Completely wrong side of Kingston is where I parked. And do you think of any of my passengers decided to tell me this? Nuh. 

How cool is this wall? This is a very funky space, with lots of mismatched furniture, groovy storage and everything on display.

Anyway, we walked from one side of Kingston to t’other, and it was hot. We’d booked a table for about 14, and it’s not a big restuarant, it’s more a galley set up, quite a long space. So we had a table against the wall, right in front of the open galley kitchen.

This would be a perfect spot in winter, warm, cosy and the smell of all sorts of grilled goodies coming from the hardworking chefs. I was a bit hot, so I thought I’d order a milkshake. I went for the blackboard special, suggested by the waitstaff. It was the Purple Drank. A white chocolate with violet, milkshake. It was refreshingly cool. But it was odd. It kind of tasted like a Grandma, perhaps because of the smell, maybe they used a Violet syrup, I don’t know. Anyway, it was cold, so it worked, but I don’t need to order it again.

Z ordered this, cranberry and apple juice (I think?), fresh pressed, I believe. It was super tasty, but a bit warm for me, that’s what happens with freshly pressed juices I sometimes think. Or maybe I was just stinkin hot still.

What I should’ve ordered was this. Espresso Martini. Yum, this was fab. Strong, strong coffee, a big hit of liquor and super cold. This Martini is on the list for the next visit I think. It was good.

N ordered the other blackboard menu milkshake, a macadamia nut salted caramel milkshake. The nuts are ground, so all you can taste is a nutty presence with a little bit of body to the shake. Salted caramel is always a winner in my book. I made this, but substituted macadamias for unsalted cashews, and it was just as good.

The chips with green tea aioli and Penny Uni tomato salsa were ordered to share. I was really keen to taste the aioli and I’m glad I did, as the chips were lovely and crunchy, hot and salty and were perfect for dipping in the accompanying sauces. I probably should’ve just ordered the sauces as extras to my main meal, as I couldn’t finish the chips that accompanied my meal, which is a shame as they do good chips here.

For my main I couldn’t choose between the Quack Quack – five spice stir fry duck with noodles and the steak sanga. With the promise of Pialligo Estate bacon, and minus the egg, the steak sanga won out.

The steak was cooked perfectly, pink and tender, it’s one of the better steak sandwiches I’ve had. The caremlised onion and mayo meant that the it was sufficiently saucy, but I found that it didn’t really need the top piece of bread, as it was a knife and fork job in my opinion. The only let down was the bacon. But this is completely my fault, as on seeing it I knew it wasn’t crispy enough for me, and had I not hoe’d into it immediately, I could’ve, should’ve asked the lads to put it back on the grill for a minute or two extra. Anyway, my bad. I must learn to speak up…

This is the duck stiry fry and from all comments it was a treat. Lot’s of fresh herbs, a suitable amount of well sauced duck and flat noodles, it was a filling and generous meal.

I ordered a coffee to take away as I’d read good things about their coffee and yes, it is indeed a good coffee. A very good coffee. I’m not a coffee snob, but it’s a bit hard to find good coffee these days, isn’t’ it? The service was very friendly and considering or group was on the large size, the meals came out really very quickly.

It is a great little restaurant, if I make it to t’other side of the hill, I’ll make a return visit.