Lady Marmalade

Sometimes social media makes me sad, like when I message a friend after not having spoken in a while and they don't reply. Its not like they didn't see it, by whatever witchcraft Facebook has, it detects that the message has been read, they've just chosen not to respond to me. 

Its been several days and I can see that they been sending messages to other people who have messaged them later than I have. So its not like they're enabling a media black out. My only reaction is, of course, to say:

>:

Anyway, just recollecting because of where I'm going next. I love Lady Marmalade, I remember when no one from work went here and it wasn't well known for having awesome sandwiches. Then we launched a pioneering party after our night shifts and everyone went there. I know some of my friends who have moved away from Queensland, who still have very fond memories of this place.

I watched it rise in the public's eyes until every time I went past, the place was absolutely packed. Lady Marmalade, how I've missed you and your awesome, awesome sandwiches. Did you know the owner of Lady Marmalade/Shady Palms are past contestants from My Kitchen Rules? As well as having won best sandwich in Australia for two years running?

They never used to have a specials board. The mismatched furniture and weird placeholders are still there though.

Not sure if want

The bra outlet shut down ):

Its on a weird intersection of two main roads

Pretty

The inside of the shop is very tiny and the dual counter space/kitchen looks like fighting elbow room. Its very bright and welcoming though, they have a very interesting drinks cabinet with more than your usual assortment of Coca-Cola/Pepsi products.

So many bottles

They also have a delectable showcase of baked goodies and premade sandwiches of all sorts. I normally pick out a sandwich and a main meal cause their portions are a little on the small side. The day that we went here however, we had been eating a heck of a lot during our night shifts. If you have no idea what I'm talking out, check out my Instagram account to see how much we pigged out.

Their sandwiches are amazing

Unsure about their sweets though

They have a few sauce caches around, BBQ, tomato and HP

There's a cute little owl in the corner!

They have a great menu and it changes all the time. Their baked eggs, BHT and field mushrooms always stick around though.

Their menu!

A., opted for a flat white. Its a Genovese coffee and she remarked it was a great coffee, she just wished there was more of it haha.

Perfect fern

On the other hand, I decided to pick up this Ti Tonics white tea and nectarine drink. I was enticed by the fact that it was nectarine. It wasn't until after I had opened it that I noticed it was white nectarine and white tea as the flavour base, possible two of the most delicate flavours you could ever combine. It didn't have much taste to be honest, faint white tea scent and that honey like flavour of white nectarines.

Pretty design at least?

I got the savoury mince with roasted tomato, topped with crumbled feta and gremoulata on top of a toasted sourdough sub. It was a very beautiful looking construction when I received it. The mince was quite rich with large nubbly chunks of beef, it was deliciously savoury if a touch dry. The crumbled feta added a nice and creamy saltiness to the mince and the gremoulata add a touch of freshness to the rich flavours. I don't care much for tomatoes as you know but savoury mince and tomatoes is a match made in heaven. The sourdough was lovely but hard enough to knock someone out with. I nearly stabbed A., in the eye, while trying to cut through the thing. I love crunchy/burnt toast, but that was just ridiculous.

So tasty

A., ordered the gringo baked eggs, chorizo, Angus beef, black bean ragu, two poached eggs and some sourdough soldiers. I had a bit of a nibble and the spices reminded me of tacos. A., said she enjoyed it a lot and made a point of mentioning her toast was a lot softer than mine haha.

The feta looks like massive chunks of garlic

I went a second time a few weeks after this. Just going solo because I was staying at my Boyfriends after my night shift as I had something on in the city before work. The photos below are all taken with my new camera!

My cute dragon placeholder!

I ordered their famous B-T-Hal, a wonderful and utterly mouth watering mixture of bacon, tomato and haloumi with kewpie mayonnaise, spinach, allspice chutney on turkish bread. There is a goddamn reason this has been on their menu since the restaurant's inception, it is the most glorious sandwich combination ever. The bacon is fried to crunchy crispness so that the fat renders into this beautiful glass like ribbon. The haloumi is a wonderful fluffy pillow that squeaks with indignity as you bite into it. The tomato as usual I don't care for but it works here to cut through the saltiness of the haloumi and bacon. The kewpie mayo was unneccesary just because it turned quite runny being on top of the bacon, it looks fantastic but maybe under the spinach so it doesn't turn super runny.

So beautiful

I picked two different sandwiches and got a half of each to eat before getting the rest wrapped for later. I took the photos of the signs not only for the pretty signs but also to recall what was in the sandwich if I forgot.
 

Sandwich number 1

Sandwich number 2

On the right is the jerk spice chicken sandwich, it has a warmly spiced jerk coating and firm but tender pieces of chicken. The curry mayo flavour was very mild. The caramelized onion was lovely and sweet. Then there was the chunk of well cooked sweet potato, that was so sweet that it reminded me of why you can put sweet potato in sweet stuff. My Boyfriend picked out the sweet potato but he really enjoyed the rest of the sandwich. All in all, it was quite a sweet sandwich from the sweet potato and onion, but it really cut through the spiciness of the chicken and curry, the bitterness from the rocket helped too.


The left is the pulled pork sandwich, this was my pick out of the two. My Boyfriend disagrees and said he disliked it for all the reasons I liked it. The pulled pork was meltingly tender, with small caramelised crunchy bits in there as well. It was drenched in a sweet and quite spicy barbeque sauce that I greatly enjoyed. I didn't seem to notice the sweet chilli jam, kewpie or rocket as much due to the barbeque sauce used.

Chicken on the right, pulled pork on the left

Lady Marmalade
Atmosphere: 6, its cute and all, but its also on the corner of a main road and side alley. The sheer noise is perpetually irritating to me whenever I go.
Service: 8.5, perpetually cheerful, super friendly and enthusiastic. I noticed it especially the second time I went because I wasn't busy chatting to anyone cause I went alone. When I ordered, I broke into a coughing fit when I was ordering several times, my waitress was very patient and tried to guess what I wanted several times. When I asked her to wrap up two sandwiches and split the sandwiches in half and wrap one of each half into a pack for my Boyfriend and one for immediate consumption, she was perfectly happy to do so. As I was waiting for my food to arrive, every five minutes one of the servers came out to do a quick scan to see if anyone had left or was waiting around for something, they cleaned empty tables multiple times as well. When I left I gave my waitress a $10 tip out of a $30 bill, yeah my meal was that good.
Food: 9, I love, love, love Lady Marmalade's food, the portions are a touch small. In the past when I had a much bigger appetite, I used to easy polish off a sandwich as well. Nowadays I was ridiculously full after having that sandwich