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Sunday, May 21, 2017

Merchants of Ultimo, Broadway Shopping Centre

Sweet potato fries at Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre

It's like a food court, but with table service. The Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre is like a mini food court, complete with salad bar, pizzeria, rotisserie, cafe and patisserie. What most passersby don't realise is that eat in diners don't have to line up at each stall to place their order. Roving waitstaff offer complete table service, offering a clipboard menu of all offerings and a single bill at the end.

Seating at Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Seating inside the Merchants of Ultimo

Seating fills up quickly during peak hour. It's a cleverly designed space with plenty of timber beams, hanging greenery and tempting visuals, like legs of lamb slowly spinning on the rotisserie and pastry chefs icing bespoke cakes at the counter.

Salad sation at The Gardens in the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Salad station at The Gardens

The Gardens has to have one of the prettiest displays of salad vegetables around, much more enticing than the usual stainless steel sandwich bar set-up.

Salad ingredients at The Gardens in the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Salad ingredients

This station isn't all vegetarian. They also churn out wagyu cheese burgers, buttermilk chicken burgers and salads mixed with woodfired chicken, rotisserie lamb and miso glazed salmon.

Valoriani Forni wood fired oven at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Valoriani Forni wood fired oven

And on a cold day, you'll relish the heat from the Valoriani Forni wood fired oven, tucked away in the corner.

Rotisserie lamb salad at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Rotisserie lamb salad $17

We tried a number of dishes over a series of visits. The rotisserie lamb salad was a winner with tender shredded lamb piled high with salad greens, cherry tomatoes, quinoa, roasted corn kernels, giant golden raisins and squeaky slices of grilled haloumi. The coriander and yoghurt dressing helped everything come together.

Roast pork with woodfire corn and house slaw from Henry's Block at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Roast pork with woodfire corn and house slaw from Henry's Block $16

The roast pork doesn't arrive with as much crackling as we would've liked, but the Henry's Box concept is a cute idea, allowing you to pick your protein and two sides. The woodfire corn is sweet and juicy, drenched in lemon butter and covered in shaved parmesan. The house slaw of shredded celeriac, kohlrabi and fennel is refreshingly crisp.

Sweet potato fries at Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Sweet potato fries $5

And then there are the sweet potato fries. In a city plagued with soggy imposters, these are every bit as noisily crunchy as the ones in your wildest dreams. You'll be fighting over the last one.

Roast corn, woodfired corn and rotisserie lamb salad at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Digging into lunch

PIzza station at Pizza Mario at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Making pizzas at Pizza Mario

If there's one stall that shines, though, it's Pizza Mario, run by the same folks behind Da Mario.

Potato pizza and margherita pizza by Pizza Mario at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Potato pizza and margherita pizza ready for the oven

In the open kitchen you can watch them prepping the pizza dough, layering on the ingredients and then transferring them into the woodfired oven using a peel.

Pizza Mario cooking pizzas in the woodfired oven at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Sliding pizzas into the oven

Diavola pizza by Pizza Mario at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Diavola pizza $16

There are a dozen pizzas to choose from, including a ham, mushroom and ricotta calzone and a nutella calzone for dessert. The diavola pizza packs some devilish heat with spicy salami and chilli.

Buffalo margherita pizza by Pizza Mario at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Buffalo margherita pizza $16

Traditionalists will go with the classic margherita for $13 or upgrade to the buffalo margherita for $16, strewn with buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomatoes.

Underneath the woodfired pizza base by Pizza Mario at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Pizza upskirt shot

But the magic is all in the pizza crust, super thin and almost floppy in the middle with a puffy blistered crust that has just the right amount of woodfired char.

Buttermilk chicken burger at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Buttermilk chicken burger $18

The buttermilk chicken burger is a satisfying number too, a juicy fillet shielded by a crunch of knobby batter. The milk bun is soft but still still sturdy enough to hold the chicken, salad, sriracha and pudding of molten smoked mozzarella cheese.

Seating in front of Nero's Brew at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Seating in front of Nero's Brew coffee station

Coffees are served via Nero's Brew using Single Origin beans.

Desserts by Leave It To B at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Desserts from Leave it to B

And it's hard to pass up the sweet treats from Leave it to B by ex-Rockpool pastry apprentice Brendan Dewar who went on to open Brendan Dewar Patisserie in St Ives.

Berry tart by Leave It To B at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Berry tart $8.50

The L-shaped glass cabinet runs from gateaux to croissants. 

Cheesecake slice by Leave It To B at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Cheesecake slice

Citrus pillow lemon meringue tart by Leave It To B at the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre
Citrus pillow $8.50

We've had the millefeuille and a tropical fruit dome takeaway, but the only dessert we've had eat-in was the citrus pillow, a fancy lemon meringue tart with shards of isomalt toffee. The lemon curd is bracingly sharp, just what you want against the sweet blowtorched rosettes of meringue.

Entrance to the Merchants of Ultimo at Broadway Shopping Centre


Merchants of Ultimo Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Merchants of Ultimo
Level one, Broadway Shopping Centre
1 Bay Street, Broadway, Ultimo, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9346 8775

Opening hours
Daily 6am-9pm



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11 comments - Add some comment love

posted by Helen (Grab Your Fork) on 5/21/2017 05:43:00 pm


11 Comments:

  • At 5/21/2017 10:29 pm, Anonymous Tania|MyKitchenstories. said…

    Yep I really have to visit this new food court. Table service too, sounds like my kind of place

     
  • At 5/21/2017 11:04 pm, Anonymous John | heneedsfood said…

    As soon as I saw that wood fired oven I quietly hoped there'd be a pizza involved. And then you go and show us one. Oh my, my favourite - Neapolitan pizza!

    I must say, Helen, I have missed seeing your upstart shots. It's been far too long.

     
  • At 5/22/2017 10:53 am, Anonymous Bianca@forfoodssake said…

    My friend works just around the corner from Broadway and raves about the food choices in the shopping centre now! All I remember was the kebab shop and the Japanese joint. Looks like I'll need to get my butt back there to check out the new selection! The chicken burger looks pretty decent :)

     
  • At 5/22/2017 4:03 pm, Blogger Unknown said…

    So many choices in this part of town - but this one is another good one :)

     
  • At 5/22/2017 4:53 pm, Blogger Ramen Raff said…

    Whoa the merchants looks freakin great! Will have to check out Pizza Mario. Wish Parra had something similar haha

     
  • At 5/26/2017 8:49 pm, Blogger Sarah said…

    This looks like a cool place to visit. Those pizzas look amazing! But I'm most impressed with that display of sliced avocado!!

     
  • At 5/27/2017 7:27 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ahem #sponsored? #invite?

     
  • At 5/27/2017 7:52 am, Blogger K said…

    So jealous! Wish we had something like this around our area. :)

     
  • At 5/27/2017 6:05 pm, Blogger Helen (Grab Your Fork) said…

    Hi Anonymous - Nope. Not sponsored. Not an invite. All visits in this post were anonymous, unannounced and personally paid for. If it's an invite, I always disclose. I don't undertake any sponsored posts on the blog or its social media channels :)

     
  • At 6/05/2017 10:09 pm, Anonymous chocolatesuze said…

    hehehe that upskirt

     
  • At 3/01/2018 11:07 am, Blogger Chelsey said…

    Upskirt?! Haha..love it!
    They do great coffee at Merchants. I'm a sucker for the Vegan Bowl too..mm mmm.

     

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