Kepos St Kitchen, Redfern

Kepos St Kitchen is a pretty little Middle Eastern cafe famous for its smoked salmon salad. It's located on the corner of, well it's pretty obvious, Kepos Street. This afternoon I visited KSK during my uni break with my uni friends, this is my last long day as a uni student and in about a few months I'm officially a Bachelor of Food Science. Yay. But so sad of leaving uni and not meeting uni friends everyday anymore... But, oh well, life goes on. And so should this post... Let's get on to KSK...

Walking in to the cafe, I was greeted with these salivating pastries on the register counter. Look at how perfect those croissants look and that muffin is so cute with the mascarpone on top. I tried to stop myself from ordering one of these pastries cause I've gained weight and really need to cut back on sweets. I need a sugar detox, seriously.

KSK dining area is divided into two rooms and this is one of the room, it wasn't too crowded cause I came right before lunch time. 

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Mocktail - Strawberry rosewater fizz (AUD 9)

One of my friend ordered this and the only complain she had is that she couldn't taste the rosewater. Overall it looked very refreshing, but 9 bucks for this is a bit overprice I think.

Latte (AUD 3.50) 

KSK barista made a really, really good latte. I think they use the same coffee bean as what The Grounds of Alexandria used cause they have the same aroma. It was a very good cup of latte, would be perfect paired with the muffin.

Wood smoked salmon salad - olives, kipfler potatoes, dukkah, soft boiled egg (AUD 18)

Hands down, the best salmon salad I have ever tasted. I thought I wasn't gonna like the salad underneath, but turns out, I like it more than I like the soft boiled egg on top. And people who knows me should know how much I looove oozing egg. I didn't even know what dukkah was when I first order this dish; but now that I found out that dukkah is actually a mix of hazelnut, coriander seed, sesame seed and some herbs, I come to LOVE dukkah. Matched with the kipfler potatoes and olives? Perfect! Need I talk about the salmon? Wood smoked? It was scrumptious, no question. And that soft boiled egg is a perfect addition to the whole thing.

Southern fried chicken sandwich, middle eastern coleslaw, chermoula mayo (AUD 18)

The portion of this 'sandwich' is HUGE. And although it didn't say it in the menu, this sandwich was served with a perfectly cooked chips. The chicken was crispy on the outside and moist in the inside, served with a crispy fresh coleslaw with middle eastern dressing (don't know what) and creamy tangy chermoula mayo, inside a soft brioche bun. It was a perfect fish if you are very, very hungry.

Spicy chickpea and lamb shank stew, soft eggs, preserved lemon oil, toast (AUD 19)

This is a very hearty dish, great for a chilly afternoon if you are looking for something light and rich in protein. The stew itself had a very rich and deep flavour, very good for dipping that cute long bread. It was a good stew, though it's not really, really great. Nothing compared to the salmon salad.

Tunisian style seared yellow fin tuna, eggplant, tomato, cucumber, egg, potato, harissa 

dressing (AUD 19) 

Couldn't say much about this dish as I didn't eat seared tuna, I mentioned in my previous, previous post that I don't eat raw fish and the reason behind it. But the rest of this dish components make up a good salad with the harissa dressing being very rich in flavour. Harissa is a hot chilli paste usually made with red chilli peppers, garlic, ground caraway seed, ground coriander and cumin. My friend and a lot of people (on Instagram, lol) said that the tuna was super tasty.

Oat, dried fruit and nuts muffin topped with mascarpone (AUD 4)

Once I was finished, I walked to the counter to pay the bill and the muffin caught my eyes again. This time I could't help it, so I bought the muffin to take away. For dinner, I thought. But I ended up eating it in uni during class, it was too good. The muffin was a bit dry as it has oat in it, but dry in a good way. I think that's why there's mascarpone on top. The combo of the dry muffin, creamy mascarpone, nuts and dried fruits was amazing.

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Would definitely go back for the wood smoked salmon salad and the chicken sandwich. Also would like to try other pastries as they all looked really good :)

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Food: 8.5/10

Ambience: 7.5/10

Price: $$