The Double Down Diner @ Sydney Festival 2015

Gelato Messina’s advertising of its collaboration with Porteno for the Sydney Festival led me to book a day trip to Sydney. The result of the collaboration is The Double Down Diner.

There were two items I was interested in from Messina’s Tasty Treats. The ‘Not Chicken and Waffles’ ($10) which looks like deep fried chicken on a waffle, except it’s really made of maple and pecan gelato served on a Belgium waffle with whiskey caramel gravy. The gelato was amazing and tasted even better on that hot day. The caramel was a perfect pairing with the maple flavour of the gelato. I found the waffle a tiny bit dense but I had no problems in finishing it all. Porteno has the real chicken and waffle if you prefer the savoury version.

The second item I wanted was the ‘Royale with cheese’ ($10). This is Messina’s gelato burger filled with milk chocolate gelato pattie layered with white chocolate ‘cheese’, passionfruit ‘mustard’ and raspberry ‘ketchup’, served in a warm brioche bun. Doesn’t it look fantastic? The pattie had little chocolate rice bubbles to give a bit more bulk to the pattie and provide some crunch. The passionfruit and raspberry helped offset the sweetness. After a few bites, I started feeling overloaded with sugar. The burger is pretty rich and heavy especially with the brioche. A great dessert to share with a friend.

V ordered a slice of the lemon meringue gelato pie ($8). I don’t usually like lemon meringue but this was pretty darn good!

The Double Down Diner is just one of the food stalls at the Festival Village. I also tried the beef banh mi ($10) from Bar Pho. This was basically seasoned beef bulgogi in a crusty roll with pickled vegetables. It still doesn’t beat the original pork banh mi but it wasn’t bad. They had beef pho dumplings advertised but it had sadly sold out.

There’s limited seating in the shade but we luckily managed to find a table in the shade. The Gramophone Man was entertaining the crowd with his music and dancing. What surprised me was that there weren’t that many people there at midday on a Saturday. It must be a lot busier at night when the Spiegeltent is open.

I’m happy V and I made the trip. We only waited about 2 minutes for our yummy food too. The Sydney Festival ends on Australia Day. The Festival Village is located at Hyde Park (north end near the fountain). Messina’s Tasty Treats closes on the 25th.