Three Blue Ducks in a row

Bronte's not really known as a food destination, other than perhaps fish and chips by the beach, but Three Blue Ducks is certainly lifting the game. If the weekend late lunch queues are anything to go by, the one-hatted restaurant/café known for its sustainable approach to food and dining is being well appreciated by the locals.

The venue is split into two parts with additional outdoor dining on the footpath and their famed kitchen garden out the back. Seated in a snug booth right next to the kitchen during a recent lunch visit, it was impossible not to salivate at the tempting aromas from the kitchen while we nursed hangover-friendly fresh juices.

Steamed mussels at Three Blue Ducks, Macpherson Street, Bronte

There are plenty of tempters on the lunch menu so we happily shared among four, starting with a generous dish of gloriously saucy mussels.

Served with crisply toasted sourdough bread, the perfectly steamed mussels swam in a creamy and pleasantly spicy sauce of coconut sambal, dressed with plenty of fresh herbs, cherry tomatoes and extra dessicated coconut.

Steamed mussels with a herb and coconut sambal with chilli toast

The spice and zing of the sambal gave the soft molluscs the most incredible kick, while I could have basically drank the sweet, rich sauce in which we dipped the sourdough. Simply divine – this is certainly a contender for mussels of the year.

Steak sandwich

Declared by a table guest as "the best steak sandwich ever", Three Blue Ducks' steak sando certainly didn't skimp on the steak, with a thick, medium-rare grilled slices of beef sandwiched between a crusty, white bread roll.

The other sandwich fillings were as complementary as it gets: tomato slices, sweet onion marmalade, some greenery in the form of rocket leaves and a colourful red pepper mayonnaise, adding to the overall juiciness.

Spicy chorizo, cuttlefish, chili, tomato and basil with squid ink fettucine

The pasta-inclined will be happy to see the inky black squid ink fettucine on the menu, in a simple sauce of grilled chorizo pieces, tender slices of cuttlefish, chilli, tomato segments and basil. While it wasn't the type of rich, meaty pasta dish I adore having in winter, it was certainly a lunch-appropriate dish.

Coffee and cumin crusted brisket with roast potatoes, radish and apple salad

The brisket dish was the all-out winter lunch experience. Alongside roasted potato skins, filled with potato and other vegetables, was a brick of tender and lusciously fatty beef brisket; slow cooked though a little light on flavour from its coffee and cumin crust. It was some pretty seriously fatty meat so the refreshing radish, apple and coriander salad served with the dish was more than necessary.

We raided the remainders of the cakes cabinet for dessert as the lunch menu doesn't feature any desserts, though after quite the substantial, restaurant quality lunch, I'm not sure we really needed the super fudgey brownie or the raspberry friand.

It's taken me a little while to get my ducks in a row for a visit to Bronte's Three Blue Ducks but now that I have, I'm lining up for another visit real soon.