squishies 26 September 2008 Dessert, French One Comment  Print This Post  Email This Post

Fondue’s one of those things that I’ve heard of so often but never tried. I think my first introduction to the concept of fondue was on an episode of Earthworm Jim where Evil the Cat wanted to destroy the universe. Strange, but true; *sighs* cartoons back then were so much better (and now I just sound old haha). Anywho, so imagine my delight when my friend invited me for a (belated) celebratory birthday dinner involving the consumption of fondue.

As we drove down the busy main artery road of Neutral Bay, we kept a keen eye out for CJ’s. Excited shouts from me and the girls in the back prompted Ruby to slow down, where she fortunately found parking almost immediately. Most unfortunate, however, was that it started pelting down as soon as we got out of the car. Perfect timing, no?

The restaurant is very, very cosy and I think operated by a husband-wife team with their daughter helping out, which I thought gave the restaurant a sweet atmosphere. Perusing the menu given to us with a friendly smile, I realised the options were quite limited, but they did seem quite tasty (guess you can only do so much with fondue). They did have other dishes on offer though, such as pasta and a fish dish, on their specials board nailed to the wall above our heads – those seemed really tasty too!

Vienna bread cubes with swiss cheese and white wine fondue

I was ambivalent about the entrée as it tasted cheesy but bitter at the same time (I’m not quite fond of bitter-tasting foods), but it was definitely a novelty to eat. The servings of bread cubes were very generous and was replenished when the basket was empty; it would have been too easy to keep eating and forget that the main course was yet to come.

Chicken and beef with dipping sauces (sweet chilli, aioli, mustard, and spicy tomato)

Our waitress gave us concise instructions on how to skewer the meat and cook it (and for how long: 5 minutes for the chicken and 3 for the beef) – skewering the meat properly is important as it could fall off and be lost in the pot. It was rather typical of us, then, that we did manage to lose a couple of pieces, but happily, after some cautious poking around and teamwork, we found them. She also warned us from eating from the fondue forks as it would be very hot from the bubbling oil and to always keep the lid on the pot in case of flying oil (that freaked us out a bit).

In hindsight, it would have been a very good idea to have taken a photo of us fondue’ing our pieces of meat, but I got a bit too over enthusiastic with the fondue’ing and totally forgot about taking photos (besides the one below). Sorry!

Fondue’ed beef with dipping sauces (sweet chilli, aioli, mustard, and spicy tomato)

We were armed with 2 fondue forks and the handles of each pair was a different colour to differentiate between everyone else’s forks. Neat. I thought the meat cuts were rather nice (though then again, I don’t really know much about meat cuts) and weren’t too big of a mouthful to eat. A couple of us deliberately overcooked the chicken for fear of it being under cooked inside, whereas I tried to lightly cook the beef as I like it medium-rare (but then forgot which one had what and would invariably overcook them both). The sauces were all very good, though My-Le wasn’t too sold on the spicy tomato. Our collective favourite was the aioli, which was closely followed by the mustard for me.

Garden Salad

Although not anything fancy, it was quite refreshing to nibble on amidst all the meat.

Chocolate Fondue with Seasonal Fruits

While we were quite full, dessert had to be had. The chocolate fondue was a bit on the dark side, but it went well with most, if not all, of the fruits provided.

Birthday Plate

Upon hearing that it was my friend’s birthday earlier during the night, our waitress quietly came out with this plate just after delivering our chocolate fondue. It was such a sweet gesture, simple as it may be.

We had a great time at CJ’s Cafe: great service, lovely atmosphere, and good food to round it off. I hope to come back for some fondue fun sooner rather than later.

CJ’s Cafe
Shop 4/99-111 Military Road,
Neutral Bay, NSW, 2089
Ph: (02) 9908 1161