The Garden, Ashfield

Did you know there's a great new place called "The Garden" located in Wests Ashfield Club. I recently check out the venue to get an insight into their food, how it's made and to hear from where it's sourced.

The venue of The Garden is leafy lovely and you will literally feel like you are sitting in the garden. There is gorgeous greenery all around the ceiling and walls. There's also large tables suitable for groups and families.  In terms of the food, it's best described as "farm to fork" or as I like to say "legit" with their Italian menu. 

They have an in-house flour mill and this is quite a labour intensive process but it makes for a higher quality flour and you will see that the dough is lighter in the stomach. You won't be bloated. I can vouch for that. The Garden also source their food from local and seasonal produce.  

Flour Mill which you can see at the Garden

There's a new menu (from mid-March) made by Chef Joseph Abboud. Joe is very talented with his dough skills, I managed to get an action shot below. The large wood fire oven is key to that smokiness that brings all the flavours out. 

I enjoy a glass of wine and MW enjoys a beer with lunch. We start off trying some of their salads. There's the Garden Salad with a selection of raw and roasted seasonal vegetables, rice, organic feta cheese, toasted walnuts with a fruit vinegar dressing. The Garden salad is served up on an artistic plate.

There's also the Foraged Salad with seasonal vegetables, halloumi, chick peas, mung beans and hand picked leaves. A side salad is always nice to go along with some pizzas and it's hard to resist haloumi.

The crowd favourite is definitely the Potato and goat's cheese pizza with garlic, rosemary, shallots and mozzarella cheese. There's something really simple but magical about the flavour combination of that potato, rosemary and the salty goats cheese. I highly recommend! MW really enjoys this one.

My favourite dish is the Vegetarian Calzone which is a folded pizza base with ricotta, roasted pumpkin, walnuts, mozzarella and the Garden's tomato sauce. This dish was just a wonder to eat, bite by bite with a generous amount of cheese to delight your senses. I will have to come back some time to try the meat calzone.

For prawn lovers, there's the Aussie Prawn Pizza with tomato, garlic, mozzarella with the house made tomato sauce. The prawns are nice and big for that natural prawn taste. I also suggest trying the Peri-Peri Chicken pizza (top photo), there's delicious spicy flavours. It's full of flavour if that's what you're after.

Make sure you save room for dessert especially for the Chocolate Sphere which is filled with seasonal fruit compote, chocolate mousse, mint sorbet and a milk chocolate sauce with melts the chocolate sphere into a velvety deliciousness. Patisserie Chef Matthew Abbott-Williams wows all the foodies with the demonstration. What a talent Matthew! I love that mint sorbet centre which is always a winning combination - mint and chocolate.

Summary: For an Italian delightful meal, check out the Garden in Wests Ashfield Club. I really love their pizzas and the key is the fresh milled flour which creates that great base. I love it!  You gotta order that potato and goats cheese pizza and the calzone. They were my favourites!! 

Get the train if you can and enjoy a wine or two :)

Price: Most pizzas are $20ish

Location: 115 Liverpool st, Ashfield 

Opening Hours: 
Monday to Friday: 11:30am to 2:30am, 6pm to 10pm
Saturday: 12pm to 3pm, 6pm to 10pm
Sunday: 12pm to 3pm, 6pm to 9pm

Weekend Food Escapes dined as guests of Papaya PR. All words, photos and opinions are my own.