Two of my favourite parts of Sydney were Surry Hills and Newtown, both I ended up in time and time again for food, nights out, music, comedy and more and I can't recommend them enough for those passing through. While I was staying at Wake Up Hostel in Central, Surry Hills was less than a five minute walk through a tunnel under the train station, and Newtown was just a couple of stops away on the bus so as you can imagine, I ended up spending a lot of time in both. Particularly since the drinking laws in the Central Business District (CBD - basically the centre of Sydney) are a bit of a curb for fun nights out when you're actually capable of behaving yourself after a few drinks. This just pushed us backpackers to look for other venues that weren't too far away but offered cheap-ish drinks and no restrictions - don't worry, we found them!

When I first arrived in Sydney, I ended up in Newtown quite a bit, whether it was for food, drinks or just a wander around the vintage shops. I liked it because it seemed a little less mainstream than central Sydney, it had a touch more personality and quirkiness which lured me in. Every time I went there, I seemed to meet really interesting people, eat delicious food and have a fantastic time which always kept me coming back for more. Around this area you'll find a huge number of Asian restaurants from all corners of the continent from Korean and Japanese, to Thai and Vietnamese cooking. Naturally I wasn't really in the mood for Asian food after five months of it, so we plumped for Italian or Greek when we visited, which were absolutely delicious. There are so many restaurants down the main street of Newtown which all offer deals and tasty fare, there's no point me even recommending any because from what I've heard many of them are really good. One restaurant I had recommended to me again and again, but haven't yet made it to, is Mary's, a burger joint which has a huge reputation for the best burgers in the whole of Sydney! I'm saving that toothy when I return there later in the year.Also lining the street are a range of cocktail bars, pubs and bigger bars that almost double as clubs later in the night. Later in the evening, you'll find these packed with locals, travellers and all kinds of characters. I've often ended up there at the end of the night because you can still get into these bars until much later after the lockouts have occurred in the CBD and Kings Cross. The music is a bit hit and miss at some of these, but that seems to be a running theme in Australia so far, I'm still waiting for a good night out with the perfect soundtrack but they seem very few and far between. Either way, the drinks are average price for Australia, at least for Sydney, and you're almost guaranteed a good night in my experience. Don't forget to check out the wealth of charity and vintage shops here that are all worth a look, particularly the charity shops as many of the vintage shops hike up the price of items just for adding the work "vintage".

Over in Surry Hills, there's much more to keep you occupied from comedy nights and live music, to film screenings, quality food and cocktails. My favourite part of Sydney, I'm pretty jealous of friends living there, they just have the entirety of Sydney right on their doorstep and quite frankly, Surry Hills has so much within a few streets that you almost don't need to venture out. One of my favourite places was The Soda Factory, which I returned to several times for various events - they regularly screen movies, hold trivia quizzes, have cheap food nights and more at this vintage American 50's style venue. The staff are in braces and some in flat caps as a nod to the Grease-style era we all know and love, and the menu includes a range of hot dogs and sides, with other goodies to keep you munching. My particular favourite is the Mac'n'Cheese with Brie - absolute perfection! Plus there's cocktails galore. I first went on a night when they happened to screening The Breakfast Club and holding a "coming of age" movie trivia quiz which we epically failed but had an awesome time taking part in. I returned for a screening of Zoolander and other cheap food nights which were great and I'll definitely be checking out what else they have on when I head back to Sydney.Also worth a look is Venue 505, a jazz club which holds events almost every night where talented bands and singers come to perform, and there's also some free entry nights with a house band on as well. We went along to one of the free nights and with a cheeky glass of wine, it was one of the best evenings I've had in Sydney. If you love a laugh, why not check out some of the comedy nights advertised on Time Out website, I found one for just $10 where a bunch of amateurs were putting themselves under the spotlight and it was actually a really fun night - Cafe Lounge hosted the event I went to and regularly holds them on Monday nights. For food, there are endless streets of restaurants, breakfast bars and takeaways offering all kinds of food imaginable, but with plenty of space for the hipsters. A lot of the restaurants are unmistakeable aimed at hipsters, but who cares when the food they serve is that damn tasty? Head to Reuben Hills for breakfast with a friend like I did and enjoy eating soft baked eggs with chorizo and kale while sunshine pours through the windows. Pump yourself full of vitamins and health food at Organic Produce - a fabulous and really busy little restaurant, which is the city's first organic cafe, and caters for all dietary requirements. I could go on for days about all the amazing things to do, eat and explore in Surry Hills, but instead, why don't you guys go off and have fun finding your own favourites?

Have you been to Surry Hills or Newtown? What restaurants or bars can you recommend? Have you been to The Soda Factory for a vintage night of fun? 

Lynn News photo

My apologies for the delay, but as you guys have probably seen of late, I have blog posts coming out of my ears! I seem to have all these amazing posts running around my head, barely the time to write them and certainly not enough time to post them. I would post every day on my blog if I had the time to maintain this, but sadly working four jobs does detract from the amount of time I can spend on this. So sometimes there are a few posts that I put on hold, just so I can make sure I do them justice when it comes to writing them up to share with you guys. A few weeks ago, I had a fantastic girl date with one of my best friends and in our usual style, we decided to go all out and treat ourselves. Although we speak pretty much every day, it had been a while since we had the opportunity to really catch up after we had been working lots and away at festivals - we're both pretty busy bees! But that's the great thing about our friendship, although we are both always busy as anything, neither one of us ever takes it personally when the other can't make it along to something. We always know that when we do finally get a chance to catch up, that we will more than make-up for it.

We headed to one of the newer restaurants in King's Lynn, Marriotts Warehouse, for dinner - a real treat we had both been excitedly awaiting as neither of us had tried it out yet. I had actually been there previously for a Christmas meal with friends, and the food was incredible, but it was a completely different menu to usual, so I considered myself a newbie to the restaurant. As you guys will know by now, I'm a bit of a foodie and I love going out to eat, but in King's Lynn we are sometimes a bit lacking in different types of restaurants - we have loads of Indian, Chinese and Italian restaurants, but very little else and it was great to go to a real bistro-style restaurant. After all of the local restaurants I have been to, I have yet to find another that serves the same type of food as Marriott's.The restaurant itself is in a fabulous place along the quayside, the old warehouse building overlooks the water and at sunset provides a stunning view. The outside seating area has seen various new additions of more benches, seats and plants which, although a little busy, was a lovely place to sit out in the sunshine with a glass of wine, as Vikki was doing when I arrived. Inside, the building is softly lit and has a cosy feel, with lots of wood panelling, beams and a huge wooden bar. The restaurant has a great atmosphere because although there are plenty of places to sit, it is not over-filled with tables so it is never too loud and voices don't echo, even when it is busy. They have plenty of staff, perhaps too many considering the volume of tables, but they give a very personal service and are on hand to cater to your every need.The food itself is outstanding. I don't really know how to describe it beyond that. The flavour combinations are fabulous and in some cases very unusual, they use local produce and it is all presented beautifully.

We shared the Marriott's Sharing Platter to start, which had a delicious combination of feta stuffed peppers, potato and chorizo salad, jerk chicken skewers, minted yoghurt dip and spicy jerk sauce, goat’s cheese, mushroom and sun-dried tomato bruschetta, chicken liver pate with malted bread. Wow, it may have sounded over-ambitious, but we finished everything and it even shut us up for a few minutes because everything was so tasty. It was the perfect accompaniment to a glass of Pinot Grigio and a great conversation. I always love the sharing platters when out with friends because it is such a lovely tradition to share a meal and I love the mezze-style of eating lots of little bits of bigger dishes - as you can imagine I absolutely love tapas!For mains, we actually both went for the same dish because it sounded so tasty! We had the pan-fried duck breast served with chocolate and chilli sauce, potato rosti, braised red cabbage and caramelised oranges, and we ordered some onion rings on the side. I chose the duck because I have never really had duck out in a restaurant and I was dying to try it, my main experiences of duck are having it in pancakes as part of a Chinese. The richness of the meat really appealed to me as a big lover of venison, and I loved the idea of chocolate and chilli sauce with red cabbage. It was absolutely delicious and I struggled to keep chatting because it was so damn tasty. I loved the combination of the flavours, particularly because I would never think to have a chocolate and chilli sauce with meat, or to combine it with oranges - but it really worked and it is making my mouth water even now to remember the dish.

The whole meal was fantastic and I can't recommend this restaurant enough, the whole venture was a brilliant idea and I'm so pleased it is paying off for the guys behind it all. Particularly after they suffered so much with flooding and even a fire earlier this year. I have heard nothing but good things about Marriotts and I always think that is the mark of a good restaurant, not what you read on websites by people who have had a free meal and rate it, but people like me who just love the food and genuinely want others to share the experience, and those who can't stop raving about a place. Marriotts is easily one of my favourite restaurants in Lynn and I will definitely be going back again to try more on the menu!

Have you been to Marriott's Warehouse? What was your favourite dish?