In 1994, when my family first set foot on Aussie soil, my uncle and cousins took us pretty much straight from the airport to Sizzler. This was their local hangout and they went pretty much every weekend. For something like $5 a person, you had access to an “eat-as-much-as-you-like” salad buffet as well as a bottomless cup for the soda fountain. What a feast.
So it was with great nostalgia that I ate at a Sizzler restaurant when I visited Queensland and when I returned to Sydney, I did a bit of research. Despite all rumours that there were no more Sizzlers in NSW (due to some sort of rat poison in the salad scare), the website disclosed that there were actually 3 in the state. The closest was in Kogarah, which is a mere 20 minute drive from the city.
So I finally convinced the Millers that a trip down memory lane was necessary. So Taryn, Cameron, Lara, Howard, Jules, Avril and me, headed out to Kogarah. Calli was studying for exams so unfortunately couldn’t join us. Richard wouldn’t be seen dead in Sizzler and Tamara wanted to hang out with her hubby.
It’s a bit of a depressing place, this Kogarah, very industrial and dusty but as soon as I saw the familar green and red Sizzler sign, things got more cheery. It’s obviously the place to be for Sunday lunch, as it looked as if us and every pensioner in the area was in the queue for a table. But it didn’t take us too long to reach the cashier.
Inflation meant that it now cost $20 for the buffet and drinks but it’s still a pretty good deal.
According to the Millers, nothing much had changed. The decor was slightly different but the salads were pretty much identical. We started with soup (which apparently also tasted the same as a decade ago) and then went onto the variety of salads. Quite tasty actually.
The highlight was, of course, dessert. It went like this – a glob of cookies of cream pudding, a touch of apple crumble, a dot of jelly, smothered with some vanilla softserve (which you can control by yourself) and then topped with oreo crumbles, smarties and jelly beans. Gourmet dessert. We all felt like kids again.
Lots of photos (I even had one with the Sizzler man – well, the manager), an attempt to sing Happy Birthday (not sure why, as my b-day was last month 🙂 and lots of laughs. It was a great nostaligic trip. I’m not sure if we’ll be back every weekend but maybe once a year will be good enough.
Posted by lemonade 
Lemonade's Land 