The General Store at Berrima, NSW :o) :o/

The General Store at Berrima is an impressive little quaint shop, and when you know it’s been here for over a century, you do ask yourself how the walls have made it through. It all looks wobbly and messy inside and I do have to say Monsieur and I found it quite charming.

The General Store in Historic Berrima

When we entered though, we did wonder whether we were invisible to the Coffee Man behind the counter. No “hello”, no “hang on, I’ll be with you when I’m done preparing the coffee”, no “someone will come”, no eye contact. So after a good minute, I’m starting to think we have contemporary dressed ghosts in a Ghost town… and I can see dead people. That is… until a warm and plump man comes to us and just breaks the spell. I suppose he’s the owner…

The General Store displays preserved vegetables

The conversation starts in English, and when he realizes we’re French, tells us his mother was also French, and in a rather impeccable French accent, carries on the conversation in French. I order my Lamb Burger AUD 12 and Monsieur gets a Duck and Spring Vegetable pie AUD 14 (but I really shall say Spring Vegetable and a hint of duck pie).

The General Store’s cakes

Though I loved the spirit of it all, the bill came down to AUD 28.50. Now 12+14 should add up to 26 right? We decide not to say anything at all, thinking it might be the Boxing Day surcharge… but then none of this was mentioned anywhere on the blackboard, and I hate hidden surcharges, makes me think of my French retail bank that wants to charge me this and that when I have nothing but a regular account I’m not even using except once a year.

The General Store in Historic Berrima’s Blackboard

I’m hoping that for AUD28.50, the lamb burger and the pie will be outstanding. After all, rent in Berrima mustn’t be as expensive as in Sydney righto?

Lamb Burger topped with caramelised onions and cream AUD 14

My lamb burger comes with salad, two big pieces of burger bread, and a ridiculously small lamb patty. Flavours are nice, but half of the patty has carrot and pine nuts in.

Duck and Spring Vegetables pie, salad and relish, AUD 12

Monsieur’s lamb and Spring vegetables pie is not bad, but all I get to see and taste are the Spring vegetables. This is being advertised as a Duck and Spring vegetables pie, but my guess is that there’s at most, 1 spoon of duck meat in that pie…

I really wanted to like Berrima’s General Store, and found the setting to be very charming and warm in spite of the thin walls and the colder climate, but for a grand total of AUD 28.5, we found this lunch to be very dear, especially knowing you’re in Berrima (population has decreased from 777 in 2006 to 542 in 2011, goes to say how non-expensive the rent can get) and not in Sydney, where the value you can get for AUD 28.5 is far above that of Berrima’s General Store. Overall, we weren’t hungry when we left, but didn’t leave satiated.