Penrith and then Brighton

[Moonsammy]

Hello!

Any recommendations for me? I am from Toronto Canada and will be spending about five days in Penrith and then another 5 days in the Brighton-Le Sands region of Sydney. I won't have a car and on most evenings I will have very little time to travel for dinner. I haven't seen very much at all on these boards about those two areas.

Any help is appreciated!

[arsyd]

I can't help you with Penrith, but Brighton has lots of cheap and cheerful choices, and is something of a restaurant magnet for that part of town (there's not a lot around there, it must be said!). Go Greek, with perhaps a gelato for desert, and you will be fine! Take it onto the beach after your dinner and enjoy the lights of the docks and planes coming in to land - its actually quite nice!

[PhilD]

I must agree with Mr.G, I think you would be hard pressed to choose two other suburbs with such a lack of quality food. Penrith is on the far western side of Sydney half way to the Blue Mountains and suffers from being this far out. Brigton-le-Sands is close to the airport, in-fact the beach overlooks the main runway, there are lots of Mediterranean restaurants along the sea front, including lots of Greek and a few Lebanese but these are cheap and cheerful and/or function centres catering for big parties. In the next suburbs the best bet is probably "Blackwater" in Sans Souci, and there is also the Concordia Club in Tempe which is a German social club.

Best advice is to head into town (from Brighton) and check out Surrey Hills or Newtown, probably by taxi. And from Penrith take a train to Parramatta where there are a few good places it is approx 25 mins by express (70 mins to the central Sydney)

[mr_gimlet]

That is, unfortunately, because there isn't much to write about in either location. I've stayed in Brighton a few times, its pleasant enough and there are plenty of greek-style taverna places to eat at. You won't starve, but people don't travel there for the food.