Restaurant reviews

Restaurant reviews blog posts

Goodbye, Number 69

If you continue having problems, message me via the blog’s contact page.

Dear Reader,

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week.

Guess what? I’ve moved to Adelaide. I wanted to live closer to Kathleen. I now live a few minutes from her place.

I’m still working the same (main) job and will be doing the same work. I’m also likely to work as an Honorary Visiting Medical Officer like I did in Canberra.

I’ll soon have a gas cooker installed, so I can cook with gas. I also have a Weber Q+ barbecue that uses gas for fuel.

Weber Q+

Once I connect to the NBN, I can watch the new TV, too. This will occur later this week. The previous tenants didn’t connect to the NBN, so I require a formal installation service. That said, my new place has an aerial for TV reception, so my new TV is delivering some entertainment. Unfortunately, I can’t watch the footy live in Adelaide on free-to-air TV. Once the NBN is connected, my streaming services will see me as a happy dolphin.

Adelaide is the fourth city I’ve lived in, and it’s the first time I’ve lived in a bicameral jurisdiction.

How is the foot?

What’s happened this week?

The foot and knee are continuing to heal. While I can walk without a cane, some stiffness and pain remain in the knee, ankle, and toes.

The move

The removalists arrived, lifted my things from the flat (number 69), and then packed the things I had in long-term storage. They arrived in Adelaide about 48 hours later.

Kathleen did the amazing thing of driving from Canberra to Adelaide with me. We shared the driving. Kathleen has a lot of experience driving between both cities.

The drive from Canberra to Adelaide was great. Kathleen is a terrific driving partner. To break up the drive, we stayed overnight in Narrandera.

The roads were pretty good. On the first day, the ambient temperature got as high as 38 °C, while the second day was much cooler at 25 °C. My car is over 15 years old and seems to manage the drive well.

What have I been eating?

Equipment

  • Weber Q+

Ingredients

  • Scotch fillet steak.

Instructions

  1. Dry brine the steaks overnight.
  2. Heat the barbecue and then clean the grates with a wire brush.
  3. Cook the steaks on the barbecue and flip the steaks every 30 seconds until the meat is nicely caramelised.
  4. Rest the meat for 5 to 7 minutes (minimum).
  5. Slice the meat.
  6. If you’re following a meat-only diet, just the steak will be more than sufficient to satisfy your hunger. You can pick up the steak and just bite into it. This minimises washing.
  7. If you’re low-carbohydrate eating, steak and some plant-based foods like avocado, leafy green leaves, olives, and tomatoes are a good combination.
  8. If you’re not concerned with carbohydrates, fill your boots.
  9. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, this steak won’t be suitable.
  10. Always give thanks to the Lord.
  11. Eat with whatever implements you prefer.

Thoughts on the meal

This was my first time using the Weber Q+ (which I’d bought second-hand). I was happy with the outcome. I will need to use it more often to get a good feel for it.

It was great cooking a meal and sharing it with Kathleen in my own place.

Final thoughts

  • Do you like moving?
  • Do you like having a driving partner to share the load?
  • Do you like cooking on a barbecue?

Disclaimer and comments

This post and other posts on this blog are not medical or health advice. I’m sharing my personal experiences from my lived experience. My opinions remain mine.

For health advice, see your regular medical practitioner. For diet advice, consult with appropriately registered professionals.

Kangaroo Island

If you continue having problems, message me via the blog’s contact page.

Dear Reader,

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week. I’m now back in Canberra after spending nine nights in South Australia visiting Kathleen. Last week, it was Kathleen’s birthday. It was her daughter’s birthday this week and we went out for dinner. We also visited Kangaroo Island and spent three nights there.

How is the foot?

What’s happened this week?

The good news is that being away in South Australia did me good and my foot and knee while weak and limited feel good.

What have I been watching?

Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager

One of the amazing things about Kathleen is that she understands my enjoyment of Star Trek. There were times when we watched some Star Trek together and times when I watched while Kathleen was doing something else.

Restaurant reviews

The Meat and Wine Co

We went with Kathleen’s daughter out to dinner at the Meat and Wine Co. in Adelaide’s central business district.

It is a restaurant which features a lot of beef. The restaurant also does two different types of dry-aged steak. One is done the traditional way, and the other is butter dry-aged.

I went with a bone-in scotch fillet steak, which was traditionally dry-aged. It was a very nice piece of steak.

Kathleen decided to have chicken breast for dinner.

Penneshaw Pub

We arrived on Kangaroo Island on Tuesday and on arrival enjoyed lunch at the Penneshaw Pub.

We shared six oysters. Kathleen enjoyed some rare tuna and I had some lovely lamb cutlets.

For dinner, we called around a few places and couldn’t get a table so we returned to the pub for our evening meal.

Kathleen had crispy skin salmon while I had a T-bone steak. We shared another six oysters too.

I decided to make my meal a reef and beef.

The house we stayed in had a fully equipped kitchen with both a wood stove and oven plus a gas stove and oven.

This meant I could scramble eggs in butter each morning for breakfast.

Kangaroo Island Fresh Seafoods

We spent the morning in Kingscote and decided to try some fish at Kangaroo Island Fresh Seafoods. This place it collocated with a servo (that’s Australian slang for petrol station). We both asked for flathead fillets. Mainly, because we knew that flathead being a cartilaginous fish like a shark or a ray wouldn’t have bones.

The flat head was okay. I had mine grilled while Kathleen’s was crumbed. Unfortunately, the fryer the restaurant uses for battered fish wasn’t working.

Drakes steaks

For dinner we bought some scotch fillet steaks from Drakes. Drakes is a local independent supermarket in South Australia. The steaks looked great in the packaging and cooked nicely that evening. We also bought some blue cheese and goat cheese and enjoyed it with the steak.

The Oyster Farm Shop

On Thursday lunch was a seafood platter (also known as the Aquaplatter) from the oyster farm shop in American River.

The term aquaplatter niggled my brain because aqua normally refers to fresh water while marine normally refers to sea water.

The platter had oysters, prawns from Port Lincoln, King George whiting, smoked salmon wings, pippis in butter and garlic, plus some condiments.

The platter was okay to good. It was the first time Kathleen and I have eaten pippis. I’m not convinced I’d have them again.

We were told the oyster season finished that Thursday, so we were pleased to enjoy the last of the oysters.

Reflections Mecure Kangaroo Island Lodge

There was a Mecure Hotel near where we were staying and we decided to have dinner that the hotel’s restaurant on Thursday night.

This was partly because at dusk, kangaroos were likely to be out and about. On the Tuesday night we’d seen a large roo hop across the road in front of us as we were driving to Penneshaw.

Kathleen is an experienced and expert driver in regional and remote areas. Experience and expertise also mean, don’t put yourself at increased risk if you can avoid it.

Kathleen enjoyed the Lamb Rogan Josh, while I thought the rump steak was okay.

Fat Beagle Coffee Shop

On Friday morning, Kathleen enjoyed brunch at the Fat Beagle Coffee Shop. She enjoyed the breakfast hot dog which featured sriracha sauce and jalapeño peppers. Kathleen also had the vanilla slice which she said was possibly the best she’s ever had.

One of the best things about Kathleen is her love for a vanilla slice which equals my love for them too.

Kathleen’s Kitchen

On Friday, we took the ferry home to Cape Jervis and drove back to Adelaide. Kathleen had purchased tickets for a show at the Adelaide Fringe. Prior to the show, we needed to eat, so Kathleen put some beef short rib fingers into her pressure cooker, and we enjoyed a plate of beef rib meat, cheese, cream cheese, pâté, and avocado, plus some butter.

The show that Kathleen took me to was very funny.

Final thoughts

  • It was a fabulous holiday. The best ever.
  • I even slept better than I have in years. I was able to get between five and six hours most nights while I was away.
  • Holidaying with Kathleen is awesome.
  • If you don’t have someone Kathleen, it’s still worth visiting Adelaide and Kangaroo Island.
  • While the food was mostly good, I think Kangaroo Island is less food destination and more for the flora, fauna, and environment.

Disclaimer and comments

This post and other posts on this blog are not medical or health advice. I’m sharing my personal experiences from my lived experience. My opinions remain mine.

For health advice, see your regular medical practitioner. For diet advice, consult with appropriately registered professionals.

Baa Moo Oink Ribeye bone in

You can skip the introduction and jump to the recipe if you don’t care for my rambling palaver.

If you continue having problems, message me via the blog’s contact page.

Me, tucking into a steak. Check out the knife.

Dear Reader,

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week. I’m currently in Adelaide, visiting Kathleen. It was her birthday this week, and we went out for dinner. We enjoyed an evening at the Red Ochre Barrell and Grill restaurant, which is situated on the Torrens River. The restaurant is one of Kathleen’s favourite places. We dined in its sibling restaurant, the River Café, on one of my previous visits to Adelaide.

The restaurant forms a floating pavilion on the water, with a view of River Torrens looking back towards the city of Adelaide and the main arts precinct.

It was a great view of the river with people running and jogging along the banks, plus people on the water rowing eights and fours.

We enjoyed an evening of lovely views, the best company (each other) and nice food.

Kathleen enjoyed house-made focaccia bread with smoked eucalyptus butter, followed by kangaroo fillet served with lentils and vegetables.

I had an octopus carpaccio with fried capers and finger lime, followed by a scotch fillet steak.

How is the foot?

What’s happened this week?

My foot, ankle, and knee are slowly improving. The EHL repair remains intact. The stiffness in my foot and ankle is lessening. My knee remains stiff, and I hope to regain the range of movement I’d achieved after the intensive physiotherapy I needed for my patella fracture and ruptured retinaculum.

What have I been watching?

Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager

I continue to alternate between the two series, one episode at a time.

One of my favourite episodes in all of Star Trek came up this week. Trials and Tribble-ations is the 104th episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9 (season 5, episode 6).

Recipe — Baa Moo Oink scotch fillet steak

On the theme of steak, we visited a local butcher on Friday morning, viz., Baa Moo Oink in Findon.

Kathleen commented that I looked like a kid in a lolly shop and became very focused.

When I saw the ribeye bone-in steak, I knew I wanted to cook it and eat it.

I should have asked for the rib bone to be cut flush with the meat to fit in the frypan. In the end, it didn’t really matter. It turned out well.

Equipment

  • Frypan
  • Oven
  • Meat thermometer

Ingredients

  • Ribeye bone in steak — thick cut (about 3 cm thick).
  • Beef fat.
  • Flaky iodised salt.

Instructions — The Menu and thoughts on the meal

  1. Dry brine the steak with iodised table salt.
  2. Refrigerate for as long as possible if you can’t do it overnight.
  3. I love that Kathleen has a gas stovetop and a stainless-steel frypan.
  4. Preheat a fan-forced oven to about 160 °C.
  5. I heated the frypan on a large gas burner and added some beef fat.
  6. I seared the steak, flipping it over every thirty seconds and searing the edges.
  7. Once the steak was seared, I let it rest for a minute and then inserted a meat thermometer.
  8. Place the steak on a roast tray and into the oven and cook until the middle of the steak reaches about 57 °C. This will ensure a medium-rare steak.
  9. Allow the meat to rest for about half as long as it took to cook in the oven.
  10. After allowing the steak to rest, dissect along the muscle planes and along the rib bone.
  11. This steak has four distinct elements. The rib bone, a fat cap, the deckle meat or spinalis dorsi, and the fillet or the longissimus dorsi.
  12. Slice the fillet and deckle and arrange on a cutting board.
  13. Season with flaky salt and serve.
  14. If you’re following a meat-only diet, just the steak will be more than sufficient to satisfy your hunger. You can pick up the steak and just bite into it. This minimises washing up. Don’t forget to gnaw the bone.  
  15. If you’re low-carbohydrate eating, steak and some plant-based foods like avocado, leafy green leaves, olives, and tomatoes are a good combination.
  16. If you’re not concerned with carbohydrates, fill your boots.
  17. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, this steak won’t be suitable.
  18. Always give thanks to the Lord.
  19. Eat with whatever implements you prefer.

Thoughts on the meal

This steak was magnificent. We didn’t eat the whole piece of meat. We’ve kept some in a container. We enjoyed a couple of slices for morning tea today and some blue cheese.

Final thoughts

  • If you’ve been to Adelaide, have you eaten at the Red Ochre Barrell and Grill restaurant?
  • Do you like a thick-cut steak?
  • Do you like restaurants with river or water views?
  • If you’ve watched “Trials and Tribble-ations”, tell me your favourite scene.

Disclaimer and comments

This post and other posts on this blog are not medical or health advice. I’m sharing my personal experiences from my lived experience. My opinions remain mine.

For health advice, see your regular medical practitioner. For diet advice, consult with appropriately registered professionals.

Sandgate Post Office Hotel

If you’re not seeing new posts each week, I suggest refreshing your browser and clearing your browser’s browser cache regularly.

If you continue having problems, message me via the blog’s contact page.

Dear Reader,

I hope you’ve had a good week. This weekend I’m in Brisbane visiting my parents and daughters.

We’re celebrating a birthday and Christmas together.

I took everyone to the Sandgate Post Office Hotel for lunch.

In the evening one of my brothers, his daughters, my daughters, and future son-in-law came over to my parent’s place for dinner.

I went and bought scotch fillet steaks for everyone. One of my nieces made a Greek salad.

I just ate steak because I was still feeling full from breakfast and lunch.

Sandgate Post Office Hotel

I’ve been here before for lunch. I enjoyed it then and this meal was also good.

I asked for Queensland grown rump cooked medium rare with some oysters, squid, and prawns. One of my daughters happily ate the hot chips and I removed the batter from the prawns.

The steak was tender and had a great beef flavour. The prawns were firm and fresh. The oysters were fresh but not as plump as I would like. The squid was tender.

We had two seafood towers between four people, a porchetta and wagyu fat potatoes dish, plus a gnocchi dish. It was a big table covered in food.

Final thoughts

  • I will happily eat here again. The service is friendly and cheerful. The setting is enjoyable.

Disclaimer and comments

This post and other posts on this blog are not medical or health advice. I’m sharing my personal experiences from my lived experience. My opinions remain mine.

For health advice, see your regular medical practitioner. For diet advice, consult with appropriately registered professionals.

Café 63, Westfield Chermside

Breakfast

I did not eat the bread. I did eat the eggs, bacon, pork belly strips, and hollandaise sauce.

Fantastic feasting

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week. I’m currently in Adelaide with Kathleen.

Restaurant review  

I don’t have a recipe this weekend because I’m in Adelaide with Kathleen, and we’re enjoying some of the fantastic feasting here.

Georges on Waymouth

Kathleen has been thinking about dining at Georges for a long time. I think the period can be measured in years. It was an honour and a pleasure to join with Kathleen in dining at Georges for the first time for both of us.

Georges is well known in Adelaide for consistently good Mediterranean-styled cuisine. The menu draws on local produce with European experience and excellence.

We decided to share two starters and went with the Hiramasa Port Lincoln Kingfish crudo, apple and shallot dressing, radish, labneh, and dill oil, along with the Vitello Tonnato, tuna aioli, pickled white anchovies, capers, pickled shallots.

The former dish was a revelation in freshness and flavour. The fish was light and delicate.

The thinly sliced veal with tuna aioli, in comparison, was a more substantial mouthful per fork. It also had the capers’ crisp texture and the aioli’s smoothness.

We enjoyed both but tipped the kingfish as the winner.

For our main course dishes, Kathleen chose the crowd-pleasing lamb press, pancetta, chickpea hummus, Mt. Zero chickpea salad, za’atar, and watercress, which is known as the Georges signature dish. I chose the 300-gram “Southern Grain” Black Angus scotch fillet (MBS 4+), café de Paris butter. I asked for it to be cooked medium rare.

Before I describe these two dishes, the standout main course special for the evening was a 1-kilogram T-bone steak with a marbling score of 4+. It is a shared dish.

When informed of this special, my eyes lit up, and Kathleen grinned in reaction to my facial expression. We discussed the arguments for and against choosing the T-bone steak and decided against it. We would swap our plates during the meal so we’d both experience a good steak tonight anyway. Going with the T-bone would be all we ate, which seemed limiting for our first time at Georges.

I think it was the correct decision. For me, a scotch fillet (or ribeye for North American readers) perfectly blends meat and fat. It is also flavourful and tender. That’s not to say a T-bone isn’t full of flavour, but I wasn’t sure if the chef would leave all the fat on the meat the way I like it. At least with a scotch fillet, there are likely to be islands of lovely fat between the large muscle bundles. This decision also meant we could both enjoy the steak and the pressed lamb wrapped in prosciutto. Our whole meal was a meat-eating dream.

We can understand why the lamb press is the restaurant’s signature dish. It was well executed in presentation; the lamb was perfectly cooked and tender and suited the chickpea accompaniment.

The scotch fillet was magnificent, especially smothered in the herb-enriched butter. I laid the sliced meat flat and then smeared the butter over the cut surfaces for greater penetration and flavour.

We decided against dessert or cheese and ended the evening watching a submarine movie, viz., Hunter Killer, on TV. It was a wonderful evening with Kathleen.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a restroom review for a restaurant. I didn’t require restroom use; however, Kathleen rates the restroom highly.

UR Caffe (pronounced your Caffe)

Kathleen took me to breakfast this morning at UR Caffe. This is a well-patronised establishment in North Adelaide.

Walking in, it had a good vibe, and like those well-put-together places where the delicious fragrance of coffee wafts through the air, you can feel this is also a good place for breakfast.

The coffee was good, and the food was great.

Kathleen went with the fried halloumi, Swiss brown mushrooms, broccolini, crispy kale, scrambled eggs, and teriyaki sauce on sourdough bread.

I went with poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, rocket, smoked salmon, asparagus spears, bacon, and avocado. The meal came with two pieces of sourdough bread, which I elected to leave untouched.

Both meals went down well and were immensely satisfying. I can see myself wanting to regularly enjoy breakfast at UR Caffe.

Other thoughts

Tonight, we’re dining out again. I may write about this experience next weekend.

I’m loving my time in Adelaide with Kathleen. I also love that Kathleen understands my desire to improve my health by choosing certain foods over other types of food. The places we’ve chosen have given us the freedom to enjoy and not feel restricted in choice.  

See you next week.