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.