Winters Cafe - Pakington St, Geelong

Atmosphere: ***/5
Food: ***/5
Drink: ****/5
Service: ****/5

After a big night out for an engagement party, the bridesmaids organised a Sunday brunch with the loved up couple.



A two story cafe, Winters fits quite a few people in, and with twelve people at our table, I was worried that the service would be slow and my coffee would take a while to get to me, however, I was wonderfully surprised.

The coffee was perfect and our orders were taken quickly.  The wait staff were not very engaging but they all appeared to be those whom had been in hospitality for some time, which you don't often see.

The coincidently named 'big night' breakfast was a popular order with the boys at the table, and all the girls opted for building their own breakfast starting with eggs as you like it and options of ingredients such as; spinach, haloumi cheese, local Queenscliff relish and other assortment of sauces, mushroom cups, tomato, Meredith feta, hash browns, avocado smash, smoked salmon and for a first time in a while I wish I ate pig with an option for pork, apple and sultana sausage and ham off the bone.



(Sourced from the Winters Cafe Website) 

I enjoyed my meal immensely, I am a strong believer you can never go wrong with a good haloumi cheese for breakfast, and the Queenscliff relish was surprisingly one of my favourite ingredients as it acted as a baked bean mix without being too heavy, this is something I will now looking at doing at home.

I was really thrilled that even though there was a large majority of self built meals all were delivered correctly within three minutes of each other.

If you feel the need there are also options of breakfast booze and cocktails and if I was not driving to Melbourne I would have defiantly tired one or two of the cocktails!  They also offered a Hairy Lemon drink (a kind of barocca) which I thought was very cute!

The atmosphere is lovely, there is artwork all through the cafe with the theme continuing onto the menus with each containing a biography promoting local artists from Deacon University and local art spaces and institutions.

There was a predominantly female population in the cafe, and the décor was defiantly aimed at the female population with the crockery featuring pink and purple. It was, however, very cute seeing the boys drink out of these!

I would defiantly recommend this place for lunch and or breakfast.  With a recent win of Hospitality and Tourism Award for Best Regional Cafe 2012 and Best Customer Service 2011 it seems the judges agree as well!

Laksa Plus - CBD, Adelaide

Atmosphere: */5

Food: ****/5

Drink: -/5

Service: -/5

I was very hesitant at writing this post as this place is only getting more and more popular and I don't like waiting in long lines.  However, my job is to inform so I am informing you.

Laksa Plus does the best Laksa I have ever had in Adelaide, bar none.

Located in the Mansions Food court this area is becoming really popular with uni students and office workers alike. 

Reflecting a China Town atmosphere, this food court attracts more and more people each week! I would note that the area has become very popular with Uni students and at this particular food stall a Laksa and drink meal is offered for $9.50 i suggest therefore if not a fan of crowds to try this place in the University holidays! 

This area is not one you should come to for fine dining as there is no service and I can not rate drinks, but the atmosphere is buzzing and there is always plenty going on. The toilets are clean and there are cleaners constantly wiping down and clearing tables. 

Give this place place a go! I am sure you will love it! I will stand strong and wait a little longer in line for your order to go though! 

The Wharf Shed - Geelong

Atmosphere: ****/5
Food: */5
Drink: **/5
Service: -/5


For all intensive purposes this is not going to be a positive review.  So I apologise for that.

Geelong, being the closest thing to my home town, is a place in which I visit regularly, and for some absurd reason, I often feel the need to have my chosen meal out on the town at the Wharf Shed Cafe on the Waterfront.



Maybe it is the water, and the close proximity to the shopping precinct as well as the prime views that pull me to this place but I am always so disappointed and frustrated when I come here.

The reason why I am writing this review now is due to my recent visit there in which my friends and I ordered a cappuccino and two milkshakes in which we waited 45 minutes for and never received.  When I did approach the counter to let the manager know she apologised offering nothing, making it obvious that it is a regular occurrence.




The food here is quite bland, and the menu quite unimaginative. This makes The Wharf Shed Cafe perfect for fussy eaters, people who don't like fine dining or children.  The tables are known to be sticky and the restaurant in general a bit dirty so you will not feel like you are imposing by bringing big groups or needing to keep your children under control at your table.

The food here is uneventful, I have found the best things here are fried, although friends have commented on their food tasting like it has been fried in old oil.  My favourite thing to order here which is a entrée of garlic and cheese flat bread which I am sure you can get at many other places and for a cheaper price than $10.



(Image sourced from Google images https://plus.google.com/102921418814188289742/about)

The service is terrible, it appears the management of the kitchen and floor staff needs a major overhaul.  There are often as many waiters and waitresses as there are patrons and you will still have to wait for service.  The person who seats you does not take your order, and due to lack of communication your often required to chase down different wait staff who are supposed to be looking after your section to take your order (beware this will take a while and you will go through many staff).  The electronic devices they take your order on have had malfunctioned whilst the orders have been taken which sets you back another 20 minutes.

Unfortunately because of the position of The Wharf Shed Cafe it seems to have constant patronage which is why I am assuming there has been nothing done about the poor service and uninspiring food which has been consistent since I can remember.

Sheoak Cafe - Belair

Atmosphere: ****/5
Food: ***/5
Drink: **/5
Service: ****/5

What a gorgeous little place! As you step into this homely little cafe the warmth from the fire and the reggae tunes wash over you and you know that you will be staying here a while and having a long lunch.


Situated on the corner of two significant roads; Sheoak and James, and across the road from St. Johns Primary, for a more peaceful dining experience I suggest avoiding the pick up and drop off rush and gossip session for parents and their children.

I have been here on a Sunday morning and the staff were so lovely and the atmosphere was so homely it was the perfect place to read the paper, I ended up staying here for a couple of hours!

I had the Yemen soup which was a wonderful heavy winter soup containing; chicken, rice, vegetables and mint which was something I have never tried before but worked really well. I even tried to find a recipe for it when I got home and could not find it anywhere (if you know of it please add the recipe in the comments!).

The other meal that was ordered at the table was the big breakfast.  This was basic and could have been done better, the baked beans were obviously canned Heinz beans.  It is so easy to make home made beans and much tastier too!  It would not take much to make the breakfast's here something worth rivaling, adding fried cheese, home made hash browns or signature mushrooms would make the world of difference but they are still getting there!

Would not suggest coming here for a wine.  I had a quick look at the reds and most could be bought at Dan Murphy's for around $10 and they are not under priced for what they are.  In saying that the milkshakes are one of the best I have had in Adelaide! You still get the silver cup that its made in as well as the glass, which has something that you do not see that much anymore.

If your looking for a new and different place to try in the Blackwood, Belair region, I defiantly suggest you give this place a go.

East Terrace Continental - East Terrace, Adelaide

Atmosphere: ***/5
Food: ****/5
Drinks: ***/5
Service: **/5

ETC  was one of the biggest and best places for a big breakfasts down the East End. A place to go if you want to know that you will not have to wait for a table for too long, unlike the smaller hipster cafes that are popping up in the area.

The food will not completely blow you away, but when reasonably quite, this place is great to come to when you want a good, solid, predictable cheap eat and this is the main reason why I keep on coming back here.

There are so many staples of mine here, the arancini ball salad is great for under $15 dollars and the big breakfast is really well priced at $16 and wont break the budget.  The pasta specials are always good and there is always lovely seafood specials too.  The breakfast menu goes until 3:30pm so if you rise late after a big night you know you will get food and its a great place for a catchup with friends, gossip and brunch.  The management and staff have tried to get rid of the bus stop right outside through petition to no avail so if  your sitting outside, your conversations may be at a yelling level if its busy enough.




The service could be worked on.  I have had mixed experiences here, on a bad day the waiters make you feel like you are taking up their precious time and any extra help needed is perceived as a pain, and there is no table service so if they forget things you have to pick things up and get knives and forks yourself.  Every time I have been here I have noticed that bringing tap water to the table appears to be a massive task for the waiter/esses.

I would suggest that if your looking for a cafe that is reasonably priced for a casual breakfast/lunch hangout I would suggest this place.  Sometimes, when busy, the food takes a while and the service could be improved, however, inside it is very cosy and warm in winter and the air-con is always on in summer.  The coffee is pretty solid here too, no matter how busy they are.

Ekhidna Winery - Mclaren Vale

Atmosphere: ****/5
Food: ***/5
Drinks: **/5
Service: ****/5

Well, this place just blew me away very unexpectedly!

With a cousin visiting from Melbourne, a wine tasting day was in order, and due to our weekend work schedules we went down to where the sea meets the vines on a Tuesday.  Something that I did not realize would make a big impact on our day is visiting Mclaren Vale on a weekday.  Not many restaurants are open through the week and I was determined to avoid the bakeries and restaurants on the main street as I did not want  view looking onto a road, this and the fact I was determined to find somewhere which would not break the budget of three postgrad and one undergrad uni students defiantly took me some time!  So I hope this review helps in that aspect! 

Not much to look at first, Ekhidna Winery is on the corner of two significant roads but the first sense other than visual that you notice about the place is the smell.  When you walk onto the veranda the food wraps around you like a grandmas pie! 

A view which is beaten by other Mclaren Vale restaurant's such as D'Arry's Veranda or Settlement Wines, Ehkidna Wines smartly settles itself at the back of the building on the flat tucked away in the vineyards.  

The waitresses were very good, giving us each numbers so the bill could be evenly split and after taking our orders suggested that we do a tasting at the bar.  We ordered the Antipasto platter to share as an entree and after the tastings it was sitting there waiting for us and a perfect way to line the belly after a bit of wine!

The food and service in this restaurant surpass the wines that we tasted, The Linchpin, Shiraz was our choice for the meals, but for forty dollars a bottle to take away or fifty dollars at the restaurant I have had better wines for under that price and were not the highlight for us of Ekhidna Winery. 

The beer flight that one of us had with the meals; five for five dollars was very popular with the table and something worth getting if your a beer and or ginger beer fan.

The IPA was not as crisp and light as other IPA's and the higher alcohol content of 7.4 was a good touch.  The dark was a good classic charcoal flavor with a nice thickness.  The ginger beer and 50/50 was thought to be very sweet and therefore not as popular.  The wheat beer had a subtle wheat flavor with non wheat beer drinkers probably able to enjoy it (Luke Rogers, 2013)

I had a scotch fillet with a truffle mash and it was cooked beautifully, as I was the driver it was a perfectly heavy meal with strong favors that suited the Linchpin Shiraz very well. The arancini balls were a highlight as well with a creamy richness and tomato sauce on the side. 

The seafood entrees of prawn vermicelli and chorizo and scallop had by friends were very well priced for under $15, however, I have been informed that they should not be a substitution of the mains (which was what my friends did) as they did not have bold flavors to complete the meal after the very flavorsome antipasto (highlights included the goats cheese and mushrooms).

I would highly recommend this restaurant if you are not after the wines as first priority, if you bring beer loving diners here you will be a very popular person  The quality of food and once again the price makes Ehkidna wines high on my list as somewhere to try! 

Dumpling King - China Town, Adelaide

Atmosphere: ***/5
Food: -/5
Drinks: */5
Service: -/5

Located in China Town, Dumpling King has been a popular eatery for some of my friends. It is a cheap eat and caters for big groups, especially good before a night out or after. I have avoided eating here as I already have a favorite place in China Town and I do not eat pig, and the recommendations for meals here are mostly pork based.

     

Deciding to mix up a regular Saturday morning Adelaide Central Market shop, located at the Grote Street side of China Town we headed to Dumpling King, to attempt a meal without pork!

We ordered to share, as suggested by the waitresses; a beef soup, spring onion pancakes, chicken and prawn dumplings and a Shanghai noodle.



I find when eating at any cheap eatery that service, atmosphere and the drinks list does not matter as it is being surprised by the food that is put in front of you that makes the place!  With the food being so wonderfully cheap at Dumpling King, and note the free tea at the table, you can not expect service or drinks list to be great, which it wasn't.

I must add however that the atmosphere that trickles in from Chinatown is so vibrant and it is lovely to watch the passing traffic from the neighboring China Town food court and Adelaide Central Markets.



The food does not come out together or in any particular order which would make sense if you were just ordering dumpling related foods, we did not so it made the eating experience really annoying as my main, which was a soup came out fifteen minutes before the rest of the meals.  I recommended when ordering here to state when and what you want to come out together.

The highlight of the meals was defiantly the earwig in the noodles! This is something I have never come across, although I do have a feeling that this has happened before as the waitresses did not bat an eyelid when I returned the meal to the counter and asked if I would like the same! (Which, of course I declined and asked for my money back).

I would not recommend this place to people and I will not be returning to Dumpling King myself however, so many of my friends have been here and loved it even with all it's quirks of insects in dishes, food coming to the table late and the tea on the tables may be a bit old but for under $15 you can get a cheap meal, just make sure you turn up to the door with absolutely no expectations and be prepared for slightly more protein than expected!