The Glynde Hotel

Today on the Dining Diaries…

Good “what you’d expect” pub menu
Great family atmosphere and
Fifty cent Wings!!!

Diners today we were at the Glynde Hotel which is on the corner of Payneham/Glynburn and Lower North East rd.

I don’t know if we could have had a more “typical” local pub experience! We walked in and the staff were super friendly. It had a fantastic relaxed atmosphere. While there weren’t a lot of people in the bistro,  (we were there about 2.30pm) they have all day dining which I just LOVE as my own hours can be quite erratic.

Like any good local pub they have different specials on different days of the week enticing newbies to come along. You can get all those details from their website www.glyndehotel.com.au

Hubby and I chose a table  that had a bit of sun coming in from the windows. It also gave us a view of the busy intersection which was a little interesting.

The dining room itself was clean and reasonable enough. This would be a great place for families because of the relaxed atmosphere and the reasonable menu prices.

We grabbed a couple of menus and honestly I had a hard time choosing what I wanted. I felt like something “naughty” today so against my better judgement, chose the Beef Schnitzel with a Mexicana topping! Honestly I probably was enticed by the word “corn chips” in the Mexicana topping description.

Following my lead, hubby went for a couple of the entree’s. First the nachos – Corn chips topped with melted mozzarella, spicy tomato sauce, jalapeños, Mexican salsa, sour cream and guacamole. Secondly, as were in a place that heavily advertises wings, we had to try some of them right? So hubby ordered twenty wings as well.

We were indulging ourselves today in every variety of fat that there was!

I was a bit relieved that my Beef Schnitzel didn’t look as big as it could have when it came out.

Oh and look, there’s a salad there as well!
The salad was dressed nicely and if I had a bit in between the schnitzel and chips, I didn’t feel like I was eating so badly (that’s called denial)

I’ve got to say I enjoyed this meal. The beef was cooked well and there was just such a generous amount of topping on there!!! Sour cream, guacamole and those wonderful corn chips!
I tried to estimate the amount of calories that was in the dish but soon thought better of it.
It’s kind of hard to rate a schnitzel. I mean how bad can a bad one be? The cut of meat was good, and that’s the main thing and I just loved everything else about it. It was a decent meal at a decent price. Nothing stood out as amazingly good or terribly bad. It was just good honest pub fare.

Hubby’s meals looked equally good when they came out.
The wings were first.

I normally don’t eat wings because the thought of eating chicken skin makes me want to gag but I did actually try one. It was surprisingly good! I tried the sauces too. I don’t have a high tolerance for hot spicy foods so the red sauce wasn’t for me but hubby just LOVED it and said that’s exactly how he makes his hot sauce!
I was glad for him.
I think he said the white sauce was a blue cheese sauce. It was pretty tasty! I had some of them with my chips.

His nachos looked equally good.

Lots of cream toppings on a great sized plate. You just can’t go wrong!

The Glynde Hotel had easy listening soft pop rock playing in the background while we ate and it seemed to suit. After a while “Hungry Eyes” came on and and I told hubby that Patrick Swayze was singing it.
Turns out I was wrong, it was Eric Carmen BUT  it was featured in the classic movie “Dirty Dancing” and Patrick Swayze sang “She’s like that Wind” which is also from that movie…
Just a little fun fact for you!!

All in all, I would have no hesitation in returning to the Glynde Hotel. It really had a nice friendly atmosphere and the food was generous and not bad!

Have you been to the Glynde Hotel?
What did you think?
Let me know in the comments below!!!

Till next we chow…

Pasta Deli

Today on the Dining Diaries…

The team visit a place that’s not for the faint-hearted,
We have a pizza with a dough so light yet crispy that only nonna could have made it and
I’m still trying to figure out if I was at a family engagement or a cafe/restaurant

Diners today we were at Pasta Deli located on Glynburn Rd at Glynde.

I grew up in this area and yet I don’t know much about that old Fire Station building on Glynburn rd. I’ll have to look into that!

In any case, hubby and I were a little shocked to see and hear the amount of people, filling this cafe/restaurant/deli on a Wednesday, mid-afternoon

Their set up is quite unique. They have deli style meats available for purchase and lots of other packaged goodies. Pasta, every kind of taralli, and other Italian favourites are there on display. Cooked food to take away from soups and pastas to delicious icecream and desserts are also on offer.

You can also dine in.

Hubby and I walked in and I was immediately overwhelmed. The food looked amazing, and the aroma’s were just heavenly but my social anxiety was riding high. No one told us the set up or where to go to order. We just wandered in and were left to fend for ourselves.
Silly me looked for a menu. I don’t think there is one but I’m also not ruling it out.
I eventually asked a server and she told me to stand in a line and someone would tell me “how the place works” over there.

I think the line I got in was the ordering line but even so, I had no idea what or how I was ordering and I was calling out to hubby “Do you want to go somewhere else?”
Luckily, hubby took over. I told him I didn’t care what I ate, and to just choose something for us.
Turns out, it was the ordering line and you just order from the food that’s displayed in front of you, although there is another counter that has parmigiana’s, vegetables, focaccia’s and pizzas alongside that ordering counter.

I’m not sure what happened but hubby came back more excited than a kid about to do an Easter Egg Hunt.

He’d ordered a pizza, a meat ball, rigatoni ragu and a lasagna for us to share. The food we saw coming out looked really good and there were so many people enjoying it and each others company. They are definitely doing something right here!!
At times I didn’t know if I was in a restaurant or at a family function which often incites the same anxiety.
The only thing missing was wine. No wine list. Not even a house wine. I guess they’re not licensed but I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t have a glass of red with my pasta.

The food wasn’t brought out all at the same time which was a shame. The Rigatoni came out first. I didn’t want to start eating it until hubby had something to eat as well but we waited and waited and waited. It did seem like a very long time, especially when we were so hungry and everything smelt so good!

This was not my favourite dish. The rigatoni were really heavy and the pasta very thick. It was not enjoyable to eat. The meat was ok. Mama’s is definitely’s more tender but it wasn’t bad. I loved the bits of parsley on top. I could taste the freshness and I can’t remember any other time parsley has added that much zing to a dish.

The next dish to come out was the meatball.

I wish I had taken this picture with something else so you can get perspective of size. It was quite a large meatball and I personally thought the middle of it wasn’t cooked well however hubby loved it and said he thought it had a nice flavour. The sauce on the meatball was more of a fresh sauce than the ragu I was having with my pasta and I really loved it. It was sweet and I loved the flavour of the tomatoes.
Hubby said he could imagine having three of those meatballs in a roll and making a meatball sub.

Next we tried the Pasta Deli Lasagna.

This dish was definitely the winner for me!!! The pasta was so light!!! There is nothing better than a simple lasagna. Good pasta, good sauce, a bit of bechamel and you’re in heaven if they’ve all been done well. I don’t like lasagna that has bits of ham and egg and god knows what else throughout. I think that’s going beyond what a lasagna is meant to be.
This pasta just melted in your mouth. It was just like my mum makes and I remember rolling out that pasta with her when I was young.

Lastly we tried one of their pizza’s.

Again this just blew me away! The base was light yet firm and crispy. There was substance to it. The toppings were fresh and flavoursome. Although there wasn’t a lot of topping, it didn’t really need much more. At $6.90 this was definitely a bargain.

I’m sure I’ll be back to Pasta Deli. This time I’ll know what I’m in for!
I don’t know that I’d dine in but I definitely want to take away some of that pizza.

Have you been to Pasta Deli?
What did you think?
Let me know in the comments below!

Till next we chow…