Perth Day Three

Sorry that this entry is coming after the fact but between the Wine Tour that we did today and travelling back home, this is the first chance I’ve had to write and upload.

Today, Friday the 5th of January as I write, is my birthday and not only is it my birthday, but it’s a milestone birthday too so I knew hubby was not going to say anything when I wanted to get up extra early to exercise.

The gym at this hotel is quite good and if you go early enough, there’s no one in there so I get the whole place to myself!
Perfect way to start a birthday!

We took our picture before heading out! (left)

The Wine Tour we were booked on started from Elizabeth Quay so we walked down there from our hotel and had a coffee at the Riverside Cafe. No champagne this morning though as I was anticipating a heavy alcohol day!

We met our friends and boarded our boat.

It was such a relaxing cruise down the river!

We had coffee and muffins to start off with but it wasn’t long before the wine tasting started.

Here is a picture of the wine’s we sampled on the right and a few from the cruise below.
I forgot to mention the tasting plate of local cheeses that were also provided. Each tray was for two people so it was quite a generous portion!

Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the first stop. I think it was next to Sandalwood Winery? Beautiful spot anyhow and they had the BEST cider here!! It tasted more like a sparkling white than a cider! Soooo delicious but unfortunately they don’t bottle it yet so we couldn’t buy any.

The food we had was also exceptional. Unfortunately I was too overwhelmed with the place to take pictures of the food but here are a few of our surroundings. By the way, the whole time we were there having lunch there was a line of people waiting to get in!

From here we travelled by coach to another winery.  This time I took a pic of the sign outside so I know it’s Windy Creek Winery. This was another gorgeous spot!!

I tried pretty much every wine they were offering and surprisingly for me, really loved the whites. I don’t normally drink a lot, if any, of white wine.

We were a nice group and by this time, were starting to talk to each other and were getting pretty happy! I took a few pics inside and out. So gorgeous here!

Hubby is not a wine drinker so I ended up having a few tastings on his behalf – not that you can tell by this selfie on the left…

You can imagine where this is going to lead can’t you?

Back on the coach now to our next spot.

As per the information from our driver, this tree had been struck by lightening, but continued to grow anyhow!

It was just outside our next stop and quite interesting to look at.

So now we’re at Twin Hill Wines and I’m feeling decidedly happy. Again, I liked the whites more than the reds (surprisingly) but not as much as our last stop. This is a family run winery though and the history behind it was quite interesting. They also provided a very tasty tasting plate for us!
Here are a few pics from our time here. By the way, the ladies behind the counter are mother and daughter.

Next stop was a brewery – Mash Brewing. They also provided us some nibbles and we were able to pick one beer from their list complimentary.

I’m not a beer drinker but it seemed like an interesting place.

I’m not sure you can read it but the pic on the right shows the beer choices we had.

We had one more stop to come and I was quite excited for this one! We were going to Margaret River Chocolate Company and were going to be sampling a few chocolate liqueurs also!

Here are a few pics. Luckily, hubby took them as I was not in any state to be taking photos at this point and was happy to be wandering around about the chocolate. We bought a few things to share later.

Not sure if you can see the interesting clocks bottom right. How cute are they!!!

The chocolate liqueurs ended up being a bit disappointing. We sampled four different kinds and they were all wine based. Although I like chocolate, I wasn’t tempted to buy any of them.

Our tour came to an end and we were dropped off back into Perth CBD.

We had dinner at East Village.

It looked like a really interesting place and the food wasn’t bad, but there was just something missing that I couldn’t put my finger on.

We ordered some wings to share, hubby got a burger and I had a Lamb Greek salad which was ok. The bread was probably the best thing about this. Still warm from the oven!

I had been jokingly saying I still wanted birthday cake and I wanted to see the city lights from Kings Park at night. Hubby, mostly always ready to please, began hatching a plan.

We went to the store and bought some cake. He also got some matches, candles and some sparklers. I still had no idea what he was going to do with these as we couldn’t light the sparklers in our hotel room could we?

I won’t bore you with the whole story but we never made it to Kings Park with one thing going wrong after another and eventually we just walked back to our hotel. Hubby still made it special for me by singing me happy birthday and lighting the candles on my cake!

Sadly our time in Perth was now pretty much over.

I do want to share one last treat before I finish this entry.

Hubby organised for us to fly back on the A330 in Business Class. Oh my!! Look at all this room!!! We could even lie our seats flat like a bed.
The bad thing about this is that you never want to travel any other way again!!!
Thank you Qantas and thanks for reading about our few days in Perth.

The Espy

Today on the Dining Diaries…

Dinner and a sunset were on offer,
We found a salad bar worth going back for (nothing to do with the miniature sized plates) and
Bellies becoming so full, waddling was a necessity, not an option.

The Espy is another iconic building right along the Esplanade in Brighton. I’m sure everyone in Adelaide has been here at one time or another.

Although we did have gorgeous views from our table, the sun set picture to the left was actually taken earlier in the evening at another establishment. Needless to say, the locals are very lucky to live in this part of the city!

Due to scheduling conflicts hubby and I had to dine quite early. We were there pretty much on 5.30 which is when their dinner service begins but already there were people there waiting to be seated.
Our table was next to a section that had been reserved for a 70th birthday party… amazingly, we dined and left before the raging seniors arrived…

The Bistro area is large. They’re not trying to win anyone over with fancy decorating. I found it strange that there was nothing unique about the interior. No artwork or styling choices. The only things on the wall was the odd advertisement for the pub.
Despite that, I had full confidence that we were going to get a nice meal. That’s the kind of self assurance vibe they send out.

The menu didn’t disappoint. Full and varied and just what you’d want from a bistro. Good ol’ regular pub grub with a couple of special dishes thrown in for good measure.
Hubby was happy to see there was a Salad bar and after we’d ordered, we went to fill our plates.
I kind of wished I’d taken a photo because I was impressed with the quality and choice of food in the salad bar. Lots of warm and cold choices. However I did think it was a little silly to have a bread roll plate as a salad plate. We ended up going up for seconds and that was partly because we wanted a larger serve and partly because everything we chose was delicious.

Hubby chose Graziers Rib Eye – a 350g  specialty primal cut of beef on the bone w/ exceptional flavour & eating quality – “the grand champion of steaks”
I went for the Graziers Beef & Mushroom Pie – tender graziers beef slow cooked w/ mushrooms in rich gravy encased in golden pastry served w/ mushy peas & potato mash
The server said this was actually a very popular choice.

I was not disappointed when it came out.

It looked massive! And when I cut into it, it didn’t fold away into airy pockets of nothing, it was filled with juicy, tender chunks of meat and gorgeous gravy. Perfectly salted.
The mash was a lovely accompaniment however the mushy peas… well, my first thoughts were that they hadn’t added enough water to them. It was as if they were still to be hydrated.
But honestly, who orders a pie for the mushy peas? And once everything mixed in all together it was fine.
The pastry was ok. Not special but definitely ok. I would probably have preferred it a little lighter.
Having said all that, I would easily order this again.
It was exactly what I was looking for on this cool Autumn night.

 

 

Hubby was equally happy with this Rib eye.
I had to stop him asking the waitress for a scale though as he wasn’t quite sure it had made the 350g cut.
He said it was seasoned well and had a lovely smokey flavour.
I spotted the perfectly pink colour inside as he cut away at his steak.
I noticed he was slowing down at one point and asked if he was getting full but he said no, he was just trying to make it last longer….

 

All in all I can see why this place doesn’t have any pretenses. The product speaks for itself.
It’s regular food, for regular folk, but prepared by people who care about what they’re putting out there.

Definitely a recommend from me!

 

Have you dined at the Espy?
What did you think?
Let me know in the comments below!

Till next we chow…