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 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…

Schnithouse – Norwood

Today on the Dining Diaries…

We come across a wings deal we just can’t say “no” to. 
We find a place where good atmosphere and good prices entice and
Good tastes all round ensure we’re definitely going to be coming back!

Diners today hubby and I happened to walk into Schnithouse on the Norwood Parade at Norwood.

The building itself is pretty magnificent and about 148 years old. It was previously a Baptist church and if you walk past it, you’ll see photos of the church as it was in the past.

I’d never been in the building before and didn’t know it used to be a church. I was overwhelmed by the size of the interior as we walked in. I just love the way they’ve decorated it! It just makes you want to stay and spend your money.

Although the interior is nice, it was a warm Autumn’s day and hubby and I couldn’t decide if we wanted to be seated inside or out so we chose what we called the atrium.

It was nice in that it felt private yet we still had full view of everything that was going on outside.

I’d never even seen a menu for this place and if you are going to visit, I’d recommend going for lunch time where you can get some pretty amazing meals for $10! I thought for sure I hadn’t seen that correctly but it was! Hubby also noticed wings were half price on Wednesday and once he saw that, he really didn’t need to see any more of the menu.
There were a choice of three dry rubs with the Wings and hubby chose “Hot to Trot”

The Prawn and Crabmeat Linguine – Blue swimmer crabmeat, onions, chilli, garlic and prawns in a rose sauce – really caught my eye!

We also noticed this intriguing dessert option

Sounds pretty good right? We decided to forgo an entree and try to leave room for this dessert!

The meals were out pretty quickly

Hubby was happy with how his wings looked. The server even specified “Hot to Trot” as she placed it down before him.

Unfortunately, there was nothing “hot” about these wings. They tasted good! No doubt about that, but hubby said they were more like chicken fingers than wings. Although it’s not the end of the world, it’s a little disappointing when you expect to get something and it’s not what it’s advertised to be.

I was really looking forward to my pasta.

I wasn’t offered any cheese which I thought was a little surprising but that’s ok.
I had to look at the menu again because I was sure there was meant to be more than just three prawns in my pasta. Didn’t it say Blue Swimmer Crabmeat? There was definitely none of that in my pasta.
The prawns I did have were succulent and beautiful to eat. I had no complaints. The sauce was rich and a little creamy and it had quite a nice amount of heat to it!
I ended up letting hubby dip his wings in there.
Although it might not look like a large serve, you have to remember it was only $10 and it did taste pretty good even if there wasn’t any crab meat in there.

So we ate at the Schnithouse and neither of us actually had a schnitzel! Well there’s always next time. I did notice on the menu that there was an eggplant schnitzel and I’d really love to try that…

After we’d eaten our mains we definitely had room for dessert so I went to order us the Dessert parmi.

I’m not sure what happened but twenty minutes after I’d ordered I had to ask if it was going to be much longer (we had another engagement). Our mains had come out quicker than this!

The server said she’d check and was back in five or so minutes with our dessert but not an apology or explanation.

It probably looks a little better than it ended up tasting. I think we were enticed by the idea of it.
The “donut” was quite large and the amount of custard or whatever it was on top of it didn’t compensate for the dryness. If the donut had been a little smaller it might have worked… or maybe they could have put more custard on top? I’m not sure.
The banana was quite raw and not enjoyable to eat at all. The icecream was nice. A few grapes and apple pieces don’t really make a dessert do they? I mean there was no sauce/syrup or anything on them and it just looked a bit disappointing.

The icecream was nice but again, was not enough to cover for the dryness of the waffles.
I guess this dessert would have been a whole lot better if there was  a dipping sauce of some kind that we could have put the waffles and perhaps some of the donut and fruit into.

All in all, despite my complaints, I did enjoy our time here and yes I would definitely go back.

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

Till next we chow….

The Curious Squire

Today on the Dining Diaries…

After a couple of false starts, we are curious no more!
Music and interesting decor made for topic of conversation and
Burgers and yummy finger foods to die for!

Diners today we were at The Curious Squire in North Adelaide; A hip, US-inspired hub for burgers, slow-cooked BBQ steaks, wings and ribs, plus craft beer and cider.

We have driven past this place so many times and even attempted to dine but they were always fully booked and it just never happened. Tonight we got lucky!
We really were only lucky because we had come fairly early. Our table was going to be booked a few hours later and there were reserved signs over most of the tables we saw.

I love the look and feel of this place. Rock music was playing, people working looked like they were enjoying their jobs and lots of other customers were around having a good time. It wasn’t so loud to be distracting though, just enough to make you want to be a part of it.

I love the dark furniture and the streaming light coming from the windows. There’s plenty of interesting things to read on the wall about James Squire himself!

The table numbers are large cards and there’s even a wall of cards in the dining room! I’m not sure what the significance is of a deck of cards but it would be something to look into.

The server who greeted us was really so very lovely and did as much as she could to make sure we could be served today.
We were left with some menus and after not eating for most of the day, were drooling in anticipation.

I couldn’t go past one of the specials that was written up on the board behind the bar.
Ben & Lamb burger; Toasted Blue Bun, Smoke pulled Lamb, Potato skin, mint jelly, lettuce, tomato and onion.
I probably should have paid more attention to the “mint jelly” part of that description!

Hubby ended up ordering the Trio of Sliders -pig mac, mother clucker and american cheeseburgerers;

But before those dishes came, we got some entree’s to start…

We had to try their wings! American Buffalo Wings – crispy fried chicken wingettes with our curiously different take on the famous frank’s hot sauce with ranch

On Wednesday’s they sell these for 50 cents each!

We also got the Cheesy Macho Nachos – 12 corn tortilla chips served with queso, refried beans, smashed avocado, sour cream and added texas chilli on the side.

I’m not much for wings but hubby definitely is and he just loved these.

Hubby said they had a strong vinegar based sauce and they were perfect!

Just like the way he makes them.

Although I don’t eat wings I tried one and could see they had been cooked well and everything was fresh and crispy. I was almost converted!

The Nacho’s were also really well done.

The cheesy sauce was gooey and oozed a little to the nacho’s below.

Again, all the sauces were fresh and the nacho’s themselves were large (not broken) and crispy.

The texas chili on the side was soooo delicious!! Again, a little too hot for my liking but I have a low tolerance. Hubby just loved it! The meat in there was so tender and the sauce had a beautifully sweet tomato taste. I couldn’t help dipping my fries in there later even though I knew it was hot!

The one thing that did bother me a little was that our mains were brought out before we were even halfway through our entree so we had a table full of food that was now all going to get cold. Perhaps it was just a mix up in the kitchen.

Hubby’s sliders looked good and deceivingly small…

These buns were all full of flavour. They are not stingy when it comes to filling!
I also love the way they bring the food out on those silver trays.

Hubby said he really couldn’t fault a thing, it was all really great tasting. There was one he particularly liked that had a mustard sauce in it.

My burger was equally good! I wasn’t quite sure how a “BLUE” burger was going to look or even why you would want to do that though. It’s green in the picture, but when you bite into it, the inside is blue.

I instantly tasted the mint jelly and wished I’d asked to not have that in the burger. Thankfully, there really wasn’t a lot of it. The potato skin was more like a slice of cooked potato rather than skin but that too was ok.
It’s a really big burger so probably not something you’d order on a first date!!! I ended up having to take some of the insides out and eat them separately.

Overall, I’m so glad we came here. It’s seems to be a buzzing place and you really don’t mind spending your money when you know the service, food and atmosphere are going to be good!!
I definitely recommend going down to The Curious Squire and having a look at what they have to offer but go on a Wednesday if you can to take advantage of that wing special!!

Have you been to The Curious Squire?
What did you think?
Let me know in the comments below!

Till next we chow…

Base Bar – Bath Hotel

Today on the Dining Diaries…

Red Brick Walls, Wooden Beams and music relaxed us,
A huge pizza wood oven almost makes us wish we’d ordered pizza and
The Menu said “Share Plate” but hubby reads mine only  “main”

Diners today we were at Base Bar in the Bath Hotel.
Right on their website it says “The mission is simple: serve delicious, affordable food that guests will want to return to week after week” and I have to say that was pretty much our experience!

I don’t know if it was the sunny weather today (after so many dreary days) or if it was Base Bar, but it was just a pleasure to be sitting there with lots of people, enjoying the atmosphere and feeling good about the day.

We walked in through an outdoor/atrium area and it was really very pretty. Lots of outside seating and booths and a big screen TV for distraction.

We didn’t sit there as it was quite windy but otherwise it would have been nice…

Instead we entered the bar area which had a bit of a trendy, hipster warmth if that’s even a description.

Tall, red brick walls and wooden benches and chairs just made it feel like a place you wanted to be.

We grabbed a couple of bar menus and found a nice seat in the corner. Hubby was immediately drawn to the share plates. I’m not a huge fan of them because there’s always things on there I don’t really want to eat and hubby always thinks because he’s a foot taller than me he gets to have more than me and well, that’s just not fair!

So he ended up ordering a Shared Mexican Plate on his own for his main. Guacamole, Sour Cream Nachos, DIY Taco’s and Fried Chicken Wings…

I had a craving for pasta so I went with the Linguini Salsice – Spicy Chorizo, roasted Capsicum, Olives, Basil and Parmesan.

The bar menu seemed a little limited but then again, it is a bar menu and I’d rather they have a few items that they do really well, than lots of items that are just mediocre.

We had a drink or two while we waited and checked out the food on other people’s tables. It all looked pretty good! We noticed the huge wood oven at the other end of the room and all the pizza’s coming out and wondered whether we should have ordered a pizza instead.

We forgot all about the pizza when the food came out though! Both plates looked really amazing.

First the Mexican Share Plate

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get everything in!! On the top left are the taco fillings. One Mince, one is Pulled Pork and the last is Chicken. Top right are the tacos – they gave five which seems like an odd number when there are three fillings.
Bottom left are the Fried Chicken wings and coleslaw and bottom right are the nachos.

Hubby loved the minced pork filling. I tried a little too and it was really very nice. There was some herb or spice in there that I just couldn’t pick… But when he got to the Pulled Pork filling, he just made grunting noises and covered his hand protectively over his food. Oh yeah, he was enjoying it…
He kept uttering “It’s not really a lot of food for one person is it?” No dear… Not when you’re six foot seven.
The nachos were the only thing I would have been interested in on his plate and although they were ok, I would have been disappointed if that was the only thing I’d been served. A lot of the nachos were broken so there were just broken chips down the bottom. But hubby didn’t mind and really, nacho’s have to be pretty bad to be bad. These were ok.

I was absolutely in raptures with my pasta.

From the moment it came out till I took that  last bite, it was just wonderful. It looked so good on the plate and tasted even better in the mouth!
I’m not a big fan of Chorizo so took those out for hubby, but everything married up so well in this dish. The pasta was cooked well, the olives gave your mouth a buzz, it was just magical! In fact my only complaint was that the fork they gave was not big enough for me to twirl as much pasta as I wanted onto it. I am an Italian girl after all!

All in all, we had a great time here and no doubt will be back soon.
It’s great to find a place that you can look forward to returning to.
Casual dining, great atmosphere and great food.
What more could you want?

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

Till next we chow….