20190412 Brunelli x 2

 We started off, as usual, in the Elephant. Stephen had texted everyone at 4.30 to say he was on his way. He hadn't left home by that stage! I was there by 4.35 and Con and Stephen got there around 5pm. Richard got there around 6 and Chad a little later. It was the last day of school term and Chad had a few bits and pieces to tidy up before leaving work.

 Richard was going to a footy game - some unknown football team :-) - so had had a chicken salad at the pub. It looked rather nice with plenty of salad variation and thick pieces of chicken.

Chad's turn to choose and he was geared up for Betty's Burgers. He was so convinced that we would go to Bettys Burgers that he took a photo of the sign on the way to the pub! That's confidence for you... it turns out that his confidence was unfounded. By the time we got to the cafe, the queues were spilling out onto the street again. With a quick change of plan, at Stephen's encouragement we were making our way to the Sushi cafe instead. But as we stood outside Brunelli's waiting to cross the road, Chad made his final decision - BRUNELLI!


 I warned Chad about going to Brunelli without Richard - after all it was his favourite place there for a while - but no, the decision was made - Brunelli it is! Would we be disappointed? What would it be like after all this time? Would the food be up to scratch?

We didn't have to fear. The meals were delicious. Chad had creamy pasta spagetti, Con had tomato based spagetti, I had the Con Verdure ravioli and Stephen had the Brunelli Pizza. Stephen grumbled a bit about the lack of meat on his pizza but apart from that gave it a 7 out of 10. It got better from there. Chad gave his a 7 1/2 out of 10 with Con giving his a 8 out of 10. I also gave my pasta a 8 out of 10. It was lovely. It was the right heat, the right flavours, the right amount on the plate - everything was balanced and deserved high praise.

Even though Richard wasn't with us in person, he was there in Spirit. Chad sent Richard a text showing him the photo of him on the phone - proving to him that he was here with us.

Most of the conversation revolved around the new series of Game of Thrones. Con and I tuned out because we havn't watched any episodes, but Stephen and Chad were on fire to know what will happen next. Stephen has made a pact with his friend Andris to watch all 6 episodes in 1 super mega marathon day of tv watching.

Talking of televisions, we didn't expect the televisions to be working at Brunelli and indeed they weren't. They were actually switched off.

We didn't have far to go for the $2 coffees, Stephen ordered them for us - nice enough. Overall, a pleasant evening.