20210401 The Gallery and Waffle & Coffee EASTER THURSDAY

Easter is a time of new beginnings. A time of reflection and a time to celebrate the friendships that have been formed.

We had a great evening tonight with our Friday Night friends. Iain, Teresa and Rory were our special guests along with Jen who I hadn't seen in quite some time. Con, Chad and Stephen and myself were also there. The obvious missing link was Richard.

The venue itself is very nice. It has open roof with the misters going. It was about 30 degrees which made the rooftop garden very pleasant. We had the special which was $10 pizzas with a drink. Stephen ordered extra aranchini for us but I ended up not eating it as it tasted bland.

Well... let's see what everyone had

• Rory - Chips and garlic bread pizza - seemed happy enough. Initially gave a thumbs down for his meal, but in hindsight ended up scoring it 9 out of 10 :-)
• Teresa - Pesto pizza - 10!!!! High praise indeed
• Iain - Morrocan pizza with chilli oil - 7
• Jen - Margerhita with chilli oil - 8
• Con - Margerhita - 4 (table flipping...... :-))
• Chad - Funghi with rocket - 8
• Stephen - Sausage pizza - 7
• Me - funghi (asked to have without rocket - pizzas got mixed up with Chad's) - 5

It was an early night because Jen had to leave and Teresa and Iain had to take a now grumpy Rory home.

 Chad, Con, Stephen and myself walked down to Leigh Street and went to the Waffle & Coffee cafe. It was empty. After tasting their waffles I can see why. The waffle was dry and cold as if it had been cooked 3 days previously. We had vanilla/chocolate ice-cream which was straight from the Coles range. Very low quality. We definitely won't be going there again. However, it's not always about the food. It's about the company and we couldn't have wished for better tonight.

We walked up Grenfell Street and dropped Con off at his bus stop first then Chad at his. We left our car on Pirie Street.

 

20210326 Schnithouse and Steven ter Horst TURN: Richard

It was supposed to be Stephen's turn to choose today, but because Graham was going to be at the Elephant tonight, we swapped it to Richard's turn. Chad got to the pub really early and scored a table next to the Telephone Booth. By the time Stephen and I got there, we had Albert, Richard, Con and Chad all merrily drinking away (Richard was on soda water).

The Elephant toilets downstairs was cordoned off, presumably for repairs, so we had to use the upstairs facilities. There's a great shot of Stephen at the bar from the top of the stairs. Thank you Chad for the photo :-)

Richard was keen to get to the Schnithouse and asked if we could change the booking from 7:30 to 7:00. When we got there it was very busy, but they did have a squeezy table for 6. Not much room at all!

Con ordered a coke and Stephen ordered a jug of Furphy. Everybody's happy so far...

What did we order?

I had the vegetable penne with garlic, cheesy bread. Stephen originally forgot the bread and stood back in line to order it later. Luckily it came just in time when the pasta was served. I would give my meal a 6 because there weren't hardly any vegetables. It was just a thick cream sauce with a few very thinly sliced mushrooms.

Stephen ordered a small Frankie pizza with extra pineapple and mushroom. It ended up costing close to $30 which is very pricy for what it was. Stephen's comment was that it was nice enough but nothing special. A 7 from him. Richard initially thought that Stephen would table flip when seeing the size of the pizza because it was so small.

Con ordered the small Schnithouse pizza. Con didn't think too highly of the meal giving it a 5 overall score. He thought that the cost was a bit much for what it was.

Chad had the Hot Chicken Schnitzel - 8 score. Chad was happy enough. He hardly used any of the sauce as it was very hot.

Albert had the beef schnitzel with no sauce. He give an 8 with the comment that it tasted good.

Richard ordered steak of the day. He ended up having words with the waiter over the size of the steak because it was supposed to be 300g and it was definitely not that big. He thought his Deb mashed potato at home tasted better than the mash that he had and he said the vegetables were very dry. He did end up liking the steak - overall score 6

A couple of other comments about the restaurant was that it was a high-turnover place, people are crammed in and there is a 'get in, get out' mentality. It is very much a franchise. The serving size of chips was measley, Richard thought and didn't like the way you had to spend $3 extra to have a sauce. The meals are definitely pricey for what you get.

Richard is mindful of Albert not being able to walk far, so he wanted to go to Italy for a coffee. However, they didn't have a table for us so we ended up walking back to Steven ter Horst for a hot chocolate. They have moved one of the big bench tables to the wall so there isn't as much seating as previously. We sat around one of the tables and Albert and Stephen sat on stools. Albert ordered French Vanilla Earl Grey and it came with a small timer. Very cute :-) Stephen and I were a bit tired and decided to leave after the hot chocolate. Now that the Fringe is over, we're able to park in our usual spot with no trouble.