20190322 The Walkers Arms and Buongiorno Cafe

This was a different kind of Friday night! We are living the high life. Not only do we go to a pub to have drinks and a meal, we are seeing a live band - The Jezabels!

I had just flown back from Sydney after a 2 day conference for my work. Stephen met me at the airport and we drove to the Walkers Arms. The surprise came when Richard, Con and Chad were already there! This is definitely a first! Richard has booked a 'booth' table which was really pleasant. We were tucked away behind the main bar. We had a couple of drinks and then decided to order our meals.

Chad had a beef cheek burger - tender beef oven baked, Con had the Supreme Pizza, Stephen had the Kentucky Fried Chicken burger, Richard had the fish and chips and I went out on a limb by having the Linguini Marinara. Con gave his pizza a 8 out of 10. Chad and Stephen gave their food 7 out of 10. I would give my pasta an 8 out of 10 because the rose flavours were all there. I had ciabatta bread served with my pizza but only ate one slice. I bought a bowl of chips to share on the table and they were a nice complement to the pasta.

The Walkers Arms is a busy pub. The queues for the food were through to the other room by the time we had finished eating. We were glad we ordered early. The band came on at 8pm. Jason and Colin came to join us and then they went to stand up near the band before they started playing.

Con and I stood at the back of the crowd and listened to the first song. It was catchy and there were clearly fans in the audience because women were bopping away and singing along to the words on the top of their voice. We decided to leave after song number 1 and we handed to Buongiorno in Norwood for our obligatory coffees.

Chad had a cheesecake with his coffee. We all teased him about sharing his cake with us, but he wouldn't budge. He sat there and stuffed his face all by himself! :-)

We had a bit of drama at the cafe. A woman had slipped and fell on the step and had hit her head. Blood had dripped onto the step and she was clearly shaken by the experience. Luckily there was a capable woman on hand who knew first aid and dealt with the situation easily. They eventually walked up the road - presumably to go to the medical centre to see if the woman need stitches.

20190315 Bellezza Cibo and Brunelli

 Stephen and I were at the Elephant by 4.45pm today. Stephen didn't realise that I was already in the pub and ordered another jug. We were sitting next to each other divided by the glass and we didn't see each other until he texted me! Upstairs became open so we took our 4 pints of beer upstairs and managed to secure a booth.

Con joined us shortly after and Chad not long after that. It's the last week of the Fringe so upstairs became busy very quickly and it was very noisy amongst the group chatter. Richard was going to a show and was going to meet up with us afterwards but ended up running late then going to a different show so he missed out on his turn to choose a place to eat.
Con was off to see a show in the Garden of Unearthly Delights so that just left Chad, Stephen and I to find a place to eat. We eventually settled on Bellezza.

The street was cordoned off again and we walked down the middle of the road and passed a street performer making their living.

When we arrived at the restaurant we asked for a table for 5 and they got us a seat inside. It was hard to choose on the menu - do we go pasta, pizza, schnitzel or something else? I went for the Calamari, Chad went for the Calzone and Stephen had the Pollo Pizza.

The disappointing service happened when I was served first. I had actually finished my meal by the time Chad's meal came out. We also had to ask where Stephen's pizza was.

What can I say about the food? Mine was bland - no tartare sauce. The 'salad' was bland with a few bitter rocket leaves and lettuce. The chips looked as if they were re-used as some of them were broken and squashed. I would give my meal a 5 out of 10.
 Chad's meal was worse. It was dry and flavour-less. The pastry was doughy and there simply wasn't enough sauce. It looks good in the photo, but the reality was highly disappointing. He would only give it a 3 out of 10.

Stephen frowned when his meal showed up because it had ham on it and he wasn't expecting that. He was expecting a thick tomato sauce with chicken. The reality was very different. The good news is that he enjoyed the small pizza and gave it 7 1/2 out of 10.

By the time we had finished our meals, Con's show had finished so we met up and walked to Brunelli for our coffees. Geez the street was packed. It was a hassle to walk through the crowds to the other end of Rundle Street. We managed to get a table after waiting a few moment. We sat outside. Chad ordered the coffees and served us. We saw the crowd with the headphones on singing and walking down the middle of the road.

Stephen (in between hiccups) was trying to organise a trip to Malaysia to see a concert where we could all go and explore. I can't see this happening myself. Stephen cancelled the BBQ at our place on Sunday due to the others having other priorities. We talked about maybe having a Christmas in July instead.

The coffees went down a treat and we were (again) treated to stories of Chad's travels to America and Canada. Who knew?!?!

20190308 Bun Cha and San Churro

We sat upstairs in the Elephant and were treated to a 'Hans style' German accordian playing muso bopping away in the corner. We sat in the booth and drank 4 jugs of beer between us. Richard was at Womadelaide although he did send us a video of what he was watching - men bouncing on ropes on high and swinging across the field, tolling bells - intriguing!

Albert  sent a text to say he was in Lobethal visiting friends. We haven't seen Albert in a couple of months. Come to think of it, we haven't seen Ash in a long time neither.

It was Con's turn to choose tonight and it was of NO surprise when he choose his favourite Asian place, Bun Cha. The fringe was in full swing out on Rundle Street, but down the alley is was relatively quiet. However, when we got to the restaurant we were pleasantly surprised to find that the place was peppered with people. It was the busiest we have ever seen it.

We saw the usual brown spicy sauce and chilli sauce on the table along with the box of tissues (supposed to be used as napkins I take it). Stephen had previously taken a picture of the brown spicy sauce bottle and we vowed to purchase it in China Town, but we still haven't got around to doing that yet.

Chad had Singapore Noodles and they came out first. Chad tucked in and was practically finished before any of the other meals came out. Con's dish looked amazing, but he had to add a liberal splattering of brown sauce to spice it up a bit. I had Seafood Laksa which had frozen seafood and those awful 'slices' of seafood (looked like Tofu). The flavour was there and I gave my food 7 out of 10. Stephen had the most decorative dish - Szechuan Chicken with rice. He had to pick out the bones which were really hot. He gave the dish an 8 out of 10 and said that it was very tasty. Chad gave his food a 7 out of 10 and Con was the surprise with another 8 out of 10. High praise indeed.

It just shows that the food can be good at Bun Cha. It was a shame in a way that Richard wasn't there to experience the 'good' side of Bun Cha. Every time he goes there he is always disappointed with the meal.

I must give a mention to Con's green polo shirt - he looked a little casual tonight and was perfectly dressed for the hot weather. Chad had a 'prison shirt' with jail-like bars on the pattern.

We walked up North Terrace with the beautifully lit trees glistening in the night. We managed to get a table easily enough at San Churro and had our usual - Dark Hot Chocolate for Stephen, Milk Hot Chocolate for me, cappucino for Con and an Iced Chocolate for Chad.

Con felt sorry for me and gave me his chocolate. I did say I would give him an IOU of $10 but have no intention of actually following through on this promise. :-)

The throngs of people bustling back and fore to the Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony were a buzzy background to our very important discussion of Superheros. Stephen is keen to see the film Alita and is going to see it with Richard next week. We talked about the Fringe events and we mentioned we went to see Tim Minchen last night at the Thebbie. I still have a crick in my shoulder from trying to look around the woman sitting in front of me.

I learnt something new tonight - Chad told us all that he had visited America and Canada@! A complete surprise to all of us because NONE of us had heard of his travels before. We begged him to tell us everything about his American visit - from the time of catching his first flight and the movies he watched on board right through to his sojourn in Los Angeles!

20190301 The Exeter and Brunelli

The Elephant was packed so we sat outside in the 40 degree heat. Stephen had arrived at 4.30pm and was already sipping down the jugs. Con joined him at 5pm and I left work and was there by 5.15. Chad joined us around 6pm. Richard was at a show, The Magic Flute.

It was Chad's turn to choose where to eat and for a while he was mentioning Betty's Burgers. Con and I tried to discourage him as I didn't feel like standing in a queue. He eventually decided to keep it simple and eat at The Exeter. It's a grungy place at the best of times and this time it lived up to its Bohemian style by having beer spilled on the floor in the dining room. It was packed outside with the extra tables and chairs spilling onto the closed road, but inside, it was quiet and we found a table easily enough. The art on the walls reflected the Fringe feel with covers of the artwork and abstract stuff to look at.

 Chad has another beer which was served in the plastic cups - a dead giveaway that its Fringe time.

It was pretty much bog standard pub food tonight. Chad and Stephen had the Chicken Curry, Con had the beef burger and I had the Tofu Burger with Mushroom Sauce and chips. Chad, as usual, was reasonably happy with his meal, giving his a 7 out of 10. He likes the curries at The Exeter. He's organising a Curry night there on 24 April. I must admit the last time I had a curry at the Exeter I was suitably happy with the experience.

Stephen was a little more critical of his food. He had to put salt on the curry twice because, even though it was hot, it didn't have the depth of back flavour to hit the palate.

Con said, 'mmm... it wasn't great but it was alright...' - high praise from the meister. I thought my burger had all the flavours there. I love the mushroom sauce. However, the chips were re-fried and crumbling with all the potato inside fried up. They weren't nice at all.

Chad is also organising a Sunday afternoon at the Wheatsheaf to taste the beers there. I already got in early to nominate Stephen to drive that day :-) I think that was for the 28 April.

Stephen decided to make another paper folded cube and this time was the winner for the creative endeavour (sadly it got crushed by my hand accidentally stomping on it later).

We went to Brunelli for a coffee. Stephen and I also shared a Chocolate Eclair which I wasn't too impressed with. I ended up giving my half back to Stephen. We sat in the inside/outside area that was boiling hot. Stephen had to wipe his forehead to get the sweat out of his eyes. I ordered the coffees and we were surprised when the cups came out. The cups were so hot I couldn't even pick it up. I had to tear off a part of a napkin to hold the handle.

We were given a treat to a chorus of singers as they walked past the cafe, all were wearing headphones and signing (out of tune!) to their music. It's great that people are getting into the festival spirit!

Con forgot his glasses and left them on the table. Luckily, I noticed them as I was the last to leave and handed them to him before he left for his bus.