20190719 The Austral and Steven ter Horst

We were at our usual spot in the Elephant and it was Stephen's turn to drive today - a rare event on a Friday night. We had been to Penfold's Magill Estate for a degustation with his brother and sister-in-law the night before.

Richard was missing in action - another concert. But we had a visitor join us - Ian was on his way to see the footy and came in for a Guinness. It was lovely to see him out. He has been keeping well. He showed us a photo of his new puppy - a beautiful little thing!

It was Con's turn to choose tonight and he decided on the Austral. An unusual choice for him but considering that we've been to all the Asian places it was next on our list. I rang and made a booking for 4 (Ian had to leave by 6.30).

In the Elephant, Chad's name is still up on the leaderboard for the Elly challenge. This time his name was the right way around!

We strolled over to the Austral. A cold winter night didn't stop people milling around Rundle Street.

The restaurant at the Austral was half empty - plenty of tables spare. The tables were covered with paper and the Austral stamp was on the right hand corner. A nice touch.

So who had what?? Con had the calamari and chips - looked lovely.

Chad had the burger and chips - again looked good.









I had the crumbed fish and chips with mushroom sauce - again it was nice enough.


Chad, Con and myself all gave our meals 7 out of 10. Good standard pub fare.



Now what about Stephen? Well, he ordered the Perri Perri Chicken and vegetables. He ate a little of his chicken and saw that the majority of the vegetables was eggplant. It didn't look appetizing at all.

He complained about his food and after the second complaint, the waitress gave him half his money back with a pale ale for me (as Stephen wasn't drinking). Drama! Stephen is getting quite the reputation for flipping tables at restaurants :-)

Con decided to go to Steven ter Horst so we strolled back up the road. There was plenty of space inside. Chad bought Stephen a chocolate cake for his birthday (belated birthday wishes) which he shared with me. Con had a massive cheesecake which he couldn't eat all of.

The hot chocolates, as usual, were lovely. We had lots of laughs tonight. Can't remember now what about, but it was a good night. Lots of merriment and fun. I was quite tipsy with my 4 or 5 beers that I had.

Stephen had spent the day with his brother and sister-in-law and had visited the Central Markets for breakfast. He had a cake in the car for me when I got in - left over from breakfast. A welcome nibble when I got home!

20190712 San Giorgio La Molara Community Centre

I finished work at 4.45 and strolled across to the Elephant where our booth was booked. I forgot my glasses and had to go back to the office. I read some of my 'Power of Now' book whilst I was waiting for Stephen. He came around 5.15.

Today is an unusual sort of day because we are doing something a little outside of the box. We are going to stretch ourselves tonight. We are going far afield from Rundle Street and going to Payneham for dinner at Richard's suggestion.

Stephen rang Con to see if he was coming to the Elephant and he said he would come in for one drink. He came around 5.45 and bought a jug of beer. Stephen said he would drive to the venue.

Chad was a no show tonight - he was babysitting his nephew and niece.

We found the venue easily enough. There was some construction work happening outside and we weren't sure of the entry but Con found it for us.

The hall is quite large and you can tell that it is used for weddings and functions. There is a large dancefloor with circular tables around the periphery. The bookings tonight had white tablecloths.

We found Richard and Albert sitting at the table for 5. There was a big screen behind the table which was playing football. It was unusual for Richard to have his back to the t.v.

The menu was simple - pasta and pizza with schnitzel and fish and chips. We all decided that we needed to order the pizza. (Richard ordered an extra bowl of chips to share for the table - the empty bowl picture above is a testament to how good they were!).

Albert ordered a large pizza for himself - he found out later that he had to order a pizza box take-away it was so big! Richard ordered a small special and Stephen and Con ordered a large special to share - plenty big enough for the two of them. In fact, Stephen struggled with the last piece and just ate some of the topping. I had a small vegetarian which unusually had potato on there. It may not sound nice, but the potato was thinly sliced like a wafer and cooked to perfection.

We all loved our pizzas! 8 out of 10 all round. I loved my pizza - everything was perfect. The only thing that could have gotten it a 10 is if the toppings were spread out more across the whole of the pizza. They seemed to congregate to the centre. It had spinach, mushrooms, olives (which Stephen and Richard ate) and of course potato.

All the pizzas had a thick pizza base - which was cooked perfectly. Don't let the pictures of the pizzas fool you - the large pizzas were ENORMOUS and the small pizzas were more than plenty for 1 person. I left 3 slices because I couldn't eat it all - Stephen had 1 slice and I donated the other 2 to Albert to take home.

Stephen ordered a beer and then 2 glasses of red wine. He was amazed at how cheap the wines were - $5 a glass! Now that's more like it...

Richard's cousin, Louie, came and sat with us for a while. He had ordered a take-away pizza. We decided to have coffee there and Stephen ordered the round. Cappuccinos all round except for Albert who had hot chocolate. The main coffee machine was broken and so the coffees were made on the smaller machine. It tasted like espresso coffee - not as nice as the barista style.

It was a lovely evening. Top marks all round - Richard certainly choose well for this one. AND it was great to see Albert.

We gave Con a lift home and Richard picked up and dropped off Albert.

20190705 Belgian Beer Cafe Oostende and Steven ter Horst

This is the first week that I actually booked a booth. It worked really well. My booth was waiting for me when I arrived at 5pm. Stephen was not long behind. Con made an appearance about 5.30pm and Richard rocked up around 6 pm.

It was lovely to see Con. He was suntanned and looking healthy after his trip to Kuala Lumpur. We talked about his travels and antics that he got up to. Chad, Stephen and I are thinking of joining him next year... so we'll wait to see if that actually comes into fruition.

Chad was at a 60th birthday and couldn't make it this week. We had a drink in his absence.

It was Stephen's turn to choose tonight and he decided on the Beglian Beer Cafe. He has fond memories of this place because his work used to take him there and pay for the nibbles. We walked across the road and after an initial kerfuffle with the dining table, we ended up sharing a long table with others. Cosy enough.

There was a singer playing and I felt sorry for him with everyone talking loudly, you could barely make out his sounds.

We all had a good conversation and as time went by we started to realise that our meals still weren't served. It took 1 hour for Con to get his meal. Richard wasn't happy that we had to wait that long. They took away our table number and we had to get it back as we were waiting on the other meals. Just as Con was finishing his meal, Richard got his. By this stage, Stephen was ready to complain (with the aiding of Richard's comments). He evenually got a refund for his meals AND we finally got them served. A bit of drama - not unusual for Stephen!


Con had the beefburger and chips, Richard had the sausage and chips. Stephen had 2 meals. One plate with one slider and chips and another plate with 2 sliders and chips. I had the battered fish and chips and I ordered the prawns in garlic sauce for an extra $6.

I didn't get everyone's scores for their meals this week as it was tainted with the service. Stephen got a $58 refund which was nice and we agreed to buy the chocolate drinks at Steven ter Horst for everyone.

Steven ter Horst is getting busier. I can see why. It's a lovely place to end the evening with a hot drink. I bought the round. Con and I had plain hot chocolate. Stephen had large plain hot chocolate and Richard has a large Mocha. He also bought himself a chocolate cake.

The photos were Stephen's responsibility tonight and he was a bit slack with some of the photos, hence the half eaten meals!

20190628 Sicily and Steven ter Horst

We met at the Elephant and managed to score a booth again. We have made it an item to now book the booth in the future, just so we secure the spot. Con is still in Kuala Lumpur (take a look at his post prior to this one) so it was just Stephen, Chad, Richard and myself. That is until Jen said she was on her way.

Colin turned up to pick something up from Richard. The owner of the pub shouted at him for putting up posters across the road.

It was Chad's turn to choose tonight and as usual he wouldn't tell us where, until we arrived at the doorstep. It ended up being at Sicily - a place we've never been to before but have commented that we wouldn't mind going there.

What to say about Sicily? Well.. from the outset it seemed like a very intimate space inside. There were no tables outside because of the cold. Even though Chad had booked, we were directed to the bar to wait because our table wasn't ready. We were given the drinks menu to look at - very expensive!

Stephen grabbed a couple of menus and got upset because the menu wasn't in English. He asked the waiter behind the counter what the Italian words meant - you could see he was getting upset about it.

Jen was asked to put her beautiful red coat by the door out of the way from the walkway - it was a table for 4 but we squeezed in 5. All the tables felt closely packed together and it was quite noisy in there.

Sicily is known for its pizzas so the gang didn't disappoint in ordering the favourites - Richard had pork sausage meatballs on his pizza, Jen had cherry tomatoes, olives, anchovies and extra chilli, Chad had ham, olives, artichokes and mushroom. Stephen and I ordered the pasta bake - a basic tomato and cheese pasta served in a baking dish - it was $48 for the dish so it worked out at about $24 per meal - not bad.

Both Stephen and Jen had a glass of red wine.

Richard gave the highest score today with a 8 1/2 for his pizza. He commented that 'this is the best pizzas I've had in a long time'. Chad also gave the highest score of 8 1/2 out of 10 for his pizza. Even though there were only a few ingredients on the pizzas, it was quality food. Jen gave her meal a 7 1/2 out of 10. Slightly less because she had to order extra chilli - and boy was the chilli hot! She had to scrape off the rest after the initial tasting. Both Stephen and I gave our meal a 7 1/2 out of 10. The tomato sauce was deep and rich and the melted cheese on top was lovely - but at the end of the day it was still only a tomato and cheese pasta. It could have done with some veggies in there - mushrooms, broccoli and onion would have done the trick to take it up to a 9.

Sicily then, we can definitely say, was a success. Jen nearly forgot her coat on the way out, but other than that, it was a great experience.

Chad choose Steven ter Horst - a regular place for us now. We haven't been to Brunelli for ages - always choosing the chocolate places over it.

Jen had a chocolate and Richard had his banana and caramel tart - both looked lovely.

We left after a satisfying evening. (Richard gave Chad a lift).