20190906 Yumi and Brunelli

I have to work with what I'm given... the first picture tonight is a mystery! A row of chairs... I am assuming this is from the school in which Chad works. I'm sure there is a story behind this picture... maybe Chad can enlighten us

Contrary to the picture, the actual evening started off in our usual spot - the Elephant - with us sitting in the back booth again.

Stephen and I get there first and sit opposite each other. I only reserve a spot next to me for Con now (Chad is not allowed to sit next to me anymore because he won't let me up to the bathroom when I ask to pass).

Con is always good value and is always in good spirits. Nothing seems to get Con down. His happy-go-lucky attitude is inspiring.

Chad had a present for Richard tonight - an associate card for the Cricket. Needless to say that cricket will have a theme for the group tonight as it determined where we had coffees later... but before we get onto dessert - what about DINNER!

It was Con's turn to choose tonight and it is clear that we are running out of ideas... we've now visited most places on Rundle Street. There is, however, one place that I wasn't looking forward to - the Japanese place - Yumi.

I really didn't like my experience the last time I went to a Japanese Sushi train, but after watching the movie Tampopo I was at least willing to give the Ramen a go. Noodle soup with veggies and tofu doesn't sound half bad.

We strolled across the road to the venue and easily found a table for 5. It's a tiny restaurant with no more than 20 seats I think.

Drinks.... Chad had Sake and Stephen had a Pinot Noir. Chad's Sake was warmed and served in a pottery jug - it was very ceremonial. Chad said the Sake was very smooth. When he finished the Sake in the container, he asked for the rest to be warmed too. A winner I think.


Chad, myself and Stephen ordered the Miso soup. It came in a cute small bowl - a cloudy mild flavoured soup with tiny cubes of silken tofu and slithers of seaweed. It looked the part and I enjoyed it. Stephen added soy sauce to his because he said it was too bland. Con also had the Miso soup but with Crab. He enjoyed his and said that it was reminiscent of the movie Tampopo. High praise indeed.

As part of the entree serves, Stephen and Richard also had their Terriaki chicken served. Richard would have liked the 'Side' to have been served with his main dish and was quite annoyed (nearly tipped the table) and had a word with the waitress that he wasn't happy. Stephen, unusually, was relatively quiet on this matter and was happy to munch away at the chicken until the mains came out.

There was only 1 chef in the kitchen, and he was struggling to get everyone's food out on time. That was the biggest down-side to the service. However, Chad, who had to wait the longest for his food, said he didn't mind the wait. Neither did I.

Stephen had Yaki Tori Udon. Thick wide bands of udon noodles with shavings of chicken and other stuff.  It looked great, but Stephen said it was just too noodly and tasteless. Unexciting. It smelled of pork which he didn't like. Stephen gave his food a 6 out of 10 (terriaki chicken side dish 7.5).

Con had the pork Katsu curry. He originally asked for chicken but they didn't have any. You wouldn't normally think curry and Japanese food, but it looked amazing. Con gave his meal an 8 out of 10.




With Richard, Chad didn't take a photo of his food, but Richard had the Yaki Tori Special XO Sauce fried rice. He put a little soy sauce on his rice but overall he said it wasn't bad. His score was a 6 out of 10.

My dish looked amazing. I had the chargrilled spicy calamari doburi as a main. It was a rice dish with calamari and a fried egg on top. The flavours were certainly there. It wasn't too foreign for me and I ate all of it. I said at the time I would give my score an 8 out of 10 mainly because I was so surprised I enjoyed it as I did. Later, I would downgrade it to a 7.5 because there are more tastier meals that I have had.

Chad's piste de resistance.. was the Deluxe sushi and what a dish it was! Amazing delicate raw fish wrapped in sushi. Chad loved it all and dipped them in the wasabi sauce not touching the soy sauce at all saying it didn't need it. He initially gave his meal a 9 but later upgraded it to a 9.5!!! I think this is the highest score so far.


When it came to the bill, Stephen and I gave Richard $60 for our portion - Con gave $20 and Chad paid separately on his card, leaving Richard to pay the remainder of the bill. 

One nice touch... the chef came out and apologised for the delay in getting the food on the table (and the mix up with chicken being an entree). I thought it was lovely of him to do this. He looked like he had had a hard life and took great pride in his work. Chad and I assured him that there was nothing to worry about.

Even though it was Con's turn to choose where we go for coffees, Richard had a hand in it by suggesting Brunelli - mainly because it had the television screens for the cricket. Australia were playing England.

Richard bought the coffees and got himself a triple layer chocolate cake to go with his coffee. By this stage, I was full and couldn't eat anything else. We sat to the left inside but there was a draft from the door and it was freezing!! I've always associated Brunelli with being cold in winter and today was no exception.

Another lovely night. It's so important to appreciate friends and to savour these moments when we can share a meal together and enjoy the end of the week.

20190830 Payneham Tavern & Brunelli

Stephen had been in town all day at the Toastmaster meeting rooms trying to get the Karaoke working for our special SprachenFest on 30 October. We met for a coffee at lunch time. It was a cruisey day today. On Monday and Tuesday I wasn't receiving emails at work - due to the email server settings blocking out spam - just happened to delete all my other emails too!

I was glad to get in out of the cold at the Elephant to our usual pre-booked table. Chad was telling me that he also has a key-ring now for the Elephant - another VIP member!

Because we are going to the Payneham Tavern, (it's Richard's turn to choose), Stephen thought it would be a good idea for him to drive there. That meant he couldn't have more than 1 1/2 pints of beer. He regretted his decision as he saw the jugs over-flowing with beer :-)

Tonight, at the pub, there was Stephen, me, Chad and Con. Chad decided to have a look at the reviews for the Payneham Tavern! In hindsight, I wish he hadn't. There were some pretty awful things said about the hotel. The food stank, the service was abysmal... one reviewer even likened the Tavern to Faulty Towers with its comedy of errors. I forced Chad to also read out some of the good reviews to prep us in the mood for the journey.

We were meant to meet Richard and Albert at the Tavern at 6.30, but we didn't end up leaving the Elephant until about 6.25. It was a brisk walk to the car parked on Hutt Street and Stephen expertly navigated us to the Hotel.

It looked like a NSW RSL club from the outside. Lots of lit signage with flashing 'Pokies Here' signs. The car park had plenty of spaces and we were able to park near the entrance. On walking into the place, we could hear and see the boop, blipp of the pokie machines buzzing away. The dining room and games room was off to the right hand side.

We went through the glass door and into a very large dining room with lots of large round tables. The bar was off to the right hand side. We saw Richard and Albert queuing at the bar. Richard said that he had been waiting 10 minutes to be served. It was definitely  RSL-like in its modern facilities catering to large groups. However, tonight it wasn't busy at all.

We were seated at a round table right next to the entrance, by the toilets and by the large television screen on which the quiz was going to be played. We were also in front of the games room with its 3 darts boards, pool tables and betting screens. Lovely! :-)

Albert is looking frail and a bit tired from his dislocated shoulder. He showed us X-rays of his bones. He still had his arm in a sling. His walking is getting worse and he said that the phsyio wouldn't give him a pass to return to work, so he was at home. He had used up all his sick leave. I hope things work out for Albert. He's a gentle soul.

Albert has taken over the paper folding duties from Craig and created a lovely fan which he kept and didn't share with anyone else :-)


So... we had just heard some shocking things said about the food. Was it really that bad?

Stephen and Chad started it all off with beers - Stephen had the Furphy beer which he said was nice.

We had our crusty breadrolls to start which were sitting on the bar - unusual, but functional. Many of us ended up having 2 - 1 before the meal and 1 after.

Chad had the burger and chips with fried egg. I had the salmon with veggies, hollandaise sauce and chips, Stephen had the schnitzel with veggies and chips with mushroom topping AND pepper sauce. Albert had the seafood basket with chips. Richard had the chicken curry with rice and salad. Con had the bangers and mash with gravy.


It all seemed to look ok. Mine was a bit on the small side and I polished it off in 3 minutes. Albert tinkered with his food and left over half of it.

Scores:
Me - 6 (I felt queasy afterwards)
Stephen - 7 1/2 (not bad)
Chad - 6
Con 4 (his comments was it was bland...)
Richard - 8 - the salad was a bit unusual with the curry, but hey he enjoyed it.
Albert - 3 (not sure whether it was the food or Albert not feeling well)

When it came to the quiz we had a bit of Tracey Chapman playing in the background. We had a QuizzaMe button control which Richard was given charge of. There were about 10 groups playing - we were under the banner of 'Bucket of Doom'!


The way the quiz worked was like this... the quicker you press the correct answer the more points you scored. If you abstained from choosing you didn't lose any points, but obviously didn't gain any either. If you got a question wrong you got points taken away.

There were about 8 rounds altogether. We actually won one of the rounds, but ended up coming 3rd overall. It was fun enough. I think Richard got the most pleasure out of it as he loves these sorts of things. The first prize was a $100 voucher and second prize was a $50 voucher. Assuming, you want to come back to the pub!

Richard asked Stephen and I if we wanted to go and see Kasey Chambers for free!!!! YES PLEASE! was my answer.

So, after the horrible (and very funny) reviews on the Tavern, what did we think of it in the end? It was clearly struggling to get numbers, hence, the free quiz, but the place itself was fine if you like RSLs. Clearly, the food had mixed reviews from the group. The venue looked clean (it had been refurbished recently). Still, it wasn't our kind of place.

One small thing... it took about 20 minutes for the staff to clear the tables away. I am assuming, since they were one of the groups playing the quiz, they were too busy for actual service :-) They scored -441 and came last - is this an omen..??

Richard took Albert home as he was feeling tired. He was really struggling with his walking going to the car. Chad, Con and Stephen and I went to Brunelli in Glynde to wait. We waited for Richard then ordered coffees. Richard had an apple cheesecake and Stephen had a Vanilla Slice which he didn't think much of and left a third.

Richard made the comment that he didn't recognise any of the service staff at the cafe. How things change so quickly these days. From my perspective, it looked like the staff get younger by the minute.

20190823 Brklyn and Steven ter Horst

We're all back on deck this week! I pre-booked the booth at the Elephant but apparently could only have it until 7pm as there was another booking. It turned out that we were able to stay there until we left at about 7.30 - no dramas.

We all bought a round of jugs. Stephen was there first today - a rare happening. I got there about 5pm and Con turned up shortly after that. Chad and Jen came not long after and Richard was last to show at 7pm.

It was Chad's birthday last week and Con and Jen had come bearing gifts. Con bought Chad a Pancake Kitchen tee-shirt and 4 ornament Monkey characters. They looked great and Chad was able to pick which characters they were. Jen bought Chad the Bucket of Doom - a card game which Chad promised we would play next time we came around to his place. We were teasing Richard that this should now be our new team name - the buckets of Doom! Richard wasn't impressed.

The alley way outside had a fire going as it is still cold, however, it is getting slighter warmer than the 8 degrees of the past couple of Friday nights.

Richard was wrapped up in the footy match and had his phone on the table watching the game. He didn't say much.

Jen overheard Stephen saying that I was 'switched on and intelligent and that is what's attractive'. I missed hearing it, so I asked him to repeat it! I don't get compliments too often.

Jen made a comment that the Welsh barman was attractive - 'beautiful voice and nice eyes'... mmm...

Jen bought a jug for the guys (a guiness for herself). That meant that Stephen had over 4 beers - whoa... trouble in the making...

It was Chad's turn to choose tonight and he had already let us know a couple of weeks ago that he was going to choose Brklyn. No-one had been there so it was interesting to see what it would be like. It was next to Schnithouse and upstairs. We went into a dimly lit 'nightclub like' atmosphere. The New York Fold - the pizza cafe was on the right hand side.

We made our way out to the balcony and pushed 2 round tables together. Richard, Chad and Jen sat on one table and Con, Stephen and myself was on the other. You couldn't really talk across to each other as it was a bit noisy.

Chad had a cocktail - a Yuzu Highball - it looks like a lemon, lime and bitters in a tall glass. Jen also had a cocktail - a breakfast Martini. The rest of us had water.

We all ordered pizza except Richard. Richard had Truffle mac and cheese balls for entree with burger and chips for main. The burger and chips was $18 and the entree was $10. Jen also had an entree of mozerella sticks. Chad had a half of one to taste.

I had 2x B3 pizza slices. Stephen had a Hellboy and Bunnos. He complained that the Hellboy had no 'Hell' in it - it was sweet rather than hot. The other pizza didn't taste like anything. There were no chunks of vegetables on our pizzas it looked like puree. Chad and Con also had the Hellboy slices.

Richard gave his meal a 7 out of 10.
I gave my meal a 5 1/2 out of 10. The 2 slices weren't enough to fill me up.
Stephen gave his meal a 5 out of 10. Not enough and no taste.
I forgot to get Chad, Con and Jen's rating.

The pizzas were supposed to be 'New York style' but Chad showed me pictures of the actual New York pizza slices he had in New York and they looked much larger with lots more toppings on there.

I think it was nice to go to Brklyn for the experience to say we've been, but we won't be going back there in a hurry. Jen pointed out that we weren't exactly the demographic of the place - she thinks they were targeting a much more hip, younger crowd.

I couldn't help but think of the landfill that was created by having our pizzas in cardboard trays. I wouldn't go back purely because it is wasteful to not have plates.

The view from the balcony was lovely. It was similar to the Exeter's view, but because it didn't have the plastic windbreakers down, it was more open.

We went to Steven ter Horst for dessert - Jen's choice because it is her birthday next week. I bought Stephen a chocolate and nut cheesecake with a mug of hot chocolate and had the same but with lemon cheesecake. Chad bought Jen a baked cheesecake and Richard had the same.

It's been a lovely night out tonight - Happy Birthday was sung to Chad and Jen and Jen even got a Happy Birthday from the next table.

Who's turn is it to choose next week?? Well, it's Richards turn and that is almost guaranteed to be Italian of some sort...

20190816 Bun Cha

The 16th August 2019 - Stephen and I were in Sydney visiting his elderly mum and dad. His dad has just gotten out of hospital after a fall and we were there with him to relocate him to a nursing home. Currently he is bed bound. Tonight we were in Sydney and having home baked pizzas with Stephen's brother and wife Gunda. We had a garlic pizza and a veg pizza and 2 meat pizzas. They were delicious and I would give my meal a 8 1/2 out of 10.

We had individual chocolate mouse for dessert. The next day I reminded Stephen about how drunk he was (4 bottles of wine!) and he forgot that he even had dessert.

Anyway back at the ranch - what was happening at the Elephant?

Chad and Con were the only 2 to meet up this week. They found it quite busy downstairs in the pub so they sat upstairs in a booth. They talked about Chris and his overseas trip. He has posted photos on social media. They also talked about the fact that there was no Barmy Army for the Ashes in the Elephant.

They decided on Bun Cha - I suspect Con had a hand in this decision :-).
Chad had the Chicken Green Curry which he gave a 7 out of 10 and Con had the meatballs chef special and also gave it a 7 out of 10.

When asked for a quote from the guys on the dining experience at Bun Cha they replied that 'they would go back in an eyeblink'.

No dessert tonight for the guys.

Chad... feel free to add to this post if I've missed anything...