20191213 Midnight Spaghetti and Steven ter Horst

YAY! It's my turn to choose and I have taken a leaf from Stephen's book and decided for something that is going to be rock solid good. After last week's disaster date with Mexican food, I decided to book a table for 5 at the tried and trusted Midnight Spaghetti.

It has been my first week in my new role as Team Leader. It has been pretty cruisey and I am settling in well.  I knocked off at 5pm and strolled across the road to the Elephant where our booked booth was awaiting me.

Con was the first to show up in a polo shirt and looked very summery. As always with Con, he was in high spirits. He asked me if I had watched the 14 hour Country videos he had given me last week. Alas, with such a busy week, I hadn't even taken the USB out of my bag.

Stephen came in about 5.40 (he had moved the car to save us an $8 additional parking fee). Chad rocked up a little after this (it was his last day before the school holidays). He told us his 'dad' joke!!!

3 girls are on a dessert island and each girl was given a wish by a genie. I won't go into the joke, but this is enough to remember it by.

Richard came in around 6.15 and completed the group for the evening. He hasn't been to Midnight Spaghetti for a while so was looking forward to it.

We walked up the road and noted that Jekyl and Hyde had shut down. In it's place was going to be 'Gunbae' (the first picture). Sounds interesting...  due to open soon.

Into the Midnight Spaghetti and up the curved staircase to the first floor. It was a little quieter than our previous visits, but we were shown to the table in an efficient and friendly manner. I can't believe this place isn't packed out every night. It's an absolute gem, hidden away. The upstairs had an old worldly feel with its lovely wooden tables and the view over Grenfell Street is welcoming. Right across the road from my work!

On our tables are empty tins of tomatoes to hold the cutlery and napkins. A rustic touch that adds to the character of the setting.





As I've mentioned on a few previous occasions, I always judge a restaurant that serves pasta firstly on whether they serve complimentary bread. Here they do. And what bread it is. Thick, dense white bread with olive flavouring. Perfect for a nibble before the pasta arrives.

We were also served 3 small dishes as accompaniments for the pasta - chilli oil, chilli flakes and parmesan cheese. A nice touch.

It must have been about 5 minutes after we ordered that all the dishes were served together within milliseconds of each other. The perfect service.

Stephen, Chad and Richard had the Ragu. Chad and Richard shared the Truffle Spuds.

Con and myself had the Midnight Spagheeti signature dish - served in a dish with its name around the side. Stephen and I also shared a Truffle Spuds. Stephen indulged in a glass of house red.

The flavours of the food were amazing. The pastas was as good, even better, than I remembered it. What a balance of olive, and anchovy flavours. Plenty of pasta, even for my healthy appetite.

Scores for the evening...

Chad - 9
Con - 7
Richard - 8
Stephen - 8.5
Me - 8.5

I think the scores say it all - a great evening by all.

Another nice touch about the restaurant is that we could all pay individually without too much hassle. I gave a glowing review to the person who took our money, mentioning that we will definitely be back again.

 I was happy to go wherever for coffee, so Chad suggested we try the Howling Owl again. We walked there, but saw that it was very busy. Instead, we decided to go to our favourite, Steven ter Horst.

When we walked in, it was completely empty! We ordered our round of hot chocolates and Richard had a cheesecake.

Definitely one of the best evenings of the year - thank you to all who made it such a lovely experience.

We were in our car and driving home, all before 9pm. It's been a long week... now to turn my attention to knowing what to buy Stephen for Christmas ??? Hmmm.... I think Santa might choose something to do with computers....

Until next week.

20191206 La Taberna and The Howling Owl

"It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!!" - isn't that how the song goes? The Elephant has gotten into the spirit of things by putting up their Christmas Tree and they've put out their striped candy for the kiddie alocholics.

It was Chad's turn to choose tonight and he was really keen to take us to a new venue - a place where we've never eaten before. The excitement... the drama... the tension of it all... alas, it wasn't to be. We couldn't get a table. Ever the quick thinker, Chad pulled out Plan B for us. Why not see if La Taberna had a table? We booked for 8pm.

 Chad had gotten Richard an Alfred Hitchcock book and by the looks of the photo, Richard was already engrossed in its reading.

Today, was a warm night and we strolled across the road to the restaurant. On entering the building, the atmosphere seemed pleasant enough. A long building packed with people ready to enjoy the evening.

Now, there's a few things I want to say about my experience at La Taberna, but I'll wait until we've gone through everybody's meals first.

Chad was off the ranks with the first serving which arrived about 40 minutes after we ordered. He started off with pita bread cheese toasties, otherwise known as 'Quesadillas de Puerco & Chorizo tostadas - fancy name for toasties if you ask me. However, Chad thought they tasted lovely.

5 minutes later my first dish arrived, roast potatoes, otherwise known as Patatas Bravado - fried cubed potatoe with a sparring amount of sauce. They were tasty enough, but I had to fend off Stephen's wondering hands as he pinched a few.

My next dish was stuffed capsicum, aka, Pimento Rilleno. I was very disappointed. The capsicums weren't cooked and I couldn't eat them. The rice was plain white rice with cubes of frozen carrot and peas. It was a joke! In total, for my 2 dishes it cost me $35 and I was still hungry afterwards. I wasn't happy at all with my meal.

 Stephen was served 5 minutes later (after I had nearly finished my meal). He had ordered, Pollo Tacos. It looked a very lonely, sad taco on a plate. Stephen took approximately .045 seconds to eat it. He said the taco was practically cold.

Con had the Asada Tacos. What can I say...? Con was hungry by this stage and would have eaten the hind leg off a horse. Con also ordered Polvo (Octopus). Where is the photo you may ask? Well it arrived one hour and 15 minutes after we ordered and told them he didn't want it anymore - good on Con! 

For Chad's other dish he had ordered Almandogas Pork and Veal Meatballs. I must say it looked nice enough. Chad confirmed later that it tasted very nice.

You can imagine by now that poor Richard was getting hungry. They finally brought out a serving of chips with mexican ingredients (Loco fries) which Stephen and Richard shared. Another complaint! The chips were luke warm.

 Stephen's other dish was Franco Panado (Fried Chicken). He was very disappointed that it was just lumps of chicken - no salad, only a small dipping sauce. He invited everyone to tuck in after he decided he couldn't eat it all.

 Finally, after Con had turned back his Octopus dish, the waiter brought out Richard's Rosa's Paella (with meat and seafood). It looked more like curry and rice with lots of sauce. Richard said he'd tasted better.

Apart from Chad, who really enjoyed the experience, the rest of us were not impressed at all. When I went to pay the bill, they initially tried to charge us for Con's Octopus dish, but I politely asked them to remove it from the bill which they did without any questioning.

I didn't get the scores for this place until a week later because I was so disappointed with the food that I couldn't be bothered to comment at the time.

Scores out of 10 for this restaurant:

Chad - 5
Con - minus 1
Richard - 2
Stephen - 3
Me - 1

Need I say more?

 Where do you go after such a miserable experience? Chad wasn't sure whether to subject us to more pain, but suggested a place where we've never been for dessert. We were happy to go along with it, and eventually ended up standing outside the Elephant again, only this time we went next door to the Howling Owl.

The atmosphere inside was most pleasant - not too busy at that time of night. We slid into a booth with a retro lamp and ordered coffees.

Well, Chad managed to save the night with this place. We talked about Con taking over from Stephen in 2020 to be the 'table-flipper' but in the end we decided Con wasn't up for the job. We ended up giving him a lift back to Norwood.

20191129 Going Postal

Popping my head in at the Elephant last Friday after work, I was delighted to find a cheerful Elizabeth in situ, enjoying a celebratory pint of ale. 

'Why the celebration?' you ask.

Well, it turns out that Elizabeth has been recently promoted at work, and is quickly rising in the ranks as an indispensable member of the team. We had a lovely chat about life, the universe and everything, before we were joined by Con, Chad, Stephen and Richard.

Chad was an unexpected addition to the group, thanks to rain interrupting play at the Adelaide Oval day-night Test between Australia and Pakistan. But Chad's loss was our gain, as it meant we were lucky enough to view his impressive end-of-Movember upper lip, reminiscent of the style beloved by 1970s cinematic film stars. 

Richard came bearing the exciting new that Jonathan Pie will be performing in Adelaide in February. Jonathan Pie is a fictional TV reporter, created by actor Tom Walker, who rants at his producer between takes. I've been following his YouTube Channel for years -- worth watching if you are interested in political satire and don't mind swearing. 

Sadly there was no group dinner this week, with everyone going our separate ways to various events. In my case, this involved taking a (very reluctant) teenager to see a stage production of Terry Pratcett's Discworld novel Going Postal at the Bakehouse Cinema in Angas Street. The tiny cinema was packed, giving the place a buzzing atmosphere, and the show itself was great fun. I gave it a solid 7/10.

I'm looking forward to the next outing. 

Going Postal Promo

P.S. Chad and Con went to Spices