Tag Archives: food

Shumpty Eats: Amazing Thai at Gaythorne

June 19, 2012 By in Shumpty Eats Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Last night, uninspired by the thought of cooking on a Monday but not wanting to hit up a burger shop Thai was on the menu.  Instead of going to my normal Thai restaurant I decided to head to a small Thai restaurant I had heard good things about in Gaythorne called “Amazing Thai”.

Unfortunately, I have to say straight up that the only thing about the place that was amazing was the word in its title.  The reasons why will become apparent in fairly short order.

First impressions count for much, always have and always will, and the first impression I got of the restaurant was not a good one.  There is no reason on a Monday night with only 1 other table occupied for new patrons to have to wait five minutes before being seated.  I could have accepted it if the restaurant was particularly busy or if there were a heap of people waiting to make takeaway order.  I cannot accept it when the wait is as a result of wait staff sitting in the kitchen having a chat and not hearing the front counter bell.

Unfortunately, this tardiness continued (keep in mind the restaurant only had one other table in use during my sojourn there) when it came to taking orders: twenty minutes before asking if drinks were needed was moderately ordinary.

In any event, as regular readers will know, I can always be swayed by the food of an establishment when it comes to how much I enjoy the dining experience.  Last night I ordered the steamed dim sims for entrée and the red curry done with chicken for main.  As is now becoming custom I had to order my rice separately (this really irritates me).

The dim sims were a disappointment: simply put, they were cold.  I am sure that even luke warm I would have enjoyed them because from a flavour perspective they tasted pretty good but I just couldn’t get past them being cold.  The entrée being bad was unfortunate because the red curry was spot on.  It ticked all the boxes on meat content, thickness of sauce and level of spice that one would expect in a red curry.

Ultimately, as a dining experience I was left disappointed: poor service coupled with a bad entrée experience could not be redeemed by an excellent main.  That said, the excellence of the main has kept me from completely jettisoning Amazing Thai from my restaurant rotation.  I am prepared to go back again sometime soon, if nothing else to see what the dim sims are like when they are warm.

Shumpty Eats: Orient at Twin Towns

June 16, 2012 By in Shumpty Eats Tags: , , , 1 Comment

As with my post yesterday, I find myself reviewing a restaurant I know well here: Orient at Twin Towns.

Since it opened I would probably have eaten at Orient at least 25 times.  On level 1 of the Twin Towns RSL campus on the Queensland / New South Wales border, Orient is wedged down a corrider between an entrance to the main gaming room and another restuarant called Flames.  The first thing that strikes one as you cross the threshold into the restaurant is how busy it is.  The first hint is you generally have to queue for a table.  The second hint is the seamingly constant “ding” of the “order’s up” bell.

The decor is fairly rudimentary and the staff swift to seat you to the point of being abrupt so that once seated you find yourself encased the conversations around you which bounce off the walls with a menu under your nose to peruse.

The menu is basically what you would expect from a Chinese restaurant and, as is my usual practice, I have come to order the same dishes every time I attend.  My standard order is the chicken and sweet corn soup for entree and the sizzling szechaun beef with a side of steamed rice for my main.

The food is excellent: the chicken and sweet corn soup is piping hot and loaded with chicken (often missed in some of your dodgier establishments).  The serving size is just right: more than a taste but not so much so as to not leave enough room for ones main.

The sizzling szechaun beef does come out sizzling and is easily the best dish on the menu with the beef being supple rather the tough “boot leather” one often gets in such a dish and just the right mix of vegetables and spices to give the dish some real bite.

The food, by regular and general consensus, at Orient is nothing short of excellent.  I have never had a bad meal there.  In saying that I know of a number of my friends who often decline to eat there.  The rationale for this position is fairly plain to see and, indeed, was apparant again on my visit there last night.  The service side of the place has clear issues, being:

  • the service, despite getting you to your table swiftly is often not so swift to actually take your order;
  • the order taking of the wait staff often leaves a bit to be desired.  Better put, it is a rare meal when there is not one part of the order that is forgotten.  Tonight, it was an entree order of dim sims;
  • there is no table service for drinks: one has to attend at a bar just inside the front door of the restaurant which often gets quite crowded and can be problematic to get to if you are sitting against the opposing wall of the restaurant; and
  • it is not possible to order enough rice for everyone at the table, rather you have to order individual portions of rice.

If any of these quirks in the dining experience are likely to make your experience less than enjoyable then you either have to decline to attend this establishment or get over it (and to be honest perhaps yourself) because the food is definitely worth it.

A final note, and whilst it is not the test of whether a restaurant is a good one or not it must be said that from the perspective of value for money Orient is very hard to go past.  Tonight a table of seven (all eating an entree and a main) ate for the princely sum of $142.50.  I for one will wear some quirky service for food and value like that presented EVERY time I have dined at Orient.

This is simply a restaurant that should be on the must visit list for anyone coming down to the tweed border.

Shumpty Eats: Earth & Sea Coolangatta

June 16, 2012 By in Shumpty Eats Tags: , , , Leave a comment

I have decided that I must write a review about my takeaway pizza last night.  I know I said I would review restaurants I attend in this part of my blog but have decided to break the rules this one time.

As I am down at Rainbow Bay / Coolangatta I decided to check in last night at my favourite pizza place: Earth & Sea Coolangatta.  I have been coming to this pizza shop for more years than I can remember and yet again it came up trumps.

My order, as it has been for at least the last 10 years since I discovered the joys of chilli with food, was a small cheese pizza and a large half “Some Like it Hot” and “Number 14”.

The description of each from their menu is as follows:

  • Some Like it Hot: “As our big brothers up the road are fond of repeating, 100% pure beef (with our seven secret herbs and spices), onion and chilli sauce. Italy’s answer to the Aussie meat pie.”
  • Number 14: “When we only had 13 pizzas on the menu the local lads invented the number 14. Great Pizza! Real beef, ham, onion, egg and chilli. Sounds bad, doesn’t it? Well, it is now one of our most popular pizzas, so there!

Now that I have read that again it does strike me that they are quite similar but when you eat them it is the subtle flavours of the eggs and the ham that do really make a difference.  Equally, I am not fussed that they are quiet similar pizzas because food is all about ones personal tastes and preferences and these pizzas are the ones that I like.

As a takeaway experience, you would struggle find one better for mine:

  • The staff member who took my order over the phone knew her stuff: even asked me if I was sure that I wanted that particular combination in my half and half pizza because “you know mate they are basically the same pizza”.  Often that would irritate me but in this context (as it showed she knew the menu) it did not.
  • The 15 minute time estimate for my pick up was spot on.  I walked in, I paid, I had about 30 seconds of banter with the staff member behind the counter and then my pizza was ready.
  • The price was fair for the food that I got.  When you look at the menu you will be taken a bit aback by the pricing of the pizzas: it just looks expensive BUT you have to get past that because the pizzas are massive both from the perspective of size and amount of toppings.

As for the pizzas, I am unable to make a complaint about them.  The cheese pizza that I bought for a bit of nibble later in the evening was the best plain cheese pizza I had (as it has been since it went on the menu).  Why? Because it had a heap of tomato sauce on it.  The half / half pizza was perfect: heaps of beef, heaps of egg and just enough chilli to make me sweat a little under my beard but not so much that I would be awake at 2am tasting the pizza in the back of my throat.

I am not surprised by this though because over at least 20 years of coming to Earth & Sea Coolangatta I have never been left disappointed.

A review of a takeaway pizza would not be complete without an assessment of how the pizza went second time around having been refrigerated over night.  The leftovers ticked all of the boxes for a “morning after the night before” breakfast: the topping all still stayed on the pizza, the base was not too hard and cold it tasted almost as good as it did when it came out of the oven.

All in all, as a takeaway experience I can not fault the guys at Earth & Sea Coolangatta (80 Marine Pde, Coolangatta) and recommend you check it out if you are down this way.

 

Shumpty on tour: the best meal of my life and Stephen Fry

March 25, 2012 By in travel Tags: , , , 3 Comments

Today was my last full day in Queenstown and was another lazy one with the only items on the agenda eating more good food, watching the cricket from the Basin Reserve and trying to keep warm. Lunch again was at Eichardts: I have already waxed lyrical about the food and the service and again they did not let me down. Top notch again! Travellers to Queenstown would be well advised to check this little dining room out: try the Chicken Risotto.

Followers of my twitter feed (@shumpty77) will already attest to my excitement at seeing some snow on the peaks around Queenstown and that snow was only added to throughout the day as the mercury dropped (according to my iPhone) to a maximum of 8 degrees during the day. I love this weather and found myself often gazing out to the peaks from the apartment window.

Earlier in this part of the trip I spent the day in Arrowtown and tested out the well regarded Saffron Restaurant. At that time I rebooked for 7pm tonight. What followed was the best meal of my life. Some context on that statement first: I am not a gourmet, I have a very limited palate and I hate seafood. That said I like what I like so I regularly order similar dishes because I know what will be served up will satisfy my limited palate. I should also declare now that I do not drink wine (anymore) so I have no interest at all in the wine list at restaurants in which I eat.

So the scene set I repeat the statement in the title: tonight I had the best meal of my life. So what did I have? At this point you should all add to your favourites the site for the restaurant http://www.saffron.co.nz. My menu for tonight was as follows:

Entree: Spicy Lentil, Tomato and Coconut Soup
Main: Chargilled Hereford fillet of Beef
Desert: Deep fried Ginger Bread icecream

The soup, as described to me by my waiter (“you are going to love this mate”) I simply loved. I normally would need a gun pointed to my head to even try lentils but I am now a convert. The soup was smooth, the coconut clearly evident in the mix and the raita accompaniment just spot on.

I had the beef medium rare and it came out perfectly medium rare. The rib, smoked with Oak leaves, was like nothing I have ever tasted before and the Pumpkin and Whisky Pie was again spot on as an accompaniment.

Readers who know me will tell you I abhor deserts normally but to tonight the urge took me and I was not disappointed. The overwhelming taste of ginger was the mainstay of the desert which was just what I needed to top off the meal.

Let me declare now that with the first bite of my desert I was ready to declare this the best meal I had ever had. Then, 3 bites later, Stephen Fry walks in the front door with Sam Neill following shortly after.

I have read all of Mr Fry’s books and watched nearly all of his tv shows and movies (pivotal role in A Civil Action among my favourites) save for his role in Bones because I dislike the show. He would be one of the six people I would invite to my ideal dinner party (the others: my dad, my mum, Bradman, Lloyd George and an English archer at the battle of Agincourt). 20 metres away from one of my idols and what did I do: nothing. I repeat: nothing! Let me explain … On this occasion I followed my head and respected that he was just another guy out having a meal with his friends and did not wish to be disturbed rather than my heart which screamed: get over there! I immediately regretted the decision.

That said: what a bottler of a last night in Queenstown: the best meal I have ever had and I was within 20 metres of an idol. Will remember this night for a long time!

Till tomorrow.
Shumpty