Conetopia

Tonight was nice and cheap and simple date night. To Norwood for the new rage that never actually took off - Pizza's in a cone. 

The idea of it is awesome, like a pizza or calzone but in a comfortable hand held ice cream cone shaped.. thing. It's like something that you would get at the Royal Show, just a quick, easy, quite possibly cooked in unhygienic circumstances, kind of food.

We had a scoopon (though I feel like by now that should pretty well be assumed) which entitled us to 2 "cones", 2 serves of hot chips and 2 cans of soft drink.  This was not a classy date night.

It was winter and a Saturday night so Norwood Parade was pretty quiet, as was this newly opened Conetopia store.  To be truthful, the food didn't blow my mind. Pizza and hot chips just doesn't go that well together for me, and while it wasn't exactly a pizza, it still kind of was. 

I felt a little bit sick eating it just because it was so cheesy and looked like vomit. And the dough around the outside was a bit chewy and hard to bite off.

Not the venues fault, that's how a rolled up pizza with a ridiculous amount of cheese looks I guess. Paul really enjoyed it and didn't get that same vomit vibe that I did, so as always, each to their own.  It was a nice quick dirty date night dinner followed by gelati and a nice ride home. Too easy. 

Cafe Palazzo

Basically, we're working towards filling up our O'Connell street book of "we've been there", and hadn't gone for the first restaurant on the corner, Cafe Palazzo.  We'd done the other end with Sparrow Kitchen and Bar, and like a puzzle we would start working from the corners in. 

I know the general "rule" for going out is don't get risotto because it's always crap. Cafe Palazzo will prove that an unnecessary sterotype. I broke the rule, and I will break the rule time and time again for this place. It was a bit cold, and I was a little bit sick and we had had a big weekend without time for date night. Wrong. There is always time for date night. We went out Sunday night, prepared for a nice dinner and then home to rest my poor ill head. 

It was the perfect kind of risotto night, I needed something warm but didn't feel like pasta or anything else. Risotto was perfect. It tasted so effing good. Granted, I haven't had a lot of risotto's in my life, just one that my friend Sarah made (and if you ever need a good risotto - consider paying her to make you one but that was damn good) so it's possible that i'm not the best judge of what's awesome by general standards. Regardless, my tastebuds had a good time that night. 

Chicken, red onion, roast capsicum, baby spinach, tomato and white wine in a rose sauce. 

Paul got his big gourmet pizza on, and he definitely had that all to himself. Pepperoni, olives, capsicum, mushroom.  The thing was topped with too many things I didn't like, it was going to be too hard to pick it all off to try some. 

I've heard people have terrible experiences here, personally from what I remember the service was good, the food was great and it was nice and quiet.  Even though I was feeling sorry for myself it was still an awesome date night, and I went home with a fully belly and happy tastebuds.

House of the Red Dragon

I knew from when I first made the booking we would like this place. The lady that answered the phone and took my booking was so happy and enthusiastic, it was amazing. When she said “great we’ll see you then”, it felt like she genuinely meant it. And that’s what’s missing from customer service these days.

Personally, customer service in restaurants is bloody important, nearly as much as the food. If I have a shitty waitress/waiter that act as if they had a million places they’d rather be (which they probably do), the only part I’m going to enjoy about them is the bitching that comes after they leave the table. A dining experience is so important; it makes me remember the place so much more. If I feel like the waitress/waiter just hates everything, I get the inkling they’ll spit in my food.

So they lady that took my call was cracking jokes after about 10 seconds and later in the day we made our way there. It’s a cool looking place. Like a cheap palace made in the 70s, I liked it. The lady that greeted us (I wish I could remember her name) was the same that took my call and we were in “her section” (yessss). The menu was fair huge and so we asked for recommendations. She said, as she pointed to one page of the menu, is the cheaper cuts of meat so it wasn’t the most delish. Good thing I asked because that page was exactly where I was looking. We got her two recommendations and some entrées. I think we were also eavesdropping on the couple table next to us because they were talking about weird things. Date night win.

I honestly can’t remember what we got. I remember it was damn good and not too pricey considering how much food we ordered. Successful date night.

Cafe Mykonos

This was an epic win as far as Scoopon’s went. We got drinks, a trio of dips platter AND a seafood & meat mixed platter (worth $95 by itself) for $59 (check out the rest of the menu here). I don’t usually eat much seafood so I went in thinking I was going to get all amongst the meat (that’s what she said).

Our seat was in the Scoopon corner. You could tell because in the little area we were in, the couples around us were ordering getting the same things. I have no problem with said Scoopon corner, but I freaked out and saw the size of the mixed platter we were going to get. Holy moly it was MASSIVE. At this point I didn’t realize we got a dip platter as well so I was like oh that’s awesome I’m gonna eat so much of that. Then she asked us what dips we would like. Tzatziki,  Skordalia aaaand something that I cannot remember. I was so hungry I nearly couldn’t control myself with all the pita that we had in front of us with the dips (which were amazing). By nearly I mean I didn’t control myself at all and stuffed my face with bread. Worth it.

Then the mixed platter came out. I actually ate a lot more seafood than I thought I would. The battered fish was super yummy, and I even tried a prawn or two. Paul downed the scallops which I wasn’t expecting and he had his go at the salt and pepper calamari. It had some green sauce on it that looked like pesto so I kept away from it just in case, and I couldn’t be bothered asking because there was so many other options I could live without the calamari. The meat was a mix of yiros meat, shazliks and chops. Opposite to original thought, I barely ate any of it, I was all about the seafood and chips. I loved it. I ate till I thought I was going to be sick (a habit I know I desperately must kick immediately).

We both waddled like pregnant ladies back to the car, nursing our food babies as we went.

Pride of India

I always feel bad when I can’t understand what someone is saying, and have to ask again what they said, or more so, when someone doesn’t understand English very well and I have to repeat myself 5 times to get my question across. Eating at restaurant that sells foreign cuisines like Indian and Chinese, and have waitresses/waiters that have strong accents from their respective countries usually poses an issue for me when I’m trying to find out if a meal contains nuts. Because me and my allergies are a huge pain in the ass. But more on that later.

Yet again, we had a trusty Scoopon that led us to Pride of India at Glenelg. We probably never would have gone there without it, and probably won’t go there again. It definitely wasn’t terrible, the service was good (aside from a slight language barrier), the food came out rather quickly, but unfortunately there is just a short list of Indian places I would rather go before going back there. I didn’t really take note of the prices. And also afterwards I had a mix between that sick “I ate too much” and sick “I ate something that’s going to make me be sick” feeling. I never was actually sick so let’s put it down to I ate too much. Moving forward…

With our deal we got entrée, 3 curries, rice and naan. Language barrier story: Butter Chicken is (like most Westerners I believe) my favourite dish. I am also aware that at a lot of place (and in the jars), butter chicken contains cashews/other nuts, so when going to a new place I always feel it necessary to check. So I did. After about 5 minutes (it felt like 20) of trying to explain that’s I’m allergic to nuts and cannot eat any, and the waitress not understanding, eventually through hand signals, slow talking and  the waitress nodded and went and checked with the chef what I could eat. Hello list of about 5 things that I could choose (it was a big menu so that wasn’t much). On a positive note this was a prime opportunity to try a dish I usually wouldn’t eat, so I did.

I can’t even remember what we ended up ordering, Paul got Butter Squid, which was apparently good. It just didn’t make me feel great eating it. I didn’t want to keep eating; I ate until I wasn’t starving and then stopped. I tried everything. I can say that. Paul liked it too but wasn’t really impressed. It wouldn’t be the first place I recommend to my friends, but if you’re REALLY hankering Indian and you’re in Glenelg (and you have no allergies)… then give it a go. I would love to hear from some people that live in the Glenelg area (or anyone that knows of any) better Indian places in Glenelg that we can give a try :)

We got ice cream after which was epically awesome. 

Note: it's upstairs... don't get confused like we did! :)

Zootz

The best date nights we remember not just because of the food, but the good times and stories that come with it. We struck gold at Zootz.

Another Scoopon saw us heading to Henley Beach for date night. I’d been to Zootz before for brunch with my family and for fish and chips with my girlfriends, but never for a sit down dinner. I had previously had such great experiences with food here, I had talked it up the whole week, just the best food ever “and oh my god yuuuummm and their fish, I don’t usually like fish but I loooooved it and it’s going to be so good”. The pressure was on Zoots to perform, and they didn’t even know it (until I told the waitress how much I had talked it up and that they better come through with the goods, I’m good at making things awkward apparently).

Already in high spirits, we took our seats and the waitress explained the deal to us. Like I hadn’t read the thing 10 times over and knew exactly what the deal was. Ha. But we got the menu and there were 3 things that I wanted, and a couple that Paul wanted too. No, we didn’t go nuts and buy 5 meals, but we did have a long discussion about which 2 we both wanted that we could share. We try this all the time. We want the same thing so we get different things and “share”. We never share. We like what we get and we try a little bit of the others. There is no putting both plates in the middle of the table and actually sharing. It’s selfish sharing and I love it.

This particular date night we were very happy and cracking lots of jokes and laughing non-stop, which was fantastic… for us. Trying to speak to a waitress mid-jokes and then pulling strange jokes that don’t really make sense doesn’t really work. Luckily she was in a good mood and seemed to appreciate it but on the other hand she may have been pretending. At least she’ll talk about us later. One of the personal jokes that had come from the night was me quoting The Mask (I believe the quote was “somebody stop me”) and doing an absolutely terrible impersonation of Jim Carrey, very loudly. And Paul and I were laughing very hard for a very long time. You know when you get in those “funny” moods and absolutely everything is hilarious. Yeah, that happened… And lasted the rest of the night. It was fantastic.

So anyway, we had decided on 2 meals. Waitress comes to take our orders and Paul tells her want we would like. I can’t remember what he said but I was like NO Paul that wasn’t what we decided on and the waitress looks on confused and I was like nooo can we have this and Paul was all I thought we wanted this but I was like no I want this. But all the while I was trying to say this kind of quietly to tell Paul to change what he’d ordered us without saying it to the waitress so I wasn’t telling Paul what to do, even though I kind of was. Except I was talking really quietly and then Paul couldn’t hear me properly and the waitress was leaning in because she needed to hear what I was saying. It was super awkward and confusing and back and forth about what we were ordering. Whoops.

In the end it was Salt & Pepper Squid and Chicken Bocconcini. At this point I would like to point out that Zootz completely held up, I was correct in my raving about them. Hands down the best S&P Squid I can remember ever having. 

Tender strips of calamari lightly fried and served with scalloped potato crisps, garden salad and a chilli mayonnaise. 
 Salt & Pepper Squid: 

Chicken Bocconcini:

Chicken breast stuffed with bocconcini, wrapped in prosciutto & served upon a creamy mashed potato, topped with asparagus and a hollandaise sauce, with a side of vegetables

And Paul gave me a bite or two of the Chicken but from what I heard that was equally mind blowing. For me, the S&P Squid was melt in the mouth good, it was fresh and delicious and just tasted SO GOOD. So good in fact, that I ate my weight in that meal and couldn’t eat a bite of dessert because I felt so sick. That’s just how I date night.

Sparrow Kitchen and Bar

I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so trendy. This place was hip-happenin’ and I’d never even heard of it before – Scoopons are bloody brilliant! It was a very different kind of set up, when we first walked in there was a big marble bar, then tables and lounges all kind of thrown into the same big area. It looked a lot better than I describe. It gave off a very “we’re casual and trendy but also up-market and fancy with our dim lighting and waitresses with one hand behind their back” kind of vibe. Let’s just say I really felt like one of the cool kids. Then we saw one of our trendy friends and I was like damn I’m so cool.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m a burger kind of girl, not necessarily “scared” of trying new things – but I know what I like. No such option here. Now with the Scoopon you got wine, Sangria, Tapas each (or more expensive one to share) and main meal. I switched my wine for soft drink (I’ll never be that fancy), but actually drank the Sangria and it was DELISH, so sweet and nom nom nom.

We opted to share a Tapas, mainly I think because the other individual options creeped me out – quail egg? Come on. We had a Tortilla of Potato and Onion and while being eggy – it had some awesome caramelized onion stuff and it was the shizzay.  Restaurants are genius in the way they make you wait for food so you’re super hungry then everything you eat tastes AMAZING.

When it came to main meals – it was all so different to what I would order I asked the waitress for her suggestions, one of them was Beef Cheek. Ew, what’s wrong with you lady? But after I pulled a face she said why and had me sold – why not try something new? So Paul and I got suckered in by her suggestions and I got the Beef Cheek and Paul got the sirloin. 

I would have dumped burgers on their ass for this meal… Red Wine Beef Cheek. Hello most tender meat I’ve ever had in my life. I didn’t use my knife. I tried to, I really did, but at the time it was just the most un-necessary utensil. I could have pulled it apart with my fingers and probably would have if I was at home – but lets all remember that tonight was a little bit fancy.

 

Another tick to our O’Connell Street list – don’t mind if we do!