Second the best...

I know it seems we've been slack, either not writing or not date nighting, although I'm sure there's few of you out there that couldn't blame us - the silly season will be silly! 

As much as I love using date night as an excuse to try new places and discover new foods, what's the point of finding these delicious delights if we don't get to go back because we're already off to the next place?  And I know there's 7 nights in a week so why don't we go another night you say - but all our other nights are taken already and also we don't have endless funds. 

Anyway, as it has happened towards the end of last year we had unintentionally been revisiting old favourites.  "Old" favourites being Devour Dessert Bar (their menu had changed a bit so obviously we had to get back there), Paesano and TGI Fridays.  My goodness did I have a good time!

Devour happened when we were sitting at home on a Sunday night, not hungry enough to cook dinner (or too lazy…) and I was doing what I do best, sitting at my computer browsing the internet.  Up from somewhere comes a picture of a tasty looking dessert and in a heartbeat I was out of my pyjamas and into my "I can eat as much dessert as I want because I haven't had dinner" clothes.  

If you recall our previous visit, you'll know that I tried my very first soufflé… and my very last.  While I knew it was not to my liking, I also knew it was no ones fault but my own - try something new, she said, it'll be fun, she said!  So this time I was sticking to what I knew (or had heard, seen and smelt) was damn good.  Chocolate filled cinnamon donuts with raspberry sauce and honeycomb ice-cream.  

I enjoy food.  I enjoy it a lot.  But it is rare that I find something so mind-blowing and tastebud tantalising that my eyes light up and a big goofy smile forms across my face for the entire time I eat (trust me, not a great look.. especially when you're eating chocolate).  I mean the entire time.  I was making those embarrassing "oohhhhhhh my goodness this is SO good" words and the "mmmmmMMMMMm!!!" noises that go with it.  I've heard of a couple of people being a little disappointed at Devour because it's a small menu, but I think I would always manage to find something I liked there (even if it didn't give me the same… experience… as the donuts).  Everyone needs to try this place, even if it's just once!

Paesano, another spur of the moment date night.  We were out late (well, late for us - it was 8.30pm and we still hadn't had dinner - the silly season!) on a Sunday and we both had work the next day.  We were in town and took a stroll along O'Connell Street as we have done so many times before.  Not a lot of places were still serving food - but Paesano was.  It was comfortable, I had enjoyed it last time and was confident I would again… hopefully Paul would avoid spilling coffee all over himself this time, hehe. 

I stayed safe with what I knew and had the calzone I had last time - I am happy to say it held up!  I know it should be expected that when you order the same meal at the same restaurant that it would be the same, but from previous experience that's not always the case.  The service was good, we had a lovely waitress and the food (as I've said) was really good.  It's just a nice and easy place to go back to. 

Our most recent second visit was to TGI Friday's.  It's terrible how much I enjoy this place… and how much I enjoy stuffing my face with their flame grilled tasty burgers.  We'd just seen a movie in the morning at Gold Class (spoilt!) and obviously haaaaaad to go to TGI's while we were at Marion.  Their menu had changed ever so slightly, but just enough that I had to search and read descriptions of the burgers to remember which one I got, which didn't work because I really could not remember.  Regardless, I got a burger.  A bacon cheeseburger to be exact.  

I won't lie, it wasn't the over-the-top "can't talk - eating/can't put burger down because I need to eat more as soon as this mouthful is swallowed or maybe even before that" experience I had last time, but to be fair - my expectations were set pretty high.  This cheeseburger didn't have any tomato sauce on it, which was fine because there was some on the table… but you know how when they put the sauce on the bun and by the time the meal gets to you the sauce is the same temperature as the burger?  Yeah I like that, but when you put it on yourself its so noticeable and cold, it's just something I don't like.  And you can't ask them to put the sauce on because its at the table already.  

The onion rings blew my miiiiind - and went so well with the sauce that Paul got with his chicken tenderloins (oh yeah, we ordered a bit).  Paul didn't talk while he was eating his pasta and described it as "really really good" haha.  I won't lie, I didn't enjoy it as much as last time.  I'm not sure what was different, I really do think the different burger made a difference, but it doesn't really matter.  We still have vouchers for Gold Class but I think I've had my TGI fix, I'll be trying somewhere new next time!

TGI Fridays

I just don't even know where to start and finish with this one.  I'd heard of TGI's a fair bit from a few people but have never thought to look it up or ask what it's like.  Just accepted that it was awesome and we should go there.  We saw a voucher for it while flicking through the entertainment book, it was for 30% off I think and it seemed like a good deal, because I want as much $$ off as I can get! Nothing wrong with being a little cheap :) 

In Australia there's a fair few in Melbourne and one in Adelaide.  Good ol' Adelaide.  That one is in Marion which for us in the hood (the north eastern hood that is) it's a bit of a trip (not really, but a little bit).  Paul picked me up from work and we were on our way on a chilly Friday night.  I had looked up the place during the day at work and my jaw dropped at the menu.  AMERICANA.  Burgers burgers steak ribs potato jackets steak DEEP FRIED EVERYTHING.  I didn't see onion rings on the menu which I was super disappointed about.  And I was glad we had our voucher because while it wasn't ridiculously expensive, it was a bit more than we had on a standard date night. 

Neither of us have reeeeeally frequented around the Marion shopping centre, and frankly to me it's a bit intimidatingly big.  I've never really made an effort to go there except to get to the all you can eat Pizza Hut (the things I do for food) and even that's on the outside.

SO we drove around the giant shopping centre for a little while trying to find where it was.  Called to find out where and they started naming what they were near.  Not sure why I called really because I was just doing the ol' "ohh yep yep okay great thanks we'll see you soon"… I had no idea where they were still but I didn't want them to judge my lack of knowing where things are. 

We got there.  It was normal for about 5 seconds then it was just loud noises (Anchorman, anyone?).  But not like yelling across the table at each other loud, just constant noise.  There was a lot of people around the bar and it took me a little bit to realise that people just go there to drink on Fridays (or other days I assume but for the fun of it lets say Fridays).  We sat down and got introduced to our waitress and ordered drinks.  Standard stuff.  All of a sudden a bell starts going.  Not like a door bell.  Like a clangy WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING THERE'S A FIRE hand held sounding bell (held into a microphone and turned up).  Then someone starts yelling something and everyone at the bar cheers and then it's back to normal.  We were obviously the only first timers there because I didn't see anyone else flinch (or get on their knees on their chair to look around and see what was happening/try to take photos "subtly" like I did).  

We got to order our meals before the bell started again, and still again I had to look around then look back at Paul like LOL are you even hearing/seeing what's happening right now?!  I still looked each time it went off as if that would help me understand.  It didn't.  If you're looking for a romantic night out where you can be cute and look into each others eyes do not come here.  

I started with potato jackets which I wasn't that keen on.  I think they were deep fried maybe and they just tasted weird, so I ate the healthiest bit (the cheese and bacon, obviously) with a bit of the potato that didn't taste all fried.  I'm sure that's the exact thing some people go nuts over, just wasn't for me.  When I was debating whether to get chicken wings or the jackets I asked our waitresses advice and she said if you like spicy things go for the wings.  I don't so I didn't, but for those of you out there that do - get them and tell me how they are!

I'm sorry to be crass, but FUCK the potato jackets.  Forget them and never think about them again.  I had the best goddamn burger of my life (not comparative to Burger Theory because it's different).  If you like the flame grilled perfection that is a Hungry Jacks whopper you will LOVE the cheeseburger at TGI's.  Because - yeah you better believe it - it  tastes like a bigger, better but very similar version of a whopper.  Oh my lordy.  The thing was in my hands (another similarity - it takes two hands to understand!) the entire time I was eating it, which embarrassingly enough was not a very long time at all.  I didn't touch the fries, I didn't need them.  I was so completely fulfilled by the burger I'm lucky it wasn't bigger because I would have eaten it all regardless.  I didn't even offer to share any, but Paul seemed pretty caught up in his ribs so I don't feel all bad. 

Even though I was so full from the burger (and the potato jackets) I think I was so caught up in coming somewhere that we wouldn't usually go that I wanted to "make the most of it".  So I did what any binge eater would do - I ordered more food.  Granted, we did order it a solid 15 minutes after our mains got taken away.

Dessert.  We didn't go all out crazy and get one each.  We did however, get the biggest dessert they had on the menu… What of it?  It had rich chocolate cake, vanilla and chocolate ice-cream, cream, strawberries, rich chocolate fudge sauce aaaaaand a curly wirly.  Talk about mind-blowing sugar overload.  

It was so good I didn't know what to do with myself.  I was so full I was about to explode but I didn't have enough self control to stop.  Really, I think it's actually some kind of issue but for my tastebuds it's fantastic.  We ate as much as we could, then the iced mocha that Paul had ordered and forgotten about came out.  It was a "well, you're paying for it so you should probably at least drink some of it" kind of situation.  I genuinely felt a little bad for him, because watching him drink it made me feel sick with fullness and I couldn't imagine how stretched his poor belly must be.   But like the man that he is, he drank it.  

It all came to about $94 I think, but with the voucher it was only $60 something, which was a huge discount to us and much appreciated by our bank accounts.  So car ride home I had to unzip myself and didn't talk a lot.  It was a bad move on my part eating so much, but looking back I had no regrets.

I would love to go to TGI's again, I think i'd just stick to the burger though.  And maybe with more of a group to appreciate the loud noisy crowd vibe.  Two enthusiastic thumbs up. 

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.

Salsa

So I had heard about Salsa from a few ladies at my previous work, and they had taaaaalked about it and talked it up so much we had to date night there. Simply could not say no after hearing about this amazing place. 

It's possible we didn't go at the best time, it's near the beach and it was winter. It was on a dark street that didn't really have a lot else on there, maybe a fish & chip takeaway shop and the front was lit up with florescent lights which I think were all the rage in the… 80s? Also a lot of palm trees. Anyway, it was a bit cool and hip, and very very different to what I was expected from a place called "Salsa". I hear that and I was thinking mexican. I don't know what Salsa was, it definitely wasn't mexican. I'm thinking italian. 

The inside matched the outside, it was very dark inside. Not like mood lighting, it was darker than that. Like a struggle to read the menus dark… but that's okay! Especially where we sat kind of in the corner. Furniture looked like it was from the 80s as well, which I have nothing against it was just a different kind of date night.  Actually thinking about it - whatever era "Grease" was in… that's what it was like. I thought of the diner they have the shakes in and Danny and Sandy hid behind the menus and giggle. Yeah that diner, it was like that. But smaller. And a lot darker. And in Australia… etc.

The menu is very limited and it's all a bit.. different. Which is great, but personally didn't leave me with a lot that I like the sound of. Paul had a chicken dish, which was chicken breast, potatoes and another vegetable in a sauce and I went for definitely the most basic thing on the menu - margarita pizza. 

Don't mind the poor quality photos... it was dark :)

Paul cleaned his plate up :)

I wish I wrote this closer to that particular date night, but I didn't… So this is what you get!