The Curious Squire

It could be said that this blog as been on somewhat of a hiatus.  It's not that I haven't been thinking about it - or that we haven't been eating out, to be honest I've probably just been a bit lazy.  Anyway, during this time we have been to the Curious Squire a couple of times... 

Our first time was after Paul had picked me up from after work Friday night drinks and I had been nibbling away even though I knew we were going out for dinner… if there's tasty food in front of me it takes more self control than I have to turn it down!  So when we went there all I got was some onion rings (because I loooooove me some onion rings!)… oh.  And I got a dessert.  Of course.

Paul got a BBQ chicken pizza (which I had a slice of and it was bloody amazing) and for dessert we got a chocolate fudge sundae… each.  I didn't think anything of it really, my thoughts were more yes yum sundae uurrghh delicious I'm not even hungry but chocolate mmm.  Alarm bells should have rung when the girl taking our order confirmed with us twice that we were ordering a sundae each.  At the time, I didn't think anything of it.

When our onion rings and pizzas were done and the sundae's came out I realised "oh, these things are huge… and look at that, they each come with two spoons".  They each come with two spoons.  I guess that's why the girl wanted to be sure we were getting one each.  I mean, she could have said, just so you know they're big and usually shared between two people… but she didn't.  Instead she chose to reiterate the point she never made by having them still come out with two spoons.  Please don't read this in the wrong tone, it might sound a little mad, but I'm not at all.  We were both crying from laughter at our piggishness.  And lets be perfectly honest… if she had told us, we probably would have got one each anyway.  

So to set the scene - there we are at our table surrounded by people with a half finished pizza, drinks, finished onion rings and two biiiiiiig sundaes… and four spoons.  We looked a little part funny but I didn't care because I was in my happy place.  Surrounded by delicious food and my favourite boy. 

Our second time was on an empty stomach so I had all the more room to fill, and this time I filled it with a burger.  A cheeseburger to be exact.  A cheesy, tasty, mouthwatering, can't-talk-eating, burger.  This thing was on par with Burger Theory.  The glazed bun and the perfect patty, holy moly I loved it.  Paul had the "Sliders Trio" which was one of each angus beef, wild boar and chicken parmy.  A mans platter.  We didn't over do it this time... because after dinner we made our way down to dairy bell and had to save room!

There are so many things on the Curious Squire menu that I want to try it's a sure thing we'll be back there! 

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!