lunch

Waldecks makes food?! – Lunch at Lakeview Cafe, Kingsley

by Sab on April 27, 2012

My mind was a little blown when I found out there was a place that served food in Waldecks. I had been told that the chicken burger had a ridiculous amount of bacon in it, so T and I went to grab lunch at Lakeview Cafe inside Waldecks off Wanneroo Road, Kingsley. After surveying the many tasty options, I decided to order the chicken burger, which came with 2 tenderloins, lashings of bacon, fresh lettuce, cucumber, caramelised onion, beetroot and tomato. These are possibly the best burgers I’ve ever had, although I may have been biased as I was ravenous by the time we got there.

Chicken burger with bacon, beetroot, onion and lettuce from Lakeview Cafe

For those of you who are food hipsters, there’s not too much in the way of novel or gourmet food at this place, however it was good, decent food and portion sizes were more than adequate!

Chicken burger with bacon, beetroot, onion and lettuce from Lakeview Cafe

T ordered the beef burger which was good too, but I suspect he was jealous of my chicken burger. There’s something about those juicy, warm tenderloins that made the chicken burger super-delicious.

Our burgers from Lakeview Cafe, Waldecks

Here’s the view from the cafe, not quite a lake view, but pretty and serene nonetheless with lots of plant life!

The view from the cafe - Lakeview Cafe Kingsley

I’ve got to try breakfast at this place. Did I mention they also had giant bowls of wedges?

{ 0 comments }

Lunch at Cantina 663 – Mt Lawley

by Sab on November 17, 2011

I wasn’t quite ready to post this, but then around midnight last night I was in a tired state and accidentally published my draft version that only had brief notes in it with the photos, so if you see a weird description on the urbanspoon page, that’s why!

I’d been curious about Cantina 663 for ages and finally got to visit on Monday at lunchtime this week. I loved the interiors at Cantina, it felt familiar and comfortable with lots of brown tones and wooden surfaces. I arrived there just after opening at 12pm to find the place slowly filling but still fairly spacious and chose a seat near the window.

To start off with, we both ordered the apple juice which was amazing. It was freshly made, had an interesting cloudiness to it at the bottom and the addition of a crisp piece of apple was fantastic, which I ate at the end of my meal – as dessert.

For lunch, I ordered salad, grilled skirt steak, date, avocado, crispy fried onion and yoghurt which was very generously portioned. The combination of ingredients seemed a little odd to me but I thought I’d give it a chance. The steak was my favourite part of the meal, the texture was deliciously tender.

The fried onion was great at first, very crunchy, however there was a lot of it and it was very strong in comparison with some of the other flavours in the dish. I wasn’t too sure about the dates into the dish, but these comments are just my personal preference, the guy waiting on our table mentioned whilst I was ordering that the grilled skirt steak had been a very popular dish lately.

Aimee ordered the bruschetta, roast cauliflower, almonds and buffalo mozzarella. She said she enjoyed it but had some trouble finishing the cauliflower.

The best thing about my lunch experience was the service; it was unexpectedly fantastic, I don’t think I’ve had service like this at a restaurant ever before. We had a bright, cheerful guy named Danny waiting on our table (I hope I remembered that right). He came by very frequently to check we had enough water, refill our glasses and provide a little friendly chit chat.

After lunch, I was faced with a decision to order dessert. I was sorely tempted to order the “vanilla olive oil parfait; strawberry, pistachio” but unfortunately was too full. I would probably go back and try other things on the menu, the offerings are very unique and I like that they try to use local and organic produce as much as possible. Looking at the breakfast menu, I would be curious to try this place out for breakfast sometime.

Check it out: http://www.cantina663.com/

{ 0 comments }

Pizza from Little Caesar’s – Leederville

by Sab on November 4, 2011

Joss and I arrived at Leederville on Friday afternoon and were overjoyed to find that Little Caesar’s Leederville was open for lunch (Friday is the only weekday Little Caesar’s Leederville is open for lunch). However, their lunch opening was only from 11:30am to 2pm and they were closing shortly so only takeaway was available, rather than dining in. We were so ravenous that this option was more than fine. After we got our pizza, we headed back to the car to consume the deliciousness within our brown cardboard box. After all, car parks are really classy places to eat lunch.

We ordered one large pizza with two different toppings; chicken fettucine and spanakopita. Both types of pizza toppings were moist and delicious; see for yourself below! First, here are some photos of the chicken fettucine (Sundried tomato, fettucine, cream sauce, chicken, bacon, parmesan, mozzarella).

You’d think that one type of carb was enough for a meal, however, this pasta-on-pizza dish really works. The cream sauce keeps the pizza moist without being runny and the bacon adds salty, meaty deliciousness. The pieces of chicken breast help to bulk out the dish with some protein and together with slivers of fettucine on the pizza, you will be feeling satisfied and full after a few pieces and yet strangely, also wanting more.

Our second pizza topping choice (we got half and half, a large pizza) was the spanakopita (Spinach, mozarella, onion, garlic, fetta, cream sauce, dill). I am a huge fan of garlic as well as greenery so this pizza went down extremely well with me. Garlicky deliciousness, with lots of finely chopped spinach. Mmmm garLICKy.

Here’s a closer look at a piece of partially consumed spanakopita, with Joss’ face appropriately blurred out.

That’s all for now!

What’s your favourite topping at Little Caesar’s? :)

{ 6 comments }

Lunch at Wine and Truffle Co – Manjimup

by Sab on October 14, 2011

Tom and I decided to go somewhere fancy for lunch on our last day in Pemberton (back in June, this post is well overdue). The Wine and Truffle Co in Manjimup seemed suitable as I have never had truffle and was extremely curious to go to this place.

For our meal, we started out with the Toasted hazelnut sourdough with truffle butter. I really enjoyed this, I love the flavour of hazlenuts and sourdough so those two things together were wonderful. I think the truffle butter added a kind of inexplicable complexity in flavour that couldn’t really be explained by the other ingredients.

Tom ordered the Beef and Shiraz Pie, described on the menu as “slow cooked beef in a rich Shiraz sauce, baked in crisp pastry served with homemade tomato & apple chutney, seasonal vegetables and truffle mash”. Tom said that it was delicious.

I ordered the handmade truffle pasta which was described on the menu better than I could put it: “handmade truffle pasta with sauteed mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and spinach drizzled with truffle infused oil & parmigiano reggiano”. I had ordered this dish because I was keen to leave the restaurant knowing what truffle tasted like and compared to everything else on the menu, it had truffle written more times in the description than any other dish.

The pasta came with flakes of black truffle ontop that looked delightfully like cross-sections of tiny black brains. The taste was earthy and salty, as expected with mushroom, parmigiano reggiano and truffle. The cherry tomatoes were my favourite part of the dish, providing sweet freshness relief to the oily dish. I was not partial to the pasta – it was thick and gluggy.

I’m experimenting with taking pictures while food is being eaten – this way the person I am dining with doesn’t slowly become hungrier while I figure out which angles work best with their meal and their food gets slowly colder ;)

Some meals don’t photograph well once they’ve been partially eaten!

Do you think this half-eaten piece of pie looks tasty or off-putting? I’m on the fence…

{ 0 comments }

Lunch at Grill’d – Claremont Quarter

by Sab on June 23, 2011

There are a few options for lunch at Claremont Quarter but so far, I think Grill’d is the best! They have so many delicious “healthy” burgers to choose from and the store itself is relaxing to sit in, with plenty of natural light spilling through the large glass wall and wooden tables.

Tom ordered the Wild Wild West which was described on the menu as “grilled 100% lean beef, tasty cheese, cripsy trim bacon, free range egg, a couple of slices of beetroot with salad, relish and herbed mayo”. I’ve had this myself before and it is delicious! How can you go wrong with three different types of meat in one burger!? Not sure about how healthy this particular choice is, purely due to the burger contents, but it’s well worth the calories. The burgers are relatively healthy compared to fast food – they are made from good quality, fresh produce and it tastes a lot cleaner and less oily than a burger usually does.

Here are some more shots of the Wild Wild West burger as it is devoured:

I ordered the Caesar’s Palace: “grilled chicken breast, cripsy trim bacon, free range egg, shaved parmesan, baby coss & caesar dressing”. Not healthier at all but I really enjoyed this burger conversion of caesar salad. It had the taste of caesar salad without the salad issue of boring endless mouthfuls of lettuce.

Looking at the layers of my burger:

By the way, the burgers are large but may appear small in my man-hands. The burger size is more than adequate – I could only eat half of it :D

If you want to know how I edited these images see my Grill’d photoshop tutorial with screenshots!

Here’s a shot of the store to finish up; it’s usually packed on Saturdays but we were here mid-Friday afternoon so there were plenty of places to sit as most had finished their lunches.

I really enjoy Claremont Quarter. It feels expensive and luxurious, and it’s fun to wander around and look at things. I enjoy the clean lines of Kikki K, watching the chefs make chocolate treats through the viewing window at Koko Black, the free tea samples in T2 and the luxurious pink carpet and over-the-top girly stylings of Alannah Hill. Sass and Bide is particularly funny – not the clothes, but the store decorations. The last time I visited, they had a creepy looking, ratty-haired barbie dressed in rags complete with a jewel-encrusted face in the jewellery cabinet.

{ 3 comments }

Lunch at Last Drop Tavern – Kalamunda

by Sab on June 20, 2011

Tom and I went on a little adventure to Kalamunda to try Little Miss Cupcakes, however, we required lunch before the cupcake feast could begin. After walking around to some of the local cafes we settled on the prominent Last Drop Tavern. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by a friendly face. She explained that we could take a seat anywhere we liked as menus were on the tables and ordering could be done at the food counter or bar for food and drinks respectively.

Tom ordered the barramundi with potatoes, broccolini and some sort of butter. I really need to start making notes on the menu items we order at the restaurant instead of assuming I will be able to find them online later ^^;

Tom enjoyed the barramundi, he said it was well cooked, succulent and tasted fresh. I tried a little of it and I would agree :D

I ordered the chicken salad with pumpkin, spinach, fetta and cherry tomatoes and vinaigrette on the side. I always order salad dressing on the side, there’s nothing more pointless than ordering a salad to be healthy when it is drenched in oil/fat and not only that, but the flavour of vegetables are obliterated by dressing.

The chicken was delicious, exactly how I like it – breast pieces that were pan seared so they had great flavour and were still tender and warm. The pumpkin was a good consistency, not too mushy or hard. All the flavours went together great, I barely touched the vinaigrette.

I only ate half the salad, but that wasn’t because it wasn’t good – I needed to leave space for the cupcakes! I put it into a plastic container (very classy) and ate it later :)

{ 1 comment }

Bay Merchants in Albany

by Sab on February 27, 2011

When you go out of Perth to Albany for the weekend, sleep is quite a high priority. At Bay Merchants, they understand – they serve all day breakfast, so you never have to worry about sleeping through conventional breakfast time. There is also all day lunch available so there was an almost overwhelming number of food options to choose from.

Cranberry Chicken Toasted Sandwich