mt lawley

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 }

Breakfast at Coode St Cafe – Mt Lawley

by Sab on October 16, 2011

I arrived at Coode St Cafe around 8:50am on Sunday morning – it was almost half full with customers and there were a quite a number of tables booked. While I waited for Lee to arrive, I ordered the ”Zinger” juice which was apple, lemon and ginger, which was priced at $7.50 but came in a generous amount – it was filled to the top when I received it, I drank some before taking this photo. There’s quite a few fruit and vegetable juice combinations to choose from on the menu, which all look interesting.

When Lee arrived with her dog, we had to relocate outside, where there were a handful of other people with dogs and people without dogs who just like the sun. It was a little warm, I probably got more sun than I have had in months whilst seated outside during our breakfast ;)

I ordered the hot cakes with mixed berries, premium yoghurt and maple syrup.

The hotcakes were of a nice consistency; although they were thick, they were springy throughout. The berries and yoghurt were a nice accompaniment, along with the maple syrup. I was extremely happy to see the unexpected extras on the plate: the cripsy almond biscotti resting in the yoghurt pot along with a slice of kiwi fruit and orange.

Lee ordered grilled peaches with fresh ricotta served with fig and fennel toast. They looked amazing and I believe she enjoyed them!

At the end of my meal, I was left wanting something salty (not really a fault of the dish). Lee said that the fig and fennel toast that she had was a little salty, which balanced the meal nicely, so I was a little envious of her meal choice. I always have this conundrum with breakfast that I want both sweet and savoury and it is often difficult to get both in the same dish.

Just a short post again as I have a mountain of study to get back to. As always, hope you enjoyed the photos :)

{ 2 comments }

The Beaufort Street Merchant – Mt Lawley

by Sab on September 29, 2010

Tonight I had dinner with Lee at The Beaufort Street Merchant in Mt Lawley. It was fun and delicious.

One of the male staff working at The Beaufort Street Merchant came up to me and loudly proclaimed “No photography!” as I was concentrating on squinting through my SLR’s viewfinder. I visibly jumped and looked up, guilty and about to apologise… then I saw that he was laughing at me! Hehe

I ordered the Coq Au Vin Pie which is described as “hearty peasant pie, filled with provincial slow cooked chicken coq au vin, on mash”. It was so good! The pastry around the soft chicken drumstick was light and crunchy. The sauce was really rich and gave a lovely flavour to the dish. I also ordered “petit greens, vinaigrette” to share which was a bowl of dressed leaves with crunchy bread croutons (in the bowl to the right of the picture below).

Lee ordered the Steak Fries Au Poivre which is “rib eye steak (400g) rubbed in herbs and garlic with our house chips and deluxe pepper sauce”. The chips were divine, I ate some and they tasted exactly like Original Kettle chips. The dish was sooo big, I was super impressed that Lee managed to finish it.

For dessert, we managed to squeeze in the chocolate tart. This was topped with crunchy honeycomb and came with a small saucer of cream.

After we packed in our dessert, we were definitely done for the night. I was so absorbed talking to Lee the whole night I didn’t realise there was a whole store area at the back with racks and racks of wine and a cheese fridge, amongst other things.