Joan’s Pantry, Hawthornedene

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date of visit: Wednesday 20 July 2016

School holidays … a time to catch up with all those friends you don’t see during term time (er, and the ones you do see during term time too). Winter holidays are tricky – no one wants their house trashed by two five year olds who you can’t stick outside.

Our house was full of wine (long story), the friend’s house is having a ceiling repaired … so there was nothing for it but to choose a park and hope it didn’t rain on us.

Somewhat miraculously, even though it rained on us on the WAY to Apex Park, Hawthornedene, it was actually pretty dry at the park itself. After an hour or so running around and squeezing in some geocaching (an excellent way to keep small children occupied) it was time for a sit down and something to quieten down the inevitable wails of ‘I’m hungry’.

Part of our choice of Apex Park had been driven by the fact that Joan’s Pantry is right there. I’ve driven past it for years and years and years (and I’ve subsequently found out that a friend’s parents used to own it – got to love Adelaide!) but never been in. It’s had a recent refurb so while the outside looks relatively small, there is quite a lot of space inside.

We got in (luckily) just before the lunch rush and set about choosing food and drinks. A tactical mistake saw Master 5 opt for chocolate milk while his friend ordered an orange and mango juice. Oh no!

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After some agonising, I decided on the ‘Big Breakfast’. Even though it was lunch time and I didn’t really need a big meal, it worked out at about the same price as ordering eggs and a few other bits and pieces … PLUS it had HASH BROWNS! Master 5 chose the hot dog with onion from the child’s menu (he was originally tempted by the big breakfast too … but was swayed by his mate’s choice!).

As we sat waiting for our food and drinking our coffees, we realised that some of the tables around us were enjoying glasses of wine! Tactical beverage mistake number 2.

The food arrived swiftly and, overall, was very good. The boys’ hot dogs were ENORMOUS – for $7.50 two big ‘halves’ of a hot dog, complete with onion (if requested!) and sauce. It looked like good quality bread too. And guess what? Master 5 was unable to eat all of his. There’s a first time for everything!

The big breakfast was indeed big. Mine was with scrambled eggs which were delicious. I hoovered them up sharpish before starting on the remainder. The mushrooms were delicious (not those horrible insipid watery mushies you so often get) as was the grilled tomato. Naturally the hash browns went down a treat and the bacon and sausage were lovely too. After all of that I could hardly make a dent in the big slab of toast. And the bowl of chips we’d also ordered? Yeah … we didn’t need that at all!

The one downer was that my friend had ordered poached eggs with her big breakfast and they were both firm in the middle. Always disappointing – and perhaps I didn’t help by smugly remarking how good my scrambled eggs were!

Joan’s Pantry gets a big tick from me (hmmm, is it just the hash browns?) and, judging by how busy it got, it would appear that the locals and visitors feel the same. If you are planning a visit – particularly on a weekend or during school holidays – I recommend you give them a call.

And hopefully, my next visit will be sooner rather than later.

Joan’s Pantry
7 Watahuna Avenue
Hawthorndene 5051
phone: (08) 8278 2091

Joan's Pantry Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

50sixone

ice cream
House made ice cream

date of visit: Saturday 16 July 2016
disclaimer: I was a guest at the launch

50sixone (the name is, indeed, Hyde Park’s postcode) is the latest addition to King William Road. Although it’s billed as the street’s newest dessert bar, it will actually serve you plenty of savoury food too. It opens at 7am – and if red velvet pancakes first thing are not your thing, then you do have plenty of interesting choices.

The launch party was (bravely I think!) held on a Saturday morning. It was great weather, King William Road was busy and 50sixone was filling up with Adelaide food lovers and media.

While we enjoyed some bubbles (civilised at any time of day) we were able to take in the fit out and photograph an array of full size dishes that had been pre-prepared. After the official opening by Unley’s Lord Mayor, Robert Clyne, we were then treated to a selection of mini-treats from the kitchen.

salmon and fennel
the full size ‘salmon and fennel’ – $21

We had little smoked salmon canapés based on the menu’s ‘salmon and fennel’ followed by the smoked salmon slider from the ‘breakfast sliders’ trio. Our final savoury taster was the crispy corn fritter which was lovely. The fritter really was crispy and it was topped with a bacon jam.

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‘breakfast sliders’ – smoked salmon slider on far left – $17

Then it was on to things sweet. Mini red velvet pancakes, peanut butter ice cream sandwich (which you’ll find on the menu as ‘between two cookies’ – your choice of ice cream) and then Andy and I wrapped up by sharing the ‘Oreo you glad to see me’ shake. Unless you’re a particularly thirsty sweet tooth, I’d suggest ensuring you find a friend to share a shake with – they’re not small!

oreo milkshake topped with zeppola and cream
Oreo you glad to see me? – $17

I really enjoyed everything I tried, particularly the smoked salmon slider. Obviously, for hardened dessert fans, this place will be heaven but it’s great to see that other tastes have been catered to too. The ice cream is housemade and looked absolutely amazing – and if you’re really keen you can pre-order Australia’s most expensive ice cream. It might be $55 a pop but it is all layered up with gold leaf!

There’s been a lot of hype around 50sixone’s launch and I understand that at the moment it can be ridiculously busy. I almost returned in the final week of school holidays (until my friend and I realised that we’d never get our five year olds to eat anything but ice cream!) which might have been a bit chaotic for me. However, I definitely plan to head back and check out both a savoury dish and some of that ice cream.

50sixone
144a King William Road
Hyde Park SA 5061
phone: 8271 2003

Sumac Cafe, Goodwood Road

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date of visit: Saturday 1 August 2015

A couple of months back we were driving down Goodwood Road for some reason and spotted Sumac Cafe. After dark it’s a bit hard to miss – the windows are rather boldly edged with brightly coloured fairy lights making it seem, at first glance, rather less like a cafe.

As we’re both big fans of middle eastern food it went on the ‘to-do’ list and we almost made it there a month or so ago but some really feral weather put us off driving ‘too far’. Last weekend, there was no excuse.

We’d done our research and knew that Sumac was open all day, so our need to eat early wouldn’t be a problem. Even so, when we we arrived there were still quite a few tables occupied.

While the cafe feels quite large and spacious there’s not actually that many tables so if you were wanting to eat at a more sensible time than 5:30pm I’d recommend booking.

Everything is very casual – the menus are laminated and you order and pay at the counter and receive a table number. There’s a fridge for drinks and a water fountain. The cafe is unlicensed so don’t head along expecting a beer!

The menu is not excessively long and most of the options are based around platters, so this is an ideal venue if you like sharing your food. For any conservative eaters, there are burgers, and there are also middle eastern style pizzas, flavoured with things like za’atar. There are a few pictures on the menu so Master 4 decided he wanted the felafel plate ($9.90 for 6 felafel, pickles and tahini) while we chose the kebab/shaslik platter – $21.90 for one each of chicken, lamb and kofta kebabs, served with rice, salad (choice of fattoush or tabouleh), pickles, babaghanoush, hummous and toum. Of course, you also get pita bread on the side.

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The food came out reasonably quickly – the grill is open to the restaurant so you get an excellent idea of what’s currently being cooked and how far off your food is. Obviously, it was not quickly enough for Master 4 (any tips on how to stop your four year old bellowing “Where’s my food?” greatly appreciated!) but when it arrived it was all hot, fresh and delicious.

For me, the revelation of the meal was the toum. Perfectly white, slightly lumpy in appearance, this is one ferociously garlicky sauce. To say it is like aioli is not really fair because aioli has eggs in it and toum is all about the garlic. It is basically garlic and oil. I don’t know whether toum is a peculiarly Lebanese thing or not – I’ve never knowingly had it in other middle eastern countries (and I’ve never been to Lebanon) but certainly, if you believe the internet, the Lebanese lay claim to it. Now I’ve discovered it, I don’t really care. After scoffing an unfair proportion of that served to us (unfair in both that I deprived Andy of a 50% portion and then breathed all over him!), I announced that it would be perfect on a big slice of bread or toast. It really is that good!

There were other things on the plate – the kebabs were all delicious, the fattoush was good (lots of crispy bread on top – yum!) and I also liked the lightly spiced rice and the hummous. Babaghanoush I never like (I did try it, I promise!).

The pickles were also tasty – pickled chillis that weren’t too hot, olives and some alarmingly bright pink pickle which I have since discovered is turnip and beetroot. It was really crunchy with a relatively neutral savoury pickle flavour. At the time, we couldn’t pick what it was.

We probably didn’t order quite enough food because of course we had to share our kebabs and rice (in particular) with Master Four who only reluctantly let us try his felafel (and only once he had established he was completely full). There was a family platter on offer and I think that might have been a better choice – something we can try out next time we head there!

Because I love middle eastern desserts and pastries we decided to investigate dessert – something of a rarity for us. I was really disappointed that the only desserts (or sweet things) on offer were all decidedly western European. Custard tart, cannoli, muffin? I asked about baklava and was told that they had sold out. I think that’s a bit of stock control that needs redressing – if you’re out of baklava at 6:30pm on a Saturday night the chances are there will be a few unhappy customers later in the evening.

One thing to be aware of – the cafe is also home to three massive TV screens. I don’t know why people do it. There was no sound, but TV screens are these horrible, horrible things that magically suck everyone into gawping at them and they have no place in a cafe or restaurant.

TV screes and fairy lights aside – we’ll definitely be heading back to Sumac and we left feeling it was quite a shame we didn’t live in the area so we could also make use of the takeaway side of the business!

Sumac Cafe
576-590 Goodwood Road
Colonel Light Gardens SA 5041
phone: 08 8177 1458

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