Author: Alex

Lucky Lupitas

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LUCKY LUPITAS HAS NOW CLOSED.

date of visit: takeaway Saturday 10 March 2012, dine in Saturday 24 March 2012

Up front, I would like to say I have no idea about Mexican food. I have not been to Mexico and I have not been to the parts of the US that are famous for their Mexican food. I don’t think I’ve ever even read a Mexican cookbook.

Lucky Lupitas seemed to take ages to open. It’s in the small group of shops on South Road by Flinders Medical Centre. It’s been a pretty dull group of shops but things are changing – Maru, a Japanese and Korean restaurant opened last year, and it looks like a Greek restaurant is on its way too. This is something of a bonus for us, because it’s all nice and close to home. We spent ages watching Lucky Lupitas turn into a restaurant and we stalked its facebook page, willing it to hurry up and open.

And open it did. I think it’s only been open now a month or two and we were down there ordering takeaway before its menu appeared on its website (thankfully, that’s been rectified). Andy popped out a Saturday night to source the food. It was probably around 7pm and apparently the restaurant was packed, with people queuing out the door, so he ordered quickly and rushed home with the food.

Unfortunately, ordering quickly was something of a mistake, as we ended up with two entrées as the total sum of our meal! For takeaway food it was beautifully presented: my chicken and mushroom quesadilla was decorated with coriander garnish and wedge of lime and Andy’s smoked chicken empanadas came with all the requisite salsas. It also tasted very good – so much so that it was inhaled before there were any photo opportunities. And then we sat around looking a bit sad and feeling a bit hungry.

Of course, we now had a menu so we could look over it and imagine what might have been.

A baby free evening gave us a window to pop in to Lucky Lupitas and try a bit more food. Unfortunately, LL doesn’t take bookings – you just have to chance it. This is not something I’m a fan of but I can see how a booking system just wouldn’t work at Lucky Lupitas.

This is not a restaurant you go to for a long, relaxing meal. It’s noisy, it’s busy, it’s packed full of people, the kitchen is open. The idea is that you head in, eat your food, drink your beer and then you head out.

We arrived just after 6pm (which is when I thought Lucky Lupitas opened – but it actually opens at 5:30pm), and walked straight into a table for two. Which is lucky, because I don’t queue. Now, I was there to try the beef ribs (Adelaide’s first and only slow cooked smoked beef ribs, apparently) so imagine my disappointment when the beef ribs (supplied by Feast Fine Foods) were already sold out! I decided to try the chicken empanadas and revisit the quesadilla. Andy, not being difficult, started with a taco and followed that with a hamburger and chips.

Order placed, beer in hand, I was pleased when our waiter came back and said that the next batch of ribs would be ready for me to have them as a main course. Hooray! Ribs with chimmichurri sauce for me!

Again, the entrées were beautifully presented and still tasted just as good. Our main courses arrived – and let me tell you, beef ribs are quite large. I never really think about how big a cow is but actually, they are quite big and their ribs are quite big. As in, pretty close to the size of my forearm*. Two monster ribs sat in front of me, smothered in chimmichurri sauce, nestled on a bed of rice with a bit of fresh, crunchy slaw on the side.

Before I even started I knew I was defeated. So I ate my way through the larger of the two ribs and then made Andy eat the other. Smoky, tender, tons of flavour.

Andy’s burger and chips looked pretty good (I was so full there was no way I was going to even ask for a bite) – in my opinion the burgers are really sensibly sized. They’re not your typical massive pub burger, laden with 100 toppings, one of which is a suspect meat patty. You will need to order the chips to go with it. But don’t worry as you won’t leave hungry.

So – the food at Lucky Lupitas is awesome. It is, however, a restaurant you need to go to with the right mind set (for example, I would never take my dad there – no matter how much he’d love those ribs he’d never queue and the noise and hustle and bustle would drive him insane). I’d also not recommend taking any really little people there – there’s no room for high chairs and there’s certainly no room for children to run amok. But as Lucky Lupitas offers take away (and there is even talk of a delivery service) you can just ring up and eat your ribs/tacos/quesadillas in the comfort of your own home.

And if you are eating in – GET THERE EARLY.

* I am not a very big person, admittedly.

Lucky Lupitas on Urbanspoon

Tasting Australia – Best of British

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Best of British

Disclaimer: I received a basket of scones and jam from the Intercontinental, along with the information about this event.

Hopefully everyone knows that Tasting Australia is coming up at the end of April. I’ve already written about the pasta events that will be happening.

Of course, masterclasses are not the be all and end all of Tasting Australia – there are plenty of dinners, lunches and breakfasts to be had along the way. One such dinner is the Best of British dinner which takes place on Monday 30 April at the Intercontinental. This dinner is not only an excuse to eat a lot of good food but part proceeds will support the Australian athletes heading to London for the Olympic games in August.

The star of the chefs is Mark Hix (formerly chef director of Caprice Holdings which includes London icons such as The Ivy and J Sheekeys, and now running his own venture, which includes the Hix Oyster and Chop House). Hix is also very much a champion of British food – his British Regional Food being one of the modern bibles on the subject (and, I note, a book missing from my own collection …).

Hix will be joined by British expats now based in Australia:  Simon Bryant, Jeremy Strode and Matthew Kemp. The menu features Brit dishes such as steak and kidney pudding, smoked eel, lamb and a selection of UK cheeses put together by Will Studd. You can see the full menu on the Intercontinental’s website.

Tickets, limited to 300, are $195 per person and are available through ticketek.

A Mother’s Milk

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date of visit: Thursday 22 March 2012

A Mother’s Milk has been on my radar for a while (not that long as it did only open in January) but dragging myself out to Unley for a coffee has seemed like just a bit too much hard work. Certainly not the type of thing I’d manage on the spur of the moment.

But a bit of planning saw me finally make it to A Mother’s Milk – even if I ended up parking miles away (thank YOU, Parkside, and your warren of one way and blocked off street madness) and arriving for my coffee date late.

It’s a tiny café and when I arrived (baby and stroller in tow) I could hardly get into the front room. Fortunately, a kind patron opened the door for me and we squeezed in. Also, very fortunately, there are a couple of small rooms out the back – so don’t be put off if you turn up and it looks full. There might be a spot for you yet!

I headed out to the back room and we got ourselves settled in. Baby ensconced in high chair it was time to think about me. Unfortunately, they had run out sweet things – apparently they had had cakes, friands, muffins … and they were all sold out. Oh no! It was only half past 2, too! I was saved by the fact that, on the menu, they had sourdough served with goat’s curd and fig jam. That would more than do! As I hadn’t had lunch, I was not prepared to share (a serve is two chunky slices)!

The sourdough was great – it hit the spot, the jam, from Dirty Girl, had massive chunks of fig in it. It was very good – the type of thing you could eat out of the jar and justify as healthy because of the fruit content. The tiny bits of crust I gave to the baby were very much appreciated – so definitely pan-generational appeal there.*

The coffee is pretty good. To be honest, I found my cafe latte a little on the strong side (more milk please!) and I did order a second, requesting a weak one, but there was no difference which was a shame. However, that doesn’t mean the coffees weren’t good – they were, and if I’d been ordering long blacks I probably would have been really happy. I just like my cafe lattes really milky.

What marked out this visit was the fact that the staff were incredibly chilled out and accommodating. We were two adults and two babies and one of the babies was having something of an issue with being dragged out for coffee. The little chap was inconsolable unless he was trying to run out the door onto Unley Road but the staff remained even tempered, and attempted to chat to him, distract him and generally make it a good experience for everyone. No parent enjoys their baby being so distressed, and disapproving looks really don’t help the situation, so it was lovely to be made to feel welcome despite the rather large amount of noise our little group was making at various times!

Absolute top marks for service. I thought perhaps the food was a little expensive ($9 for the sourdough) but the coffees, at $3.30, were reasonable.

I’d definitely be happy to head back.

* The babycino also received the seal of approval.

A Mother's Milk on Urbanspoon