Restaurant Reviews

Paul’s Seafood on Gouger

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

Untitled

date of visit: Wednesday 24 July 2013

Almost four years since our last (blogged) visit to Paul’s. Andy loves this place and, in amongst the many many Asian eateries on Gouger Street, Paul’s is a blast of fresh sea air.

Paul’s is not a flashy, first date kind of venue. From the street, it looks like a fish and chip shop and that really is what it is. The fryer sits at the front of the shop, with a fridge of fish in front of it. Tables and chairs are basic and there is a tiny bar at the back, from behind which comes not only drinks but plates stacked with the basic salad, ready to be filled with fried, battered, crumbed or grilled seafood.

If you’re not in the mood for seafood, you don’t go to Paul’s: pretty much the only non piscine option is the garlic bread. The laminated menu lists the fish you can have (snapper, barramundi … you know the drill) and a basic specials menu might list things like salt and pepper soft shell crab or grilled moreton bay bugs.

Service is swift, making Paul’s an ideal venue for those with small people in tow (oh wait! that’s us!) or with somewhere else to be. We arrived around a quarter past five and while the restaurant wasn’t technically open yet, we were able to sit down, scan the menu and feed the toddler sultanas.

For the toddler, we chose the entrée portion of whitebait, while I had the salt and pepper squid (main portion, but I really could have done with the small option) and Andy had the soft shell crab. The whitebait came with some lettuce while the main courses came with lettuce, tomato and cucumber as well as Paul’s hand cut wedges.

I really like that the food is basic. The salt and pepper squid, at $20 a portion, tears strips off that which you’ll find similarly priced in a pub. I also much prefer the simple salad which is obviously crisp and fresh and NOT drowned in dressing. And the wedges are better too. Given that Andy always orders the soft shell crab when it’s on the menu, that must be good too. And the toddler rated the whitebait highly.

Service is relaxed and casual but efficient. Last night we were in the fortunate position of finishing our food before the toddler had finished his. The waitress cleared Andy’s plate, asking him if he had finished first. The toddler, clearly concerned that his little fish were about to disappear wailed “I not finished eating!” as she disappeared. Rest assured, the staff at Paul’s won’t allow your food to disappear …

For the three of us (food, a Boags and a glass of Skillogalee Riesling), after our Entertainment Book discount, the bill came to $55. A cheap, cheerful and tasty night out.

Pauls on Gouger on Urbanspoon

Chocolate Taperia

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

Untitled

date of visit:  Saturday 20 July 2013

So, going out for dessert is now a ‘thing’. There are dessert bars all over Adelaide, or so it seems and while I have one friend who is a devotee of one of them, so far I’ve not yet done the dessert thing.

Generally, I am lazy. Once I am sitting comfortably, with a glass of wine in hand, I see no reason to traipse around and (perish the thought!) queue to eat dessert.

However, one friend was unable to make dinner at The Himalayan Kitchen due to his hockey match, but he would be able to make it out to North Adelaide for dessert. I vaguely remembered there being a churros place on Melbourne Street, and the internet obliged with the details. And twitter supplied me with the recommendation that I book (thanks D!).

Thank goodness I did book because Chocolate Taperia was packed: I guess there’s something about a freezing cold night that makes everyone think that stuffing themselves with fried pastry dipped in chocolate is a good idea. Due to a last minute addition we squeezed around our table even though the staff looked a little muddled.

Chocolate Taperia suffers from its apparent popularity. Far too many tables and chairs have been packed into a small venue. This means that not only are you squeezing past people to get to your seat, it also means that the ambience is best described as ‘deafeningly noisy’. God help you if you are on a romantic night out because by the time you’ve bellowed at the waiter who can’t hear you, you’ll be so hoarse you won’t even be capable of whispering sweet nothings.

It took a while for our order to be taken (the menu is very short – even our table of 9 took but minutes to decide) and we really couldn’t shake the nervous feeling that really, things were pretty chaotic.

Those nerves were unfounded – our orders came out swiftly and accurately. And while I’m really not sure about having so little space that waiters are forced to pass food across the heads of diners, my churros hit the nail on the head.

They were light, they were crisp, they weren’t oily, they were dredged in sugar (seriously, they ARE doughnuts – one of my mates complained about the amount of sugar!), and the dark chocolate sauce which I ordered was not too sweet at all.

A serve of churros is $9, with sauce an additional $2.50. And a serve is large (5 or 6 churros). There was no way I needed to eat that much and I was lucky that I could palm off the odd half here and there to various people around the table (all of whom, apparently, didn’t need to eat any more but didn’t need too much egging on either).

But is a tasty dessert enough to salvage that frenetic ambiance? For me? No. I don’t want to feel stressed about my table or my order, I don’t want food waving over my head. And just because a venue is dimly lit, it doesn’t make it romantic.

I know that plenty of people will love what Chocolate Taperia provides – but for us, it just missed the mark.

Chocolate Taperia on Urbanspoon

The Himalayan Kitchen

- Alex Prichard 1 Comment

Untitled

date of visit: Saturday 20 July 2013

Time to corral the troops and head out for another big group meal. This is something that always ends up being surprisingly difficult and this time was no different, with last minute additions and amendments flying around as late as Saturday afternoon.

But at the last minute, everything came together and we (a group of eight) met at the Lord Melbourne for a pre-dinner drink (recommended by me for being cheap and relatively quiet at 6:30pm on a Saturday) before heading next door to The Himalayan Kitchen.

Andy and I have tried Nepalese once before (the Kathmandu Palace at Glenelg, a few years ago now!) and one other couple could even be considered veterans with two previous visits to the Himalayan Kitchen, but I think for everyone else this was a first. While Nepalese cuisine is easily described as ‘like curry’ I don’t think that’s entirely fair.

Because we are lazy (no, wait, maybe it’s because I’m lazy …) we opted for the banquet menu – available for parties of four or more. This removed any need for choosing dishes and, at $36.50 a head, was an absolute bargain.

While waiting, we started with a bottle of Fox Gordon Princess Fiano (very reasonably priced too) and it wasn’t long before our entrée platters arrived. The platters consisted of momo (Nepalese dumplings – very much like steamed gyoza/mandoo/jiaozi) served on a delicious, slightly spicy tomato sauce, spring rolls (chicken), onion pakora and sekuwa (chicken marinated in yoghurt, ginger and masala). For me the real star was the tomato sauce with the momo, closely followed by the momo themselves and the sekuwa. The spring rolls were highly rated at other parts of the table. I felt that the pakora really let the platter down as they were a little bit dried out in terms of texture (making them somewhat crumbly and claggy to eat) and unexpectedly bland in flavour.

Untitled

Main courses arrived and it was a very impressive spread of food: three meat based curries with a chickpea curry as well as dal, pumpkin, roti, pappadums and rice. The curries were fish, chicken and goat and the goat was definitely my favourite. There was a good level of chilli heat, as well as plenty of flavour and really tender meat. For anyone not getting enough chilli heat, some Nepalese pickled chillis were brought to the table – and when our waitress said they were hot she was NOT kidding. Proceed with caution!

Really, none of the main course dishes missed a trick. They were all delicious and worked well together and everyone loved the roti. There was a ton of food, with one of the waiting staff trying to make sure we all ate just a little bit more. But we did get to the point where we just really couldn’t finish everything off.

Our meal wrapped up with the owners’ daughter bringing out Nepalese singing bowls for everyone to try their hand at. I can quite confidently say that I was rubbish at it but it was quite a good laugh seeing one of my friends who is a bit stand offish with children be bossed around by a ten year old!

After our Entertainment Book discount, dinner, drinks and a generous worked out to a paltry $40 a head. Without the vouchers it would have been about $50 a head and still sensational value.

The Himalayan Kitchen is something of a trek if you live in the southern suburbs, but without a shadow of a doubt, it was worth it and I would return in a heart beat.

Himalayan Kitchen on Urbanspoon