unley

Rosey’s Cafe, Unley

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

Big Breakfast at Rosey's

date of visit: Saturday 24 May 2014

Some of the best things in life are the unplanned things (something I could do with remembering occasionally …). Last Saturday saw us tootling around Unley mid-morning with tummies starting to grumble. We had finished all our chores (the best way to describe shopping for a shower screen) and coffee, at a minimum, was in order.

Rosey’s was chosen on nothing more scientific than the fact that it was in the right spot (the toddler currently walks about 2 metres before exclaiming “my legs are tired from all this walking”) and had a table free. We sat inside but Rosey’s also has a very cute covered courtyard – complete with blankets ready for the chilly weather.

I was all geared up for coffee and cake but, because Andy decided to have the big breakfast, I felt my arm twisted and ordered scrambled eggs with a side of chipolatas. With the toddler, you never know how much of your own food you’re likely to eat, so it’s always best to order more … Even though he’d already announced he wanted a chocolate brownie.

Coffees and a bottle of water under way we had only a short wait for our breakfasts. I personally think that scrambled eggs are always a marvellous test of a venue and Rosey’s eggs cut the mustard. Rather than a granular mess they were more like a very very soft folded omelette, with some chive running through them and arranged across some really good sourdough bread from Mylor Bakery.

Scrambled eggss& chipolatas at Rosey's

The chipolatas (a serve of 3, I was allowed to eat 1) were dense and full of flavour. Andy’s big breakfast was big and, aside from the mushrooms, was demolished smartly. Some reviews on urbanspoon complain that bacon is missing (it’s not – see the picture!) and one noted that the mushrooms were very vinegar-y. Yes, the mushrooms have been finished with a splash of Balsamic vinegar and yes, it is noticeable but I found them more than acceptable. The big breakfast was served across the same Mylor Bakery bread.

The chocolate brownies at Rosey’s are supposed to be amazing – but I wouldn’t know as I wasn’t allowed to try any. My child ploughed through half the brownie before pausing to eat chipolatas and then polished it off.

And the coffee? It was excellent.

The best part of our brunch at Rosey’s was the price. Yes, the big breakfast is $20 (it is a significant amount of food) but we left having spent $46. Considering that often we find ourselves spending close to $30 for coffee and cake for the three of us, this represented a bargain. My eggs were just $10 and would have been ample had I not known I was going to have to share.

Unfortunately for us, Rosey’s is a bit far from home to become a regular haunt, but anywhere that takes enough pride in its food to serve such good bread (and good eggs) gets a big tick from me.

Rosey’s Café
139 Unley Road
Unley SA 5061
phone: 08 7225 0690

Rosey's on Urbanspoon

The Snake Charmer, Unley

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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date of visit: Sunday 22 February 2014

Part of our grand plan when we headed to the Unley Ignite craft beer afternoon was to head out for an early dinner.

We are still at the point in the toddler’s life where an ‘early dinner’ means we sit down at 5:30pm (bed time is 7pm – he gets a bit of leeway if we go out!) and this generally limits our choice of venues. Many pubs don’t start serving dinner until 6pm which is just a bit late (especially if there’s a bit of travel involved) and generally I am thrown into some state of indecision – poring over the Entertainment Book, UrbanSpoon and blog reviews of restaurants. It’s ridiculous.

Fortunately, with Ignite being held on Unley Road there were plenty of options and we decided to wing it. One great thing about dining out at 5:30pm is that you do not need to worry about reservations!

As the natural accompaniment to beer is curry, we found ourselves headed to The Snake Charmer on Unley Road. It opens at 5:30pm and we were, literally, the first people through the door.

The interior decoration is quite dark and striking: bare brick walls and gold and black upholstery and certainly a lot smarter than I was expecting. We were greeted warmly, seated and we were so early we were given the Early Bird menu. If you arrive at opening and you can vacate your table by 7:15 pm then a cut down version of the menu sees entrées costing just $5.90 and main courses $9.90.

I duly asked the toddler what he wanted to eat to which he announced “BEEF!”. The beef options on the take away menu all fall into the ‘really spicy’ category (even I’m not stupid enough to feed vindaloo to a three year old!) so I chose the beef madras, Andy the rogan josh and our friend, Simon, the lamb saag. We also ordered entrées: onion bhaji for Andy, pakoras for me and samosas for the third party. To go with our main courses we ordered naan bread and rice. And, to start, we ‘shared’ pappadums (where ‘shared’ means that the toddler took possession of most of them).

Our entrées arrived quickly (no doubt helped by the encouragement from the toddler …. “where’s my fooooood?”). Andy’s onion bhaji arrived as individual onion rings (rather than clumped together patties) and they were very much enjoyed by his side of the table. My pakoras were excellent and the samosas seemed to go down well too. The entrées all scored big ticks and were very prettily presented.

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It is, of course, very hard to make a curry look pretty … Our main courses arrived, the toddler took one look at what was on the table and announced that the rogan josh was his (a relief for me with my beef curry!). Poor Andy would have enjoyed his curry had he been allowed to eat more of it! Fortunately, Simon also shared some lamb saag with both Andy and a starving small child. My beef madras was suitably spicy. I think my one criticism would be that each curry was bulked out by at least one piece of potato.

Fortunately for us, the toddler refuses to eat bread, so we all got to try some naan and Simon, being a very hungry sort, was able to finish off any left over gravy.

Of course, on an early bird menu, the dinner was super cheap (even with beers it came to under $30 a head) so it definitely represented sensational value. On top of this the food was good and the service was friendly and efficient.

A definite thumbs up!

The Snake Charmer
60 Unley Road
Unley SA 5061
phone: 08 8272 2624

Snake Charmer on Urbanspoon

Ignite Unley – Craft Brewery Afternoon

- Alex Prichard 1 Comment

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fun in the sun in Unley

date of event:  Saturday 22 February 2014

I honestly can’t remember which of the many emails that rest briefly in my inbox informed me that there was a craft brewery afternoon coming up in Unley. It was obviously one that I read though!

Ignite Unley has actually been a council of programme of summer events, each with a different theme and each free. The events started back in November so I appreciate that I’m very much behind the curve here.

It happened that on Saturday (the ‘craft beer’ themed day) we needed to be out and about anyway, so timing things to drop in and see what it was about was almost no effort at all. The events are held at the Soldiers Memorial Gardens, on the corner of Thomas Street and Unley Road (next door to the shopping centre that is opposite the Town Hall).

We arrived shortly before the 4pm kick off but the market stalls were all set up, a ‘drinking’ area (complete with security guards!) was cordoned off and music was playing. There were plenty of games and toys and tunnels and tents for little people and, while there might not have been quite enough chairs in the bar area initially, staff were on hand to sort this out.

The breweries that had set up shop were Gulf Brewery (based in Hahndorf), Prancing Pony (one of my favourites, based in Mount Barker), Birbeck’s and Barossa Valley Brewing, showcasing a range of beers and ciders. Birbeck’s Captain is very popular with me – if it weren’t quite so fizzy and served quite so cold it would almost qualify as a good session ale. It’s also very low in alcohol so it was perfect for anyone driving on the day.

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Birbeck’s Captain takes centre stage

As we were heading out for a curry (more on that later) we didn’t sample of any of the food on offer – but the toddler made good use of the play equipment (if you’ve never seen a three year old try to play badminton you should probably put it on your bucket list!) and we enjoyed sitting in the gardens and trying some new beers (well, that was Andy!).

It was a great use of public space and a really family friendly event. It would be lovely to see more councils put on events like this over the summer months: they’re a good way of fostering community spirit and a really obvious way for the council to participate in the lives of its ratepayers.*

The next Ignite Unley event is on Saturday 8 March – no food theme, but with a garden cinema from sunset. However, the Adelaide Fringe sees the same gardens host the Double Shot Unley Coffee Fiesta on Sunday 16 March (10am – 4pm) and on Saturday 5 April Ignite returns with wine and cheese.

I’d recommend checking out these events for yourself – even if you don’t live in the Unley area, the more successful they are, the more likely your own council will pick up on the idea!

*I’m aware our council rates pay for mundane, but very important, things like rubbish removal.  But seeing the money putting fun things in action is always good too!