adventures in travel

The Lounge Room – Guildford

Posted on October 23, 2011October 22, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I wish urbanspoon had an undecided rating. This would definitely be the verdict on The Lounge Room.
The inside was so pretty but the food was decidedly average.

I woke up this morning and wanted pancakes.

When the Mister said ‘Do you want to go to Guildford and go antiquing’ I jumped at the chance.
And we headed along to get a late breakfast. The first place to have pancakes on the menu was ‘The Lounge Room’.
The wind machine was on full blast, but we sat down in the comfy surrounds. The details were gorgeous. Butterfly shaped mirrors adorned picture frames and hand written messages of love were scribbled on the walls.
The background music was triple j circa 2005 which suited me just fine.

I ordered my pancakes and Mr P-D&S ordered a big brekkie with mushrooms as an extra.

Unfortunately both meals came out cold.
The pancakes were light and fluffy, with the berry sauce delicious and sweet. But the fruit on the side seemed like a bit of an afterthought.

The Mister rated the big brekkie a 7. And he is an expert on big brekkies. There was no hashbrown which was disappointing. The scrambled eggs looked light and fluffy, but the bacon was rubbery and the bread was toasted past the point of no return. Even the mushrooms were too cold.

I think we’ll have to try again some other time and order something else. It deserves a second chance.

Mrs.S

Posted on October 19, 2011October 22, 2011 by bekswhoknits

It was a hot Sunday and we wanted to get out of the house. So we had lunch at Mrs.S which is just down the road and always busy so we thought we’d give it a try.

The decor was lovely. It had an modern but homely feel.
The menus were golden books which is a totally cute idea.

There were flowers everywhere, with colourful aprons hanging on the walls.

My expectations were pretty high, but the menu didn’t live up to them.

Gluten free and organic food is pretty trendy at the moment. I know that because it’s everywhere!
And it was definitely the theme at Mrs.S

It was a pretty short menu which didn’t help.

My watermelon juice was beautiful. Very refreshing for a hot day, but Mr P-D&S didn’t like his apple juice.
It was freshly squeezed which I ended up finishing.

I had a chicken, pineapple, and herb salad. Which was very fresh. It could have used more salad, less herbs, but it didn’t quite hit the spot.
I could have used more (which is saying something because I had downed a couple of fish cakes before we even go there.

The Mr had a chicken penne with gorgonzola.
Again the portion was really small, and apparently if had way to many nuts. I don’t even remember seeing nuts on the menu.

It wasn’t terrible (well the Mr would disagree, he was not impressed at all), but if I was to go again it wouldn’t be for the food.

Brekky at chapels

Posted on October 15, 2011October 13, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Pictures presented without commentary.

Lunch in Freo

Posted on October 14, 2011October 13, 2011 by bekswhoknits

On a sunny Sunday arvo we went to Freo, with the hope of picking up some NFl or MLB gear from a stall in the markets.

They didn’t have any of our teams but we did have a nice lunch at Portorossa.

I only wanted a salad, but ended up with a veal sandwich.
It was delectable. There’s nothing worse than chewy meat in a sandwich, but I’m please to say this was nothing of the sort.

The Mister had a meat lovers pizza. Nothing too elaborate. It was a pizza.

But it was a beautiful day in freo, even if someone (me) was feeling cranky and overwhelmed by birds (slight phobia) and crowds (too polite).

Definitely return to sample more of their menu. And I liked that all 4 wait staff said ‘have a nice day’ when we left.

Manners cost nothing.

Celebratory dinner @ the queens hotel

Posted on October 5, 2011October 5, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Last weekend when we were at Piccos, the Mr and I decided that we wanted to try more new places, instead of the same old. How this works in with us starting to save for a house… well it doesn’t but if we’re going to eat out we may as well eat new.

So we had a bit of news to celebrate. I verbally accepted a job offer (very exciting, particularly as my current job isn’t guaranteed at the moment). There are still a couple of ways it could fall through, but being their “preferred choice” is rather exciting. There have been a few sleepless nights this week.

So on the back of that good news we decided to head towards Beaufort Street and find somewhere to eat.

Well Beaufort Street has a lot of tapas. Which is great. I like a bit of tapas. It always makes me think of the IT Crowd. In fact I may have put the Mr off tapas by referring to it as “little food from Spain”.

Anyways, after looking at 3 bars that only had tapas, 2 places that were closed, and Siena’s which we tend to go to all the time even though it has a terrible urbanspoon rating, we ended up at the Queens. Which we hadn’t been to for ages, but we used to go to all the time, particularly when we were first dating.

We wanted something hearty and we got it. At the perfect table right next the fire, we got in just before the rush. Which meant we got some awesome service. The waitstaff were jokey, friendly, and attentive. I had the kangaroo which was cooked to perfection. The tomato chutney was perfect, just tangy enough to complement the kangaroo without drying it out too much. The potato and horseradish rosti also went down a treat.

Mr polka-dots & sparkles had the 400g t-bone with garlic prawns and chips. It was the medium side of medium rare but it was spot on. 4 prawns is a good amount, and although there was a point where it looked like it was going to be too much, it all got polished off.

For some reason (maybe something to do with stress and hormones) I really wanted desert.
Fortunately they had a sticky date pudding on the menu. Unfortunately it was over half an hour between ordering and receiving our deserts.
We did get an apology, and it had got noticeably more busy whilst we were waiting, but it was just long enough for my headache to return.

The pudding was good, not the best I’ve ever had but that will take a lot to live up to. The Mr’s sundae looked good, but not half an hour’s worth of assembly.
Overall it was pretty good. Until the desert we really couldn’t fault anything.
It was still a good night, we just came away with headaches and stomach aches. We almost never have desert.

But I’ll be back there next Monday for a Ravelry s’n’b, unless I chicken out again. Or am still feeling horrible.

Piccos on Peninsula Rd

Posted on September 24, 2011September 25, 2011 by bekswhoknits

On a hungover Saturday, the Mr dragged me out to dinner and away from my tracky daks and tea (hangover essentials).
The promise was pasta and pizza. The place was Piccos. I didn’t even know where it was, even though it’s just 2 minutes up the road. Turns out I used to run past it all the time.

The location isn’t idyllic, but the attention to detail inside more than makes up for the location.

From the handwritten menu on the wall, to the table numbers, to the umbrella stand, every little detail had been thought of and executed beautifully.

We were unprepared as usual, so it was water only for the table but we’ll know for next time (and there will be a next time).

After the promise of pizza and pasta, we had to choose. The pizza menu had so many delicious items, but I couldn’t go past the bbq chicken, with capsicum and onion. It’s one of my favourites.

Mr Polka-dots&Sparkles, had the linguini cabonara.
The food was good, just what I felt like. And we were able to take the rest of the pizza home (which is great because I can never eat a full pizza).

But looking around at all the different foods around us, next time I think we’ll be a little bit more adventurous.

I really wanted to take photos of everything, the whole place was just so cute.

It’s a keeper.

A footy game, a gig, and 5 days of sleep

Posted on September 13, 2011September 15, 2011 by bekswhoknits

…and you will know us by the trail of dead… was absolutely epic on Sunday night.
Words can’t even begin to describe it. That moment when you hear the riff to one of your all-time favourite songs, surrounded by people who love them aswell.
I may have screamed a little.

Between that on Sunday night and the football on Friday night I slept.
And slept.
Like Rip Van Winkle type of sleep.
I’m still not 100% but I’m back at work. I lasted at work yesterday for a grand total of 45 minutes of everyone telling me that I looked awful so I went home and slept some more (and watched some bad television).

Lets hope the new rapture album, a spotlight catalogue, project runway Australia finale, and a bowl of mac and cheese hits the spot.
Failing that a hot bath and some hugs from my man (or my dolls which now live in my clean spare bedroom).

Too expensive for plastic seats – Avenue 9

Posted on September 6, 2011September 6, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I don’t like being disappointed by a restaurant.

Last week when we were on our way home from shopping (a desk, a sewing machine, a tripod, and a wii fitness game) and it was dreary and neither of us felt like cooking.

So we pulled into Avenue 9. And I’m a bit sad to say that I was disappointed.

It was very expensive for what it was. My Thai Beef Salad was $26, and it was drenched in dressing to the point that there was a pool on the bottom of the bowl.
The beef was cooked beautifully but there was too much dressing for my taste.

The Mister had the Chicken Caeser with Anchovies. The anchovies were on the side which was nice, but it was rather unremarkable. How hard is it for a resteraunt to do a chicken caeser these days.

And it took me a few looks at the beer list to find one that I would drink, which is usually not a problem for me.

The staff were really friendly and attentive but couldn’t pronounce the special of the day.

On our way out I did offer this feedback to the staff, who were quick to suggest they could definitely put the dressing on the side next time (which perhaps I should have done in the first place) but I don’t think there’ll be a next time.

If I’m paying $26 for a salad, I don’t want to be sitting on plastic seats.

Dwellingup – through J’s eyes

Posted on August 23, 2011October 5, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Any regular readers would know that J is my boyfriend, who I live with, who’s been the love of my life for the last 3+ years.
He is Mr MusicFoodLife, Mr Sparkleness, the loml (love of my life).
But mostly he’s J.

And these are his photos of our camping trip (slightly better quality than mine – he is definitely a better photographer.)

Just another lazy Sunday

Posted on August 22, 2011August 22, 2011 by bekswhoknits

We woke up in Dwellingup after a good night’s sleep on the stretcher beds.
My duffle bag did do a surprisingly good job as a pillow, J’s towel not so much.

It was a beautiful Sunday. There had been a little rain overnight but nowhere near as much as Sunday night (which luckily we were at home for, and not stepping out of a tent to 52mm of rain).
A hot cup of tea hit the spot, before a bacon, egg, mushroom, and tomato sandwich cooked on the gasmate.
A one fry pan meal means less washing up. It would have been better on the fire, but we had run out of firewood the night before.

After breakfast we went for an explore. J took me to where he went fishing last night. The river was flowing. There weren’t as many kayakers around as I expected.
We packed up the tent and went for a drive and checked out all the other places we can go.
We stayed at Baden Powell, and the time before was Lane Pool so next time (and there will be a next time) we’ll get organised and .
We turned on the The Twelfth Man and drove around, looking at the scenery. It is a beautiful place. So green and lush.

Heading home we stopped in Byford for a pie. It wasn’t great, but it still hit the spot.
It’s a good thing I love driving. Well I love sitting in the passengers seat. Listening to the football on talk back radio, knitting, and watching the world go by with my man by my side.

I had a long, long bath when we got home. Another one of my favourite parts or by-products of camping.

Dinner was Chinese Take-Away Wing Bo. It’s by far the best chinese restaurant we’ve found locally, even if we do have to walk there to pick it up.
We shared a chicken and sweet corn soup which hit the spot.
I had cashew beef with steamed rice. Which was delicious, but could have used some more cashews.
J had mongolian beef with noodles which was really tasty too. But I wasn’t allowed much of that.

Chinese food curled up on the couch watching movies (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, and then Gullivers Travels). It was a good way to end a camping weekend.