Another early morning saw us driving into the city, where we had to make a drop off to the central bus station. Since we left before breakfast, we made our way to the eastern side of the Adelaide city centre to have a hearty meal. With many fabulous choices available we opted for the family owned and run café restaurant called Milano Cuccina.
Milano Cuccina interior
Milano Cuccina is located on the corner of Hutt Street and Wakefield Street on the bottom floor of the channel 10 building. The cafe restaurant offers diners a traditional casual breakfast or an Italian influenced lunch and dinner service.
Upon entry into the establishment we were warmly greeted by one of the staff and offered multiple tables to sit at. We decided to sit at a comfortable looking booth and started by ordering some smooth creamy and delicious coffees.
Two Lattes and a Cappuccino
The waitresses were friendly and efficient and have some of the nicest Italian accents around. Not what you expect in little old Adelaide. Personally I liked their accents, because I could imagine myself sitting in a cafe in northern Italy ordering a meal from a local. The breakfast menu is fairly traditional with most of the dishes commonly found in most cafés around the city. I didn’t mind this because it was quite easy to come to a decision when choosing what to have.
We ordered the Milano Big Breakfast; the Eggs Benedict without ham for our vegetarian and some plain toast with that all important Vegemite.
Milano Big Breakfast
My Milano Big Breakfast consisted of two poached eggs on a couple of pieces of toast, bacon rashers, a pork sausage, fried tomato, a field mushroom and wilted spinach, served with a hash brown. The serving was quite large and filling, with the majority of the dish nicely cooked. My only concern was that the pork sausage was a little dry, a tad bit overcooked and I was unable to finish it.
Eggs Benedict without ham, served with two hash brownsPlain Toast with Vegemite
The Eggs Benedict arrived at the table and looked rather plain on the plate. Our resident vegetarian was still happy with the dish, but couldn’t complete the whole dish (she’s quite little, and not a big eater). As for the toast, it is what you should expect. Simple, warm and easy to spread.
The interior of Milano Cuccina is quite comfortable. They have a couple of booths, a main seating area and al fresco dining for those perfect Adelaide days. The interior is colour coordinated and decorated nicely with photos and sport memorabilia hanging from the walls. They also show their support of upcoming Adelaide events with promotional material available near the front door.
al fresco dining
Overall Milano Cuccina is a friendly everyday cafe restaurant. Their breakfast is quite common but good. The servicing staff is pleasant and the strong Italian accents are nice to listen too. They are also available in the Entertainment book for a dining discount. For the full Italian dining experience I recommend trying their Italian influenced menu for lunch and dinner. So when you’re in Adelaide pop into Milano Cuccina and tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
I know I might be biased but the city of Adelaide and the surrounding wine areas are a fantastic place to visit and live. This has been endorsed by travel reporting mega giants the Lonely Planet with Adelaide and South Australia being ranked number 5 in the best regions to visit in the world (woo hoo, home town pride). This fabulous endorsement means additional visitors to Adelaide and with many good hotels in Adelaide, where should you stay? Our team headed into town to see what the Hilton Adelaide Hotel has to offer.
Hilton Adelaide Hotel
When you know where you’re going and are considering booking a hotel, what are the things you look for? Do the hotels need to offer other facilities like, gyms, swimming pools, restaurants, health spas, business centres or bars? Or are you just looking for a clean room to sleep in free of those pesky bed bugs? Are you a hotel shopper, looking for the best price, or are you loyal to a particular hotel brand?
Hotel loyalty may be new to many of you, but like airlines, hotels offer their customers the option of joining their loyalty programs. If you tend to spend a lot of time in hotels, then remaining loyal and amassing your stays or nights within a certain hotel chain is the way to go. The Hilton Adelaide Hotel is such a hotel that offers its customers earned benefits when staying at any Hilton branded hotel. Their Hilton Honors program allows qualified customers chances for room upgrades, complimentary breakfasts, and access to their executive lounges to name a few.
Victoria Square Water Fountain
As recent Hilton Honors Gold members, we thought we’d experience the benefits for ourselves. We decided to book a King Hilton Guest Room and made our way into the city. The Hilton Adelaide Hotel overlooks Victoria Square in the heart of the city.
Reception Desk – Welcome to the Hilton Hotel Adelaide
Upon entry into the hotel the reception desk is located to the left and the Collins Bars is down a short corridor on the right. On check in the hotel staff were very friendly and we were immediately upgraded to a King Hilton Executive room.
King Executive Room
We were soon in the elevator and making our way up to our room. The King Hilton Executive Room are quite spacious with plenty of room to swing a cat (no animals were harmed during the review of this hotel). There are complimentary magazines and water available in the room and the Wi-Fi is easy to access and free. The King sized bed is very comfortable with your choice of pillows, based on your preferences.
The usual hotel room amenities
Rooms offer the usual features like a television with local and paid channels. There is also a selection of in-house movies available. Coffee and tea is also provided and the extremely old bar fridge is fully stocked. The room also has a safe for the security conscious, an iron and ironing board, and a hair-dryer for the large bathroom.
This would be the oldest fridge I’ve seen. Carbon footprint! What carbon footprint!
The bathroom is large and contains a bath tub and a separate shower cubicle. Bathroom amenities and towels are refreshed with the room serviced daily.
Nice large clean bathroom with separate bathtub
By booking the King Hilton Executive room or having enough hotel status provides access to the executive lounge on the sixteenth floor. The comfortable lounge is a good place to relax, catch up on some reviews on your laptop or at the desktop computers provided. You can help yourself to the complimentary drinks or snacks like these beautiful macaroons.
Executive Lounge located on the 16th floorThese Macaroons were sensational.
The Hilton Adelaide Hotel offers many other facilities for their customers. Their small Swimming Pool is located on the first floor balcony. Amazingly, this balcony area is a little stark, one end of the balcony has the pool and the other half is just a large empty space. This large area could be utilised a lot better to give the hotel added value, something like a balcony bar or outdoor dining area.
The hotel swimming pool, a bit cold and rainy today for a dip.
The Gym is also located on the first floor which looks out across the pool. This fully equipped gym with an attached spa and sauna area is immaculate, well presented and everything you want from a gym.
Fully equipped gym overlooking the swimming pool.
If you don’t want a full gym workout then the hotel also has a tennis court and small running track.
Tennis court and small running track.
If you are getting hungry or thirsty then head to the ground floor and get comfortable in the popular Collins Bar, or feast at Coal Cellar + Grill the Hilton’s on site restaurant. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served at Coal daily. We decided for breakfast at Coal and with an enormous selection of food options, you will not go hungry eating here.
The Breakfast Bar in Coal Cellar + GrillLounge bar area next to Coal
Overall the Hilton Adelaide Hotel provides good service to its customers, with comfortable well maintained rooms. Some of the furnishings and facilities like the tennis court and pool area are out-dated but the hotel is working to rectify this. The hotel has an excellent restaurant in Coal Cellar + Grill and the popular Collins Bar is always good for a relaxing nightcap.
The Hilton Adelaide Hilton experience was definitely worth it, and they have rooms available from the standard guest room to executive room and suites. So book a stay today and tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
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Additional information
233 Victoria Square, Adelaide SA 5000
Ph: +61-8-8217-2000
Website: www.3.hilton.com
Rooms available from approximately AUD$150 – AUD$400 per night
I probably drive to the city once or twice a week. I head down busy Port Road which seems to always have road works happening. During these trips I pass My Tho City Restaurant and wonder how much business they get and if the food is good. The My Tho City Restaurant is a lone restaurant located on a busy section of Port Road within a business area. Every time I drive past, I’m either in bumper to bumper traffic, or accelerating to get away from the traffic lights to get ahead of the traffic flow following.
During a recently planned family get together, it was suggested by Josie’s cousin that we give My Tho City Restaurant a try and we jumped at the chance. The restaurant is a located at 199 Port Road Hindmarsh and offers its customers Vietnamese cuisine. It is situated in a renovated house between two buildings which looks a bit out of place. Once there we had no trouble parking with various choices available along Port road or if you feeling healthy you can park in the Adelaide Entertainment car park and walk the 5 minutes back to the restaurant.
Outdoor dining area
The converted home has an outside undercover dining where the front verandah would normally be and the interior has been opened up to allow a large dining area. The main dining room is decorated with various traditional Vietnamese items, a large fish tank and a bar area.
Anybody up for a ride?Drink anyone, they have a good selection of wines to choose from.
The menu is fairly extensive with a large selection of traditional Vietnamese dishes and a good selection of local wines. If you can’t choose a wine they do allow BYO with a AUD$15 corkage fee. With so many good dishes to sample we noticed that they offer four banquet options that give you the chance to sample a variety of different dishes. We opted for the AUD$34 per head banquet called “The Gourmet”. The gourmet banquet consisted of six dishes with tea or coffee to finish. The first dish was the My Tho mixed entrée plate, which contained chicken skewers, golden spring rolls, fried wonton and crispy sesame prawn toast. We all had a decent share of the plate and each sample was a perfect starter to a long meal.
This entrée mixed plate was the perfect starter to a good meal
The next dish to arrive was their beef salad sensation, a fresh cos lettuce leaf, cabbage, onion and beef, topped with a savoury dressing, coriander and broken peanuts. The salad was refreshing and the subtle flavours cleansed the palate.
Beef salad sensation
Our third dish for the evening was their salt and pepper squid in light spices. They were lightly battered, salt and peppered portions which were cooked to perfection. The soft texture from the lightly oiled batter and the perfectly cooked squid lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper was delightful.
Salt and Pepper Squid
Soon the grilled chicken in herbs and spices arrived and was once again topped with a crumbled nut. The chicken was good without being exceptional. It was nicely cooked and the chicken skin was covered with various herbs and spices, but the flavour was a little too delicate to make it memorable.
Grilled Chicken in herbs and spices
A combination chicken hot pot with roasted cashew nuts and a large serving of special fried rice, were the final two dishes of the banquet. The combination hot pot, was full of chicken, prawns, bok choy, baby corn, capsicum, carrot and green beans. The hot pot had a good balance of textures and flavours. The large serving of special fried rice was not fancy. You can get the same dish from any Asian restaurant, but it was filling and rounded off the perfect meal.
Combination chicken with roasted cashew nut hot potSpecial Fried Rice
After the meals are complete and the dishes are cleared, we finished it all off with a final cup of tea or coffee.
Overall the My Tho City Restaurant wasn’t what I expected. This nice comfortable restaurant isn’t in the best location on Port road, due to the volume of traffic that can bank up. But I could happily go back and do it all again. The service staff were attentive and welcoming. There also weren’t too fussed with me walking around taking photos, so that’s a bonus. The My Tho City Restaurant is well worth the stop, so don’t be like I was and drive by saying “I’ll might try that one day”. My advice is don’t just say it, do it, and when you do, tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
My Tho City Restaurant rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)
I have been regularly driving past the Red Lime Shack for a couple of years now and thinking I must try them out. Finally we got there, and I can promise it will not take as long to go back again!
The Red Lime Shack is a vegan cafe situated on St Vincent Street in Port Adelaide. It has been around for a few years now and has had accolades in the past with The Advertiser voting their veggie burger the best in the state in 2014.
Red Lime Shack
The cafe itself has a very strong community feel to it. The furniture is a mismatched hodgepodge of comfy chairs and sofas, with some areas with tables for food, but others for relaxing with a coffee. There are also tables outside for when the weather is nice or if you have your doggy friend with you. There are many causes being promoted on the counters and surrounds, with paintings and other items for sale from local artists. The walls are covered in posters promoting local events or events that will appeal to the vegan community.
Red Lime ShackRed Lime ShackComfy seats inside, other seating outside.
My favourite part of the cafe was a free book exchange. Customers are free to swap any books they like from the shelves with ones they have finished reading. There looked to be a decent selection of books on the shelves just waiting to be picked up. Next to the shelves was also a small table to cater for children with some colouring items and toys. Overall, there is a great atmosphere at the Red Lime Shack and I felt immediately comfortable and relaxed.
Book ExchangeKids corner
We had called in for lunch. I myself am not vegetarian, but my dining companion was. The menu is actually vegan, but had a great range of items. Red Lime Shack is a breakfast/lunch/coffee venue, so they serve an all day breakfast menu. We chose to have the fruit salad from the breakfast menu but without banana, and this was no problem at all. Of course we also had to try the award winning burger – this one was a pecan, sweet potato and maple patty with fresh salad, onion jam, mustard and tahini mayo. There was also the option of a gluten free bun, but we went with the standard. This was washed down with a BerryRipe fruit smoothly.
Fruit SaladBerryRipe Fruit SmoothieVeggie BurgerSome of the pies for dessert.
It’s hard to say much about a fruit salad, but this one was fresh and plentiful for the AUD$9 we paid for it. The burger for AUD$11 was delicious, not at all dry like some veggie burgers I have tried in the past, and with a great mix of flavours. The only bad part was that it was so filling we had to forgo the signature raw lime pie for dessert.
We also did not get a chance to try the organic coffees, but will be back to do so. There is a frequent customer offer with coffee, once you buy seven, the eighth cup is free. Another menu item at the Red Lime Shack is a Suspended Coffee. As a customer I can purchase one, but it is held to be served to a local disadvantaged community member at a future date. Just another way the local community is being supported by this great cafe.
Overall a great, economical place to grab a quick lunch or breakfast in Port Adelaide, to have a business meeting or to meet friends for a coffee. The food may be vegan, but it is tasty and you will not even notice the missing ingredients. Their menu can be found on the website here to get you drooling before you arrive and remember to tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
Red Lime Shack Rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)
We have recently had some helpful comments from our readers telling us that the reviews and photos we are posting is making them hungry. Here’s this posts disclaimer. Warning this upcoming post may cause hunger pangs, and a genuine desire for you to go to your local produce market! With that out of the way, if you’re in Adelaide or travelling there soon, head to the Adelaide Central Market and purchase some of the fresh local and internationally sourced produce available.
The Adelaide Central Market is located in Chinatown, between Grote and Gouger Streets in the city centre. There are many small Asian shops leading into the main market area with a popular Asian food court. Once in the market, take a walk around and experience the hustle and bustle of local chefs and shoppers purchasing their produce for their restaurants and families. Our recommendation is to make sure you take your time discovering what’s on offer.
A large selection of mettwurst, salami, and sausage. Everything has its place, everything in its place.All stacked neatly, how can you resist this fresh fruit.
The market has a large assortment of quality goods, and you don’t have to go to far for that hard to get recipe ingredient. On our discoveries we found whole fresh truffles at a mushroom vendors.
Proudly Kangaroo Island selling local KI products including Mulberry Gin
Whilst there you will notice trendy business people sitting at the many eateries around having a quick bite to eat or conversing over freshly made coffee.
Everybody wants to eat at Le Souk, quick get those four seats before someone else does!Which coffee bean would you select? Choices, so many choices.
The Adelaide Central Market’s range of stalls doesn’t just revolve around food. Shoppers have the opportunity to purchase wine, flowers or books as well.
Did I miss an anniversary? Better buy flowers, just in caseMaybe a nice bottle of wine to go with those flowersWine and flowers might not be enough, I’ll just grab a book, what does she read again.
The market has a little bit for everyone. Street art murals, cooking classes from some of South Australia’s best chefs and chocolates, and sweets for the children.
Adelaide is full of great street artCan’t go past the raspberries and pineapplesCharlesworth Nuts, a local nut institution
When is it open?
The Adelaide Central Market trades from Tuesday to Saturday and is closed Sunday and Monday.
Tuesday – 7am – 5:30pm
Wednesday – 9am – 5:30pm
Thursday – 9am – 5:30pm
Friday – 7am – 9pm
Saturday 7am – 3pm
For more information visit their website here. Depending on how much time you have available, you could easily waste a day exploring and enjoying the Adelaide Central Market. So do yourself a favour and indulge in some of South Australia’s local produce. Remember, when you’re purchasing from the stalls, don’t forget to tell them, Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
If you love cheese, the Smelly Cheese shop has plenty on offerGrains, Legumes, pesticide free.All the makings of a great antipasta
Located at 170 O’Connell Street, Beyond India is a popular Indian restaurant on the busy restaurant strip in North Adelaide. We visited on a Saturday night with a group of seven people to enjoy their authentic cuisine.
On arrival Beyond India was already bustling with people. I was very glad we had made a booking as I think it would be unlikely to find many free tables on a Saturday night. We were seated immediately, and while waiting for the rest of our group were offered drinks. The waitress was quite attentive throughout the evening often visiting our table to ask if we wanted more drinks or food.
Beyond India have an extensive menu for food and wine, including two different types of banquets. Prices for mains range from AUD$14 to AUD$28, with most meals falling between AUD$18-$20. We decided to order as a group, so we could all try a few different mains. Our order consisted of mostly typical Indian fare – Butter Chicken, Chicken Korma, Lamb Roganjosh, Beef Dhansak, Navarattan Korma and Jaipuri Chicken Tikka. We ordered both a lamb and chicken biryani in place of plain rice and of course some mixed naan to share. One member of our party suggested we also add the lime and ginger naan, as something a bit different.
Chicken Biryani hiding under the pastry cover.Jaipuri Chicken TikkaLamb Rogan JoshA selection of dishes
Our meals arrived in a timely manner even though the restaurant was quite busy. The amount we had ordered was perfect for seven hungry adults. The food was superb! The meats were tender and full of flavour for all dishes. I even heard one member of our group proclaim that the butter chicken was the best he had ever tasted!
As well as the delicious food, we had two bottles of wine, some beers and soft drinks. Beyond India is in the Entertainment Book (a popular discount publication) for Adelaide and we were able to use vouchers for a 25% discount. This brought the price per head down to $26.50AUD – a very good price for a very tasty meal.
For those of you that cant’ get to North Adelaide, Beyond India also have a second location in Modbury, which is north of the city centre. Their website includes the full menu and drinks list to check out before arriving. Online ordering is available when takeaway is your preferred dining option.
Not so long ago the Checkside Tavern was in a prime position to attract customers into its bars or dining areas. Unfortunately in 2014 football games moved away from AAMI stadium to the newly renovated Adelaide Oval. In doing so taking with it a majority of the Checkside Tavern’s match day customers.
For our international readers, Australia has its own brand of football. Australian rules football, or AFL is our national football competition consisting of 18 teams from around the country. A few years back AAMI stadium at West Lakes was the main football stadium. South Australia’s two national teams, the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power shared the ground each week to play their games throughout the AFL season. Sadly, all the AFL games are gone, but AAMI stadium remains the training ground for the Adelaide Crows and the Checkside Tavern still operates.
Ourworldinreview decided to head off to the Checkside Tavern recently to see how they were coping since the halcyon days of football.
The Checkside Tavern is located at Turner Drive, West Lakes and is attached to the exterior of AAMI stadium. I can still remember during game days the tavern thriving with local supporters. Those days are gone and the tavern mainly relies on the support of its local residents and West Lakes Shopping Centre customers. When arriving at the tavern you can see that the loss of football has had an effect on its popularity. Although it still has that football feel to it, with large photos of the local SANFL (South Australian State football league) teams in action. Additionally they also have a few signed guernseys framed on the walls to maintain the local football theme.
Main dining area with SANFL print photo’s
The tavern is a long thin building with function rooms, a gaming area including a horse racing outlet and of course the dining area. We noticed a steady stream of older patrons utilising the facility for a quiet evening meal and conversation. Checkside offers affordable pub fare with no frills, and all meals come with access to the all you can eat salad and vegetable bar. They also have special meal deals on certain days like;
Tuesday – AUD$18 Steak night
Wednesday – AUD$19 Burger and Beer
Thursday – AUD$15 Schnitzel night
Sunday – AUD$15 Sunday Roast
Checkside’s menu isn’t extensive but there is sufficient options for customers to select from. Vegetarian customers only have two dishes to select from, but have full access to the salad and vegetable bar.
Salad Bar
Checkside has counter service, so once you have selected your meals you will need to line up and order. We decided to order four dishes to try. Our choices were the Grilled Barramundi, the basic chicken schnitzel with gravy, their Chicken Burger Old Fashion with the Lot and the Moroccan Encrusted Lamb Rack. Once the meals were ordered we sampled the salad and vegetable bar. It was well stocked with either fresh salad dishes or warm delicious vegetables.
Vegetable Bar
The mains arrived quickly and weren’t fancy. No decorative flair here. That’s okay, because they’re just trying to be a normal pub, selling standard pub food. Quickly the chicken schnitzel with gravy was the first to arrive and the verdict was the chicken was cooked nicely and the smooth textured gravy was beautiful.
Chicken Schnitzel with plain gravy
Next came the Chicken Burger Old Fashion with the Lot consisting of a seasoned chicken patty topped with bacon, egg, beetroot relish, mixed lettuce leaves, Edam cheese and tomato with a side of chips and aioli. It was a large burger, so it was awkward to attack at first. Our recommendation is to cut it into portions for easy handling.
Chicken Burger Old Fashion with the Lot!
The Moroccan Encrusted Lamb Rack was served on a bed of buttered mashed potato with mushroom scented jus. Again a basic presentation but the lamb was nicely cooked. My only fault was the buttered mashed potato was slightly lumpy.
Moroccan Encrusted Lamb Rack
Our final dish was the lightly seasoned grilled barramundi fillet served with chips and side salad. The fillet was nicely cooked, so no complaints all round.
Grilled Barramundi with chips and salad
Overall the Checkside Tavern is your standard pub offering no frills affordable meals. The meal presentation isn’t great, but that’s not what they are trying to be. They know they are a pub. This is probably why a lot of their customers are of the older generation, because they can get a good meal at a cheap price.
Although many people have forgotten about the Checkside Tavern, they haven’t forgotten about us. So if you are looking for a quick no fuss, no frills cheap meal, then visit the Checkside Tavern. Their friendly service with a smile is welcoming and honest.
If you are in the city the best way to get to West Lakes is by taxi or you can catch a public bus to West Lakes. Once you get there remember to tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
Just east of the city at the far end of Rundle Street sits a hotel that offers its customers a unique dining experience. The Kent Town Hotel is unobtrusive from the outside but once you step through those doors, you enter a different landscape. Welcome to the Jungle!
The Kent Town Hotel has themed their establishment on living in the jungle. You can imagine Tarzan swinging through the canopy, calling to his animal friends. Then once he arrives back at the tree-house there is a huge feast awaiting him on a long wooden table.
The Kent Town Hotel has three different sections based mainly around the Jungle theme, the Crafty Monkey Bar, the Rooftop on Rundle and the Jungle Restaurant. All three sections offer their patrons an enjoyable experience, from playing 8 ball on the billiard table, to the night-time dunking machine on the roof.
8 Ball Anyone!
Our experience at the Kent Town Hotel was to celebrate a 21st Birthday. The dinner was held in the jungle restaurant and upon entry you are greeted by a large sitting gorilla guarding the eating area from predators. As you walk around the room other animal statues like the elephant are in place to give the room that extra Jungle Book feeling.
Gorilla guarding the entranceThe Friendly Elephant
The long tables, chairs, model trees, slippery dips and canopy walkways all add to the atmosphere of the place and the food style enhances the theme. The Jungle restaurant serves Churrasco BBQ cuisine which is South America cowboy styled barbecued meat on large metal skewers, which their friendly staff glide around the room cutting off portions for everyone. The Jungle restaurant offers different dining packages for its customers, but our package for this special night was the AUD$45 pp Churrasco experience which was extremely delicious and extremely filling.
The jungle dining areaChurrasco BBQ Skewers
The Churrasco experience offers its diners a selection of 8 different BBQ meats and 7 different accompaniments. If you are like me, you want to try all. I encourage you to pace yourself. Don’t go out too hard eating heaps of the first meat. You can always have seconds afterwards once you’ve tried them all.
Another encouraging aspect is that being a BBQ meat restaurant they still look after their vegetarian customers. Our vegetarian had a sampling plate with 8 vegetarian options, which she thoroughly enjoyed.
Vegetarian sampling plate with 8 different option
The Kent Town Hotel is located at 76 Rundle street Kent Town, across the road from a Bunnings Warehouse. The best way to get there from the city is to either jump into a taxi or try a local bus heading towards The Parade, Norwood. For a fun night and a lot of good food, head to the Kent Town Hotel and The Jungle restaurant. Remember once you get there tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
During the 70’s and 80’s Adelaide had a thriving live music scene. Rock bands would flock to Adelaide to prove themselves. Getting a gig at the Largs Pier Hotel was coveted and playing here was a stepping stone to making it in the industry. The Largs Pier Hotel embraced the Australian music culture and gave some of Australia’s best known bands a helping hand. AC/DC, Cold Chisel, The Little River Band and the Angels to name a few all played the Largs Pier to a generation of music mad Australians.
Today the live music scene has dwindled in Adelaide, but the Largs Pier still remains as a historic monument of that era. This magnificent hotel is located at 198 Esplanade, Largs Bay, South Australia, on the stunning foreshore overlooking the Spencer Gulf. Well positioned on the corner of Jetty Road, the Largs Pier Hotel offers travellers a variety of accommodation options. You can stay in their modern hotel or apartments from AUD$140 per night, or alternatively choose their luxury heritage rooms ranging from AUD$164 – $360 to feel like a rock star.
Room 1 – Luxury Heritage Spa Room
We recently had the opportunity to stay in their enormous luxury heritage spa room. Also known within the hotel as Room One, this hotel room offers three huge rooms and a personal balcony overlooking the ocean. Upon entry into the room you are struck by the enormity of the living areas. The first room is a massive dining room with a 10 seater dining table for your entourage to gather around.
You can just imagine AC/DC sitting around a table like this sipping cups of tea
From here, there are two other rooms leading off, the first door is the entrance to the bathroom. This bathroom is the biggest bathroom I have ever seen. With stunning floor to ceiling tiles a shower, toilet and a large two person spa bath. You could easily hold a party in this room. That’s not encouragement by the way, I’m just saying, you “could”! The bathroom is in pristine condition and very clean. If you are staying in the winter time make sure you turn on the heat lamps to warm it up.
Massive bathroom with two person spa
The other door leads into the sizable bedroom with a four-posted king size bed, a big screen television, a three-quarter size standing mirror, a day bed to lounge on, and double doors leading out to the balcony. The room is extravagant for the casual traveller. It is equipped with nearly everything you need in a room. Tea and coffee facilities, a bar fridge, guest robes, a selection of books and an ironing board are located throughout the rooms. The only changes I would suggest is perhaps the addition of a room safe. We didn’t feel the need to use one, but other visitors may like the added security.
Extravagant bedroom
Once you go out on the balcony, you instantly realise that this is probably the best view of the surrounding area. The balcony extends around the frontage of the hotel and your area is separated from the rest by a sofa. There is a little table there where we sat and drank some wine as the sun set over a magnificent beach. This view alone is worth every cent of this luxury heritage room experience.
The setting of the sun from Room 1
The hotel consists of the Largs Bar, where the locals and tourists mingle for a few drinks some quiet conversation and some live entertainment. The Pier Restaurant offers a comfortable dining experience with a good selection of dining choices with a contemporary flair. If you like to have a flutter there is a gaming room with various poker machines which also provides free coffee and tea (Please Gamble Responsibly).
We decided to eat at the Pier Restaurant, booking a table from our room as the restaurant can be popular. The restaurant area is spacious and well heated with small wooden table and wooden chairs, and you have a choice of either eating indoors or outside in their alfresco area. The menu on offer is impressive, they have a selection of common pub fare if that is your desire or a contemporary menu for those diners who want something more. We opted for the Seafood Plate and the Grilled Whiting for our mains and the Crème brûlée and Illusion of Watermelon for dessert.
The Pier Restaurantal fresco dining area
The meals arrived fairly quickly and the first thing you notice is they don’t skimp on quantity. The Seafood Plate was covered with salt and pepper squid, a fillet of fish, two large prawns and two kilpatrick oysters on a bed of large cut fries. I must admit, I loved it, but it beat me, I couldn’t fit it all in, knowing that a had a Crème Brûlée coming to top it off.
The Seafood Plate beat me I couldn’t eat it all
The Grilled Whiting was served with potato bake, broccolini, roasted tomatoes and hollandaise sauce. Josie had no trouble with this one. The whiting was perfectly cooked and the vegetables rounded off an excellent dish.
Grilled Whiting with potato bake, broccolini, roasted tomatoes and hollandaise sauce
After our main dishes were cleared, we waited a little while before our desserts arrived. With so many customers and counter ordering, it is a good idea to prompt the serving staff when you are ready for your dessert. The Crème Brûlée and Illusion of Watermelon arrived and they both looked a treat. The Crème Brûlée was good, it had a nice flavour, the custard was a little grainy in texture and the caramel top layer was more flaky than a hard crunchy layer. It was a little different from the usual Crème Brûlée but quite edible.
Crème brûlée
The aptly named dessert the Illusion of Watermelon is quite incredible. This sorbet creation is formed into a watermelon slice including sweet little chocolate seeds. It is a beautiful constructed dessert of three flavour layers, that create the outer green skin to the bright red watermelon flesh. The sorbet was ice-cold and excellent. A quick acknowledgement must go to the chef here for creativity.
Illusion of Watermelon
When we turned in for the night the room was warm, with dual split system heating to warm up the room. The king size bed is comfortable and holds you firmly in an embrace. Although right above the main bar and restaurant in a popular drinking establishment, we couldn’t hear any noise, so the night was very relaxing.
Largs Bar
In the morning before checking out we opted to try out the Largs Bar for their breakfast from 0630am. We selected the Largs Breakfast and the Avocado and poached eggs. The Largs breakfast is eggs cooked to your liking on toast with lashes of bacon, tomato and mushroom. Whilst the Avocado and poached eggs was on toasted ciabatta topped with rocket and balsamic dressing. Both breakfast dishes were exactly what you need before a long day at work or sightseeing.
Largs BreakfastAvocado & Poached Eggs
Verdict
The Largs Pier Hotel is surrounded by history and is extremely popular with locals and tourists alike. The building façade is picturesque with its arched balcony lookouts. The luxury heritage rooms are spacious, comfortable and well equipped with spectacular views. I recommend sitting on the balcony, drinking a nice glass of wine while watching the sunset over the ocean. If you are visiting Adelaide or are a local looking for a city getaway then do yourself a favour and stay at the Largs Pier Hotel.
Wine as the sun goes down
The best way to get to the Largs Pier Hotel from the Adelaide airport is a 25 minute taxi ride. Alternatively, if you are in the city and wish to visit the hotel then hop onto the Outer Harbor train. Travel to the Largs Bay train station and then it’s a quick walk up Jetty road towards the beach.
If you would like to stay at the Largs Pier Hotel you can book your stay here. Don’t forget to mention Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
Everyone travels differently! Some people take their time and explore the cities they are in. Others want to try and fit as much as they can into the time they have. Some relax around pools and some shop until they drop. Yet one thing everyone has to do, is eat.
On our holidays, we try to see as much of a city as we can without wasting valuable time. Therefore, if we want to learn about a city fast we try to take a city tour. One of the best ways to do that is to take a food tour. We’ve taken tours in many cities, but I have never taken a tour in my own city. The people at foodi.com.au offer various food tours in the five major cities of Australia. We decided to experience our home town and try out the Night Food Safari in Adelaide for AUD$59pp.
The Night Food Safari’s are held every Saturday and bookings can be made at the website. The food tours commence at 4:15pm from Haigh’s Chocolates on the corner of King William Road and Rundle Mall. As a side note, make sure you try Haigh’s Chocolates before the tour. The chocolate has a smooth texture that melts in your mouth with a deliciously sweet flavour.
Haigh’s Chocolates, the food tours meeting place.
We meet our guide for the night, Anita, and discover the other participants in the tour all happen to be from Adelaide with the same idea of exploring our home city. Anita gives us a brief introduction and explanation about the night and advises that drink purchases are not included in the tour price.
Our first food stop is a small Vietnamese street food store called Sit Lo. Sit Lo is located at 30 Bank Street Adelaide, just off of Hindley street and the interior is nicely decorated with a couple of long tables in the middle of the store and small tables along the wall.
Sit Lo’s nicely decorated wall
Sit Lo serve classic Vietnamese street food at a reasonable price, evident by the popularity from the local university students sitting at the tables. We sample some of the delicious fresh Bao buns, which are sweet steamed buns filled with either chicken, pork, or shrimp. We are also given some lotus flower chips that are richly flavoured and consumed pretty quickly by the group. Anita explains a bit about the restaurant and the owners, then guides us on to the next stop.
Those delicious Bao buns, ready to be consumedLotus Flower chips
It isn’t to long until we reach our next destination, Spanish inspired La Rambla Tapas Bar situated at 28 Peel St Adelaide. Once again Anita gave us a brief explanation of the areas history before we enter. La Rambla’s dimly lit room exudes a warmth with some light mood music playing in the background. The nice selection of wines, encourages us to indulge in a glass of red, sit down at a long table and start to enjoy the company of people we are with.
La Rambla Tapas Bar
Our three dishes at La Rambla consists of their Jamón Serrano a 15 month aged ham that is a lot like Italian prosciutto with a cured salt flavour and slightly chewy texture.
Jamón Serrano
The second dish brought the table was their Patatas Bravas, golden fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce and aioli. The potatoes are nicely cooked and spicy tomato sauce and aioli gives it that additional flavour combination that makes it more than plain roasted potatoes.
Patatas Bravas
The third dish delivered out was their Albondigas de Cordero. This dish is La Rambla’s Spanish spiced lamb meatballs in a tomato sauce base. The meatballs were quite large but not plain, proving that the right balance of spices were incorporated into the meatball mixture. The tomato sauce was a nice accompaniment to the dish to give it that extra moisture to stop the meatballs drying out.
Albondigas de Cordero
Soon after we complete the dishes we are off again to our next food stop of Indian cuisine. Naya is owned by renowned Australian celebrity chef Ragimi Dey, who is there to greet us and talk about her new restaurant. Naya, at 2/24 Waymouth Street Adelaide, is a small thin L shaped store, with limited seating. The menu features infused Indian dishes. On this occasion Ragini Dey produces a Chicken Tikka Pakora and chard salad, which although quite small was extremely tasty and well worth coming back for.
Naya at 2/24 Waymouth Street AdelaideChicken Tikka Pakora with chard salad
After our fly by stay at Naya we are off again to our next stop, this time it’s French cuisine. Not to far down the street from Naya we stop at Delicatessen Kitchen and Bar at 12 Waymouth Street, Adelaide. Upon entry we are greeted by a charming room full of character. The group settle around some small tables and the bar ready to try some fresh French cuisine. More wine is ordered and the offering tonight is Escargot au gratin. Surprisingly of the 14 people attending the tour only a handful of us try the beautifully presented Escargot. The circular dish presented has large meat portions and the cheese gratin on top combines well to make it superb. Delicatessen Kitchen and Bar is definitely another restaurant to add to our list of places to come back to.
Delicatessen Kitchen and Bar
After we complete our wines, its time to head to our final stop for tonight and everyone’s favourite, a dessert bar. So Anita takes us on a little journey towards the east end of the city to French inspired Le Carpe Diem. Le Carpe Diem is a French creperie cafe located at 230-232 Grenfell Street Adelaide which serves sweet or savoury crepes. Here we are spoilt with various sweet and savoury crepes which we devour quickly. Once completed our three and a half hour Night Food Safari is finished.
Le Carpe Diem
The Verdict
The Night Food Safari was an excellent way of getting to know a bit about the city of Adelaide. All of the places we visited were new to us and opened our eyes to cuisine options on offer. Overall for AUD$59pp the food tour provided everyone with enough food to be satisfied. So there was no running off to a fast food outlet for a late snack. It could get costly if you decide to keep buying glasses of wine at every stop. If you are on a travelling budget, then take it easy and consume water or soft drinks. If you’re not then the option is yours, but drink wisely.
Overall I recommend doing a food tour if you have limited time in a city. Before you come to one of Australia’s major cities look up foodi.com.au and see what tours they have on offer. If you decide on booking a tour, tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!
Our world is an amazing place, so go out there and enjoy it!
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