Tag Archives: #food

Exploring Baudins Restaurant at McCracken, South Australia

November 15, 2016 OurWorldinReview Leave a comment

After a busy day of having fun in Victor Harbor, you just want to have a nice relaxing meal. Maybe you’ve been exploring the local sights and enjoying that Fleurieu Peninsula hospitality. Hopefully you’ve jumped on the Cockle train to Goolwa or visited the educational South Australian Whale Centre. Now, you just want to rest have a good meal, a glass of wine and recap the days events. Well my advice is to make a night of it at Baudins Restaurant at the McCracken Country Club.

The Cockle Train from Victor Harbor to Goolwa

Baudins Restaurant is a part of the McCracken Country Club. The country club offers accommodation, an 18 hole golf course, bistro and Baudins Restaurant for a fine dining experience. To the left of the main entrance McCracken Country Clubs patrons enter a bar area which leads towards Baudins Restaurant. You are greeted at the main restaurant door by a waitress, and if your table is not ready you can make your way back to the bar for some pre dinner drinks.

Entry into the Baudin Restaurant — Entry into the Baudins Restaurant

The restaurant is in a large function room overlooking the picturesque golf course fairways. The tables are nicely spread out and consist of a mixture of booth tables and standard settings. Once our table was ready our waitress showed us to our booth table and we quickly settled in.

Baudin Restaurant dining area — Baudins Restaurant dining area

By comparison to other restaurants, the table was pretty bare. We didn’t have any place-settings, no cutlery, no side plates, just a stark table. It took about ten minutes before we were handed menus, which was not a good start. I could tell they were quite busy and with only two waitresses serving the room, you could see they were doing their best. It took about twenty minutes before we were served again to order food and some drinks and another 10 before the drinks arrived. Luckily the waitresses were friendly and we weren’t in any rush to leave.

The restaurants menu offers a good selection of meals created with locally sourced produce. We opted for the Chicken and Asparagus filled Filo pastry on a Napolitano base and the Twice cooked Pork Knuckle for our mains. For an entrée we chose a half a dozen Kilpatrick Oysters and for dessert we couldn’t resist trying the Eton Mess. Baudins restaurant also offers an excellent range of local wines to accompany your meal.

Some of the best Kilpatrick Oysters I’ve had in a long time

The meal started to arrive about twenty minutes after we ordered, which was a huge improvement from the initial service received. After eating the Kilpatrick Oysters all I can say is wow! The oysters were cooked to perfection and the balance of flavours was sensational. I must say these oysters were some of the best I’ve had. And do you know what, the food only got better from there.

Our mains arrived shortly after that and the chicken and asparagus filo was crispy, providing that crunch with every bite. The chicken and asparagus filling was not dry or over cooked. The filo encapsulating the moisture of the filling without it seeping through. Additionally ,that Napolitano puree added an extra smooth texture which enhanced a good meal.

What can I say about the twice cooked pork knuckle except it was a good size and the crackling was…. Awesome! It was served with creamy mashed potato, some braised cabbage and a spicy plum and ginger sauce. Full of flavour but a little hard to cut, more because I just didn’t know where to start. Do you go, crackling, meat, crackling, meat or do you have the vegetables first. Once I’d made my choice it was delicious and extremely filling. The plum and ginger sauce combined with the pork was always going to be an absolute winner.

With the main courses out of the way we patiently waited for our Eton Mess. Again we weren’t disappointed with the product placed in front of us. Unfortunately with no spoons available we had to wait while the staff searched for suitable spoons. It was a case of, do I need a spoon to eat this? I’m sure the other patrons would understand! It is Eton Mess! Although they returned with two different spoons it didn’t matter, as the Eton Mess was fantastic. The folding of meringue with the smooth cream and raspberry coulis was tantalising on the palate. Baudins’ Eton Mess was a perfect way to finish off a quality meal.

The Verdict

In my honest opinion Baudins Restaurant has a lot of potential to be an elite restaurant. I’d say the kitchen cohesion and food preparation must be excellent, because it reflects on the food that they produce and present to their customers. I cannot fault the food, the flavour, the menu options, they were all excellent. My main concern is the main room floor management needs a little improvement. The staff is friendly and helpful but the lack of room control, makes them look a little overwhelmed. A little thing like showing your customers to their tables with menus in hand gives the service some efficiency. Pre-setting tables so your customers aren’t waiting for cutlery, all reflect a well thought out service. With quality food on offer these minor front of house issues should be easily rectified.

When you are in Victor Harbor, I recommend making your way to Baudins Restaurant, their food is excellent and you must try their Eton Mess, over and over again. Have a great evening, drink some good local wines and tell them, Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!

McCracken Country Club’s Baudins Restaurant additional information.

For Bookings, Baudins Restaurant is located at the McCracken Country Club, McCraken Drive, Victor Harbor. Phone: 08 8551 0200

Book your McCraken Country Club Accomodation here

Baudins Restaurant is open for dinner service Tuesday – Saturday nights

Entrée Prices range from AUD$6.00 – $16.00 Main meals AUD$18.00 – $44.00 Dessert prices AUD$9.90 – $16.90

Baudins Restaurant rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Decor =8
Atmosphere = 8
Service =6
Price = 8
Food =10

Overall = 8

*This post contains affiliate links

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Australia, Restaurants

Whales, Penguins and the Hotel Crown at Victor Harbor, South Australia

November 6, 2016 OurWorldinReview Leave a comment

I have always liked going to Victor Harbor. The relaxed lifestyle with the possibility of seeing whales frolic and socialise or visiting Granite Island’s local penguin colony, has always held some amazement. Usually after exploring the conservation areas, we seem to always end up in one of the pubs for a drink and a quick meal. This trip we ended up at the Hotel Crown for lunch to see what they have on offer.

Warland Reserve Water Fountain — Whale Tail Fountain in Warland Reserve

The Hotel Crown overlooks Warland Reserve and the causeway that leads out to Granite Island. From the outside it is a beautiful historic two storey building. Once you enter you find yourself in a large dining area. We end up sitting next to some glass windows that lookout into a water featured pond and check out the sizeable menu.

The Hotel Crown offer an average range of pub fare. This includes salads, burgers, schnitzels, seafood and other meat dishes. Food prices range from AUD$12.90 for a plain small schnitzel or roast to the Seafood for 2 platter for AUD$49.90. They also provide a good selection of wines with a per glass cost of AUD$4.50 – AUD$10 and bottles ranging from AUD$20 – AUD$50. Each meal comes with access to the salad bar and daily soup.

Salad Bar — A well stocked salad bar, all fresh and delicious

We couldn’t resist the sensational value of the Seafood for 2 platter option. It consisted of Natural Oysters, Grilled Scallops, Baked Mussels, Crisp Fried Squid, Grilled Prawns, Crumbed Salmon, Chips, Aioli and a Bottle of Morgan’s Bay Sauvignon Blanc or Shiraz – Cabernet. Exceptional value!

We help ourselves to the salad bar and tried their chicken and sweet corn soup. The salad is fresh and the options are very good, which is a positive for any vegetarians as I could find only one vegetarian main course, their AUD$17.90 Falafel Burger. It isn’t too long before our Seafood for 2 platter is brought out and from a visual inspection it looks good.

The natural oysters are a perfect start with a squeeze of lemon juice. Next is the grilled scallops, which are covered with a crumbed baked, and immediately on taste you lose the subtle flavour of the scallops as they are simply overpowered by the seasoned crumbed bake. We follow that up with the baked mussel, which again is covered with a crumbed seasoning, but this time it works, the strong flavour of the mussels isn’t drowned out by the topping.

The grilled prawns are fantastic, they hold in the moisture and are not dried out and are excellently cooked. The crumbed salmon is fine, it’s like you get in most fish and chip shops minus the litres to oil. The chips are a good size and the tartar and aioli sauces are also okay. Unfortunately the big loser of the dish is the crisp fried squid, it had a burnt oil flavour. It was like it started out as a salt and pepper squid. It was then deep fried and overcooked leaving the taste of burnt oil and seasoning. We had to leave the squid mainly untouched. My recommendation is for the Hotel Crown to reconsider their presentation options of some the the platters elements. The Morgan’s Bay Sauvignon Blanc was young but a good quaff.

Morgan's Bay Sauvignon Blanc — Morgan’s Bay Sauvignon Blanc

The Hotel Crown is good pub, and from the amount of patrons visiting at lunchtime it is a popular one. Its location is fantastic and their dining area is large with tables dotted around the room with plenty of mobility, so wheelchair access is favourable. Like most pubs in Australia they have counter service and except most major credit cards. They are also in Adelaide’s entertainment book which offers 25% off the total bill up to AUD$35.

Overall the Hotel Crown is a friendly pub, which offers average pub fare. Honestly, we were a bit surprised by the Seafood for 2 platter, because it is exceptional value. They have plenty of things going for it, like a play room for children. Thankfully young parents can have a bit of a rest while their children entertain themselves. Another generous offer is that from Monday to Friday, children eat free for lunch and dinner. All we can say is give them a chance but don’t expect too much and if you do visit, tell them Simon for Ourworldinreview sent you!

Booking Information

The Hotel Crown is located at 2 Ocean Street, Victor Harbor.

Victor Harbor offers various affordable options for accommodation.

Hotel Crown rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Decor =6
Atmosphere = 6
Service =6
Price = 9
Food =6

Overall = 6.5

*This post contains affiliate links

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Australia, Restaurants

Gringo’s Mexican Cantina, Adelaide

October 27, 2016 OurWorldinReview Leave a comment

A lazy Sunday called for a casual lunch out with tasty favourites on the menu. Gringo’s Mexican Cantina met the requirements nicely, especially with our resident vegetarian to be catered for.

Gringo's service counter — Gringo’s service counter

The restaurant is a casual family venue, decorated in Mexican colours with trinkets and styling to match. It has a very comfortable, warm feeling to the place. We had been rained on as we arrived so this was particularly pleasant.

As we drooled over the menu, we tossed up a few of the meals. A small serve of gluten free nachos for $19.50AUD was the first choice, of course opting for the vegetarian, which in this case is standard. Meat and jalapenos can be added for a small extra cost. We then tossed up between enchiladas, a trio of dips and a taco combo. All menu items have a vegetarian option, so this provided lots of choices instead of the usual two or three some places offer. We finally chose the trio of dips for $18.50AUD and proceeded to the counter to place our order.

Our drinks were brought to our table almost immediately, and we admired the use of a recycled jar for the lemon, lime and bitters.

Barely a few sips later, our food arrived, and while it looked so good, we immediately realised we had pretty much ordered the same dish twice. The three dips were guacamole, salsa and frijole with corn chips. Exactly the same as the nachos, it was just missing the sour cream on top! Luckily, it was all delicious. Next time though, I will ensure we order something a little different.

Overall Gringo’s Mexican Cantina provided a relaxed Sunday lunch atmosphere with tasty well priced food. This seems like a great option for families with young children , with understanding staff, a kids menu and high chairs available. The restaurant was about 75% full during our visit, but the service was prompt and friendly. Additionally don’t worry if you can’t a table as takeaway is also available.

Head in for a visit to Gringo’s Mexican Cantina, and tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you.

Gringo’s Mexican Cantina is located at 1 Colley Terrace, Glenelg South.

Visit their Facebook page here.

Gringo’s Mexican Cantina rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Decor =8
Atmosphere = 8
Service = 8
Price = 9
Food =8

Overall = 8

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Australia, Restaurants

My Tho City Restaurant, Adelaide – Not just a drive by!

October 24, 2016 OurWorldinReview Leave a comment

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.

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.

Vietnamese rickshaw — Anybody up for a ride?

Bar area — 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.

My Tho Entree Mixed Plate — 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.

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.

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.

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 pot

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)

Decor =8
Atmosphere = 7
Service = 8
Price = 9
Food =8

Overall = 8

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Australia, Restaurants

Zuma Caffe – Adelaide Central Market

October 14, 2016 OurWorldinReview Leave a comment

About a week ago we posted a popular blog report on the Adelaide Central Market. With all those scents, sounds and fresh produce stalls offering beautiful food and flavours to its customers we had to make sure we tried one of their cafés. After walking around the market we decided that Zuma Caffe was going to be our lunchtime stop.

Zuma Caffe is at 56 Gouger Street Adelaide, and the store’s rear backs into the Adelaide Central Market. The shop has seating inside the market, along Gouger street and around ten small tables inside the café. Zuma Caffe is popular with the patrons that attend the markets and it is usually difficult to get a table. Some patience may be required.

Zuma Caffe interior — Zuma’s a small shop with a few tables inside, with photos on the walls

The inside of the shop is two colours, bright yellow above and blue below which gives the small shop a feeling of a brighter larger space. There are various photo frames on the wall and a nice art piece above the service counter to give it an urban flavour. The tables are small so some repositioning of drinks and food may be required to fit everything ordered.

Wall art above the service counter — Art above the service counter

Zuma Caffe has breakfast and lunch menus available. Breakfast is served Monday – Friday from 7am to 11:30am and Saturdays from 7am to 3pm. The breakfast menu has a good selection of food ranging from AUD$4.90 for a piece of toast to AUD$17.90 for a “Full On”. Their lunch options are a little more limited. The day we were there the Braised Pork Roll and the Chicken Schnitzel were unavailable. Although the selection is limited there was still enough dishes to choose from. Lunch meals range from AUD$12.90 to AUD$19.

Today we selected the Caesar Salad with Chicken, which contained Cos lettuce, crispy bacon, gluten free croutons, parmesan, anchovies and poached egg, topped with Zuma’s house made dressing. The Caesar salad was large and filling, with nice sized chunks of chicken. The dressing had a nice flavour and the egg was poached well. I had trouble locating the anchovies and the croutons were a bit hit and miss. Some were very hard, so hard that I was worried I’d break a tooth, whilst the others were nicely crunchy. I would have no trouble ordering the dish again, but next time without the croutons.

The other selection for the day was the mushroom, spinach and roast capsicum frittata with fetta on their specials board. The frittata came out with a lovely Greek salad which was quickly consumed. The frittata itself had good flavour and although reheated and a little spongy, it was still a nicely presented vegetarian meal.

Overall Zuma Caffe is a small, thriving eatery in the Adelaide Central Market with decent food. They make do with the space they have and the service is quick and efficient. The store is clean and the staff are friendly. The café is licensed so if you would like a glass of wine or beer with your meal then that’s also fine. It is a busy café, so you may need to time your meal to avoid the lunchtime rush.

We liked Zuma Caffe and we are sure you will like them too. So have breakfast or lunch and tell them, Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!

Zuma Caffe rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Decor =6
Atmosphere = 7
Service = 7
Price = 8
Food =7

Overall = 7

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Australia, Restaurants

Early Morning Breakfast at Cafe Brunelli, Adelaide

October 8, 2016 OurWorldinReview Leave a comment

Cafe Brunelli has been a mainstay of the Rundle Street dining precinct for well over a decade. Famous for their wood oven pizza’s, the Ourworldinreview team stopped in to try out Cafe Brunelli’s breakfast menu. We have previously experienced their lunch and dinner menus at one of their other stores in West Lakes, so why not complete the trifecta.

al fresco dining — Outdoor dining is no problem at Cafe Brunelli’s

Cafe Brunelli’s city store is located at 187 Rundle Street, Adelaide, in the main hustle and bustle of the city’s popular East end. The cafe has a large dining area and offers inside and outdoor dining options. The tables and chairs are a standard wooden setting inside, and they have weather resistant seating outside. They’re not the most comfortable of seats inside, but they suit the styling of the cafe.

Cafe Brunelli interior — The wooden table and chairs suit the styling of the room, although not really comfortable.

Once inside you can’t help but gravitate towards the fresh cake section for the visual treat. If you are like me, the first decision is which cake to order if there is room left after a big breakfast.

Cakes at Brunelli's — So many treats, I’m having the Banana Caramel Bomb

The breakfast menu isn’t huge, but there is enough there to make you consider what you are having. We opted for the Blueberry Pancakes with maple syrup, served with strawberries and cream. These fluffy pancakes were not overpoweringly sweet, but once finished we couldn’t eat another bite.

The other dish we tried was the Eggs Royale. The dish consisted of poached eggs served with smashed avocado, smoked salmon covered with hollandaise sauce on a toasted Italian styled bread. The eggs were cooked perfectly, and when carved into, the eggs released a yellow explosion of egg yoke. The hollandaise sauce was good but became a little sickly once closer to finishing the meal.

We made sure we tried Cafe Brunelli’s coffee and ordered two nice warm lattes to complete the breakfast. They were delicious, small, warm and milky.

Cafe Brunelli on Rundle street is a large popular cafe, and with so many tables available, you shouldn’t have any trouble in getting a seat in the morning. If you opt to visit for lunch or dinner, you can try your luck or book. Find their details here. The meals are quite large so don’t go overboard ordering heaps, unless you know you are a big eater. Ordering of food is done at the service counter and the prices for breakfast are reasonable, ranging between AUD$10-18 especially for the amount of food you get.

Brunelli’s will not rush you out the door, and they also offer food and movie deals by their affiliation with the Palace Cinemas near by. So this could be a good food and entertainment option when you are in the city with friends or family.

If you can’t get into the city they also have stores located at the West Lakes Mall and at 489 Payneham Road, Felixstow. Next time you’re in the city have a meal at Cafe Brunelli and tell them, Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!

Cafe Brunelli Rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Decor = 7
Atmosphere = 7
Service = 7
Price = 8
Food = 8

Overall = 7.5

Pizza Oven — Couldn’t resist posting this photo, what an incredible looking wood oven!

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The Verdict

McCracken Country Club’s Baudins Restaurant additional information.

Baudins Restaurant rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Booking Information

Hotel Crown rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Gringo’s Mexican Cantina rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

My Tho City Restaurant rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Zuma Caffe rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Cafe Brunelli Rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Our world is an amazing place, so go out there and enjoy it!