Beyond India

ah, our first of many indian date nights.

now i'm pretty sure mostly everyone knows about beyond india, one of the most amazing indian restaurants out there i'm sure. i mean, i'm not reeeaallllyyy the best person to judge because the only indian i have is butter chicken (unless the butter chicken has cashews), because i can't eat nuts and spicy things make me feel sick BUT i can tell you, the butter chicken from this place is mind blowing.

Buttery, buttery sauce but not too much. Not spicy, perfectly tandoored chicken, fantastic service, busy but quick, great naan. just all round tip top. BUT because it is all that amazing and more, it is a little bit more expensive. it's the type of indian restaurant that you'd want to get a little dressed up for and you'd probably still feel a little underdressed (this is the o'connell street one, there's also a more relaxed one at clovercrest) but it's date night so huzzah! in saying that, they also do take away, and take home packs.

The Cavern Club

Musical date night appeared when we got free tickets to the fab four gig at cavern club.

Paul's band Hurricane Jane have played a fair number of gigs at the Cavern Club, and the owner/manager there loves them.  For those of you not aware, the Cavern Club was basically an underground funky club/bar dedicated to the Beatles. I mean themed cocktails, memorabilia, general funkiness everywhere.

I say was because recently, in a (successful) attempt to get more business and bigger crowds, Cavern have been opening their stage to a lot of different musical genre's, ranging from swing to hardcore metal. Anyway, they maintain their Beatles love with the Fab Four being their regular Beatles cover band (and they are amazing).

As I said, we got free tickets to see them play, and Paul and I decided to make a (date) night out of it. We had a few other friends going too so we went a bit early and in date night fashion got dinner. Other times we had been to Cavern it hadn't been the busiest of places, so we assumed that we wouldn't need to make reservations.

People, on nights of the Fab Four make reservations. The place was off the hizzay.

When we got there we asked a waiter/server/whatever they're called for a table for dinner. Bad move, we sent the poor kid into a breakdown frenzy. "oh, you want dinner??" *looks around in mad panic for a table* "yep, yep sure sure". We got a table, we got dinner, it was lovely and fine. But my god I understood his panic, there were a couple of large tables of drunken middle aged people having the time of their life.

After dinner our friends arrived and Paul held my bag while I got my groove on a little bit. I really enjoyed the night, the band were great and middle aged can DANCE. They were getting their groove on more than we were that's for sure.

The Pink Pig

Oh yes, the Pink Pig.  Paul had told me about this place - and we were ready for an expensive date night and Paul was ready to get his bib on.

The place was packed and when we got there for our 8pm reservation, we had to sit and wait about 10 minutes for a table to be free.  It was fine really, I was bloody starving but filled my belly a little bit with a very sophisticated coca cola.  Delish.

Paul and I were both... jittery.. with hunger by the time we got seated and ordered a garlic bread straight away.  I wouldn't say I'm cheap, but $6.50 for a garlic bread seemed a big steep to me. 

Looking on their online menu I remember the ribs being really really expensive, but apparently they were only $30. I got fillet mignon, I have no idea why because it's not usually my cup of tea, but it must have seemed appealing on the night and stood out when I skimmed the menu.  I was so hungry I would've eaten anything.

Anyway, by the time our food came out (I can't remember if it was a long wait - though I imagine it would have been a bit of a wait considering how busy it was), we were both about to start munching on limbs, so it was heads down and mouths a-chewin when our meals got there.

So you understand - we now have a rating scale for ribs. whenever paul has ribs anywhere else, they get rated on a scale of 1 to pink pig (surprisingly caffe primo's are like an 8).

Cafe Brunelli, bro

This place was bloody tip top!

What's that? An italian place taking a greek food and turning into italian food and making it more awesome than before? That's right, it's exactly what you're thinking - yiros pizza. Paul downed the thing and it was amazing.

Some may remember it as that place near subway/the parking on the same side of the road as the Austral. Or it used to be cafe buongiornos. Either way, I'm sure a lot of people walk past it and don't go in. People - go in! It's usually pretty busy at night, but really great for a lunch or stop in for a coffee too.

They have a lot of gourmet pizzas, but have pastas, steaks, burgers etc as well.  I would recommend checking out the website here and seeing if it's your cup of tea.

Aside from date night we've been here a few times, just to catch up with friends and whatnot. They have an awesome gelato selection, but unfortunately the staff don't really know if the gelato contains nuts, so if you have allergies (like i do) stick to basic lemon :)

Dide note - be wary of the lady that takes your orders. whenever we've been there she's working, and man this lady hates life. She will not smile. Do not try to be funny and get a smile, it does not work and will probably make her worse. Obviously being at Brunelli is not her first choice for a friday night, but she won't even pretend she likes it. Customer service should not be her career.

scoozi me !

date night number 2! rundle street styles.

Needless to say, rundle street on a friday night CRANKS, and so we sat squished in this busy, amazing cafe restaurant thing. they also have a scoozi on o'connell street, but for some reason we chose the really busy one, we may have done a bit of late night shopping too.

I'm pretty sure most people in adelaide know about scoozi, because it's amazing. i had pasta, i'm guessing the penne something, i can't remember what paul had. fair sure we got the garlic bread though, because we always do.

because this post is useless and we have no pictures, check out the menu here

they really do have amazing food, while it was busy so we had to line up for ages to order, i don't think it was an overly long wait for the meals to come out, which is always good.

 

The first. The archer.

Hey-ho! the first date night was upon us.

We had just gotten back together after a break, and I got treated to a nice dinner before I went to a party.  Free food?  Who turns that down?! (no one clever).  I made Paul choose where we were going for dinner, I refused to make decisions.. just for fun.

Now keep in mind I'm writing this a little bit late (somewhat like the bible was), as the first date night was nearly a year ago now (yes, date night is still going nearly a year later).

From what I remember - I loved the food. It was great pub grub, I don't really remember there being anything too fancy on the menu (though there may have been). Paul got a burger, I have no idea why because as it turned out I was the burger fiend and he got ribs whenever he got the chance. But nevertheless, here is Paul enjoying his tiny burger:

As you can see, the Archer do huge burgers, and their chips are delicious.

I would recommend going to the archer. It's an easy pub meal in a nice place, and plus I hear it gets rowdy a bit later in the night ;)