Paesano

Before this place we were up to 46 date nights… I think on our 52nd date night I would like to go somewhere special… Just to celebrate a years worth of date nights :) but really, they're all special (naww lame!).

So we kicked it off at Paesano. A place below Outback Jacks and in the same complex as Top Tai, previous date night venues :). For those of you following at home, yes this was another O'Connell Street date night, what of it?!

It smelt like shortly there would be a party in my mouth. Looking through their menu I noticed nothing came with fries, even the parmi came with mashed potato. I liked that, I liked it a lot. They also had a "fat blaster" item on their menu which was lemon chicken, steamed rice and steamed veggies. I didn't get it, but I appreciated that they had it.

I wanted to try something I had never had before… Calzone. I have seen it be had, I'd heard all about them. It was time to try. Paul had Pollo, which was chicken, red grapes, red onion, fetta and rocket… He's better at trying new things than I am haha.

When the lady serving our table brought over our knives and forks, she seemed a bit… awkward. It was a funny awkward, but awkward nonetheless. She had to lean over Paul to put his knife and fork on his napkin, and they just wouldn't go straight (we were next to the wall so she couldn't go on the other side) and she couldn't reach properly but was trying not to lean over at the same time and kept kind of flicking them. it doesn't sound hilarious now… but it definitely was. 

Anyway, garlic bread was top notch. And came out really quickly. As did our meals which was great because we were both starving. 

Calzone was... different, but super tasty. There was no bolognese sauce on it like I was expecting, there was a house made mayonnaise which was amazing and not overpowering. The inside didn't have a sauce, but sun dried tomatoes, chicken, mushroom (which I actually ate), red onion and cheese. The cheese was kind of to one side so I considered it "optional" which is always good. 

I hear the chicken pollo was pretty tasty too, It looked great. Really saucy and colourful. I'm not particularly a fan of rocket, but paul cleared the plate.

Paul likes a mocha to finish off his date nights. Unfortunately, tonight he spilt half of it all over his top, the table, his pants aaaand the floor. It was the funniest thing and a great way (for me) to bring in date night for the new year! 

All up, for two soft drinks, garlic bread, two mains and one coffee, it came to about $70. Pretty good I think!

Then it was home time to curl up and watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (we're making our way through the movies) and Jersey Shore :)

Tap, tap, tap it inn

Of the two of us, Paul is particularly fond of the Tap Inn and even had his 18th birthday dinner there. We also have friends who chose to have their wedding reception in the "fancier" part, so we were both quite familiar with this place going into date night.

We've both previously had good experiences here, no general complaints. But coming up to this date night we heard a lot of bad things. From the schnitzel's taking over an hour to come out, and then them not being cooked properly, and general schitty (laff) service.  It's hard to go into a place with an open mind after hearing a few bad reviews - even online they were getting 1 - 2 stars because of their service (good reviews about the food though). 

I had faith in them this time though, mostly because we were using a scoopon that entitled us to 2 schnitzels, 2 beers and a bucket of balls each! So when we made the reservation they knew what we were there for, and surely it wouldn't take too long. Damn skippy!

We ordered a garlic bread - downside was I had to pay for lemonade because they wouldn't swap a beer, but really no biggie. We sat down with our drinks, admired the tree next to us 

and then boom garlic bread. so good and so quick! We got given a little bread basket which we downed straight away… even though we were getting garlic bread and our mains. 

One thing that we did giggle at and is perhaps a little snobby of us, but the waiter seemed a bit new and i went to hand him the empty bread basket when he gave us our garlic bread to get it out the way, but he didn't take any notice and walked away. It was a little funny because of our small table and it was obviously in the way… but that was fiiiiiine. 

We hadn't even finished the garlic bread when our mains had come out. Our reservation was for 7.30… our schnitzels were in front of us at 7.39. NICE ONE TAP INN. They're winners in our eyes. 

We both stuffed our faces with our delicious schnitzels and then headed to hit some balls. 

Paul successfully hit a lot more balls than I did. Apparently I'm not the best ball hitter.  One hit I managed to fling the ball directly upwards and hit the roof, one I missed and hit it as I swung my club back down and hit the ball backwards, and a few I just kind of tapped and ended up throwing onto the green. Mostly I hit them honestly, I got pretty good towards the end there. 

Overall, a pretty decent date night. It's unfortunate that a lot of people have had bad experiences there because it really is a good, cool place to eat. I'd say don't listen to what people say and give it a go for yourself - you might get there on a good night like we did!

The Snake Charmer

Well, the place certainly was charming. Another daily deal date night, $25 for two mains. After looking on their website and seeing mains were usually around $23 each, I was pretty pleased.

Now being in Unley, I understand that The Snake Charmer gets to be a bit overpriced.  Thinking about it now though, that much for mains is probably pretty standard, it's just the indian place we usually go to (which is still number 1 in my eyes) is only about $15 for a meal, we've been a bit spoilt.

So getting there it's a lovely little place on Unley Road, and I loved the interior… the lights had stained glass covers around them with snakes on the stained glass… just a lovely touch I thought.

After asking the waitress what had nuts in it (because of all the indian places i've been, a LOT put nuts in a lot of their dishes), she answered, just the cheese and almond naan, all the curries do not have nuts.

THE CURRIES DO NOT HAVE NUTS. I was a very very happy date nighter. So, I had my pick of the dishes. It was very exciting, so there was no way I could get butter chicken, and whatever I did get, I could try some of Paul's as well because it wouldn't have nuts in it! I chose the coriander chicken and Paul got the chicken tikka masala. 

we also ordered a garlic naan to share and 2 serves of rice (because I am a huge rice eater, I can't get enough of the stuff). Our mains were very quick which was great and they smelt amazing. I was so happy with mine it was delicious. It was honestly so new to me because I usually stick with the same dishes. It had chilli but wasn't too spicy (I don't like spicy) and was just a great flavour, very easy to scoff down :). Paul's tikka masala was near mind-blowing. Very creamy and almost buttery, but nothing like butter chicken, very hard to explain but very delicious. 

The service was great, checking to see if everything was alright with our meals. I really appreciate that little bit extra attention in a restaurant. 

So after stuffing ourselves full to the brim with our meals, we got the bill. One little mistake was they apparently had not realised or had forgotten that we had already paid for the deal, and charged it to us. One word to who appeared to be the head waiter and that was all fixed up.

Good food, probably a good price even without a voucher, and good service! And it's a good place to take sneaky pictures. 

Cafe Blu

Glenelg Pier Hotel. Scoopon. Two entrees, two mains, dessert to share.  There was absolutely no way of going wrong (unless the food/service was horrible, neither of which was truth for this night, so there was no way of going wrong. Case and point).

I love love love having waiters or waitresses that don't seem like they hate their jobs and would rather be anywhere but at work, it just makes the whole dining experience so much nicer.  We had a very energetic older woman serving us, who made a lot of jokes and made recommendations on the menu.  She just seemed so happy, it really rubbed off on us.  Not that we weren't happy, it just improved the mood further. 

We went for a little bit of difference in our entree choices. Honey soy chicken and deep fried camembert, holla! I wasn't expecting the honey soy in pastry, I didn't really know what I was expecting really. It was more of a, hmm that sounds good, mmm i'm hungry, mmm chicken GET ME FOOD NOW. 

The camembert had a relish with it, and the honey soy chicken was crunchy and light and it felt kind of healthy so I didn't feel so terrible about the 3 course meal I was about to devour.  For a main I got… A BURGER. Surprises all round, I know. It was good, but eggy and my tomato sauce was on the side. Eventually I removed the egg because it was sunny side up and the yolk was dripping down my hands when I was trying to eat my burger like a boss and it just wasn't worth it.  Paul had a chicken tikka pizza. From what he said, it was some damn good tikka'd chicken, like an indian restaurant would do it. Chicken Tikka Pizza, ladies, Paul likes a culture mix. 

So we'd been giggly and secretly talking about the stuck up sour people next to us, and were on a moral high for being such good diners and having a good laugh with the waitress and it was time for dessert.  The waitress recommended the triple layer mousse cake and there was no way I was going to argue, it sounded amazing. 

It was amazing. Imagine the most sickly, tasty, rich, artery clotting mousse in both white chocolate and milk chocolate flavours… There's your Cafe Blu triple layer mousse cake.  

The piece was huge and it was a good thing Paul and I were sharing because otherwise I would have forced myself to eat that whole damn piece. We both ended the night on an extreme sugar high and vowed to come back.