The Chimney - Northbridge

M and I have dined at The Chimney in Northbridge previously and we were very happy with our meals (try the pomegranate salad!) so when we wanted a quick breakfast recently we headed back there. The Chimney is right next to the Paramount, although please don’t judge me or the restaurant in saying that! I can say there were no drunken 18 year olds in the vicinity on the morning we were there. 

 

After grabbing our seats outside we first of all ordered our coffees and apple juice. We were pleased to see that they serve Lavazza coffee and even more pleased to find that we were served them quickly! 

The prices of the breakfast meals on offer are quite reasonable with the Full English breakfast coming with eggs, bacon, tomato, mushrooms and sausages all piled around two big slices of toast going for a measly $14.50. M liked the look of that but I ended up deciding on something relatively egg free; the Pancakes ($12.50).

The meals came out in about 15/20 minutes and I was surprised with how big my pancakes were! They had berry compote on top and maple syrup in a side dish. They were nice but way too big and filling, I could only finish half of the plate! 

M’s Full English Breakfast looked good with poached eggs done the old fashioned way and big bursty mushrooms on the side. The only thing I can say is that it looked like it needed a bit of greenery on the side. Maybe some wilted spinach or something?

The meals at the Chimney are always very good and this was no exception. There isn’t a huge variety of choice in terms of the breakfast menu but it is refreshing to see such little prices.

We will definitely be going there again! 

Beaufort Street Festival

So this Saturday is the Beaufort Street Festival and I have volunteered to help Miss Top Perth with the Arts Program that will be happening on the day.

There will be so much going on during the day so after helping out in the morning I will be heading to the Barista competition at the Ellington stage. Then I will be nomming some of the tasty treats that will be on offer including the food tasting happening at 5 Bar. 5 Bar is a brand new bar which is opening on the weekend of the festival.  (Just quietly, is anyone else dying for Malt Supper Club to open?!)

Some of the art projects happening on the day include The Locked Cabinet and Tattwash with more details available here.  

If you are going to attend please do NOT drive! There is very limited parking and why not take advantage of the lovely weather we are having by walking or riding there?

I will no doubt go home at some point to have a nanna nap as I have plans to kick on after the festival!

It is going to be a crazy awesome day so I HIGHLY suggest getting down there and getting amongst it!

Inglewood Hotel

A special occasion had come and gone but my family hadn’t had a chance to get together and celebrate as we had been quite busy. It was then decided that we would all go to the Beaufort Street Steakhouse for a meal on the upcoming Sunday night. I made the call to place a booking and as I was listening to the answering machine message I thought I heard it isn’t open on Sundays.  I quickly jumped on their website (http://www.bssh.com.au/ - which is currently either not working or has been taken down?) and discovered that it is indeed not open on Sundays, only Tuesday to Saturday.

We quickly tried to think of somewhere to go for dinner that would have menu options that keep everyone happy. After scratching our heads for a few minutes a light bulb appeared above my head when I thought of going to the Inglewood Hotel, also located on Beaufort Street. So I made the booking, changed our plans and we were good to go. 

We seemed to arrive all at the same time and found that a table had been reserved in the restaurant section for us. Our menus were waiting for us at the table ready to be pored over and not long after that, a bottle of champagne ready to be poured. There is a great atmosphere at the Inglewood. For plenty of people it is their local, the place to be when they want to relax with a drink and also patrons like us who wanted to catch up over a meal. I find that the Inglewood has the perfect balance between formal and informal. 

After eating at the Inglewood previously, I knew from experience that the platter to share was already going to be ordered. The plate is $32 but came with sweet corn and crab cakes, arancini balls with red pepper aioli, sticky pork belly, tempura prawns, cinnamon duck breast, tortilla chips and dip. The harder decision was going to be what I was going to get for mains when there are so many good choices on the menu.  M decided to order the Beef and Guinness Pie ($18), my dad had the Lamb Medallions served with vegetables and carrot puree ($28), mum had the Squid Rings with mango salad ($25) and my brother D had the Seafood Laksa ($22). I decided to try their Steak Sandwich ($19) which has been voted WA’s best steak sandwich for the past three years. 

 

We ended up ordering 2 of the shared platters for the 5 of us to share and I really wish I had taken pictures of the platters but I didn’t. To describe the platter in one word would be "eurghf". That is because you are too busy eating the platter to be able to talk. After devouring them ever so quickly, we spoke about what our favourite item on the platter was and it was different for all of us. My dad preferred the tortilla chips, I would choose the duck breast and pork belly, my brother liked the arancini balls and M loved the prawns. 

Seafood Laksa

Within a good amount of time our main meals appeared before us. I immediately had food envy of the Laksa.  The first thing you will notice are the big chunks of seafood and vegetables in the bowl, it was hard to see the soup component! D graciously let me have some and it tasted better than it looked. 

 Lamb Medallions

 Beef and Guinness Pie

 Squid Rings

 Steak Sandwich

My Steak sandwich served with big potato wedges was good but to be honest, I was so full and satisfied from the platter that I could only had a small portion of it. M said his Beef and Guiness pie served with the chips was nice and my mum really loved her squid with the mango salad.  My dad used my leftover wedges to dip in the sauce left on his plate and I am sure, if my mum let him get away with it, he would have picked the plate up and licked it clean!

We were offered the menus to look at the desserts but I don’t think any of us could have had some even if we wanted to! 

I would still like to try the Beaufort Street Steakhouse but I don’t think there were any of us wishing we had gone to there instead and we definitely made the right move going to the Inglewood.  All of us would certainly go back there again, 5 stars!

Pearl of Highgate

Looking for somewhere nice to buy a dessert or just something to satisfy your sweet tooth? Well head on down to the hidden gem that is the Pearl of Highgate located at 189 Lincoln St, Highgate, WA. Conveniently located right near Hyde Park, it is the perfect place to pick up some yummy goodies before a picnic. 

The staff there are friendly and fantastic and you can even watch the Swiss patisserie chef make the luscious treats right in front of you. They have a mixture of sweet pastries, pies, breads and cakes but you have to get there early if you want a large choice. 

My choice? Their Creme Brulees! They are melt in your mouth delicious.

The Pearl Of Highgate

Ph: (08) 9228 9011 ;189 Lincoln St, Highgate
 
Open Tues-Fri, 7.30am-4pm, Sat-Sun 7.30am-1pm; 

Telethon 2010

I had never been to a Telethon before so when it rolled around again I made the effort to head down there. It is now filmed from the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre and has been for the past few years. Remember when it was filmed at the studios in Dianella? 

Anyway, We arrived at about 10pm and didn't think there would be a lot of people waiting but boy were we wrong! There was a line about 200metres long to get in which curled around the entrance and so you couldn't even see the front of the queue! 

I went for a bit of a walk to ask a security guard how long the wait would roughly be before we got inside the theatre. Luckily for me they must have liked the look of me as they pointed me to a shorter line, yay!  

So after moving to the shorter line and paying our donation for entry, it took about 10 minutes for us to be able to proceed into the theatre. 

It was pretty interesting actually. You see a lot more of the sidelines that aren't broadcast and I was surprised to see the television "stars" moving away from the desk and giving people their autographs. Did anyone see the guy who was on the cross trainer for 24 hours straight? I have a picture of him below. I am not sure how he went, did anyone see if he finished? Good on him if he did, that would have been hard work!

We ended up staying about an hour, I was starting to get tired and we had a big day the next day with both sets of parents coming to our house to discuss the wedding.Speaking of which, less than 6 months to go until the big day now! Exciting times!....

V Burger Bar

Has anyone bought anything off Jump On it? It is a website which offers daily deals on various items and last week they had an offer for V Burger Bar in Vic Park. The offer was 2 burgers of our choice, chips and a drink for $19, usually $43. Bargain! So M and I headed down there before we went to Telethon last Saturday night.

We rang ahead and we were told to come down at 8:45 as the crowd would have died down by then. They might have jinxed themselves with that talk! After struggling to find parking we walked in just as one of the staff members was wiping down a table, perfect!

We grabbed two menus and after much back and forth-ing between a couple of options on the menu I decided on the Avocado Chicken which has chicken, salad, guacamole and aioli. M found it hard to choose between the Eggy Steaky (which includes, apart from the obvious egg and steak, brie cheese, onion jam and salad) and the Blue Mushy. He ended up deciding upon the Blue Mushy which features beef, melted blue cheese, a field mushroom and salad.

Luckily we ordered when we did as we had just sat down when a group of 10 people came in and placed their orders. We had no idea how popular this place would be!

The bowls of chips came out first. They were ok, but they weren’t anything memorable either. They lacked any salt but that was on the table so that was ok. They also had bottles of tomato sauce available for use, which I abused obviously from my message I wrote to M on my plate! 

The burgers came out swiftly after that. M dived straight into his and straight away he was pleased. He loved the big patty of meat with the mushrooms. He said it was the best burger he has had, which is a big call! Apologies for the shitty picture of the Blue Mushy burger, I had to take it quickly as M was ravishing and would have bitten my fingers off had I left them there long enough.  

One of the first things I did with my burger was take the tomato out; I don’t like it in big slices like that. Then I cut mine in half so that I could hold it and took a big bite. It was nice to have the flavour of the guacamole with the aioli mixed with the tender piece of chicken. You could definitely taste the freshness of all of the ingredients. The servings are really big, I only ended up eating half of my burger and only a few of the chips. M was so full from his he couldn’t finish mine which is a massive accomplishment! 

Will we be back? I know M has already spoken about going back so he can try the Eggy Steaky so if he gets his way we will be there soon! 

Tom Price Hotel Motel

As mentioned in a previous post, I was in Paraburdoo and Tom Price at the start of this week. I went there for work and to be honest, it was a bit of a waste of time. The drive between the two places is about an hour long and it is a lot of this…

… with some cows along the way. 

I stayed at the Tom Price Hotel Motel and after reading some of the reviews on the internet, I am glad I read them after I was there rather than beforehand.  My bathroom had just been renovated and a bit weirdly, when I arrived, the tradesman actually mentioned that if I needed anything adjusted in the bathroom to give him a call as he had just finished in there. Righto. 

Anyway, it wasn’t too bad; I have stayed in worse places. It has a restaurant/ bar attached to the hotel which serves all meals. I ordered my dinner there (below) and it was alright. I had Surf N Turf ($38.00) and the steak was a bit fatty. Also, it was advertised as coming with salad but what constitutes a salad? Half a lettuce leaf and a quarter of a tomato? You might also spot the lovely bedspread from my room in the background. Rather than sit with the riff raff I decided to ask for take away and have it watching television. Paradise...sort of.

I did go back in the morning to get my breakfast and lunch but used my better judgement. The fruit on offer looked quite old and had quite a few brown tinges. The bananas were completely brown.  Not nice! I was surprised to discover though that the Coles is open to 7pm and my little IGA in Bayswater is only open to 6pm.  So maybe Tom Price does have its advantages somewhere.