Secret Garden Cafe

I woke up past midday on a lazy Sunday afternoon to the most perfect sunshine through my windows.

Nah I lied, it killed my eyes cause it was way too bright. I did NOT wake up pleasantly.
I grunted that the sunlight had woken me up earlier than I wanted to. Urggghh.

But a good eating agenda was planned and it was more than enough to drag me out of bed looking like a dead zombie. But I was hungry and ready to go kill some food!!!

But I had to travel a fair distance to get my feed. I think this was worth waking up "early" for.
Cause yes, in my dictionary, 1pm still falls under early.
So yeah, I'm a glutton AND a sloth, gladly. That's 2 sins only, so I won't end up in hell just yet.

I think that's why my cousin calls me Snorlax. Sleep til I eat, then eat til I sleep again.

Steak of the Day - Scotch Fillet

They call this the steak of the day, but from memory it doesn't change. But that's not a bad thing, cause when you find a good thing, you should stick to it. And Scotch Fillet is always a winner.

The thickness of this is quite thin (ha - what fail description :-|) but it gets cooked to the amount you want it to be and retains all its meaty juices sealed inside. Even though it's thinly cut, it doesn't go all tough and dry and cardboard-tasting like some poorly cooked steaks at some institution which shall not be named.

This was ordered as RARE and it pretty much came out RAW. Right on track. I like my red meats and like them to stay red. Har harr harrr! Came with chef's garnish (the salad on the side), a clump of seasoned spinach and awesome crunchy addictive battered chips.

When aren't chips successful at luring me in! Damn chips. Damn tasty delicious fatty chipsssss!

Caesar Salad

One great thing about being acquaintanced with a restaurant's owners is the benefits you reap off them and the free food you scab. We are not scabs by any means, but this was given to us free of charge out of their pure good heart and generosity.
Friendship is a wonderful thing - It gets you free stuff! ;)

A fresh caesar salad is always welcome. And eating it in a sunny garden setting surrounded by nature, it just might feel like you're eating tree leaves.

Cos lettuce leaves, salty bacon bits, crunchy croutons and boiled eggs mixed into Caesar dressing. Simple but tasty salad.
But lets not kid ourselves, free is always good.

Grilled Whole Flounder

The flounder served was huge - that monster took up half the plate size. There's something stylish and delicious about serving the fish whole, bones and tails and eyes and all. It's reminiscent of a great outdoor Summer barbeque, with the fish straight out of the ocean and straight onto the barbie then straight onto your plate and straight into your stomach.

Ahh, fish live such grim lives.

Grilled to a nice golden brown colour but unfortunately the skin wasn't as crusty or crispy as I hoped it would be. A light finish of herbs sprinkled on top and served with a dish of some sort of creamy tartare sauce, this was very good.

Mixed Seafood Grill for one

This got me exciteddd! You get a bit of everything in here, so it's a bit like eating an aquarium. A tasty aquarium that breeds a few prawns, scallops, squid and fish that all eventually get killed until they taste delicious. But hey, they died for a good reason! You don't get a chance to die for me very often LOL

I couldn't be bothered with those annoying shelled prawns. I love prawns and all but I was lazy. I probably wouldn't work harder for rewards, I know it's terrible. My family says if there was money on the ground I would still probably be too lazy to get down and pick it up.

Squid wasn't rubbery, scallops were sweet and fish was alright, but could have been juicier and moister. (Moister...?)
The golden colour rocking this seafood plate is attractive to the eyes and the tastebuds.

Cascade Premium Beer

And here is some beer to wash it all down. Those chips are now beer battered chips, in my stomach! Ho ho ho
This very masculine beverage was served in dainty un-masculated milkshake cups filled with ice. Something very immasculating about that, and I actually enjoyed it. Beer is usually just meh.

It wasn't too heavy in flavour and was a light brew, so meaning I was still good to drive. I get drowsy and tired with little alcohol intake but beyond that level, is a whole new story hahaha.

Did I mention this was f r e e e e e e as well?
Well. It was.

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Marketing themselves as being Perth's best kept secret, they really gotta live up to that.
And it does sort of surprise you when you are revealed to a spacious outdoor seating area with a tranquil environment where you eat with the birds and the bees...and the flies and the bugs and the numerous legged unwanted stuff that jump off the trees and feast on your food and YOU instead.

Ok, I realised I just made it sound really negative but that was not my intentions really. It's a change from the usual cafe restaurant style and if weather permits, it creates a perfect backdrop to just take in all the greenery, water fountain features and even a mini wooden bridge in the middle of no where.

Sorta makes you feel like you're transported somewhere else, even if that sounds a little exaggerated, and probably is. But sorta makes you smile about it too.

So anyway, this garden dining area is hidden at the back of the deceptively small looking cafe, which is all the eye can see initially. You really gotta dine in to experience this "secret" and not just be boring and get take out. It's always busy, more so on those days where the sun is bright enough to make you squint, which is always a good sign.

Being a family owned and run business, you can be sure that they are sure to maintain good quality food and service. I hope they continue to do as well as they have been! I'm sure they will satisfy you as well as they satisfied me.
But then again, I'm easy to satisfy. Give me food, give me a bed, and I'll live happily ever after.

Theee end.

Grill'd: Claremont

After a hard day of procrastination, we went to satisfy our hunger pangs. Though for me, I just wanted to get away from the books. Any excuse to get away from the books! Actually I don't even buy the books, so just get away from the study in general.

We decided where to go and what we wanted to eat for dinner before we even had our lunch.
Ahh, such are the topics of conversation between 3 fatties.

Oh, it was nothing special, but here was our shared lunch at a very bogan tavern with terrible singers on the karaoke machine :)

Chicken Nachos, supposedly

These probably look like very normal nachos but the truth is... they were indeed very normal nachos.
I was grumbling throughout the entire eating process about how there was WHY IS THERE NO CHICKEN IN HERE when we specifically asked for CHICKEN NACHOS and PAID A WHOLE EXTRA 50 CENTS FOR CHICKEN NACHOS AND NOT VEGETARIAN NACHOS damnit.
And the excuse that the chicken was ground up into the sauce was just poor.

Soo veryy muchh cheeeeeeese and we admitted defeat and left the nachos unfinished. I did try my best to, long after my companions got bored of eating it.

Hot Chips

Chips with gravy. Not much to say. You don't say much when there's hot freshly deep fried chips in front of you anyway. You just eat as much as you can and cry about it later :(

...

So here we were at Grill'd Burger Bar in fancy pants Claremont Quarters.
This was my first time at this store despite having been numerous times to their other one in Mt Lawley. I had good expectations for this anyway because of my usual affection towards Grill'd burgers. Good food always leaves a good impression.
And good company leaves good memories. Isn't that right Fattyboomba? HA!

We got one burger each, as normal people would. But secretly I wanted to order 2. For myself.
Actually not secretly, I declared I wanted another one after my first one but that's nothing new to my dear friends who put up with my big appetite and stomach.

Baa Baa Burger

This was the Baa Baa Burger. As its name so fondly suggests, it contains a sheep in it.
A grilled lean lamb pattie with avocado (AVOCADO!!!), tasty cheese, salad, relish and herbed mayo in a nicely toasted wholemeal panini bun. What's not to love!

I love my lamb lots and this is my number one burger order most times but truly, I get this cause the word avocado lures me in. Baa baa haaaaa. Too bad it's thinly spread most times and has me lusting after it :(

The burger looks a bit disproportional and that's the way most burgers are at Grill'd - you need to take a few generous bites until you confirm that there is actually meat in your burger.

Grill'd Bird & Brie

The wannabe Coffee Prince (dude you got way too many identities...) was being an indecisive prick and couldn't choose between the Baa Baa Burger and this. I tried selling how good the Baa Baa was but ultimately the look of this burger sold itself to me.

It looked so generously stuffed and bursting with grilled chicken breast, brie cheese, thick cranberry sauce, salad and herbed mayo and looked like a monstrosity.

Most of the times I try their chicken burgers I am disappointed with how burnt they are and how bitter they consequently taste. This Claremont chain looks good though :) And you can sorta taste how creamy the cheese is just by looking at it...3 whole slices is a very generous portion apparently!

Simply Grill'd

For some reason I was being boring and went for the most basic choice, the Simply Grill'd burger. Even I surprised myself when I was ordering it. Sometimes it's good to enjoy the most simple things in life.

As its name suggests, the simplicity of this burger lies in its ingredients, being only a grilled 100% lean beef pattie with salad, relish and herbed mayo. I felt pretty damn healthy eating this, and wasn't exactly full after it, but oh well :)

As you may realise, herbed mayo is the star of most of Grill'd's burgers. It's good though, cause they've mastered the taste and texture of it and it makes eveything taste good but it drips all over the place. So the conclusion is, be really careful or you'll stain yourself! :P

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Suddenly Perth is experience a wave of gourmet burger bars popping up everywhere all claiming how delicious, healthy and ace their burgers are. Personally I give thumbs up to Grill'd for living up to it thus far.

Its stores are always busy and bustling with a wide variety of different groups of people at all times of the day, and the happy, always-energetic staff seem to handle it all very well. No complaints :)

So many parking bays and it's open til late so convenience is a big factor. And after your burger session you can always extend your date and get your sugar rush and sweet talk next door at Koko Black. And you STILL won't be over your 3 hour free parking limit downstairs.

However the routes through the shopping centre close up and we had to take a big detour walking around the complex to get back to the car. The streets outside are dark and quiet and we got a bit freaked out that we shamefully screamed at an innocent tree. Sigh...