Veggie Bites

We always eat out on Boxing Day as it is our anniversary, but we also often have a bit of trouble finding a restaurant that is open. After trying a few other places, we decided to eat here, and we were kind of lucky to get a table, as it was pretty full! We ended up outside which was good, because it would have been very noisy inside! In the past I have made complaints about the service here, but this time the service was quite good. The staff were friendly and chatty. We started with a dip platter which came with breads. It was quite nice, but it would have been great if we had been told what the dips actually were – because although we were able to work out most of them ourselves, there was one or two that we were not sure about. For mains, Martin had the veggie risotto and I opted for a pizza (Mediterranean I think). The Bellucci’s menu indicates which dishes are vegetarian, and although my pizza didn’t list any meat on it, it also didn’t have a little ‘v’ symbol, so I double checked when I ordered it. I have to say, it was quite delicious. Martin was also very happy with his risotto. Despite being fairly full, we decided that since we were celebrating, we would have dessert and because it was a little coolish we also decided to have hot chocolate. Martin had the panna cotta for dessert and I had something chocolatey with a toffee sauce (I can’t remember what it was called!). Both were quite nice, but there was no way I could fit all of mine in… Overall, it was quite good, both meal-wise and experience-wise. I am not sure I would become a regular though!

This was a pre-Christmas lunch with some friends that we don’t get to see very often, so it really wasn’t about the food, more about the company! We had to finish up early, so we arrived before they had actually opened, which wasn’t a problem, we just hung around and waited. When we got inside and sat down, we ordered a garlic bread and a cheese bread to start – as I have said before, these are the pizza type breads and I am not usually a fan, but these ones were pretty good – better than I have had before. For mains I opted for the penne arabiatta and Martin had the risotto. I considered the risotto, but it had kidney beans in it which made it sound a little too weird for me! I was asked if I wanted parmesan cheese when I ordered and the pasta came out with the cheese on top – hooray! The food was ok, I have said before that the arabiatta is not that spicy, but it is fine. We also had dessert – I had the usual chocolate mousse and Martin had a chocolate panna cotta tart thing which was a little less inspired than its description. All in all, not a horrible meal – it was certainly nice to catch up with our friends!

Since we were in Campbelltown for Christmas, my mum suggested that we go here for dinner, and I was really keen because last time we went here, I was really impressed. Sadly though, this time I was incredibly disappointed. I know it was literally just before Christmas, but there was only us and two other tables of people (although they did a fair bit of takeaway while we were there) and the service was very, very poor. And the food was incredibly average. It took ages for the pappadums to arrive and ages to order. We ended up opening our own bottle of wine and had to ask for water twice before we got it. We ordered curry puffs and a weird potato dish (I can’t remember what it was called) for our entree. The curry puffs had peas which I picked out, and the potato dish was cold and had chucks of potato mixed in with a crunchy cereal thing with a sauce. The potato dish was interesting, but I am not sure I would order it again. For our mains we ordered malai kofta, mushrooms malai masala, veggie korma, a chicken dish and we asked if they could do a side dish of dahl – which they initially said they could do, but it turned out that they couldn’t, so we went with a full one. We also had a cucumber yoghurt and a variety of naans. They had run out of kofta and couldn’t do the malai kofta and asked if would we like malai veggies instead. Since we had ordered a korma, we thought that would be too similar, so we asked for palak paneer instead and, I have to say, the waiter looked a little put out by that so we guessed that they had already started to make it! The food was ok. It wasn’t spectacular and it was nowhere near as good as we remembered it. Also, annoyingly they put all of the naans in the same basket, including a meat one in with the other ones – which, considering all but one of our dishes were vegetarian, was, I thought, quite poor judgement! Maybe they were having a bad day. Maybe they were really looking forward to the Christmas break. I don’t know, but I do know that I was pretty disappointed and I wasn’t the only one.

There are only a few veggie options on their menu – but they are a pub, so I guess that is to be expected. We had both decided on breakfast for lunch as the menu didn’t indicate a time that breakfast finished. When we went to order we were told no more breakfast, so I had the nachos and Martin had the foccacia. The nachos were ok, I wasn’t too keen on the salsa and there seemed to be way too much guacamole and sour cream. Martin said the foccacia was ok, although not actually on foccacia bread – this has seemed to be a bit of a theme for us lately! We also had the veggie spring rolls which were ok, and in the past I have had the beer battered chips – which are yummy. In fact, I think I would have been happier with a plate of those instead of the nachos! Will have to remember that for next time!!

I had the day off and was doing some late Christmas shopping (usually I don’t shop in December!), so Martin and I decided to have lunch together. This place used to be in Dickson and we ate there a couple of times a number of years ago, but I had not been here since it moved to Kingston. However, Martin had and he said it was pretty good. It was a hot and fairly humid day, but Martin talked me into a hot pot. Unfortunately I ordered the wrong one, so it wasn’t really what he expected, but it was still pretty good. But, back to the beginning! We started with fresh rice paper rolls which were pretty good! I would think that it would be pretty hard to get these wrong, so I will be very disappointed the day I get a bad one! Along with the Hoang Hau hot pot, we also had crispy spicy bean curd. The bean curd was crisply deep fried and smothered in lots of yummy chilli, garlic, shallots etc – one of my favourite dishes. The hot pot was a mix of veggies and bean curd with a sauce – simple and delicious. Next time I will be sure to order the correct hot pot dish as Martin says it is much better! I guess that means I will be going back!

We were shopping and we were hungry, this was a last minute decision and we only just got in before kitchen closed – but we didn’t realise that until we went to pay. There are not a lot of veggie options on the menu, so we both opted for the vegetarian breakfast – which came with mushrooms, spinach, hash browns, tomatoes, eggs and toast. It was pretty good. Martin had a fresh OJ and I had a caramel milkshake which was a little disappointing as it wasn’t as caramelly as I would have liked… Oh well, been there, done that!