Rice Tapas, Civic, June 2015

Rice Tapas is up a rather steep flight of stairs in Garema Place. The food is Thai and it provides take away lunches, with a loyalty card giving extra value. They also have lunch specials and a full a la carte menu which contains dishes from Vegetable Tempura to Bangkok Duck Curry. An on-line take-away service is provided.

Jamie
To be honest I am not a fan of Thai food. The reasons are many dishes contain shrimp paste and/or coriander. Because of allergies I cannot eat shrimp paste. Coriander is the only herb I detest. Despite assurance from many people I will not taste the coriander in a dish, I always do and completely lose interest in eating the food. As may be imagined this can severely limit the food available for me to enjoy at a Thai restaurant.

Tasuke, Civic, June, 2015

A promise: In future blogs the drooling will be kept to a minimum unless absolutely necessary. There will be no gratuitous drooling or attempting to munch on the computer screen. There is no guarantee that tangents will be avoided.
Finally we have a chance to review a restaurant that provides quite a different menu to those we have reviewed up until now. Tasuke is a Japanese restaurant which provides weekly lunch specials ($9.99) 5 days a week and other, larger lunch specials (up to $15.00 approx.) each day it is open. The seating is mainly benches (which may be a little off putting for anyone with a bad back), but at the end of each table there is a sear with cushions and the wall can be used to lean against. (Yay!)
This is a restaurant with few gimmicks. It is not very large, sells take-away sandwiches etc., and the décor is plain, but who cares, if the food is good?

Jamie’s Italian. June, 2015

We had eaten at Jamie’s Italian in Civic not long after it opened.  The staff were attentive but the food was disappointing.

After commencing this blog, we debated over whether it was wise to give it another try and discover if it had improved.   It took a little time to agree to try once more.  The agreement was on the condition it was done early in the life of this blog as one member argued loudly against revisiting a disappointing eating experience.

Wood and Coal May, 2015

Wood and Coal have received mixed reviews.  It is always a little daunting to review a restaurant where some reviews hate the food and like the service, or hate the service and like the food.  Wood and Coal have received both.

We arrived early: 11.30 am and were politely informed we were too early but we were invited to take a seat if we felt so inclined.  We decided to wander off and brave the wilds of Gareema Place for the half hour. (Mostly) intact after the half an hour of excitement doing some window shopping, we returned and were promptly offered the choice of where we wished to sit.  Once seated, we were given our menus (single sheet), water and a large folder which contained all the drinks which were available.  The wait staff were very pleasant and attentive.