91 Piper Street

It's a good thing we were up for another meal A Collection of Articles of it being more about friends than the place or the food...  This was their last service before shutting up for a couple of weeks as a Christmas break, and more than once we were told 'sorry, that's out', once we even saw the last serving on the table next to us, and once we couldn't get a second helping because we'd just finished the last serving.  We bear them no grudge, in case you were wondering!

From what I can tell, the restaurant used to be a normal everyday house on a corner block with a good sized garden.  What I can't tell is where the hotel part is...  Oh well.  On an awesome summer evening there was never any doubt we wanted to eat outside (so our friends dashed in around lunch time and reserved the finest table on the patio) and as we were greeted at the gate we didn't get to see much of inside, but it seems it would be a great place to 'hang out' during the winter with the open fireplace and fun spaces made up from the different rooms and it's possible that no two tables were the same.  Perhaps 25 or 30 seats?  There's a tiny bar, but it's not a go and hang for a drink type bar and although we couldn't see the chef doing his thing, we could smell what was going on. 

Outside there's only 3 or 4 tables on the patio (where we sat) and a couple more tucked around the corner on the veranda - perfect for a rainy summer evening, I would think (if the wind wasn't blowing at you...).  But no matter where you sit outside, you get to enjoy the very neat and tidy garden that someone clearly spends time in on a regular basis.  Technically, on the main road through town the traffic was so few and far between we barely noticed.

It wasn't a busy night by any stretch of the imagination so the one Server (we later learned she's the daughter of the chef and relatively new to the job) was more than enough.  A couple of times she may have been stretched, but in noway did it upset our dinner.  She knew the menu, she answered questions, she was nice to the little one, and she was not in the least bothered about our ordering process (more often than not when she came by, we hadn't quite made up our minds).

It's not a super big menu, but there's plenty to choose from and there's not a thing on it that we didn't at least consider ordering.  Most of the descriptions are fairly simple and straight to the point.  We probably could have gotten by without having to ask questions, but we did and the answers we got were helpful, but also made it a bit harder to make final selections.

Our meal went a little like this:

• Wicked Elf Pale Ale - not local. but certainly not foreign!  A fun name and ultimately a tasty brew
• Little Creatures Pale Ale - closer to local, perhaps more sweet than the other, but I could have either again, any day.
• Crowded House Sauvignon Blanc - in anticipation of heading over to NZ in a little over a week...  nah, not really, we just were in the mood for something 'out on the decky' and thought this would work.  It did.  Quite a bit of citrus without being too acidic.
• Garlic Prawns - garlicy and [big] prawny!
• Whole Oven Roasted Quail, prosciutto & sage - probably took longer to divide into 4 than it did to eat.  Yummy, couldn't stop once started...
• Saganaki, fig relish & pickles - a simple dish, built for sharing.  The relish may have been the best part.
• Egplant Chips, aioli - served like fat chips, these were so good you wanted the last one, but felt a bit guilty taking it from your friends.  Very sad when there was no second order to be had.
• Hand Cut Fries, oregano salt - fries might be the wrong word; fat chips is probably better.  Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside.  Great with the salt.  Maybe better the second time around (when we couldn't get the eggplant) with the aioli which we politely asked for as an upgrade.
• Slow Braised Lamb Shank, creamy mash - if it wasn't for the eggplant chips this would have been the best dish of the night.  Fall off the bone, rich and awesome mash for collecting the sauce.
• Moroccan Date, Almond & Chocolate Cake, vanilla icecream - we didn't really need dessert, but this was good and we're glad we talked ourselves into it.

We left with very happy bellies, with very relaxed bodies and very happy hearts for having spent a wonderful (and really quite laid back) evening with friends we don't get to see often enough - but that's our fault for living on the other side of the world!

Apparently the town has 'better' restaurants than Mrs Smith's.  Next time we're in town, someone is going to have to work very hard to talk us out of coming back here to find out if that's really true - even if it is the day before they're taking a break and parts of the menu are absent!

Stay JOLLY!
DLisa, Glen & Tom