Dining Out - Bay Italia, One Tea Grill, King of Kebabs

Bay Italia

Catherine and I have been getting Italian regularly for our dining out meal over the last month or so, and this little place just up the road from the beach seemed like a nice quiet place for a meal. As we were dining at an unusual time again (mid-late afternoon), it was empty, but at least it was open.

She was hungry, so ordered the Surf and Turf, which I thought about as I love a good surf and turf. I chose to go with the Penne Arrabiata though, as it was more in keeping with how I felt at the time. .After some banter with the owner about the possible heat of the dish, I was incredibly happy to dig in to an actual angry arrabiata sauce. It was quite spicy, and yet still allowed for tasting the onions and olives and other components of the dish. It was mixed through some nicely cooked penne, which would give a nice surprise when you got one that had a chilli stuck inside it.

^{As usual, this did me for 2 meals and the leftovers were just as good as they were in the restaurant}

The surf and turf was a decent sized plate of food, with 2 full king prawns standing proudly against the steak, and a stack of perfectly cooked calamari rings sitting atop it. Usually a good sign that the dish is good when Catherine not only finishes the whole plate, but does so before I have finished my meal. At just under $40 it certainly isn't cheap, but if it's good enough, it's worth it, and this one definitely seems to be worth it. I'll write about it again when I actually try it myself.

One Tea Grill

Catherine and I went and met up with a friend of mine for a lunch break, and while Hawkers Lane has many options, and undoubtedly others that I'd like to try at some point, My intended goal this time was One Tea Grill, and it's Ramen Burger. Caro and I both decided that the best way to try these things was to get their slider special, allowing us to get 3 sliders each for a reasonable price, and allowing us to try a Matcha, Ramen, and Rice 'Bun' version of their burgers. Catherine went with a more traditional Bun on a full sized Chicken Burger.

^{Pretty sure you can tell which is which. The 2 sauces went together nicely too and weren't too spicy}

Our sliders were all interesting, and I greatly enjoyed them. The Matcha didn't really do anything for me. It gave the bun a nice green colour, but really didn't have any flavour to it. The Rice bun did pretty much what I expected, having had a full sized rice bun in the past. It struggled to maintain structural integrity, and while it didn't completely fall apart, there were quite a few bits of rice drop off into the tray to eat later. The Ramen bun was delicious, but suffered even worse than the rice one in terms of structural integrity, allowing long strands of bun noodle to hang off the slider, or fall into the tray. Being slider sized, these were possible to keep under control, but I certainly wouldn't want to try it with a full sized burger.

I do still recommend you try them, just go with the sliders and you'll have a better experience of it.

King of Kebabs

Despite it's name, this is my local pizza joint. They got me in with their Monday and Tuesday specials (Family sized $15 on Monday, Large $10 on Tuesday) and I've never seriously looked elsewhere for my semi-regular take away pizza. They're far superior to the likes of Dominos, which we have about the same distance away, and on these special days, they're cheaper by quite a margin over the couple of other pizza restaurants that do take away in the area. I do want to try the others, but I just can't justify the price when it's for my take away treat.

They don't skimp on their toppings, and the meat is the same as they put into the kebabs. With an excellent crust that isn't too thick without being a thin-pan style, there's really not much to fault when it comes to the pizza. The only possible issue is the family size slices are almost too large for our microwave for reheating leftovers!

I've also had their HSP before, and it's pretty decent and a heck of a lot more filling than I anticipated. In fact, the only thing I've ever had from here that wasn't that great was a kebab! It was ok, but it certainly wasn't anything special and not up to the quality of the other products they do.

Previous Dining Out Posts

The Hatter & The Hare
Eurobay, Arisun, Big John's, Bondi Pizza
Last Bus, Chat Thai, Rocksia Hotel, Ichiban Boshi
Alphabet St, 360 Italian, Mary's, Sushi Rio
Olive Tree Kafe & Bar