At the Heads

The Jetty Jetty Rd, Barwon Heads, 3227

We visited Barwon Heads on Australia day, and had lunch at 'At the Heads'. It's an important place for us as a significant event in our lives happened here a few years ago, and we've been back a couple of times since.

The location is amazing, literally on a pier, over the river, just as it reaches the ocean, with great views of the sandy river banks, the famous bridge and dunes with the waves crashing onto the ocean beach beyond.

Unsurprisingly it was busy given the beautiful day, the holiday, but we got a great seat outside. One of us wasn't that hungry, and ordered a ham, tomato and basil pizza, the other a chicken Caesar salad. The pizza was of the small lunch style, and was covered in decent slices of real ham, and delivered what was expected. The Caesar salad had generous amounts of tasty chicken, but sadly no anchovies.

The meal was a little expensive for what we ate, but the location and memories made up for that for us...

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Station Hotel

We've eaten at the Station Hotel a couple of times over the last year or so and popped in for a drink now and again too. We've had some great food here, the Provençal fish soup being my highlight, the steaks have also been very good. On the other hand a couple of the dishes have been so-so, the fish and chips wasn't special, the chips looked like stringy ones you'd get a t a fast food joint. The restaurant is crowded beyond a good level, and the service whilst friendly has been really slow on occasion, an hour between entrée and main is ridiculous.

The place looks good on the inside, has a nice little outside space and serves a great range of beers and wine. It certainly provides an interesting option in Footscray.

Update: We were recently went back to The Station. 

59 Napier St

Footscray, 3011

Aangan

559 Barkly St
West Footscray, 3012
We visited Aangan for the second time this weekend. As before we were seated out the back in the courtyard/garden, though this time we were in the nicely decorated marquee rather than outside, probably a good thing given the wind. It is certainly different to most Indian restaurants I've been too, but still has plenty of character.

We shared two main dishes, the first a Tawa Paneer with marinated paneer, par cooked in charcoal fired oven, then finished on tawa (griddle) with pepper, onion & mushroom in a tomato based sauce. The other was a Chicken Kohlapuri, flavoured with curry leaves and whole red chillies. The chicken was spicier, and contained good sized pieces of chicken, both dishes were new to me, and were well flavoured and spicy, but not too hot and had me wiping out the dishes with my roti.

I've read comments that the service at Aangan was slow, but it was well paced for us.

We were again impressed with Aangan and will be returning soon!





Update:
Photo's from a more recent visit:

Mona Castle

We've eaten at the Mona Castle a couple of times, and visited several more, and enjoyed the experience every time. The only hotel in Seddon, it is tucked away on Austin street, not far from Victoria and Charles streets.

The menu is mostly classic Australian pub food, and has always been tasty, well cooked and presented. The dining room is cozy, meals can also be eaten in the bar. Prices are reasonable.

Lentil as Anything - Footscray

Lentil as Anything
231 Barkly St, Footscray VIC 3011

Having been fans of the Lentil as Anything in St Kilda, we were excited to see the new Footscray branch opening as part of the re-development of the old Barkly Hotel...

We visited on a Saturday evening, and there were a few other patrons, but it wasn't as packed as I remember the St Kilda branch. We were shown to a slightly dirty table which was then cleaned. We then worked out it was a serve yourself buffet, I'd been expecting table service based on previous experience. We made our way over to the food and filled our plates with a variety of tasty looking veggie treats.


 
The food tasted as good as it looked, a lovely dahl, a spicy cabbage curry, and a cold eggplant dish, along with rice and a poppadom. We filled ourselves up pretty quickly and headed to the counter to make our donations, you pay what you can afford at Lentil is Anything...

The slight surprise at the buffet format and the quick meal that resulted was balance by the great food in the nicely restored building. This isn't the place to take a date to, but is a great place to get a good healthy feed, quickly! A great addition to the Footscray scene...


Updated 4/2011 with photo's.