Garden View Cafe

44 Nicholson Street
Fitzroy
VIC 3065

Although I'd seen the Garden View Cafe plenty of times, I'd never been able to find out much about it on line, and hadn't investigated further.

Eventually I visited with Brendan, rather than pressing on up to Gertrude St. As you go inside you enter the counter area, with the tables through a small opening, the space was bigger than I expected, with basic tables and chairs and bare brick walls.

The menu isn't that extensive but covers some the basic cafe bases.

Brendan had the burger with the lot, which was generously sized and lived up to its description.

I went for the veggie burger minus cheese, and was slightly surprised that there wasn't a patty of some sort. The content of egg, pepper, onions, tomato, beetroot and salad was certainly plentiful, but it didn't rival the Jerry's Vegiburgers experience.

The service was pretty swift and the meety burger good value, but I'd try something different if I visited again...

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Marinades Indian Restaurant, Cairns

43 Spence Street,
Cairns,
Queensland 4870

We got to Cairns and used Urbanspoon to narrow down our hunt for where to eat. Marinades was in the top ten and we were in the mood for curries, so we headed towards Spence Street. We arrived to find a small grouping of 3 smart Indian eateries and headed in to our chosen venue.

Inside the smart wooden floor board and tables were complimented by Indian artifacts and pictures on the wall.

We were a little greedy and went for three main dishes. The Bagarela Baigan, an eggplant based dish from Hyderabad was a new one for us and we enjoyed the flavours. The chicken saag and Bengali fish curry were both also good.

Our naan also impressed.

Other than not getting any sauces or salads with our poppadoms the service and meal went really well. The bill came to just over $80, and Marinades is worth giving a try if you are in Cairns and after Indian food.

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Whet Restaurant, Cape Tribulation

1 Cape Tribulation Road
Cape Tribulation
Queensland 4873


Approaching on foot on the winding path from the road at night, Whet certainly feels like it is in the rain forest. The cafe, bar and Restaurant opened in 2007, set amongst beautiful and untouched tropical Daintree was busy on the Friday we visited.

Our table on the deck was almost within touching distance of the trees. Although we soon had some water it took us a while to order and then receive our drinks, probably due to a combination of the number of diners, some inexperienced staff, and at one stage a shortage of clean wine glasses!

We shared the Turkish pide with house made apple balsamic in olive oil with dukkah as an entree and it lived up to expectations.

The usual barramundi wasn't on the menu at Whet, as recent weather conditions resulted in the local fish not being of sufficient size or quality. In its absence I had the tempura battered wild local reef fish, chips, house-made tartare sauce and a topping of mini fries. The batter was crisp and the fish fresh.

The crispy skinned salmon was cooked to a perfect medium rare and served with asparagus, wilted spinach, a potato galette and a seeded mustard beurre blanc. The potato was the only disappointing component, being just a little too super thin.

The atmosphere and setting certainly sets Whet up well and the service was friendly if not particularly quick, but it is a great spot to  linger a little over a meal. The bill came to around $80 with a few drinks and we'd certainly head back for dinner if we were in the area again.

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