Sailors' Rest

3 Moorabool Street
Geelong
VIC 3220

We went searching for brunch on the beautiful winters morning of the Queen's Birthday public holiday, along the Geelong foreshore. We decided on the Sailor' Rest mainly based on location and the look of the place. Given the sunny and almost warm weather, there was no surprise it was busy.

We ended up in the partially open glazed section which was good with us, the fit out was much more modern than the older brick structure! The views out across to the ocean were great.

We ordered drinks immediately and our meals soon after, the juice arrived promptly my short black took another 15 minutes, but wasn't bad when it did arrive.

Our Vegetarian Breakfasts took another 10 minutes to show up. The better half went for scrambled egg with the spinach, mushrooms, tomato and hash brown.

I went for the poached eggs, which nice and soft. The sour dough toast was a bit on the tough side, the other components were fine but not stand outs.

The long wait for food and bill of $52.50 made it feel overpriced for an average meal, I think we'll try somewhere else next time we are searching for breakfast, although it will be tough to beat the view. 

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Black Sheep, Geelong

National Wool Museum
Corner of Moorabool and Brougham Streets
Geelong
VIC 3220

We'd thought about trying Black Sheep before, so decided to have lunch there on a recent visit to Geelong. It's situated in the National Wool Museum, not the place I'd normally think about to eat at! The building on the corner of Moorabool and Brougham Streets is grand and historic.

The restaurant isn't far inside and is east to find, it wasn't too busy when we visited, and we were offered a couple of tables. The old stone work and timber beams maintain the atmosphere of an older structure. There was just the odd reminder that you were in a museum, but it certainly wasn't too institutional.

The kitchen is open with a few specials and pizzas available on a chalkboard, the rest of the menu continued the Italian theme.

I went for the pumpkin, goats cheese and rocket pizza, which came on a nice crispy base. The toppings were good, especially the goats cheese, but the tomato sauce was just a bit too sweet.

The crab linguine with chilli, lemon, garlic and parsley was a winner, with a decent serve even on the entree sized dish.

The service varied in attentiveness and at times we had trouble attracting the attention of the staff, who didn't seem too busy. The bill came to $44 with a glass of wine. We'd certainly think about visiting again next time we are in town.

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Baveras Brasserie, Geelong

Cunningham Pier,
10 Western Beach Foreshore Road,
Geelong, Victoria 3220

At the end of Cunningham Pier, which juts out into Corio Bay, Baveras Brasserie is apparently the only place you can dine on the water in Geelong! We ended up there as our reservation at the sister restaurant Black Sheep had to be moved due to the arrival of a new oven, however this was done seamlessly, and money was put on to our tab at Baveras, which more than made up for the slight inconvenience.

Inside the decor mixed formal and relaxed touches, with some interesting pieces of furniture. There were several other tables of diners there when we arrived just after 8 on a Thursday before a long weekend.

We took a while to figure out what we fancied to eat, too much chatting with our old friends. The menu offers a few Aussie standards along with plenty of fish, seafood and quite a few asian influenced options. We ended up sharing a few dishes as entrees. The Soft shell crab in bhajji batter came with spiced cauliflower and chickpeas and a lemon zest yoghurt. The crab was fine, but I enjoyed the chickpeas and cauli more!

 The smokey eggplant croquettes sounded wonderful on paper but weren't particularly memorable. They were served with, a  sweet paprika, turmeric, soy mayonnaise and lime wedges.

The flash fried baby calamari was accompanied with cumin salt, tzatziki and lemon. The squid was tender and the flavours worked well.

Both the ladies went for the seafood linguini which featured Portarlington mussels, prawns, scallops and market fish, and seemed to go down well.

I had the whole baby snapper which was presented spectacularly sitting curled on the plate, in a panang coconut broth, along with mussels, and a sprout, coriander and lotus rootlets salad. The skin was crispy and the flesh moist, the curry was mild but nicely flavoured, and the salad and mussels worked well with the dish. Some rice on the side might have been a good addition.

Despite not being on top form Phil managed to make a good dent into the battered flathead tails and chips, which came with dressed leaves and a green tartar.

The service was good all night and tolerated our early indecision well. Eventually when we came towards the end of the meal no more drinks were offered, but there weren't many other tables still occupied by that stage. The bill came to around $250 including a bottle of wine and several beers, which seemed like good value. We'd certainly think about dropping in again if we were in town, and it would be great to be there in daylight to catch the views.

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