WA & the NT
The below places are not listed any particular order or preference, just as they arose to our minds. This page lists places we visited in WA and the Norther Territory. Queensland and NSW eats are listed on a new page.
NOTE: Unfortunatly many regional places have travelling chefs. We need not elaborate o this, plus I might just get on my training and employing local people horse…
Geraldton
1. Bella Vista Cafe
Opposite the Laundromat and next to the roundabout near the cinema on the main drag in Gero, near the water. We can’t remember the street name.
We had good coffee here, but the cakes are orgasmically good and that’s what we went in for. We love ‘site-made’ cakes, with all their imperfections comes the delicacy of fresh, real cakes that don’t all look the same and taste the same. We love the inconsistency you get with cafe’s that dare to make their own cakes, like all good real produce…sometimes they, and sometimes they don’t.
We had the donut balls, and the best Caramel slice in Australia. Now this is a big call, but Carole and I have tried caramel slice in over 28*capital cities and the only one that has come close to this is the one available from Plaka’s by the sea in Scarborough. It always comes down to the quality of the chocolate on top and the ratio of bread/caramel/chocolate, and this place got it spot on.
They do breakfast and lunch, menu looked interesting but they had strict meal times which we just can’t manage, so we never got to try their other food.
2. Chis n Fips
Not a typo! This fish n chips shop served seriously good fish n chips, with fresh fish listed on the whiteboard out front. PLUS they sell fried mars bars. Plus they have won some wards for…I guess good fish n chips.
It’s on Gregory Street, behind the main drag of Geraldton, near the really really good fruit and veg shop, which is also opposite the house we want to buy. Hmmmm, yes it was for sale.
3. Geraldton Fruit and Vegetable Supply
The great grocery shop with a really great house just across the way
Thank you, G & M Priolo. This family business has an outstanding quality selection of fresh fruit and veg, much of which is sourced locally and includes a comprehensive organics selection alongside a supply of fresh bread and local olive oils, tapenades etc. They also stock Bodhis bakery organic breads range and some yummy cheeses which do seem to decrease in number the further north travelled (you have been warned). Did I mention they even have a selection of healthy treats available?
The service was great and cardboard boxes are provided as a ready alternative to plastic bag. I want to live in the house across the road from this shop too.
Exmouth
1. The Novotel restaurant
We decided to by-pass the restaurant that the Patterson-Miro-Reid family attempted to tear apart Joshua in and were impolitely asked to leave…
To get to the Novotel, you have to drive through a rather sad looking non developed development. However, the restaurant has a great outlook over the Exmouth gulf, and if you’re inside you get to marvel at a gargantuan metal sculpture on the roof of a mantra ray.
Service is professional and more than what we expected from a remote town. We ordered a seafood platter that was piled high with ‘bug’ that had been smoked and served cold, huge and I mean huge prawns, oysters, scallops and and and… more fish than Emily could comprehend! Carole had snapper on Jerusalem artichoke mash that could have been made by an Irish person. We also ordered fresh steamed beetroot and Hollandaise sauce, which yes, was random, but also exceptionally good.
Dessert was so good we’ve forgotten it…hang on…coming back…homemade fig ice-cream with rhubarb crumble. OMG we thought, where was this place 4 years ago when we were in town?!?!?
This washed down with a bottle of D’Arenburg sparking Shiraz made for two very happy Cape Range campers! Amazingly we managed to avoid all 482 kangaroos that Carole counted on the 80km drive back to the campsite, Emily was sleeping off the ¾ of sparkling Shiraz and half the ocean life consumed.
The only thing missing was Emma Pearce by our side, out for a ‘naughty’ Aunties meal.
It’s fancy, but it’s also Exmouth.
Darwin
1. The ski Club
This was one of those ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ moments because when we arrived, it reminded me of ‘Steve’s pub in Nedlands’, but with a seriously better view. Anyway, we went up to order our meal which was pretty much fish, half a cow, or mud crab. We went the fish, which we chose a small-ish fish from the big metal esky at the counter. We were given a beep-ety-beeper thing. And we waited by the setting sun, enjoying our bottle of champers being merry with the rest of the celebratory crew at the waters edge. Top marks for location!
The bleep-ety-bleep thingy bleep-ety-bleeped and Carole returned with a huge reef fish that had been seasoned and we think deep fried with no batter. Odd? Yes, but seriously delicious. It was like eating ‘spare ribs’ but it was fish. Nice tender meat, but some good bone sucking crackling type meat. Laurel taught us a trick…you can eat the tailfin, its like eating crispy chips. Yum!
Marie, myself and Carole tucked into the wee turn big fish and managed to swig down another 2 bottles of champers before returning to Cassie and Lou’s place for melted truffles and more champers…
Jabiru(In Kakadu National Park)
1. The Bakery
Around the corner from the petrol station, there’s only one. Great great pies (vego) and really good selection of bread including proper Rye, herbed flat bread, Vienna loaf and so on. AND they make awesome lamingtons! This kept us going during our 6 day flu stopover in Jabiru.
2. Sunnies Kitchen @ Jabiru SportsClub
Classic classic Australian pub. You’ve just got to visit to believe it! Anyway, the food was sensational. Really exotic menu, including risotto, Hungarian paprika marinated pork wrap with garlic mash, roast vegies and pepper sauce. You get the idea.
We got the barramundi with a nicoise salad. Salad was fresh and fish was cooked to perfection. We waited for our number to appear between the flashing keno number intervals…very exciting
3. The Border store
Looks like your average tourist stop, but hold those tastebuds because a French pastry chef is in town. SO the savoury pies are addictive, with a creamy cheesy sauce that is impossible to achieve in hot humid weather, but somehow it doesn’t separate and holds those chunks of cauliflower and broccoli together. The sweet pastries are light fresh and dissolves in the mouth whilst still doing the job of pastry, holding in the fillings, which were nothing short of delectable custards, fresh fruit and well balanced cinnamon/sugar tarts….
4. Bowali Visitor Centre
Aside from being a great, verging on innovative visitor centre and interpretation centre, the café makes the only good coffee in 100km radius. Plus, they do good old fashioned toasted sandwiches. White bread, good quality cheese, fresh tomatoes and not too much fat involved in the toasting process. It’s amazing how wrong a simple toasted sandwich can be sometimes.
Depending on the time of day, they also have cakes (from Kakadu bakery), rolls and sandwiches.
Katherine
1. The Bucking Bull Cafe
We just about lived in this place, it’s the peoples people cafe. Everyone and anyone goes here. Slightly out of town, and doesn’t look like much from the outside, but push through as the homemade cakes are sensationally good, the coffee’s not bad and you can get a big big plate of good old fashioned tucker from a hot server, which is made fresh daily. The mango smoothie is a meal in its self
It’s not fancy, but its full of atmosphere and its mighty cheap
2. The Coffee Club
This opened up on our second weekend in Katherine and the que was out the door and down the street. Coffee Club has become a bit like a McDonalds for us, its reliable and we know what we’re getting. They serve drinkable coffee at reasonable prices and half decent vegetarian food. Plus they have free wireless which always makes me and lappie (laptop) smile
