Mahalia Coffee House. Robe SA

Mahalias Cafe in Robe, is truly a coffee connoisseur destination. On arrival the aroma of fresh roasted coffee greets you. Inside the door on the wall, are a number of Silver and Bronze awards for coffee roasting, awarded at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show. The cafe is modern with an all white decor, with fabulous flashes of colour created by the beautiful porcelain cups and pots displayed every where plus, coffee making machines and paraphanalia, coffee, chocolates, and other drinking accompaniment. Outside there is a delightful coutyard, with bright coloured table and chairs, completely lined with tree,s and plants for sale. The roasting room is immaculate, the roaster is a fabulous blue state of the art "Diedrich". We tasted, single origin Al Salvador, "La Majada" full bodied associated to stone fruit, with a grassy coolness, mild acidity, with a lingering after taste of sweet hard spice

This would be one of the best coffee's we have tasted, the coffee was accompanied by a very fresh home made cake. This for us was well worth the drive to Robe. Mahalia is a perfectionist and coffee roaster par excellence. This is truly a destination call.

Hillbillys Cafe, Blackwood Adelaide

 Hillbillys Cafe is centrally located in Blackwood, high up in the delightful Adelaide hills. As the name suggests, rustic colourful and comfortable - with multi coloured distressed timber furniture and a comfy leather lounge suite inside, while outside  an alfresco area overlooks the Main Street. A ceiling draped with old sacks is a delightful novel effect, with light shades made from old tin cans hanging between. Antique bottles, farm tools and some local paintings for sale complete the decor. We enjoyed a breakfast and a lunch from their well chosen menu, both dishes were very well prepared and presented, from locally sourced food. The service was excellent, understandably  a very popular cafe for the locals and visitors, well worth a stop for excellent coffee, with great food and ambience

Dunks & Unley, Parkside Adelaide

Dunks & Unley is an elegant, comfortable, welcoming, Polish themed restaurant/cafe. The entrance is through an attractive courtyard dining area with many topiaried trees and plants, with a toasty outdoor brasier. This leads to a hallway, with high stools and tables, adjacent to the cafe. Inside the cafe, dark olive walls highlight the beautiful oak church pew seats, and an antique chest used as a counter. A glass cabinet features delicious cakes and salads . Across the hall is a huge room with pale olive walls and a striking, papered feature wall, full of beautiful furniture, china, glassware, lamps, candlesticks, mirrors and much more, all for sale. The owner Bridgett Minkus has fine examples of creative art work hanging on the walls. All this area is available for dining and coffee's, a feast for the eyes as you partake. Additional comfy sofas and chairs enhance the relaxing atmosphere of this room to perfection. We chose from an excellent menu, the large breakfast, and a polish lunch dish (Polish krokiety) savoury meat mince, swiss mushrooms and sauerkraut, in pancake style pastry and lightly grilled. Served with fresh garden salad and Polish beetroot drinking soup, different, but absolutely delicious. Then the Big Brekky with "the lot", eggs prepared to your choice,  grilled Barossa Valley bacon, smoked sausage, saute'ed Swiss mushrooms, char grilled tomatoes with toasted Ciabatta bread, very satisfying. Salatka a side dish we tried their Sala, a Polish salad, finely cut steamed vegetables, egg, gherkins, fresh peas and parsley, lightly coated with Thomy Mayonnaise and served on toast with fried bacon and oak leaf lettuce, "Wow" recommend. On enquiry we discovered that the food is prepared by the Polish owner and chef who obviously has a passion for food.

We finished with a Polish cheese cake and  five senses coffee, altogether a very relaxing, enjoyable dining experience.

Coffee Branch, Leigh st Adelaide

Great Vibe, Real Cool Coffee" Location, Leigh St. Stands a very trendy cafe. The place is light bright modern. With a good range of would you believe, racing cycle's on the wall inside for sale. Outside seating with touring bikes parked among the customers, while they relax and enjoy their coffee.This cafe is busy, but we found the service excellent, had the feeling of being among friends. The Five Senses coffee is right up there with the best. The ham off the Bone/Swiss Cheese,plus fresh tomato, on organic Sour Dough $5.00 How about that for value. 

Boutique Pure Coffee Bar. Glenelg

The latest in coffee cafe trends has arrived in Glenelg. Situated on the Cnr Jetty Rd & Durham St a truly speciality Coffee Boutique. The building opens out to the footpath on both sides offering a semi-alfresco area, a good variety of seating options include a comfortable lounge area in retro style. The decor is predominately black and white with touches of gold, and a highly polished floor, creating a very modern inviting vibe. We chose the synesso coffee of the day, "Colombian Los Naranjos," excellent. The long black had a wonderful lingering after-taste.The latte was creamy with excellent texture, not acidic, with a delicate chocolatey taste, finished with an impressive coffee art. From an excellent varied light lunch menu we enjoyed, House made bread B L T and a savoury tart accompanied by a fresh salad, very satisfying. On the counter is displayed a number of different brewing methods, siphons, cold drips, where the barrista's are only too pleased to discuss. Seb & Warwick's passion for coffee excellence does not finish here, there is an excellent range of award winning unique teas available. Their respect for the environment and sustainability method is impressive.

eg; All of their plates, cups, bags and take-away boxes are compostable or biodegradable.

Their coffee grounds & food scrapes are used for composting, they separate cardboard& plastic for recycling,

Plastic bottles, juice boxes, aluminium & steel cans, glass bottles and jars are also recycled.

Any thing that they can do to minimize their foot print they leave on the planet.

This is a must visit, we were impressed.

Art Gallery Restaurant. Adelaide

The Restaurant / Cafe is located at the rear of the Art Gallery, with access from within, or along the lane outside. Opening on to the large patio, over looking a grass area, trees and historical buildings. The Art gallery Restaurant has won a number of very prestigious awards.

Restaurant & Catering Award for Excellence 2003, 2004. The Venue Caterer Award 2005. Hall of Fame, Venue Caterer 2006.

Venue Catering Award 2009, along with Restaurant Catering Award finalist 2009. This is an impressive list of culinary achievements. The gallery exhibition presently on show is the Saatchi "British Art Now" The menu was themed to the English exhibition and was called; "British With A twist". We dined in the sunshine out on the large Patio. Our choices from the menu were, Crumbed Salmon Cake with Macaroni cheese laced with smoked Salmon. The Beef Stout Pie with a side of buttered carrots. Oxtail Faggot. Succulent oxtail (boned for your convenience) Pease pudding and Red wine sauce. Duck breast, with Cumberland sauce and parsnip mash. With a side of beautifully prepared greens. The salt on the table had a little seaweed in it, very thoughtful. An English tradition. The lunches we chose, excelled in the following critera. Ingredients, Taste, Presentation. Technique, Consistency and Creativity. We all four finished with desserts which once again were totally creative. Eg Stilton served with ginger spice bread (Yorkshire Parkin)

The service was friendly, not intrusive very professional. After finishing off with a coffee  we all left feeling completely satisfied. Fully aware of the thought that had gone into producing such a wonderful creative culinary experience. We left, also knowing the host of awards posted around this restaurant were well deserved. 

The Richmond Hotel. Rundle Mall Adelaide

When you walk upstairs into the dining/lounge room at the Richmond Hotel, the words Exotic and Glamorous come to mind. Beautiful mirrors, Indian day beds giant twisted wire light fittings, fairy tale encrusted pillars, lead-light windows, giant poofs and large beautiful floral arrangements and pot-plants, set in an all white interior, with dark stained wooden floors, contrast with with comfortable leather sofas and French styled chairs. French doors at the front open onto a large deck, that overlooks the Rundle Mall, while at the other end, old classic movies are shown on the wall, and also on a couple of TV screens around, creating a unique, comfortable ambience that encourages a desire to return.

From the Lounge, Bar, Restaurant menu's, we chose two dishes, a Coconut Crumbed Flathead, served with garden salad, fries and house made tartare sauce and a Salt "n" Pepper Squid, served with garden salad, fries and house made tartare sauce. Both dishes were very well prepared and presented, the fish on both plates could not be faulted, along with the fresh garden salad, made this a very relaxing enjoyable lunch. While dining we indulged with a pleasant Sauvignon, plus a local brewed Vale Ale. On finishing our delightful lunch we finished with two very well made full strength locally ground Altura coffee's, the coffee's alone will bring us back. We found the staff helpful and very professional, thus complimenting our experience. Frankly this is a gem of a place to visit, enjoy, relax and dine while shopping in the busy Rundle Mall. Their street style cafe at the entrance is a good coffee stop also.

Stirling Hotel. Stirling South Australia

What a great well thought out new addition to the hotels alfresco area. This  purpose built raised deck, overlooking the main road. Across the front a long bench with high chairs, behind comfortable tables and chairs, umbrellas, a large panel TV, and a built in fire place. As an added bonus, this is a NO SMOKING area. Just the place to sit and view the Tour Downunder, cyclists going past. From a varied menu we ordered a Pizza from their new dedicated pizza kitchen. This was delivered with out an undue wait, tasted absolutely delicious, cooked to perfection. With a glass of wine, along with a happy large crowd, it was definitely a winner for us, as it was for so many others gathering to catch the Tour.