I was actually quite taken back by the atmosphere of this place. It's set up as a little village, totally separate from the modern world, with places to eat, florist and a lot of space for you to hang out with a drink. So we decided to do a little exploring and wandering around before we went to eat.
If you don't like to eat indoors, you can opt to buy at the Garden BBQ and enjoy the nice weather outside. The drinks they offer look really good, but didn't have anymore space for it (since I had 2 coffees and a lemonade...in like 3 hours)
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| cute sign Wait here to be seated - if there is a queue, the person there will give you a beeping machine, so you don't need to crowd there (just wander wherever you want till the machine beeps) |
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| Lemonade and fruit stand |
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| look into the cafe |
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| Breads for sale - you can buy it both inside the cafe or out here, whichever you like! |
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| Pastries for sale - they looked so good, but I couldn't buy any as they would be ruined on my way home... E did buy some and she said it was good! |
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| Looks so good - I'm salivating just looking at them!!! |
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| Hanging jeans - no idea what for though |
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| Onsite florist! |
We also decided to pay the (once kidnapped) Kevin Bacon a visit before eating. I found it kind of funny the number of signs advertising their bacon products there were in close vicinity to Kevin...hahahahaha
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| The inside view |
To start us off, drinks!
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| Apple cider ($5) and Ice Coffee ($6) |
P got an apple cider whilst I opted for an ice coffee (despite having a cup before I left the house). I didn't try the apple cider, but apparently it was similar to the bottled Appletisers you can buy at Coles. The ice coffee was good, but not amazing. We first asked them if we could have the coffee without milk (since we were craving americano) but apparently they can't - and I don't think they had any cold drip coffee...so I got this at the end.
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| Hot Chocolate ($3.80) |
Whilst our drinks were set up nicely, I think E's drink was presented the prettiest. Although the milk was beautifully frothed, with lots of foam, E found the drink not hot enough. I tried it and it was definitely below par for a hot drink.
Time to move onto the food! I didn't bother taking a picture of the menu, as they change it seasonally, so it'll be of little use. Grounds has a simple and short menu for breakfast (served till 11:45am), so we decided for 2 savoury and 1 sweet dish!
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| Blueberry Pancake ($16) Served with lemon infused creme fraiche, candied walnuts and Canadian maple syrup |
It was sahhhh....fluffy!!! I'm not a fan of berries in my food (I prefer them fresh)...so they were only average in my opinion. I'm also not a fan of maple syrup, but E (who loves sweet stuff) found that the maple syrup worked really well with the pancake and brought it to a new level! What none of us really liked was the creme fraiche. I tried a bit of it and the lemon flavour was rather overpowering, so in the end we just pushed it to one side. What we all really liked were the crushed and candied walnuts - I could eat it just by itself!
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| Quinoa Cake ($16) Hot smoked ocean trout, beetroot, pickled cucumber and fennel with a dukkah rolled soft boiled egg |
Being the food noob I am, I was expecting something more cake-y, if you know what I am. The cake is served with ocean trout - which I found to be a bit dry and overcooked. I think it would have been better if salmon was used instead. But the highlight was in the egg. What egg you ask? Let me show you!
Look at that egg! Generously covered in dukkah, a bit of the yolk poking out - too bad there wasn't a shot of us breaking the egg!
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| Breakfast Board ($19) Double smoked ham, avocado and fresh tomato with Persian feta, two poached eggs, house made pesto and The Grounds signature sourdough |
This was really satisfying - it felt really hearty, but healthy at the same time. I'm not a fan of feta, so I didn't try that, but P liked it! Now that I look at this picture, I just realised that my breakfast for the last two days has been practically the same, but no feta, replace sourdough with crumpets and scrambled instead of poached eggs! (wait...everything's different except tomato and avocado..hahahaha)
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| Polenta Chips ($4.50) |
I personally find polenta kind of dough-y when it's been fried into chips - it kind of felt like I was eating bread sticks. Taste-wise it was pretty good, but I still prefer it in mash form.
After devouring over 90% of the food, we decided to move outside to chat as the queue was getting incredibly long (the staff probably wanted us out too).
Since I was looking at the lemonade the instant we stepped foot in The Grounds, we had to get it of course! |
| Rose lemonade and lemonade ($5 each) |
For $5 a cup, it's pretty average priced - but it tastes so good! I love them both, as they aren't as fizzy as the ones you buy at theme parks and fairs. I slightly regret not trying the Teamonade ($5) - mainly because it would taste like VLT (but nothing can beat VLT!)
Man this is a long post, but I think it's well worth it! Took me so long to put it up compared to E & P....
More posts to come in my last week of holidays~
Serena
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