How to have a good birthday lunch? Birthday burger of course! Duh!

Stef and I left the office at 11:30am which was a deliberate queue avoidance strategy which worked superbly. 

We were guided to a table for two and it was good to see that small groups were asked to take the smaller tables leaving the bigger booths for the larger parties - efficiency!

​Burgers didn't take long and as we waited we let the anticipation build up!

The burger bun was soft and brioche like but not overly buttery or sweet. The patty was juicy and meaty with no stomach hardening denseness. Burger sauce, cheese all tasty so definitely a good burger. 

The mac and cheese croquette was unctuous with sillky strands of cheese sauce and slippery tubes of macaroni coated with a crispy, golden crumb. Again like the meat patty, not heavy on the stomach although it did leave very greasy hands.

Tater tots with cheese sauce executed well so the tots were still crispy. A lot of the melted cheese was at the bottom of the tub though and it did congeal the tots making them a little harder to eat. Wouldn't stop me though!

Free icecream (peanut butter) was given out to all customers too and I noticed we received a mega serve! Maybe the birthday candle did it. I really couldn't eat all of it but it was good. Not overly rich.

Yep I would say Royal Stacks stacks up and is definitely burger royalty. Can't wait to grace the red carpet again.
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Beautiful Sunday afternoon and The Boathouse is in a fabulous family focused location with pretty river views and a play park. We were meeting our friends who have a little 8 month old and they secured a table for in the far corner of the dining room which was roomy and comfortable.

In spite of it being 2pm and not really peak hour it was still busy and I think given our location was tucked away it had its cons in that service didn't always reach that far back so ordering food and trying to organise the bill was somewhat delayed. Speaking of delays, our food wasn't the quickest to arrive either but the chatter and conversation helped and we didn't feel that it was too dragged out but don't go expecting a quick bite.

Steve and I decide to go back to childhood and had a milkshake each. They're presented in sundae glasses with a touch of nostalgia and as milkshakes go they were ok but not amazing. I found that mine wasn't cold enough.

The meatballs were probably the best thing we had. Lots of tangy tomato and threads of melted cheese alongside 5 or so mini meatballs. The kingfish was nice enough but a bit bland - needed some extra flavour power whether citrus zing or jalapeno heat.

Even in the picture, you can barely see the salmon. The skordalia was creamy and I'm not sure it was an entirely harmonious combination with everything else. Something fresher would be better I think.

The Boathouse is less about the food and more about the family friendly surroundings. The food is acceptable but it's more about location.

First A team lunch of 2016. A team is a group of 4 former colleagues and now instead of all 4 working for the same company we have divided and conquered and now between us we are split evenly across 2 companies. Every so often we enjoy a get together to see how far we've come!

This time we decided to sushi train it and try Tetsujin. First impressions were good. The dining area is airy and bright and not crammed together. The conveyor belt is large so there seems to be lots of food and the service seemed pretty efficient.

In terms of sushi, we made our way through what we wanted. There's the usual blend of seared and raw fish with the odd vegetarian option. It's all rolls or nigiri and sticks to traditional seafood or veggie with some desserts. Sashimi and other sundries can be ordered via the iPad.

We ordered some tempura udon, vegetable croquettes, agadashi tofu and the items arrived quite quickly and piping hot. I enjoyed these dishes and felt they were well priced and well executed.

The actual sushi train items got boring quite quickly and after one round of what we fancied we struggled to feel compelled to eat any more and not because we were full but because there wasn't that much that was appealing.

Water service was a little slow and I wish they'd just put a jug on the table because the little glasses are small and you can't order water on the iPad unlike Hotaru Sushi. There's a BBQ and bar area which I didn't take a peek at but would be open to trying.

At $3.30 for the sushi items, it's a touch more expensive that Hotaru but the seating and ambience is a touch better so I don't mind the $0.30 premium but in terms of quality it's about on par. It's not bad but it doesn't have me pumping to return either but I wouldn't be opposed to going back.