tides - Caloundra, Sunshine Coast

You would like to think that a restaurant which carries a number of local awards for food and service would be good. Well you are right in the case of "tides" in Caloundra. Perched up on the second floor with a view of the water, this modern styled, classy eatery put on a real performance. This multi-award winner restaurant served us and wined and dined us with gourmet seafood treats.

Service was warm and friendly and with a few others to serve, was also timely. Both my wife and I had supped well on the Sunshine Coast this trip. Wherever we ate we were always very impressed with the quality of the local seafood. Tides just took the whole experience of good food, location, ambiance and service one step further. Food was delicious (as you have gathered) wines were fine (with good selections) and the total experience very enjoyable. Need I say more?

Table Manners - Dicky Beach Sunshine Coast QLD.

In other posts on this blog of have spoke of the excellent seafood on the Sunshine Coast. Especially in the Moffat Beach\Dicky Beach\Caloundra region.  You do have to go to an expensive restaurant to get really excellent seafood meals here. The cafes in the Moffat Beach area can provide you a very good meal at pub price and leave you very satisfied with meal size and food quality.

Table Manners, in Dicky Beach, is a casual restaurant offering a little more than food with books, fashion items, art etc. We went for the food. Can’t comment on the rest but I can definitely make some remarks about the consumables! We were up from Melbourne for a beach wedding and Table Manners were chosen for a get together meal prior to the ceremony the next day.

This was our first experience of food in the area (we staying at Moffat Beach) and were extremely impressed. From the scallops entree to the main meal, both my wife and I kept commenting on how beautiful (no other world will do) was. All on our very extended to table had nothing but praise for the food. The quality was “fine dining” grade. Wine was a little pricey but the wine list was extensive. Beers etc. were also well covered.  The restaurant was packed being a dry and cool Friday night so service was a little slow. More than well worth the wait. Don’t wait, book or try your luck and just drop in. Tell them Mark sent you. Lol.

Kasturi - Frankston, Victoria

My favourite “exotic” quisene would have to be Indian. My wife and I have a well visited Indian restaurant only minutes drive from us which is our “go to” restaurant of choice. On suggestion of some friends we tried Kasturi after a night at the Frankston cinemas-“100 Foot Journey”.  A great movie by the way. Indian was on our mind after the movie and Kasturi was only around the corner.

Being a Wednesday night the eatery was sparsely inhabited.  Decor is a little ho-hum but the music was at least Indian flavoured. Speaking of flavours this humble venue is now our fav. Indian. The menu was extensive in contrast to the wine and drinks menu. This is a BYO shop so I would not expect a huge selection of beverages. Looks like they offer re-labelled clean skins, bring your own. I went for a Brown Bros. Lexia, intending to have a spicy lamb dish. What was a very pleasant surprise was the lemon rice. It had a slight buttery flavour with just a hint of lemon. Nice change.

Service is Ok, parking - easy on a Tuesday night. I would imagine a local parking area would be required on a busier night. Food was absolutely delicious though I felt my lamb a little dry. It was tender and fell apart. My wife raved of her beef meal. Sauce is the source of enjoyment in Indian food. And the sauce was good, very good.  The breads we had as entre' were also very good, in fact excellent also. I have to recommend this restaurant even if you are not a hard core Indian food lover. As I stated early in this post – our new fav. “go to” Indian food shop. Don’t wait  for a night at the movies to get you in the mood. Just go!