Wild West Falls at Movieworld.
Author: Snoskred
Lone Star Shellharbour
Loco cheesy land trout garlic bread & Amarillo cheese fries
We were so excited to hear Lone Star had opened at Shellharbour. Even though it is an hours drive away from us, we have many good memories of the old Lone Stars we used to visit years ago. We made a booking the day before our visit for the 6 of us. Lucky we did because the place was absolutely packed when we got there on a busy Saturday night.
We go to Shellharbour once a month or so but we had never been at night time. If this is the case for you, maybe you will wonder the same things we did – where do you park? Is the shopping centre open to walk through? You can park in the normal carpark near the food area which is open till 10:30pm, and part of the shopping centre near the restaurants is open – they have security gates locking off the non-open area. Kmart was open, as was Coles.
The atmosphere was brilliant. It was a little noisy. There is not much in the room to soak up the sound. The Old West theming of this restaurant is very well done with lots of wood and big wine barrel tables at the bar.
From the start our server Grace was constantly checking in with us, making sure we all had drinks and taking our order for entrees. We chose the Amarillo fries x1 and the hilariously named loco cheesy land trout (bacon) garlic bread x3.
While waiting for this to arrive I saw the garlic bread appear at another table and I began to be concerned we might have ordered too many as they are 2 slices in the serve but the slices are quite long.
We took a while to choose mains and Grace was very patient with us. In fact just as we finished ordering our mains, all the entrees arrived. The garlic bread was actually one of the best garlic breads we have eaten, ever. Smooshy bread, lots of flavour. We did not leave any behind. The Amarillo cheese fries were just as we remembered them, the ranch dipping sauce delicious.
Because we were late ordering our mains we did have a bit of a wait to receive them. We were right up the back of the restaurant near the food pass and it turned out this was a very interesting spot to be. There seemed to be a bit of confusion going on at the pass at times – I do not think that pass is big enough for a restaurant of this size when it is a busy night. All the other food going out past us looked great.
Our mains arrived and they were delicious. Absolutely no complaints, those who ordered steaks got them exactly how they wanted them, mostly medium or well done, they were cooked perfectly. I had the chicken which was yummy. I missed out on taking pics of two of the meals, sorry! ;)
We did not have any dessert intentions but Grace changed our minds by offering us a look at the dessert menus, and we ordered 4 to share between us. Raspberry cheesecake at the top, the chocolate brownie in the middle, and then pecan pie at the bottom. The pecan pie was served warm and was incredible, I had the cheesecake which was also great however once I tried the pie I had some order envy.
The bill was a little more $$ than we had expected, however two of our party were ordering some expensive beers. Food wise it worked out at less than $50 a head for entrees, mains, and dessert.
They still do the birthday clapping thing with the sparkler on the brownie, but the hourly boot scooting dancing was not seen. I kinda think that is a good thing in some ways. The staff have other things to be doing!
Oh, I nearly forgot, there was a magician named Jordan who visited our table, who did a card trick for us. We are still trying to work out how it was done. He was lovely.
The only negatives we experienced – no name badges for the staff, the wooden booths can be a bit uncomfortable for longer visits (BYO seat cushions!) and the plates for the mains are a bit too small and fancy and make eating a bit difficult because of the lip, especially with the ribs as they are longer than the lip of the plate.. I would say they are fine for entrees but a larger mostly flat plate would be better for mains in my opinion.
I was worried when I read the reviews before we went, however I did have a feeling that most of those complaints were due to teething issues as the restaurant was quite new and staff training issues. It seems they have heard the feedback and taken it all on board, because many of the previous complaints mentioned on the web did not appear for us – eg missing cutlery and napkins, not checking in about how the food was, checking we were ok for drinks, all of that stuff went great for us.
We loved it and we will be back, for sure
Here is the menu which is presently unavailable online. You can visit the Lone Star website here.
What Plant Is This?
This plant in the chook pen has grown as a surprise to us. The chooks have left it alone, which is strange. Most plants do not get past the seedling stage before a chook eats them.
We have absolutely no idea what it is.
Clearly it grew from seeds which likely arrived from a plant the chooks were fed. But they get so many treats, and I do not recognise this plant at all. Recently things with seeds that they have had include pumpkin, tomato, zucchini, cucumber, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and likely more treats I have completely forgotten about. If something is on special at Aldi and it is something they like and it is ok for them to eat it, chances are it will jump in the trolley.
I never see bees inside the chook pen, so I suspect this plant will not bear any fruit. Maybe it isn’t anything good – maybe it is just a weed and I should pull it out?
Over to you – Got any idea what this might be? ;)
Gold Coast Friday
Counting down the days!
Cat Tales
The Kitties have been fighting over the best spots in the house, as usual.
Grumpy often wins. If she does not win, she might arrive to sit on my lap.
I love watching the Tinykittens feeds. Usually I have one running in the background so anytime I feel the need, I can flick over for a kitten fix.
If I am going to be there for a while, I usually hit the full screen button – highlighted above in the image – as I find the chat and chatters can be somewhat annoying at times, especially when they start talking politics. Hey, these are kitties, look at them, forget Combover Man! There is an option to hide the chat but it pops up little boxes with new messages which is even more annoying.
My favourite cat in recent times has been Skye, she is just such a character. She loved the sink in her room and spent a lot of time sleeping in there. Once Skye was spayed and had raised her kittens, she went off to a lovely new home. They have a Facebook page!
Right now they have a cat who they believe is a sister of Skye called Starling. She has the most gorgeous blue eyes and is coloured like our Grumpy. I saw her kittens born live on camera. I saw their eyes open. Two of the kittens are grey, orange and white like our Grumpy and every day they get more and more beautiful.
Bear in mind, I am not the only one watching Starling and her kittens when they are on my screen. Grumpy can see them and will quite often park herself on my lap – I tilt the screen to the right place for her position, and she watches kitten teevee. Sometimes my lap is not close enough to the screen for her, and she tries to sit right in front of my laptop, planting her paws on the mouse pad or keyboard, pressing random keys as a surprise to my computer.
You – and your cats, dogs, chickens, or other pets – can watch the Starling live stream here. You can visit the TinyKittens Facebook page here, and also you can read more at the TinyKittens website.
Preparations
The list of things to prepare for Sephyroth to visit is LONG. Here is what we have achieved so far.
House Preparations –
– Move office of The Other Half out of spare bedroom
– Order new mattress
– Put bed together
– Set up bedroom
– Move all my shoes into another spare bedroom
– Move all my scarves onto another door
– Get alarm system serviced
– Purchase and install new HD security cameras
– Install new lighting in kitchen
– Wash bedclothes and towels
So the top photo was my shoe cupboard before. Here it is after!
Upcoming house preparations –
– Clean & tidy spare bathroom so it is ready
– Clean, clean, CLEAN.
– Clean chook pen
Packing has begun – I have picked out the shoes, begun to pick out the outfits, begun to put the items into ziploc bags. As our apartment has a kitchen with dishwasher, I have packed dishwasher tablets. As we have a washing machine, I have packed washing powder. As we have a LONG drive, I have packed sugary treats.
This week I will be working on scheduling some posts for while I am away. I am going to share with you some of my parents Canada and Alaska photos from their trip in July. They took a lot of photos, some excellent, some very bad. :) I will be sharing some of my favourite travel photos from my own trips as well, with some memories of those times.
I also am trying to get back in the habit of taking photos of things on my phone. At some point in the past year I managed to get out of the habit. Here is a photo of my scarf bar, moved.
Of course, I will be sharing all about our trip here once we return!
Is it moving?
Happy is the kitty who notices things. From time to time, the things she notices are only there in her mind.
When she stops and stares at the floor or the wall or the ceiling, I always make sure to look, as she is the number one spotter of creatures in this house.
This time, she was staring at a new light fitting only just installed yesterday. She kept staring for ten minutes or so, just to make sure it did not move.
Sussex Inlet RSL – Bamboo River Restaurant
My parents are strange people. Driving 5km for dinner or lunch is sometimes very far away, for them. For us, 5km away is just around the corner. We’re willing to drive for an hour or two for lunch or dinner if the food is something we enjoy. Sussex Inlet is about 30 minutes away so it is about a perfect distance to have a nice drive then have a lovely dinner. They are usually willing to go here if we suggest it, because they like the food.
We’ve been visiting here from time to time for nearly 10 years now. The first time we went, I found my dish and I have never ordered anything else here. I always order the Thai King Prawn Cinnamon Curry. It is a little spicy, as it does contain red curry, but it is not too spicy for me.
Dad loves the Peking Prawn. We always swap a prawn. This time his prawn had a bit of a kick to it, it was way more spicy than usual.
We also share a fried rice between us, mostly to soak up the sauce. The sauce on my meal is amazing and I don’t want to miss any of it!.
The Other Half loves a mixed grill, this one was very flavourful. The meat was beautifully cooked.
Mother cannot go past a crumbed lamb chop.
Dinner was yummy. I don’t have any photos but we did pick a couple of desserts to share. Sussex Inlet is a gorgeous place to visit, so if you are in the area you might want to have lunch or dinner at the RSL club. It is good reliable tasty food.
We are coming up to the holiday season here on the South Coast, I will be adding some more food reviews for the travellers over the next couple of months. You might want to view some of my previous local food reviews –
Greenwell Point Chinese Restaurant
The Huskisson
Orient Point Bakehouse
Back On The Horse
I’ve had a lovely little blog holiday, part of which was spent planning our upcoming actual holiday to the Gold Coast, Tamworth, Bathurst, the Blue Mountains and Canberra.
I’m the kind of person who wants to research everything very thoroughly before leaving. If we are going somewhere to eat, I will have already read the menu. For places to stay or visit, I will read the reviews on Tripadvisor and various other places.
I have many stories to type up, for you! SOON!
Taking A Break
Just a short time out to recharge my batteries and write some posts.
Back soon!