Caffe Diamante

The boyfriend and I were in the mood to keep it simple for date night. That doesn’t mean we skimped on taste though! We made reservations for a cafe up the road for 7:45pm and got ready a little earlier than normal so we could make walk up there.

The got-to-have selfie action shots.

I’m a creep haha.

Fifteen minutes later we arrived at Caffe Diamante.

And sat at our special number 6 table. Simon first asked me to be ‘his girlfriend’ on the 6th day of the 6th month (June- which is also my birth month). Which makes today exactly 43 months that we’ve been dating- or 3 years and 7 months.

We had never eaten here before but I knew it was Italian food. Sticking to tradition I went with a delicious tomato sauce based gnocchi dish with bacon, mushrooms, spinach and a hint of chilli. Topped with the necessary parmesan cheese.

It was the best goddamn gnocchi I have ever eaten! I loved the huge tomato flavour enhanced by the bacon and the kick at the end thanks to the chilli. The servings were huge for the very reasonable price that the dish was. I ended up shamelessly asking for a doggy bag to take leftovers home for mum who is still quite sick (top daughter).

The bf took the wrong route (in my opinion ha) and ordered a 350g eye fillet with pepper sauce, salad and chips.

The meat was a tad fatty at times and he mentioned he has had better pepper sauces but still managed to scoff it all down.

Service was acceptable, company was fantastic, the weather was the perfect temperature for outdoor dining, it was fun to people watch and we both ended up walking home full and satisfied.

We will definitely come again.

Do you go to ‘themed’ restaurant and order against the theme? For example- go to a mexican place and order a non-mexican dish or a burger joint and get a schnitzel?

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Bamboo Basket

The other night I left you with plenty of tasty photos but not much explanation. I know a picture can mean a thousand words, but I think I’ll translate those messages for you- just incase you interpreted it wrong 😉

The restaurant we chose to go to was called Bamboo Basket. We had been there twice before and enjoyed it both times. It wasn’t quite as memorable as Wagaya, but than again what ever is (ha), but we did enjoy the food- especially the items off the dim sim menu.

The bf and I love Asian cuisine and usually find most of our date nights end up at some Asian restaurant. Tonight it was Chinese. We arrived around 8 and were surprised to see it wasn’t absolutely chock-a-block. We were seated immediately and as we were starving, began perusing the menus straight away. After we ordered we checked out the chefs preparing the dumplings. I love seeing chefs at work so this was a novelty I definitely enjoyed.

People who walk by the restaurant can also check it out since the glass screen wraps around majority of the kitchen.

First up for me were the Chicken and Vegetable Steamed Dumplings.

These were actually phenomenal. The pink-ness of the chicken mince always freaks me out but once I double (triple) checked with the boyfriend that these were properly cooked I inhaled 3 of them, and the bf pried one away from my fingers enjoyed one also. With a tiny sprinkle of soy sauce the flavour enhances even more- seriously try it.

The boy tried the Steamed Prawn Dumplings and the BBQ Pork Buns (which I had to continually talk him into- he forgot how much he LOVED them the first time we dined there).

He loved the pork buns as I predicted but found the prawn dumplings too fishy. After he had one they went untouched. The pork buns, according to him were full of flavour and he (oddly for him) was very fond of the dough. I hesitantly had a taste and felt they weren’t all that, especially in comparison to my dumplings.

Unfortunately I must have had a brain freeze because I forgot to photograph the pork wonton soup we ordered to share. The broth was good, not great but the wontons were the shiz. The best flavour, and even better with a tiny bit of soy sauce. They are a mission to eat with chop sticks though so either go the finger route or with those cute asian spoons. I’m a noodle girl and was disappointed that this dish was noodle-less, which I didn’t expect. Plus it was smaller than I remembered.

The bf also decided to have some BBQ Roasted Duck which he pulled apart.

For the price and for what he ate it wasn’t worth it. And he said whilst it was good he probably wouldn’t bother ordering it again.

One more dish for the boy was the sweet buns. Or what we thought were condensed milk stuff buns, which turned out to be multi-grain buns with a smidge of condensed milk dipping sauce. The bf went roll-less and ended up just spooning the condensed milk into his mouth.

Although the company was great and the food was good, I don’t know if I was left as impressed as I have been in past visits. Plus I definitely didn’t feel full or satisfied. Next time I’d probably stick to their dim sim menu and just go the dumpling route. But a great date night nonetheless (but that’s a given when you’re dating the best guy).

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