Birthday Breakfast Bonanza!!

[Eden Crown, Eindhoven]

The restaurant, ‘Simply Bread’, where we indulged in some serious breakfast action is also open to the public and it only open until 11.ooam. Therefore, it was incentive for us to awake bright and early to enjoy some Rooibos tea, hot or cold breakfast, and internet whilst discussing the night before.

Did I mention it was a BUFFET?? oh yum!!! oh sweet sweet yum!

[Images on the placemats]

I started off with what became my breakfast ritual:

* Fresh croissant
* Fresh tomatoes
* Brie
* Cumin seed cheese & swiss cheese
* Amazing bacon. [Seriously amazing lightly crunchy and the right amount of oil]
* Some kind of cold meat… still don’t know 😦
* Fresh fruit + yoghurt + honey

and for the bevvies, I always had a glass of water, freshly squeezed OJ and a delicious cup of South Africa’s finest Rooibos tea. YUM!!!

I fell in love with Rooibos tea a few years back when I was living in LDN, and a really good friend of mind [Shyam] had a Saffa roommate [who was so awesome!!] and he just LOVED the stuff, consequently got me hooked. I then moved back to Melbourne and couldn’t find it anyway, or rather…. my love of hot and iced Chai Lattes took over. It wasn’t until Eindhoven that Rooibos and I were once again reunited. Bless you Eindhoven :), so lovely in so many ways!!. 🙂

I write this as I reminisce one of the most relaxing holidays I’ve had in a while…and as I write, the snow in Trier has just started to fall. For a Melbourne girl living in Germany… this is truly magical. *sigh* Its like tiny pieces of fairy floss floating down from the heavens. At least if its going to be this cold, please let the roads be sugar-coated…

The Christmas markets/Weinachtsmarkt have begun, and the joyous spirit is all around…the snow just makes it that much more beautiful.

🙂

Hope you’re warm and cosy wherever you are…

. . .

Tastefully yours,

. . .

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Gauchos = Grouchos…

[Gauchos, Eindhoven]

There are few words to describe this place…

The food-it was ok.

The service-was truly the most terrible I have ever experienced.

There were tables around us that hadn’t been cleared for almost an hour, or more even! and our food kept being served even though the last course hadn’t been cleared. At one point we had to actually stack the dished up high in the middle of the table….

As you can see below, our dessert [of Icecream and sauce] was served whilst our main course was still alive and breathing… awkward.

It didn’t make sense. The staff were physically there, but not in any mental or serving capacity.

It looked like a restaurant, smelt like a restaurant…but it didn’t ‘taste’ like one.

Although the photos don’t look so bad, I must tell you sitting around for approximately 45minutes [felt like 10 hours] between courses… is well so NOT ok!..

Anyway, we ordered, we waited, we ate…we almost didn’t pay. Then we left to ‘coffee shop’ our bad experience away. 🙂

Menus are beautiful to look at… but buyer beware!!

Entree: Mushroom soup.
Tasted pretty good, but we WERE starving, and had waited for a billion years for it to arrive, it wasn’t until we politely inquired where oh where our dishes were a couple of times did they arrive.

Entree: Calabrese Salad. With olives and iceberg lettuce…. hmm ok! [tasted pretty harmless though]

Main: Steak… I heard it was good.

My sad and lonely Salmon with some green and 2 yellows was also just ok. All they really needed to do was SEASON the crap out of it and fluff around with some presentation, and it would’ve been ok. ahh sigh… 😐

Service, ambience, presentation… all the things that really have nothing to do with the taste [directly], all heavily impact on the satisfaction result.
All these very simple things.

Look, I dunno, maybe there was an accident in the kitchen and thats why all the staff were being so strange….We’ll never know, but I tell you what, I’ll never be going back there again. I hate to say, I’d be so much more satisfied with fish ‘n’ chips or Maccas, at least I know what I’m in for.

Maybe thats just it, maybe our expectations were too high?

They were ‘talking the talking’ of being a restaurant, but not the walk…

They lured us in with great decor and well presented waiting staff, then trapped us in for one of the top 10 worst meals I’ve ever had. Sucks to be me. ;)FML

. . .

Tastefully yours,

. . .

The ‘grass’ is always greener…

[pink, Eindhoven]

Eindhoven, Holland… what a pleasant surprise.

Having booked tickets purely on curiously/great price alone, the birthday weekend group really didn’t know what we were in for. The weather forecast looked gloomy, google searches brought a whole lot of ‘not much’, but a fair bit of info on Fritz Philips…

Almost as soon as we set foot in the country [Paul and I via train from Germany and the Londeners via Plane] we all sensed ‘a little something else’ in the air.

The air was fresh and the energy of the city was vibing and relaxed all at the same time!

We grabbed some quick but late dinner and wondered the streets of Eindhoven….seriously what a beautiful city.
Unknowingly, we had arrived during the final w/e of a Light installation in the city. It was cold, raining and grey, but the city was alive with bubbling friendly energy with truly magical lights to pave the way.

There was something about the place that reminded me of Melbourne, there was an energy… and ofcourse the cafes and restaurants. Eindhoven has a few over Melbs though…like the benefits of being in the Netherlands…two words: ‘coffee shop’

We went to a couple of places, Grasshopper and Pink. Pink was by far our favourite as it was a whole lot more friendlier and roomier.

We played cards and enjoyed the beauty of being in Eindhoven. As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side…. 🙂

Ps. they have delicious cookies here 😉

. . .

Tastefully yours,

. . .