Girls lunch @ Monte Fiore & drinks at Five Bar

I think I really surprised the girls (and myself) today, I arrived at Monte Fiore in Mount Lawley at 12:59pm for a 1pm booking and waited 15 minutes for the girls to rock up. The girls were having bets that I wouldn’t be there when they arrived! burger boy and I are renowned for being late

Monte Fiore was a nice change to the usual girl’s lunch - it was nice & casual and didn’t cost too much. I had a three course meal and wine for $65 which was what I paid at The Gala Restaurant on Friday night for a very average entrée, main and water!

The service wasn’t amazing but it was good enough for what we paid:

• Food came out all at the same time and there wasn’t a huge wait
• We could always get the attention of the staff when we needed
• Water was self-service and although in a water filter tasted like tap water
• Two of the three staff I asked didn’t know what cakes were on display

I woke up this morning feeling a bit groggy so I was in much need of caffeine. My latte was smooth and had just enough caffeine to pick me up. The wines were also very affordable, we had two bottles for around $25 each.

For starters we had two serves of bruschetta and a bowl of chips. The bruschetta was tasty - it was served on garlic bread with a pinch of feta through the tomatoes. The chips were nice & chunky and a good portion - it was enough for the 6 of us.

The Chicken Ecelente $29.50 was just what I felt like. It had a nice creamy sauce which worked really well with the chicken, scallops and prawns which all tasted great together.

From what the girls told me the Gnocchi Bake $21.50 had great flavourings and was a winner.

The Chicken Parmigiana $25.50 & Penne Mafiosa $24.50 were ok but nothing special.

The Beef & Reef $32.50 was voted the most average main today:

• The steak was not cooked medium as requested and was a little chewy
• Two of the girls ordered this main but different veggies were plated
• Some of the veggies were cold when they were meant to be warm

The dish wasn’t so bad the girls couldn’t eat it, but they just wouldn’t order the Beef & Reef again or come back to Monte Fiore in a hurry.

For dessert I had the Passionfruit Cheesecake $6.50 which was yum, it was sweet enough without being overbearing and very good value for $6.50!

The two girls who had the Beef and Reef ordered the Kahlua Kiss $9.90, which is a strong espresso with a scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream. One of the girls loved it but the other thought the espresso was too strong.

Monte Fiore serves good portioned foods at a decent price and is great for a Sunday afternoon / casual outing without being amazing.

After lunch we headed over to the new Five Bar for drinks.

The drinks menu looked pretty funky and there was a good list of wines / beer - shame they don’t make cocktails though.

The decore was very cool / modern, the wooden benches and massive cushions towards the back of the bar were pretty funky and created a relaxed atmosphere. There was also a pool table and I play quite well with a few drinks…but none of the girls were up for it, so maybe next time I’ll take on burger boy!

Service at Five Bar was fantastic. We didn’t have to go to the bar to order, a bar man with a gold bow tie was super attentive and took / delivered our orders.

Jerry Fraser the King of Oysters was at Five Bar shucking oysters which I thought was pretty different:

The girls tasted a couple which they thought was yum. I don’t eat natural oysters but the array of sauces looked pretty cool.

Five Bar is a nice addition to Mount Lawley and worth a visit.