Two Talentless Fools

25/04/2026

What: Restaurant review
Name: Spirit House
Style: Modern Asian/Thai
Where: 20 Ninderry Road, Yandina, Sunshine Coast 4561
Link: https://spirithouse.com.au/
When: April 2026

TTF no.2
Rating: 9.2768
I can’t call this an amazingly well kept secret for the Sunshine Coast as every time we go to the Spirit House it is full up. This last time was a Wednesday night and it was still packed. And no wonder- the food is exceptional for anywhere and the service is great. The tropical garden is also worth a wander around.
The only issues meaning it can’t get a 10 for this area of Australia is it is well off the beaten track and is quite pricey. So you need a designated driver which is a bit sad as the cocktails are terrific.
Featured in the photos is a Dragon’s Kiss cocktail- main ingredients being coconut tequila and dragon fruit.
We had the classic banquet. The photos show what that included; being a betel leaf snack, coconut soup and a prawn tart, whole baby Barra, red lamb curry, cassava cake and finally, white chocolate and raspberry mini tarts. Each item was perfectly cooked with really bold flavours. Chilli is in several dishes but never overwhelms the many flavours featured in each dish. And I still cannot get over how fine but crisp the tart shells were.
If you are on the Sunshine Coast, this is a must visit place. By the way- they also have a cooking school!

23/04/2026

What: Restaurant review
Name: Jonah’s
Style: contemporary Australian with Italian influences (apparently)
Address: 69 Bunyan Road, Palm Beach NSW 2108
Link:https://jonahs.com.au/

TTF no. 1
Rating 10/10
Probably even better on the food front than the Bathers Pavilion. In fact, I would say that they have the best seafood tower I have ever eaten (and I have had quite a few 😋). I have been back to try it several times just in case I was mistaken. But no, it is the best!

TTF no. 2
Another restaurant raved about by TTF no.1 and endorsed by TTF no. 3 (see photos). What can I say- desperate to try this one!

23/04/2026

What: Recipe
Style: Vegetarian pie
Name: Spinach, cheese, broccoli and chickpea pie
Link:
https://www.delicious.com.au/recipes/spinach-cheese-pie-recipe/kdex194n
Rating (would you cook it again): yes!

TTF no. 2:
I tried this recipe recently. I was a little concerned about how it would turn out as the name of the pie doesn’t inspire feelings of yumminess. It is just a list of ingredients.
However, much to my delight and that of my chief taster (Rick), it turned out to be really nice. I am not going to rave about it, but it was much tastier than expected. I love a recipe that relies heavily on fresh herbs for flavour plus plenty of cheese and this is one of those recipes. It is sort of like a herby felafel in pie form. That makes it sound like it might be dry- it isn’t saucy but holds together well without being dry.
If you are a vegetarian or trying a few meat free meals this is a great one to try! Just 3 notes of warning:
1 It is a BIG pie;
2 the first time you make it, ignore the timing suggestions for cooking the chickpeas and broccoli and just cook until the broccoli has softened a little (enough to be crushed with a masher).;
3 it could be that my oven is not as hot as it should be- whatever, I found that 180 on fan forced was not high enough and I turned it up to 200 fan forced for a further 10 minutes at the end. Next time I will try it on 190 for the whole suggested cooking time and see if that works better.

23/04/2026

What: Restaurant review
Name: Bathers Pavilion
Style: Bistro and Modern Thai
Address: 4 The Esplanade, Balmoral Beach NSW  2088
Link: https://www.batherspavilion.com.au/

TTF no. 1
Rating  10/10
Recommend that you should travel as far as you need to get here. The food is great and the service is fabulous.

TTFno.2
TRF no.’s 1 and 3 have been out and about without me! They are reliable reviewers (photos of TTF no. 3 included) and so I am keen to give this place a try. 

21/01/2026

What: restaurant review
Name: Oborozuki
Style: Japanese
Where: 71 Macquarie Street, Sydney.
When: January 2026
Notes: Provides a choice of sake glasses.

Reviews:
Sarah:
Rating: 10
Comments: Truly outstanding. Highly recommended.

Rhonnie:
Rating: - I wasn’t there but based on the TTF no. 1 comments it must be a 9.5341.
Comments: anywhere that lets you choose your own sake glass is tops in my ranking already, before I have even tasted the food!

13/11/2025

Please support this cause and help fund research for the probable cure for this disease to be brought to Australia!

We’re thrilled to share that the Australian Cystinosis Foundation is one of the Local Matters charities at Grill’d Cannon Hill, Brisbane this November!

Visit Grill’d at Shop C2, Cnr Creek & Wynnum Road, enjoy a burger, and pop a token in our jar to show your support!

Even better — snap a photo and tag to help spread the word! 🍔💙

14/09/2025

Last holiday post. Would you believe it, we had one more go at a Konoba style menu. This one in Bosnia.
1 the usual soup to start. Except this was a really nice chicken soup. With chicken in it! I don’t know whether my soup standards have dropped after so many awful soups or it really was a good soup. In any event I enjoyed it.
The remaining photos show the salad, grilled meats and bread. A huge meal I only made a small dent in. But the food was tender and really well cooked and the salad was super fresh and crisp.
There was also a dessert which was great. Forgot to take a snap though.
So, I can now say we had a really good Konoba style meal . It really is hit and miss what you get though. We went to this one on a recommendation and I think that is essential.
And that’s a wrap for holiday food reviews!

14/09/2025

We had a wine tasting with snacks at Botaro Winery, Drvenik (small town outside Dubrovnik). This is an excellent way to do wine tasting. The snacks are a full meal of delicious locally sourced food. I am seriously considering having a go at some cheese making. The wine was pretty good too- especially the red (and the rakia we were taken out to try later- again, about 4 varieties from brutally alcoholic to mildly sweet).
You may think that there has been a lot of eating and drinking on this trip. And you would be right. It wasn’t planned by us, but Croatia is very proud of its wine and food (particularly the olive oil and cheeses) and who are we to not fully enjoy what is on offer? It would be churlish to turn down such generous offers.

11/09/2025

Lunch yesterday (4pm - so is it linner or is it dunch?) . The black bread is flavoured with cuttlefish ink (big use of this ink is risottos as well). The seafood pasta was great and super simple. The seafood was just cooked in lots of garlic and oil and then olive oil was sprinkled over to finish the dish. Perfectly cooked and delicious.
Fun urban legend: we were told that you need to speak about tuna with a “t” the way the Americans say it. If you ask for Tuna the way Aussies and Kiwis pronounce it (ie chuna) you are referring to male genitalia in Croatia. I did a quick google and I think this is a load of BS for tourists. Pretty funny though! 😁

11/09/2025

Ok, this looks weird, but hold on! I finally got to try Dubai chocolate ice cream! There is an extra photo in there because the blueberry cheesecake ice cream looked so good. 😁
For those of you who haven’t caught up on this trend, Dubai chocolate is chocolate with pistachios, pistachio cream and kadayif (chopped filo pastry). Now imagine that in an ice cream form. Delicious!

11/09/2025

Another treat! We went to a small family run restaurant - it is in their home. The village was called Gromaca. The family make everything themselves or source it locally. Granny even makes some of the cheeses. We were given as much Rakia as we wanted. They had 5 types to try. I only managed 2- this stuff is fire water. The Rakia was accompanied by sugared almonds and sugared citrus peel. Bread, cheese, olives and a type of prosciutto (plus home pressed olive oil of course) came next, followed by the main meal. The main meal was cooked camo over style. The meat and vegetables were all placed in a large iron container with a tight lid and then put in the coals of a fire with more coals heaped on top. The cooking time was a number of hours. The chicken, lamb and veg were beautifully tender (the veal not so much). We then had a traditional dessert (Rozata - like a creme caramel) which was perfectly cooked. The wine that was served they also make themselves and it was better than many we had tried in Croatia. A great night!