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Food Review: Beach Bar and Deli — Phillip Island (Keith’s 4.5/5 Iced Chocolate experience)

As some of you may know, Keith and I had a short trip to Melbourne recently to see the sights, visit some old friends. When it was dinnertime at Phillip Island on the first day, we shunned the driver’s recommendation to go to a semi-expensive Italian Restaurant with the views, and found an ordinary looking shopfront cafe with a few tables and chairs outside looking out onto the water. Nothing like the sort of cafes you might see at Manly or Bondi — this was just a simple place to eat. However, there was something interesting about this place… When we got inside, there was no-one at the counter. After scanning through the menu written on the walls and the specials, Keith just opted for a pie and salad, while I (not being too hungry) opted for some soup and bread.

Soon, an old man scurried out of the kitchen, a bit flustered and asked us for what we’d like to eat. We ordered, and Keith being Keith ordered an Iced Chocolate which was $5. ‘Five dollars’, we thought. ‘It had better be good’.

He scribbled down our order on a bit of pad paper, and added up the price of the two meals on paper — wow, so old skool. The old man proceeded to tell us apologetically that it may take a long time since he was the only one at the cafe today. We were definitely in no rush (we had 1.5 hours), so we proceeded outside to the chairs and tables to wait for our meal.

The pie and salad came first. I didn’t try it, but I think it was pretty standard. The salad was pretty ordinary too. A bit expensive for $7.50.

Then the soup came out — it was chicken soup with rice. I guess I didn’t expect it — it was simple, but also had a really comfortable homely feel to it. The kind of thing that your grandparents would make you in the winter time. There was shredded chicken breast in it, with some tomato and celery etc. I think the rice really made it feel ‘homely’.

I could imagine the old man in the kitchen (slightly flustered) taking a roast chicken and just pulling it apart and placing it in the soup. The bread that came with it wasn’t thick cafe style bread, it just looked like ordinary buttered bread, cut into triangles. Nothing fancy, but yet there was something about it that made both Keith and I really appreciate it.

Keith and I thought a bit about the old man and the food. He wore a thin navy t-shirt — I’ll bet he wore the same thing when he was a young lad. He seemed down to earth, and served us with this good attitude — apologetic and eager to get back to do our meals.

Maybe it was that he was an old man, and he here was, serving us young, urban, Sydney Asian people. Or maybe it was the first time we had experienced eating a simple, tasty meal and appreciated the person who made it — rather than eat at the place because of the eatability rating :p.

Maybe this is what cafes were like in the old days — you didn’t just go to a cafe for it’s name, you go because you know the people there — it’s more based on a sense of community perhaps? It was nothing like the cafe experience you have in the city, where everything is flashy, you have cushy seats and coloured dim lighting, or where food is served on a big white plate for double the price, and you have no idea who cooked it.

Well the climax came when the iced chocolate was served. Firstly, it looked huge! It was about as tall as my face! We touched the glass — nice and cold — the way it should be. There was an ultra long spoon to complement the long glass — hmm thought-out, a good sign. We poked around — good, a huge chunk of ice cream and no ice in sight. But then, we had to test it to see if it actually tasted any good.

Keith took one good sip… hmm… taste is alright, not bad. He took a longer sip… hmm… he seemed a bit astonished. ‘This is actually pretty good’. ‘What rating?’ I asked. He said, ‘at least a 4′. I was really curious at that point. I took a sip — it tasted pretty good. ‘I’ll have to wait till the ice cream melts more first’. Keith said. As the ice cream slowly began to melt, Keith took more sips. ‘4.5… no, actually maybe higher’.

Half way through the beverage, Keith asked me to take over. ‘There’s too much of it’, he said. Eventually, he concluded that it was a 4.5 — it was great, but there was too much of it (same rating as the iced chocolate at Cafe Zuppa — the highest ones so far). I thought to myself, ‘Ah what an interesting experience, and what a surprising old man!’

So all in all, that was our very pleasant old man cafe experience. We didn’t even know what the cafe was called. It was only until we had crossed the road and looked back — there was the sign, ‘Beach Bar and Deli’. After our meal, we had wanted to back inside to thank the old man and get a photo with him (hehe) but more tourists had dropped by and he was dashing around the kitchen like anything looking more flustered than ever before! Probably best not to distract him…

Food: 6/10 — sufficient for us and pretty standard.

Atmosphere: 7/10 — there was a nice water view, but the cafe itself wasn’t particularly impressive.

Price: 6/10

Service: 3.5/10 Wasn’t exactly great — understaffed, and waited like 40 minutes for the food, and it came one after the other with delays in between. But he did chat to us for a bit…

Old man: 10/10 go the old man!