We had a fun family date night to The Little Aussie Bakery last Friday. On the way home my husband and I both agreed that on a scale from 1 to 10, we would give the restaurant itself a 2, BUT the gluten-free pizza gets an 8 easy.
Here's 3 reasons why the restaurant gets a 2:
1. No air conditioning! All they had were some ceiling fans circulating the hot, muggy air. I like to go out to eat for the experience just as much as the food. It wasn't just the lack of air conditioning that took away from a fun restaurant experience. The sticky tables, and the weird, random collection of decor didn't help either. I wish I would have taken a few pictures to show you. The whole atmosphere just felt really unorganized.
2. Rolls that taste like a dried up sponge. Before I figured out that I was gluten intolerant, a large determining factor of what my favorite restaurants were dependent on how good their appetizer bread was. If this was the only thing I took in to consideration when judging restaurants, then The Little Aussie Bakery would be on my blacklist. I don't know if we happened to get an old batch of rolls, or if all their rolls taste like that. After looking at the restaurant's nutrition information, I told Scott that those rolls were the worst 210 calories I had ever eaten.
5. Last, but definitely not least, they charged me for my to-go box! When I asked for a to-go box for my pizza the lady handed me a tiny box that I might possibly be able to fit my pizza in if I cut it up, so I asked if she had any bigger boxes. She went in the back and came back with a normal sized to-go box and told me that would be 25 cents. I said, "Oh, I didn't know you had to pay for the bigger box. I'll try to make the smaller one work." She looked a little annoyed that I had just made her go in the back for nothing, and told me, "OK, that will be 20 cents." Seriously? I know 20 cents is nothing, but just up the price of your pizza 25 cents and save yourselves from looking tacky! On the way home Scott and I were joking that we should have walked over to the table where we left the tip and grabbed 25 cents.
So there's the bad, now let me tell you about the good!
Their orange crisp salad dressing was delicious!
Their gluten-free pizza saved the night. It was good enough to make up for the lack of air conditioning, dried up sponge rolls, and having to pay for my to-go box. We got feta, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and pepperoni (even though we asked for chicken). It was really good with the pepperoni too and we were too hungry to send it back, so we didn't say anything.
Comfort food is a little harder to come by when you're gluten intolerant, but this pizza was comfort food at it's best. Even Scott loved it, and he's not gluten intolerant.
My overall conclusion is to skip the restaurant and order your pizza to-go!
Have you ever been charged for your to-go box?
This was our first time!
Sheesh, even though your pizza was good, they even got that wrong! So lame! That really is tacky they charged for their to-go boxes. I have never heard of that.
ReplyDeleteCan't say that I have been charged for a to-go box! As an employee at a food establishment, I have a feeling people wouldn't come back... and it sounds like that's the case with you! Too bad - I'd be just as giddy to find a 100% GF spot.
ReplyDeleteI've been charged for a to-go box for--it's really ridiculous, isn't it!?! What a neat chance to go to a restaurant where everything is gluten-free! Shame not everything lived up to your expectations!
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of charging for to-go boxes! I have heard of stores charging for shopping bags as an environmental thing so wonder if they were trying to go that route...but wouldn't they not want people leaving and wasting food either because having to pay for a box? Random.
ReplyDeleteAt least the pizaa was super tasty!