BRUNCH: At The Breakwater

On a cold Saturday morning, we decided to venture up to The Hillarys to catch the last weekend of Frostival and have a go at ice-skating…it’s been a while. It was rather busy and after finding a parking space we made our way over to the Frostival tent.

There were three things that shocked me, the price which was $30 for an adult, I couldn’t believe it was such a rip off. The second thing that surprised me were the number of people who paid so much money to skate in a tiny rink with more water on it than there was ice and the third thing was how small it was. I just thought to myself, I’ll save my money and go to a proper rink.

We decided to skip straight to brunch and headed to The Breakwater for a midday munch, and maybe a beverage. Mini Me got a job, we were celebrating!

We ordered a drink each and had a browse through the menu. There were many share option available and if you are a regular reader, you will know that I love share food. It means I don’t have to restrict myself to eating one item from the menu. We decided to order the Potato Salad, Peking Duck Spring Rolls and the Tandoori Salmon. Mini Me was not feeling very adventurous and decided to get her own Potato Salad, sharing was non-negotiable.

With all of the ordering done, we were able to take I our surroundings. I never noticed the warm fires inside and wished we had nabbed a seat in front of one. At this stage, I had the flu for over a week and a half and would have loved to park myself by the fire. The Breakwater is a busy place during the summer but at this time of the year, many of the outdoor tables are empty so it does not take long to fill up the tables indoors.

Our food arrived together, served by two waitresses. We had to ask for plates to share the food out, nevertheless, we got them eventually. The first thing I wanted to taste was the Potato Salad. It looked so fresh and creamy, I wasn’t wrong. What surprised me about the Potato Salad was that it was warm. Sometimes when I have made this myself, it does not always react well with my creamy mixture so this was a pleasant surprise.

The salmon pieces were delicious. They were cooked all the way through but it did not affect the taste and they pieces fell apart as I sliced into them. They were each placed on a small round, soft flatbread and topped with a light creamy sauce. The sauce was tasty and added a little moisture to the salmon pieces but did not overpower the salmon or tandoori flavours. The tandoori flavours were on the crispy skin of the salmon and the salmon itself worked really well with the creaminess of the Potato Salad.

We all enjoyed the Duck Spring Rolls. They had a tasty filling which comprised more of duck than vegetables, perfect! The light filo pastry that enclosed the filling crunched as we bite into them. They were accompanied by soy sauce but I was happy with the Spring Roll flavours and did not use it.

It was a short but sweet visit to The Hillarys and I realised there are a few more places around the marina that I need to explore.