The Lokal @Neil Road

Romantic decor

Yet another late afternoon meeting in this area, so off to The Lokal we went! Ms J was visiting here on a super regular basis previously, so we figured that the food must be pretty good 🙂

This place is right at the corner of a small side road so its easy to miss. Once inside, the front part of the restaurant is a bar and the rear is the dining section. There is soft lighting and smooth music to accompany the diners to give a very romantic feel to the whole place.

While waiting for hubby to arrive, I had a freshly squeezed yummilicious Pink Grapefruit ($6++)!

It was rather difficult to catch the attention of the staff though, as I was seated in a corner on the sofa and the place was basically empty at 6.15pm.

The food menu was just one page long (but gets changed regularly, sometimes even daily!), so it didn’t take us too long to decide on a Cauliflower 3 Ways ($10++), Saffron Seafood Stew ($25++) and a Pulled Saltbush Lamb Sandwich ($22++).

Cauliflower 3-ways

Saffron Seafood Stew

Pulled Saltbush Lamb Sandwich

The cauliflowers came in purée, pickled and fried versions and were very delicious! The soft ricotta, crunchy hazelnut and sweet grapes added different elements to the starter, and we totally enjoyed the food 🙂

The seafood broth was simply heavenly! Rich but not heavy, I could not resist dipping the bread into the broth, and it was one of the very few times that I finished eating the bread first! They were also quite generous with the amount of prawns, squid rings and clams, and there was a lovely piece of red snapper; just gotta be careful of the bones.

Hubby enjoyed his lamb sandwich very much. The lamb was slow-roasted which made it very flavourful and the bread was not too hard, and chewy to give that real munchy texture to the whole mouth.

Overall a very satisfying meal indeed 🙂