If my lucky number is eight, my current unlucky number seems to be five. Why five? Well because with five people you may have to wait 1 hour and 40 minutes for a table at Jamie’s Italian but with six you can make a booking and with a group of two, you can have a table within about half an hour. My friends had encouraged me to make the booking for six people and just cite one as a no show but I was being good.

But after being told it would be a 15 minute wait or thereabouts on the phone that afternoon, a 30 minute wait by the first person while standing at the queue and then an hour as we put our name down after standing in the queue, I’m slightly regretful.

During the wait period Viggo and Dave got up and ordered us some nibblies while Louise, Mr NQN and I waited at the bar. And it was a good thing that he did because you know that twilight where you’ve been waiting for more than you’ve thought and you get your cranky pants on? Well that was Mr NQN. And somehow we completely missed the order for free bread on the menu although I would think just bringing it for people like in most restaurants might be a good idea.

There is a tray of nibblies brought out to the people waiting in the queue which is a nice gesture but the tray comes back still half full bypassing everyone in the bar waiting. I bump into a friend Ute who says to me “Is it just me or is there no signage for this place?”  Oliver is said to pay a visit to his latest outpost some time in February.

Italian Nachos $7

We tried the Italian nachos, crispy deep fried four cheese ravioli blanketed with a thick covering of grated parmesan and “angry’ arrabiata sauce. The ravioli weren’t bad although you couldn’t really tell that there were four cheeses inside and the filling has shrunken leaving mostly an air pocket. The spicy arrabiata sauce is nice and spicy.

Oven dried tomatoes cooked with basil, garlic and creamy ricotta bruschetta $12

The bruschetta, and they all come as pairs, is crispy and crunchy and comes with three different toppings. The first features oven dried cherry tomatoes, basil and garlic and ricotta which is cooling and crunchy and has a good balance of flavours.

Roasted mushrooms grilled and marinated with lemon, thyme and garlic $11

My favourite out of the three bruschetta is the roasted mushrooms that were grilled and marinated with lemon, thyme and garlic as the flavours matched well with the meaty mushrooms.

Spanner crab with chilli, lemon and zest mayo $15

There is a generous amount of crab here and I expected that I would like this best but the crab was quite wet in texture (you can perhaps see the pooling of the liquid in the picture) which made the bread a bit wet too.

It is getting close to one and a half hours and the queue outside has all but disappeared. Dave suggests that we line up again to get a table and figures that we’ll have better luck asking for a “table for three and two but next to each other.” We ask if we can squeeze on a table for four and they see what they can do.

We finally make it upstairs after 1 hour and 40 minutes and by then we know what we want to order having had plenty of time to peruse the menu. The walls are exposed brick, lightly graffiitied with painted metal and wooden chairs and banquettes. There is a downstairs section next to the kitchen which is pumping furiously with testosterone and steam. Our waiter is lovely and accommodating and helps us with the menu selections.

Crispy Squid $12

The crispy squid comes with chopped chilli, parsley and a wedge of lemon. The squid itself is a little tough although we do adore the “really garlicky mayo” which is true to its name-no kissing anyone after that!

Smoky Scamorza Arancini $9.50

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I’m secretly starting to think that I’m a curse. I daren’t whisper it to anyone but the last time I visited the Sunshine Coast the heavens opened and rain poured and soaked us to the bone therefore making a mockery of the name. Now during August, and supposedly during the  best weather season the mist, fog and rain has shrouded pretty Airlie Beach giving the markets a distinctly sodden aspect.

Still there’s nothing quite like food to brighten the enthusiasm. Cupcakes to be specific as Amanda and I coo over sugary delights and butterfly topped cupcakes and the Mars bar topped cupcakes and cake pops. And for good measure and as a gift for my mother some macadamia brittle.

We try some Bowen mango sorbet which is simply frozen mango cheeks from Bowen which is about 80kms away churned up. It’s refreshing but not particularly sweet but comes in a generous serve. There are also a proliferation of jam makers many of whom use fruit from their garden to make passionfruit butters, rosella and mulberry jam.

And of course fruit wine is popular here with the amount of fruit available. At Pacific Blue they tell us that their wines are on the dry side rather than the sweet.

A creative use for cans-and check out the chopping board prices!

We check into Peppers Coral Coast. This is my first time staying at a Peppers resort but I had always heard good things about Peppers. We make our way up the steep winding driveway to the top of the hill where the newest Peppers hotel lies. It’s all open plan with the main restaurant area next to the reception area and next to that is the outdoor pool area and spa. There are 1, 2 and 3 bedroom luxury apartments available.

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White Rabbit

Alice is Wonderland is a favourite tale of mine, the surreal tale of the heroine and her friends have always struck a chord with me. And when we were told that there was a restaurant in Singapore called White Rabbit which was named after Alice in Wonderland, well what’s a girl to do but book a table here.

The restaurant is housed inside a converted church and has aces of beautiful gardens surrounding it. Sadly it is raining so any sort of Alice style exploring is out of the question. We take a look inside and it is gorgeous with wooden and leather chairs, lush greenery and lovely lighting fixtures and the restaurant does brunch until 2.30pm. Alison from delicious. magazine, Carly from SBS and I take a seat at a roomy booth and fixate on the menu. And of course you know the item that we really wanted: mac and cheese with truffles but apparently so did everyone else. We are told that it has sold out and no amount of eyelash batting will make it appear.

Lobster and cheese omelette $30

We went for our second choice, a lobster and cheese omelette. It’s a nicely made omelette with a generous amount of lobster chunks. The only thing I could really fault was that the cheese was much stronger than the lobster and masked any sort of lobster flavour.

Wagyu quarter pounder $32

Carly is allergic to mushrooms so we had this without the field mushrooms. It’s a well seasoned patty and comes with melted cheese on top but could do with some pickles or sauce which we ask for. The fries are crunchy and addictive (and fries eaten on holiday contain no calories right?!)

Smoked salmon blini $28

The smoked salmon blini could have dine with a bit more smoked salmon and the eggs were completely unseasoned however with the salty salmon it was more balanced. The blini is light and fluffy and made from buckwheat.

Mars bar soufflé $16

I was a little worried when it was set down in front of us and as far as a soufflé goes it wasn’t a success. The skin on top was tough (and skin?) and underneath it it was quite wet and the texture was more of a lemon delicious style of pudding rather than a drier airy soufflé. There are melted bits of Mars bar at the bottom which we fish for. Overall it’s a pretty setting and not a bad place for brunch although there isn’t much in the way of Alice in the decor except for these bar tiles.

TWG Tea Salon

On the Alice and tea party theme, should you wish to have a bit of a tea stop in the afternoon TWG (The Wellness Group) tea salon is a bit obsessed with tea. We visited their branch at the Marina Bay Sands shopping centre and like all Singapore shops, open late at night (with a Manolo Blahnik boutique to open soon!). Founded in 2007, they stock teas from 36 tea producing countries and the tea menu stretches out for a good eight pages features 402 varieties of tea.

The menu starts with their darjeeling teas which are denoted by the letters that the Dutch East Indies tea company originally used to describe different tea types. With tea, the higher the percentage of whole tips that are found in the tea, the higher the grade of tea. Teas here start at about $11 per pot and go up to $84.50 for a China Szechuan yellow gold tea buds tea.

Tea jelly and cream

When faced with a huge selection of teas it can be a bit daunting. I am a huge Earl Grey tea fan and they suggested white Earl Grey which is an experiment with an expensive first grade tea blended with quality bergamot. However since I do like my tea sweet and milky so Maranda suggests the New York breakfast tea which features African black tea, Tahitian vanilla and chocolate. I try it and it is sweet like a caramel tea which I am not particularly taken with but then I try Grace’s white Earl Grey and I prefer that and its uplifting fragrance of bergamot.

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