Queen Mother

This month we had dinner near Chela's birthday, so this was a nice treat! We went to Queen Mother, a quaint cafe that's been on the block for decades, in a building over a century old.





The menu here is interesting. They are outgoing yet trendy with ingredients, such as sweet potatoes and quinoa, but they prepare it in a non-intimidating fashion, finding the right mixture with common foods. This attitude is probably what's kept the restaurant in business all these years. Like Madonna, it's always trend setting but never over the top. There are yummy looking vegetarian dishes as well, that are far more exciting than steamed veggies, and a lot of their dishes have Asian influence.

The venue is nice; it has that grand and peaceful atmosphere older buildings always develop. The inside being so trendy provided a smooth balance with the structure, so the place hummed with calm and happy energy.

I was positively starving when we arrived, so naturally it was about 10 minutes before someone came over to ask if we wanted a drink! But getting to the important part, I started with a white bean dip with roasted garlic and lemon, and taro and sweet potato chips. They were awesome!

For dinner, Chela had the Pad Thai, and I had the grilled scallops risotto. I truly never knew scallops could grow that big, they were like steaks! Everything was very flavourful and satisfying, the way fresh, hearty ingredients should be.

The dessert bar was just behind us, and we salivated over the various cakes and squares, but we were both so stuffed, we had to pass on dessert.

Separating the back of my chair and this tempting dessert bar was a general walkway. Servers were regularly passing by, which was ok. What was not ok was the wobbly board my chair was on, and the violent shaking factor of my chair with each step someone took behind me. If you visit Queen Mother, sit in a booth.