Birthday lunch at the Everglades (April 30)

It's a rather damp day outside so I'd thought I'd rattle off a blog post whilst I had the chance. It's (mostly) a quiet day at home this week, though on Friday I'll be heading south to Sutherland for ShireCon for a day of gaming. Actually I haven't really done much since May 7, which was a mental health support group meeting in Gosford. I took an opportunity to do some grocery shopping, including a rare visit to the Abcoe Retail Store at Niagara Park shopping centre (formerly the Sara Lee factory outlet store) just up the road from the Niagara Park train station on Washington Avenue, then topped groceries up again on Tuesday (May 12) seeing, well, when one is at home and the weather isn't that great, one eats, one writes and one plays computer games for four days...

But a couple of weeks ago I decided to venture up the road to the Everglades Club and treat myself to a birthday lunch. I had originally intended to go out to Erina Fair for a bit, then felt I might even stay at home instead. In the end a walk up the boulevard became the plan. Not the first time I've done a birthday stroll up there for lunch (I did the same thing back in 2023 before I had even started this blog) yet it had been quite a while since I had actually visited the club. The last occasion was in 2024 on November 10 for Regurgitator, forgoing a Mariners home match against Auckland on the day. Like I've said before, the Everglades may be just up the road but I still visit the leagues club in Gosford more. In fact I'll be going there for a Blood Bowl league match next Wednesday (May 20).

I also took the opportunity to renew my membership, although it turned out to be a bad day to do it. For starters, when I walked in around 11.40am there was nobody on the front desk. I eventually found somebody, then was told that the financial year ended today and that I should come back tomorrow (May 1) to get the full benefit of my membership. I honestly felt like saying I may not be back again this year, for I might just forget about do it at all, so I just renewed it. It was $25 for three years. I'm certain I didn't pay that much way back in 2022 when I first joined the club. Obviously they needed the extra cash to pay for the recent renovations.

The Nine Restaurant and Bar hadn't been altered at all and for the most part the menu hasn't changed either. I discovered that if my birthday had fallen on a Tuesday I could've taken advantage of their weekly specials, seeing Tuesday is schnitzel day. On that day, a chicken parmigiana is $25. Because my birthday fell on a Thursday this year, it'll cost $29 with a members discount. Then there's a glass of alcoholic ginger beer on top of that as well so it'll be around $40 all up.
The meal, served with my choice of salad and chips (one day I'll find out what vegetables are being served with it and take the mash option) arrived at my table quickly enough seeing there wasn't that many many people present. It was good but not brilliant. I found it was a little too wet in places, with one knobbly end spitting at me like an oyster when I bit into it. Juicy I don't mind but that was just a bit too much. For me, the Gosford Hotel does a more consistent parmi and you're only paying one dollar more for it than a discounted meal at the Everglades. The pub trivia is also cheaper there too. At Everglades they run theirs on a Tuesday, with a cost of $25 but with better prizes. In Gosford you do have a choice of the GH or the leagues club on a Tuesday. We've stuck with GH because we like the atmosphere, the host is pretty good and the food is fine. It's also more convenient to get to for all of us.
And that's the thing. You have to sum it all up when you're going out these days. I look back at my previous post to see I paid $28 for a schnitzel burger at a cafe in Woy Woy. At the leagues club in Gosford I can get a chicken schnitzel for $26 and turn it into a parmi for an extra $3. For a chicken meal these days, that appears to be the standard prices you're paying. The last time I had the Caeser's Palace burger at Grill'd (back in March) with a choice of fries and a drink it was roughly the same. The thing is, they are still consistently good. However, with these prices, someone like myself on a fixed income isn't going to be eating out every week. In the last week of April, it was a birthday and a trivia night within four days. Add bus fare to the tally and that's $90 for two meals. I can buy that much in groceries in two shops yet I'll be eating for most of the fortnight at home.

Links correct at the time of posting.

Pictures taken by Geoff G Turner (c) 2026.

Woy Woy (October 28 & November 2)

Well, the first time a suburb gets repeated here. I had an opportunity to have a night out recently at the nearby Everglades Country Club (a five minute walk from my front door), starting it with a meal and a drink. I had previously wondered what watery site I was going to include with this, but the answer was quite simple in the end – the actual Everglades Public Reserve, which contains a large swampy area and is home to several species of birds, various small reptiles and amphibians, and mammals, such as seasonal fruit bats.

The second was an opportunistic selection. I was returning to Woy Woy from a few nights with mates at Ourimbah (the highlight being the most recent Matildas' match against Chinese Taipei), and decided at some point that I felt like a burger for lunch (seeing I hadn't had breakfast yet) rather than chicken pad thai, and opted to go to Batty's Better Batter, a takeaway cafe on Blackwall Road, the main street of the well-known suburb. On that occasion, it would be the monthly meeting of the mental health support group that I'm a part of, which regularly meets at the Woy Woy waterfront during the spring and summer months.

First, the Everglades. The club is located on Dunban Road and neighbours Rogers Park, which has sporting fields for league and AFL during the winter months and cricket during summer. The club itself also has a bowling green and a golf course. The boundary borders the public reserve and I occasionally find golf balls from poor shots in and around the laneway where my unit is located. One of the first things I did when I moved here was to take up a three-year social membership. I still go to the Leagues Club in Gosford more, because of the football, but I find the local quite convenient if I feel like a meal and a drink, and/or to take visitors. It's a cosy little place, with friendly staff and multiple areas to dine within the venue.

On October 28, I was there for a show. Australian band Dog Trumpet, lead by two former members of the Aria Hall of Fame band Mental As Anything, my favourite Australian band and one that I managed to see live three times in Tamworth and do the door for one of their shows whilst working at a local club. So I arrived around 5.30pm, had a delicious chicken schnitzel dinner, served with chips and a small salad which was all washed down with some Canadian Club on tap. Since I started doing these reviews, I haven't really had a bad schnitzel at all. This one was quite juicy and sticking with a top five is becoming quite hard. The show started around 8pm and finished around 11pm. All-in-all it was a good night out.

So, less than a week later I found myself once again in Woy Woy, having purchased a schnitzel burger with salad. (The 'salad' was lettuce, beetroot, carrot and tomato. Naturally, being a finicky eater, there were items in it that I had to discard. However, seeing they have plenty of variation on the menu I won't make the same mistake twice.) With a small chips and a bottle of water, the cost was $14.50. It was a short walk to the waterfront, past the Thai restaurant that I like, where for once I beat the rest of the group.

The burger was large and delicious, which I barely managed to finish. The chips were presented in a small open cardboard tray and I just couldn't quite complete eating them. I felt quite stuffed, but satisfied that I had received my money's worth. I should add, though it wasn't as good as the burger that I had at Pearl Beach earlier in the year, it was quite adequate for what I wanted at the time. 

 

Links correct at time of posting.

Pictures taken by Geoff G Turner (c) 2023.