What a lovely waterside lunch on a sunny day! Read on for my adventure with potato scallop, seagulls, and fresh seafood!

First, a defining characteristic of the outside dining area seems to be the presence of seagulls. Watch out for the seagulls! Hint: they have a seagull spray that you can use! These are the most aggressive seagulls I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and I’ve eaten at a lot of beachside places. But don’t let that dull your experience here! Once you squirt them with the seagull-water-bottle-spray, they will go away. They also have woven-domes to put over your food if you need to go to the bathroom or leave your table with exposed food.

It’s a fairly large menu. They only serve breakfast until 11. But the lunch menu has a lot of fresh seafood on it as well as other offerings such as a vegan bowl. Our companions said that the vegan bowl was excellent. I ordered fresh shrimp, and it was very good. The only mistake I made was that I ordered the potato scallop. In the United States, potato scallops are potatoes that are smothered in cream and cheese and cooked. A little bit of the cheese is crunchy on top. Delightful!!! Cheesy goodness. Not so here. These “potato scallop” were literally potatoes that had been fried…Flat. I guess I would call these “potato pancakes” in the United States? That’s my fault for not knowing what they were! They were fairly hard and crunchy, so I tried a few, but they were not to my fancy. Perhaps this is what potato scallop are supposed to look like? Who knows? Well, I suppose the Australians know… but it’s not what I had in mind. This could be the best potato scallop that I’ve ever had; I’ve just never had an Australian potato scallop! They also had burgers and some other non-seafood options. Overall, a nice selection with something for everyone. Our companions said they really enjoyed the Caesar.

Rose Bay is easy to get to by ferry. We just took the ferry from Sydney and hopped off and walked a short 10 minutes to the restaurant. We were meeting some people from the office. We have offices in a lot of other countries and we have not met the Australian people, face-to-face, for years. It was wonderful to be visiting from the states and to have them pick out this delightful place.

We all had limoncello spritzes. We introduced the Australian office to them, and they were enchanted. The sparkle of the limoncello spritz on the water was rather perfect.

The atmosphere of the restaurant reminds me of one of those classic New England seafood restaurants that’s been around 100 years and will continue to be around 100 more. It’s got that great life-vibe, like it was built into the community. It really seems to fit.

A very pleasant way to spend the afternoon!