Edge by the sea – Cafe review

Posted on February 26, 2017 by kiwiexpat

The Edge (now known as “The Edge by the Sea“) is located at the far end of Edge Apartments, and looks out towards the Yacht Club and harbour. We will still call it The Edge – cause that’s just what what we do. Certainly one of my go to places, the coffee is great, food is above average but the service can be a little under pressure sometimes.

The Edge cafe has gone through a few transformations, and is one of the first places to open in the morning for coffee at 6am. Although you have to park at the entrance to the compound and walk, it gives you a great feeling of safety, and quite frankly we sit here and we really could be anywhere in the world – take the hint Dan and the team – hammocks and coffee 😉

I remember at the opening of the Edge, the food was a bit hit and miss. But now it’s one of the more consistent places.

Our kids love the milkshakes and being pretty much regulars have the staff beaming at them. Quite often this is quiet, but happy hour for drinks on Fridays used to liven the place up, and you can book out parts of it for bookings – we had Jacinta’s 40th here and everyone remarked how good the food was, and how awesome the setting was.

The Edge is having another refurbishment – so will post photos once it’s done, here is the notice:

Tasty Bite – Restaurant Review

Posted on February 25, 2017 by kiwiexpat

Tasty Bite was “the” number one rated restaurant in Port Moresby, although since the foodie scene has opened up, it may have dropped down the list.

Tasty Bite is diagonally across from Crowne Plaza which is great for those of us that work in Town or live close. They open for dinner at 5:30pm, and are generally very quick with takeaway orders, so I have rung them 321-2222/71114012, placed an order and picked up on the way home.

Tasty Bite is a small restaurant – but also has a separate upstairs area for groups. The following is the main area:

They have had a few issues with getting robbed, so normally have a few guards around the place and the door is generally locked. We tend to takeaway anyway, and have only had a sit down meal a couple of times.

Service is normally very quick, and they do plain chips (not on the menu) for fussy kids.

Currie’s can waver between being hot and bland, and on a good night it’s 10/10 – on a bad night it’s a 6/10 better than average. I love a good Vindaloo, and Tasty Bite always seems to get this right.

The only issue is that their takeaway containers sometimes leak so be careful on the way home :).

We always come back though, and prefer it over Tandorri which is down at Harbourside due to the fussy child that needs chips. And it’s reasonably priced; tonight’s meal of a Rogan Josh, Vindaloo and Boneless Butter Chicken, with 3 lots of Rice, 3 Naan and a container of Chips is just K160. That’s cheaper than the local Indian back home – and much nicer. The curries here are more Indian curry than Fiji Indian Curry like we get back in NZ, but still nothing like the real thing in India.

Tasty Bite also uses Go Food PNG for deliveries – a great service that we use often for various food outlets

Lanes – 10pin bowling in Port Moresby

Posted on February 25, 2017 by kiwiexpat

Lanes is the new 10pin bowling alley here in Port Moresby. After coffee at Cafe Palazzo, we headed up (the team in the cafe actually checked it was open for us without any prompting).

Xavier is keen on having his mates go bowling next week for his birthday (he was 12 yesterday) so we rocked up to try and book, was told that if we were there at 11am it would be no problem, and decided to throw down a couple of games whilst we were there.

The venue has 6 lanes, all modern (no bumpers for little kids though), a Cafe, alcohol, and the ability to buy from the restaurants down stairs.

Aside from no shoes and having to put covers over our existing footwear (which was hell slippery) it’s a real slick operation and well worth going to. We had lots of fun, pictures and pricing are below:

Cafe Palazzo – Lamana Hotel

Posted on February 25, 2017 by kiwiexpat

Thought I would pass the time by reviewing some of the places we eat/drink/socialise…

First up – Cafe Palazzo at Lamana Hotel.

Xavier and myself came to check out Lanes, Lamana’s 10pin bowling alley (more on that later) which was advertised at opening at 10am, but in reality it’s 11am. So whilst waiting, popped into Cafe Palazzo for coffee and hot chocolate (pic below)

I really hate the glasses that everyone seems to use, my latte came out in the same type of glass/mug.

We also got a K22 slice of mud cake, which they sliced in two for us to share, which is great service (and only AUD$5 each – which is OK)

Yum! Mud cake was light but still had that gummy taste we like 🙂 10/10

The coffee tasted slightly flavoured, which is not my cup of tea and a bit watery – better than other places, but if they ditched the glass/mug and put more foam into the latte it would be really good – 5/10. Hot chocolate got rated a 7/10 – so that means we’ll be coming back 🙂

Edit: The Hot Chocolate got better as it went down, Xavier changed to a 9/10

The tub chairs you sit in are comfy as and they play very relaxing Italian music (Opera) (even Xavier was tapping his feet).

The seating is arranged around the outside of a circle with the prep facilities in the middle, which means you don’t have many neighbours

Overall – nice, relaxing, great service from the staff and Xavier looked like he could spend the day “laxin out” in the armchair :). Coffee could be better, but everything makes up the shortfall. We both agree that Cafe Palazzo is an easy 8/10

Also of note: they have homemade Gelato that we didn’t try – so maybe next time they might get a 9 😉

http://www.lamanahotel.com.pg/

Getting to Sunset Lodge, Lea Lea

Posted on February 13, 2017 by kiwiexpat

I was quite rightly informed that my blog was out of date in the weekend 😉 (thanks!) and directions to Sunset Lodge, Lea Lea were scratchy at best. Apparently the Sunset Lodge signage has disappeared, but truth be told, it was hard to see anyway, so it might still be there.

The general premise is to head out to the LNG Plant along Napa Napa Road, go all the way around the plant (which you can’t miss – I’m sure it’s visible from the moon) and then when you get to the far side, you will see the road continue to the right up the coast. Finding Sunset Lodge can be a bit of a “blink and you miss it” type deal, it’s on the left hand side right in Lea Lea, but don’t worry if you miss it – when you get to the end of the road, there is a long foot bridge going over the river, backtrack about 700 metres and you will spot it (now on your right hand side). The entrance means you drive down into a gully – park your car and then follow your nose (or the sound of the music) to the waterfront.

Now – if you don’t know how to get to Napa Napa Road, leave the Yacht Club and head up the Poreporena Freeway turning left onto the Hanuabada Top Road (police station corner). Follow this road to the other side of Hanuabada (the road has been repaired on the other side of the hill) and it will take you around the harbour a ways. You will eventually see the nice new road heading inland, follow this until you get to a roundabout, turning left will take you back to the harbour, turning right will take you to Gerehu (very close to the Nature Park) NOTE: This is possibly the quickest way to the Nature Park from Town…

So – turn left, then head towards the harbour for 500 metres or so – then turn right to follow the Napa Napa Road to Lea Lea 🙂