Questions about Food and Diet
 

Just had 4 couples return from a tour of Oz and NZ (Grand Circle Tour Co., Boston)and they all complained about the food. One person said that he would be a vegatarian if he lived in Oz because the food was so bad. The local fish (he couldn't remember the name) and beef were bad and lamb just ok. Comments? Do you think it was because they didn't eat in the right places? Second question. One of our group visiting in just 3 weeks is on a diet program operated by LA Weightloss. They don't seem to have offices in Oz. Any comparable plans? Thanks, Jerry

Hi Jerry, it sounds like your friends didn't eat in the right places. It would be interesting to hear where they did in fact eat.
I do know that we don't serve food in large proportions like they do in some places in USA.
Let us know where these people ate, it would be interesting to know.
Regards Leigh.

I loved everything I ate in New Zealand. We had super beef, wonderful seafood, excellent lamb, great fish and chips, lovely fresh produce.....I could go on...oh, and good wine too! :-)

We didn't go on a tour, but combined eating out with cooking our own meals a few times. Maybe the tour just didn't take them to good restaurants?

I'm not familiar with LA Weightloss. What kind of eating plan is it - prepackaged meals or choosing one's own food from a list of acceptable items?

Lee Ann

I think that they ate in the wrong places. Overall, I was quite impressed by the food in Australia - generally it was quite good.

glk11b

I find your 4 couples comments about Australian and NZ food unbelievable and would love to know where and what they ate. Both countries produce and have access to some of the best and freshest food in the world - hardly think the Japanese, who are very fussy about their fish, would be paying top $$'s for our fish and seafood if it wasn't considered the best. Fresh fish does vary in type all over both countries, the barramundi of North Queensland and whiting of South Australia are particularly renowned and there's hundreds of varieties available in the vast coastline and rivers in between, so have no idea what is meant by "local" fish. Some Canadian friends who are here at the moment love our lamb so much they're eating it for breakfast as well as smoked salmon from Tasmania which they rave about - and as Canadians I'm sure they're aware of what is good salmon.

Hi Jerry,

I think I may have the answer to this (although I'm guessing -- I have no personal experience)...I think it could very well be their tour company, which is pretty well known in the industry. One of the things they're known for is having very inexpensive tours, and I'll bet one of the things they cut corners on was the food. As with most of those types of tours, after the description of each day's activities, it will say "B, L, or B, L, D", etc, for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. So, they're either providing it through someone local for "X" amount of dollars, per person, or they've taken the group to "Bob's restaurant" where they've told the group they're on their own dime, (but of course the tour company's getting a kickback on bringing 50 passengers into the restaurant).

I've never had anyone complain about food in Oz; quite the contrary. My friends consider ME a picky eater and I've certainly never had any problem stuffing my face...er, I mean, eating there.

Although, sometimes I DO fantisize about moving to Sydney and opening either a "Fresh Choice" type salad bar place or a bagel place -- two things that haven't caught on it Oz it seems.

I normally eat very healthy, but I just surrender to Aussie bacon when I'm there...sigh....and Tim Tams...I did have a Twistie addiction there for awhile, but I think that's cleared up now.

As for the local fish -- I believe you mean barramundi, which is absolutely scrumptious. On my last trip I ate it 4 days in a row just because I knew I couldn't get it once I got home!

As for your friend, I've never heard of LA Weightloss, but unless it's one of those Jenny Craig type places where you have to eat their pre-packaged food, they could certainly follow any diet in Australia just the same as here in the U.S.

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

Meoldie - I'm sure you're right. Was in Cafe China in Cairns, a particularly good Chinese restaurant frequented by Chinese/Australian locals when a mainland Chinese package tour group was bustled in by their tour leader - incredibly mundane stirfries and steamed rice served in a plastic kitchen bowl - that was it. The poor tourists were gazing at everyone else's food in envy - wonder what the operator had charged them.

Well I guess that hit a nerve. I have asked my friends for specific restaurants so keep checking this thread please. They did mention that they were on Lygon Street in Melbourne and had never encountered a 'restaurant row' like this place. Touts (I think you might call them ) were outside each restaurant negotiating on the meals, wine and price. They DID NOT dine at Borsari but said they wished they had. The place they chose offered more bang for the buck and they got what they paid for. Back to Diets. LA Weightloss does not sell meals but they do sell special drinks, energy bars, etc. Any comparables in Oz?

Hi glk11b

In Australia the equivalent is probably Weightwatchers, they sell fat-free just about everything - available in all supermarkets.

I think it's very sad that your friends went away with a bad "taste" from the food in Australia and New Zealand. I think our beef and lamb is fantastic and seafood second to none, so it is just disappointing for your poor friends that they didn't eat at the right places.

I hope they don't write us off and come back and dine in some really good places and those that are arriving soon do some searches on this forum and see where people recommend to eat.

Lygon Street is a bit annoying now with the touts outside restaurants - don't know quite when that started but there are so many restaurants vying for business that I guess they need to try and drag people in. The idea with the Lygon Street precinct is to nick down one of the side streets where you'll find some fabulous restaurants away from the crowds.

I think too that restaurants that generally cater for tourists seem to be less fussy about what they serve their customers as it is just a passing trade and generally they won't be back and I think this is true of any country in the world.

PS: Haven't heard of LA Weightloss but Herbalife operate here in Australia and their shakes and vitamins are easy to buy from distributors - also there is a brand of diet drinks and vitamin bars etc (not sure of the brand name - Ultra Slim or something??) which are available in supermarkets.

Hard to believe. Was this a special bad food tour of Australia? We ate wonderfully (and reasonably compared to Santa Fe or San Francisco prices). Fine breakfast at every B&B we stayed at (esp. Lilybank in Cairns). Great sandwiches and pastries at many bakeries. Bountiful, very reasonable food at social clubs ( easy to become a guest member), high quality thai food is widespread . Buffets at Kings Canyon and Yulara, wide variety of australia fauna and veg and well prepared compared to similar here. Barra mundi in the north was wonderful and I'm not a great fish eater; I became addicted. Wonderful birthday dinner for my partner in Bicheno, TAS. Great seafood pig out at Red Ochre in Cairns for +/- $AU55. for 2 people. Best all around food at The Garden Room at Stratford
(Cairns) , another reason to stay at Lilybank. Excellent frozen peas in freezer at friends' apt in Wollstone croft for iceing knee injury and great beer, wine , pasta and guacamole orgy on Scotland Island. Despite world record thinnest chicken sandwich at Millaa Millaa town , we ate like kings for 5 weeks and were only saved from become obese by constant rounds of wonderful hiking and swimming.

Did not have opportunity to sample weight watchers ( its a vacation for godsake!) or timtams, but they are on their way I hear.

mangia, mangia

A/D

PS w/ Australia so easy to navigate (esp w/ help from fodorians) I wonder about the need for tour company approach. Why not travel independently and get to pick your own restaurants!
AndrewDavid

I'm afraid that was the tour group that ate at my place! For 5 bucks a meal, what did they expect! No-one said I could cook! :) And they didn't get any TimTams either!

I think Melodie hit the nail on the head (and she has inside knowledge of the industry) - their tour leaders selected the cheapest places, or they selected the cheapest places themselves. You really gets what you pays for. I was a bit concerned when a poster some time back insisted on eating in food courts - talk about lowest common denominator eating!

OK, OK. I would love to return from our trip (which we are arranging on our own) and brag about all the good food we enjoyed in Oz and NZ. So now let's get specific. When we dine out here (SW Florida) a typical meal in the type of restaurant we frequent would be (all USD) $15 to $22 for entre, veg, potato, salad. Wine $5-6. Add 6% for tax and 18% gratuity for a total of $19 to $27. We will be 4 days in Sydney and plan one dinner at The Tower (in spite of Alan's comments LOL), looking for the best dinner cruise and/or other suggestions. 3 days Cairns (we will follow Pat's advice and try the Chinese restaurant), 3 days Melbourne (dinner on the Tram), then to Christchurch and Queensland (or is it Queenstown) where we need both hotel and restaurant suggestions. One day to Dunedin. Also interested in best wine tasting trip. With the kind of help I know we'll get, forget about diet stuff till we get home LOL. Thanks in advance. Jerry

Hello Jerry,

A warning about the Tram Restaurant in Melbourne. People's reactions to it are mixed. Some posters have stated they found it boring. I personally loved the experience of travelling around Melbourne by night and dining at the same time. The food, though, while it was okay, was not spectacular. If you take the Tram Restaurant, I would suggest taking it for the sake of the experience rather than for the sake of a gourmet meal.

The price of restaurant meals in Australia is a subject that has been discussed over and over again.

I think the rule of thumb is that, in conventional restaurants, meals in Australia cost about 1.5 times their American counterparts.

However, there are ways of trimming those costs. Ethnic restaurants and pub-style restaurants tend to be less expensive than conventional restaurants. Australia lends itself very well to picking up some fresh ingredients and having a self-catered picnic in a park or on the beach. Certain districts in a given city tend to give better value for money when it comes to food, and so on.

The dining rooms or restaurants of international chain hotels are NOT the places to find dining bargains.

There are entire threads on this topic, so if you do a word search, you should be able to find previous discussions.

Something that may help the food budget is that Australians are not in the habit of tipping in restaurants. Being as used to tipping as I am, I feel guilty when I don't tip, so I tip even when I'm in Australia, but it isn't expected.

Susan in Toronto said she and her husband saved a good chunk of money on their last trip to Australia, because they bought an inexpensive French press (plunger), and made their own coffee in their hotel room. What I mean by a French press or plunger is this:

http://www.ineedcoffee.com/99/05/frenchpress/

Hope that helps.

Margo, I've mentioned food courts for people, like us, who traveled on a really tight budget and wanted something inexpensive for lunch. We had good, fresh, tasty food at the ones we tried. No, it wasn't haute cuisine, but that wasn't what we were looking for at the time, either. :-)

Lee Ann

Jerry, you would probably understand that Lygon Street in Melbourne, is a "Touristy Restaurant Strip", with some very good restaurants and some bad restaurants, and those ugly touts out the front. I guess this type of restaurant strip occurs in other countries.
In various cities of Australia, there are magazines in various newsagents or bookstores, which recommends various cafes/restaurants, and rates them as to price, quality of food, ambience, etc.
They are worth seeking out, when touring Australian cities, its a bit like having guide books.
In Sydney, there is the "Good Food Guide" book, simply brilliant.

Hello All,

Geez, I love this thread....food. :)

To Jerry: where do you get wine in a restaurant in Florida for $5-6 ?? Are they making it in the back of the restaurant or what? :) I may have to move! As most people probably already know, the booze / wine is where restaurants have their highest markup, they make money on that, not the food.

A good example is that I can get Australian wine at my local Trader Joe's for less than I can in a bottle shop in Sydney(taxes). Sigh...There's just something so WRONG in that! :)

I would never be one to knock a food court - it can be an interesting (and cheap) experience. I like to "mix it up" when I'm travelling. Food court one day; Aussie sausage roll the next; picnic by the side of the road or in a rainforest; 4 star dinner the next!

Makes life interesting and varied; plus on a long trip, I dunno about you, but I can't afford the 4-star dining experience every day with the accompanying wine -- not to mention that my colesteral and liver would probably give out after 3 weeks!

Really, the only thing I "object" to are my clients that come back (from anywhere) and have played it SAFE and just gone to fast food restaurants, etc that they'd find at home. Of course, I smile and nod but inwardly, I'm thinking "oh noooooooo". This is part of the adventure of travelling - having new experiences, and food is a factor.

Why anyone would go to Oz (or anywhere else) and stick to McDonald's or "safe" food and not experience all the region has to offer is beyond me. Poor things. Just my $.02.

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

Let's get those prices into some perspective, shall we? US$19-27 for "entree" ("main" where we come from) is about on par with a good-ish restaurant here, i.e. AU$26-37. I take the wine price to be per-glass (in which case why bother...?) and at AU$7-8 a tad high by Australian standards.

Don't forget that in Australia, tipping is not expected, because waiting staff are paid a living wage. Also (1), your bill includes a 10% Federal tax. Also (2), unless youre addicted to overpriced "classy" eateries you can usually bring your own wine at $15-30 (per bottle) for something at the very least acceptable.

I wouldn't have thought that an American eating out here would find much to complain about, unless they had a positive genius for picking out the grimmer places, in which case they'd get short-changed anywhere. In my experience restaurant value for money here is about on par with the US, maybe even a bit better if you allow for the fact that your waiter probably won't be sending you get-out-of-here signals in a desperate attempt to make way for the next table of tippers.

Hi There,

I am with Melodie on the "taste the local food on holiday" theme.

Melbourne for instance has some great restaurants (Or at least we found some) on the South Bank, on Lygon Street and surrounds and in parts of Brunswick. We were not disappointed at all with the food we ate on our trip there in January.

The last time I was in Sydney (which was two years ago) I was once again happy with the food we had. Aussie chefs seem very good, make good use of local produce and keep it fresh and inventive. If tourists come away disappointed I believe it could only be beacause, as has been noted above, they were being steered toward "Bob's cheap and cheerful slophouse" as opposed to being able to make their own choices.

The same goes here for New Zealand eateries. There is a great selection of restaurants here in Auckland to choose from, however there are a few I would not touch with a ten foot pole. If tourists are steered toward these then sadly there impressions of local food are very likely to be skewed.

NZ like OZ is easily navigated and even if one is on a formal tour breaking out to get real food is a reatively easy option. It is not as if we speak a different language, or make it difficult for tourists to travel freely. Therefore I think if a traveller is disatisfied with what is proivided as part of a tour they should break out and live a little.

Just my .02c

Steve