Octie Appetie: Just arrived in Cairns

Get ready for Rock 'n Roll Babieh !!!!! Cairns.... Here we come !!!!!!!

Phewww... So peaceful

We got onto the earliest flight at 8 in the morning and it took us only a short-haul flight to Cairns, so we won't be wasted anytime for the day.

Pepper Steak Pie from Pie Face @ Airport

Cairns International Airport

Hotel Lobby

Everytime we go on holiday, we always have a tight schedule.. and this time too.... Actually, I always want to have a spontaneous unplan trip and just pack my luggage and go exploring a new place. However, I'm afraid of missing out some of the famed scenic places and a-must-eat restaurants while I am there then I would be regret and those feeling is much stronger than just being spontan. So yeah!!! I get used to it now, I well prepared the itinerary each time before hand and always not much free spare time left. But who cares!! We can always find ourself enjoying every moment of it.

So let's get some Octie Appetie...

Once we arrive Cairns airport, we catched a cab to the hotel took us around 10 minutes that cost about $25 then we dropped our luggage with the concierge, since we arrived there pretty early and wouldn't be able to check in until 2pm.

My tummy rumbled uncontrollably, so we headed straight to have an early lunch at sushi Zipang. The restaurant wasn't hard to find, from the esplanade, walk along Shield street toward the Cairns Central, if you passing Cairns Museum means you on the right track and nearly there so just keep walking straight for roughly 2 more minutes. It is a sushi train restaurant with quite big dining area. It wasn't busy by that time in the late morning, so we grabbed a seat and in no time few plates of sushi were sitting on our table.

Sushi Zipang
39 Shields St., Cairns
(07) 40513328

The thing I love from them was the fact that their sushi were really fresh with generous serving size and the price was reasonably good, also their service is prompt and friendly.

Hot Green Tea

Green plate is $3.80 each

Chicken Katsu Don $11.80

Grilled Salmon Nigiri

Top: Deep Fried Crumbed Oysters and Bottom: Sweet Potato Tempura

Had a jiffy before we can check in to the hotel, we decided to walk along this popular man-made lagoon with flying fish sculptures as a landmark in Cairns. That day wasn't a good bright day as you can see from the photo that wasn't many people swimming there. However in the hot sunny day this place normally become so packed with teenagers and family having a fun relaxing day or BBQ get-together things.

Now.. Back to Shangri-La Hotel...

Shangri-La's Pool Bar

It was totally a bad choice to go swimming today because the weather was unfriendly and terribly windy but that the only spare time we had. After today, our schedule would be fully packed. So end up we just had a few free drinks ($50 credit from our hotel package, yayyy) from the pool bar and played table tennis and few pool games which is just right next to the bar. For 5 star hotel, I didn't expect that the pool bar would be this tiny and unattended most of the time and some of the Liqueur wasn't available as well. The drink itself isn't that bad though, I ordered this Island Affair which was a tropical Mango cocktail with creamy coconut milk on top. Really summer-y drink and refreshingly enjoyable.

In the evening each day, in Cairns Esplanade, they have a Night Market that starting at 4.30pm and finishing up at 11pm. Very good place to hunting some souvenirs, seashell stuffs, and they also sell Kangaroo, Emu, and Crocodile Jerky, though I didn't really enjoy them but just nice to know what they taste like. Not forget to mention, a busy foodcourt on the Esplanade side will definitely make our night. Lots of them actually selling self-serve hot food and the price is around $9 for a regular size.

Nevertheless, we booked restaurant already for tonight so we had to missed the food here and only walked pass those alluring aromatic food from the foodcourt.

Kani's Restaurant
59 The Esplanade
Cairns QLD 4870
(07) 4051 1550

Outback sampler $17.50

What can I say!!! As we are in Australia at least we gotta try these Australian iconic meat, don't we?? Crocodile and kangaroo may sound pretty common and we tried this meat before and was taste quite good actually. Emu..... Yeah rite!! Why not give it a shot!!!!

This is a sample kofta dish of local Australian meat produce that have been marinated then grilled and served with lemon myrtle dipping sauce. For me, this dish was tasteless and the sauce was so boring and nearly left totally untouched. Crocodile meat wasn't anything like I ever tried before in Peter Doyle's restaurant in Sydney, here the meat was so dry and tough to the max, Emu meat was abit gamey. I didn't like this entree at all and for 3 meat skewers with some dodgy green salad which obviously doesn't go well together for that much pricey is not worth the money.

Lobster Mornay $90

We really put such a great expectation on this dish and when this Lobster dish came to our table, they looked totally appetizing and smelled so inviting too. Once we had our first bite of it, hmmmmm.... just not that justify the look, the flesh itself quite dry in texture but those creamy mornay sauce somehow helps making it abit more creamy. The asian-style cooked vegetables, red cabbage and steamed rice on the side didn't tell the same story with this expensive lobster, it's clearly unnecessary to be there. A fusion food ???? Didn't think so!!

French Fries

Pavlova $8.50

I'm so tempted to try the Salzburger Nockerl which is Kani's famous Austrian hazelnut souffle, but the waiter told us that it would take around 20 minutes to make. If I know earlier, I will order before we even started our meal. It was too late so we had the Australian classic dessert, Pavlova, which end up arrives our table in nearly 20 minutes. What a shame!!!

The puffy meringue is nicely sweet and soft, fruits were fresh with a touch of passionfruit syrup, but only a dollop of whipped cream on top which wasn't enough to balance off the tower of meringue..

It's overall quite disappointing dining tonight. From what we saw in the internet, we put a high expectation with this venue. But so far nothing had wow me, despite the serving portion (not for outback sampler, but we didn't want any bigger than that anyway) was fairly huge but for the money wise.. So absolutely ripped off.

Shangri-La Hotel, Cairns
Pierpoint Road
Cairns Queensland 4870
Telp: (61 7) 4031 1411
Fax : (61 7) 4031 3226

A little tips from me, if you guys would like to stay in Shangri-La hotel and looking for staying in the quite peace room, request the room on the higher floor. Because at night, it tends to get very noisy as they have pubs right underneath the hotel rooms especially on the weekend.