Eating - Woodend

Double Eight Chinese (April 2010)
78 High Street
BYO: wine only

Good start to the local restaurant scene for me as a new arrival. Fairly standard menu but the chosen take away items (Combination Deluxe Fried Rice $9.50 and Honey Pepper Chicken $14.20) are done well. You only need one decent Chinese in a town of this size and this looks the goods at this early stage. Note: no padding out (ie value diluting) of the takeaway dish via onion and capsicum!!


Zarby's Wine Bar & Bistro (June 2010)
84 - 88 High Street
Licenced

More bistro than wine bar although to be fair haven't visited for the express purpose of having a glass. Menu is competent without being exciting with a bias towards Italian-orientated meat dishes. A decent beef curry is an obvious deviation. Most mains in the $20 - $25 range. Slightly upmarket dining for the rank and file?

The 'wine bar' offers a limited tapas menu for consumption at the benches. Wine list is mixed. Bottle list includes a reasonable selection of local wines (seem well priced) but the glass range lacks flare (Richland? Come on!). Beer range ok, I guess, and interestingly lists 3 offerings from Unicorn, a SA brewer I had not heard of.