It seems the good folk at Ipswich’s award-winning PA Hotel just can’t help pushing boundaries on the hospitality scene.
This is evident in the whopping big menus on offer across the venue’s trio of dining areas – Char’d Restaurant, Tap’d Bar and Plantations.
The offerings across this landmark hotel are as diverse as can be, with dishes to suit every appetite, dietary requirement – and Instagram account!
Here are five things you need to try this spring/summer.
Pork belly bao
From the new Asian menu of entrees, these wonderfully soft steamed buns are served with slow-cooked pulled pork, carrot, white radish and pickled cucumber so you can stuff them yourself … and then stuff yourself. Good fun, amazing textures and flavours.
The Ultimate Seafood Platter for Two
For seafood lovers, this is the stuff of dreams.
A colourful platter laden with the best fresh seafood the chefs can source on any given day and a selection of seasonal fresh fruit.
Add some wine and let the grazing begin. This is the kind of platter you can enjoy for a special celebration or to make an impression on date night!
Expect oysters, spanner crab, Red Claw crayfish, prawns and calamari depending on the season and the catch. The platter is $125 for two people.
Craft beers at Tap’d
By now, you might already know that Tap’d is the biggest craft beer bar in the southern hemisphere with 72 ales and ciders flowing at any given time.
There are some fierce logistics at play just to keep this happening.
Operations manager Tim Rule says the offering is changing all the time and there are always interesting brews to taste – including plenty of unusual creations, such at the current Black Hops Caribbean Haze, a 7.7 per cent fruit and rum-soaked hazy Double American IPA.
Caribbean Haze was brewed in collaboration with Mount Gay Rum for the 2019 Great Australasian Beer Spectacular (GABS) and Tim tells us it’s spiced with citrus, pineapple, mango and coconut-infused Mt Gay Black Barrel Rum.
The Tomahawk
Not for the faint-hearted or the meek of appetite is the cut they call The Tomahawk. Two words: it’s big. This 1.2kg whopper ($79) is cooked on the bone and served with battered chips and your choice of sauce. Maybe skip lunch that day.
The deep fried mars bar and waffle
Look away now if you’re calorie counting.
But pay attention if you’re willing to give your sweet-toothed side the ride of its life.
We’re talking a properly battered and deep-fried Mars bar, molten in the centre, topped with a creamy cookie dough ice cream.
All this is perched on a Belgian-style waffle. And the whole glorious thing is then drizzled in salted caramel. No, I simply couldn’t, yes please.
