Stad's Cafe product reviews

Situated on busy Main Street, Stads Cafe and takeaways has always been my favourite local 'chippie'.

There is plenty of parking, and if you feel like dining in then feel free - there is a dining area behind the takeaway waiting area. Owned by Europeans, the shop has a certain 'old fashioned values' feel to it - like the owner is never too busy to have a chat to you.

Your deep fries are cooked right in front of you, and the shop is remarkably clean and tidy. Judging by the amount of people usually in there on a Friday/Saturday night, it is obvious that I am not the only one impressed by the whole deal.

Now onto the food. The 'highlight' of Stads takeaways is their huge baked potatoes. They have a special oven which they bake their potatoes in. The potato is then put in a polystyrene container, the server cuts it up a little, and then lets you choose which fillings you would like. It goes something like this: Butter/garlic butter? Cottage/grated cheese? Sour cream? Coleslaw? Then for an extra dollar, you can add a hot filling. Usually they have a variety such as smoked fish, mushrooms in a sauce, tomato bacon and onion, satay, bolognaise. I can personally vouch for the mushrooms - they are delicious. Stads are always happy to comply with your personal preferences - I frequently ask for half mushrooms and half bolognaise, and half the grated cheese under the hot filling and half on top. They are always happy to oblige.

If baked potatoes don't take your fancy, there are a huge range of gourmet burgers - chicken, camembert and port wine jelly is one of my favourites. At $5.50 a burger you can't go wrong either. One thing I do find however is the homemade coleslaw which they put in the burgers has a little too much onion in it. All in all a good tasty burger though.

Deep fries - Stads has a wicked assortment of deep fried goodies. Homemade meat patties, potato smiley faces for the kids and camembert wedges all feature here. Let me elaborate a little on the camembert wedges. These little triangular parcels of goodness are god-given. Bite through the golden crumb crust to get to the hot melted gooey cheese inside...heaven. I would advise you to wait a little while before biting into it though, as I have learnt many times hot cheese does burn. Ow.

Another favourite of mine is the chunky chips - homemade deep fried golden nuggets of potato. Add a pottle of sour cream from Stad's fridge, maybe some sweet chilli sauce and you have yourself a cheap meal. Well I could go on and on, but I've got to stop somewhere. As you can see by my review, Stads is a great place.