We made a booking for lunchtime but I think we ended up arriving around 20mins early, but it wasn’t a problem for this quaint restaurant. We did sit at the window, but the view wasn’t the best, unfortunately, as it was a building site, but there is plenty to keep us amused inside. The walls of this eatery had the most beautiful animal artwork on the walls, from hand-painted masterpieces of the cutest meerkats to stunning bold prints of exotic animal photography and guess what? They are for sale too.
The menu is filled with delightful sounding dishes, and they also cater to the needs of those with dietary needs, such as being dairy or gluten-free goodies too.
I chose a cranberry and chicken salad, and Lee had the gluten-free strip steak burger with mushrooms, salad, and chips. My chicken was perfectly seasoned and paired with the cranberry was a new flavour combination for me, the salad dressing was quite sweet and with sweetened dried cranberries in the salad too was a little overpowering for me. But as I am a sweet fan, I enjoyed the dressing on the salad. I’ve eaten many salads in my time, and this was delicious.
Lee enjoyed his burger too, and it’s refreshing to find a place that offers a gluten-free bread as a norm in a dish, not what you expect in a relatively small town. The taste was excellent; I’ve eaten many types of gluten-free products and to be honest, they have a tendency of being dense with an odd texture but this was the complete opposite, it was light, soft, and tasted quite nice. Lee wasn’t so impressed with his side of chips, though; they were a little anaemic looking for his liking, and although they tasted good, it would have been great to have a bit of crunch to them. With our meals, we both fancied a drink other than water. We stick to water but as soon as I saw they offered a large selection of local brewed soft drinks I couldn’t resist a try (we love a local brew). Lee tried a chocolate milkshake, and it was made fresh to order, sweet chocolate syrup with delicious milk.
We both wanted to try the homemade marshmallows that were displayed on the counter as we walked in but we were too full up to eat anymore, but I bet they would have tasted amazing too as they certainly looked mouth-watering.
The overall cost was very reasonable and probably even a little more inexpensive then lunch out back home. The staff at Zoo were friendly and knew a lot about the local area; we got some great tips on what we should do on our journey further up north. We had a lovely lunch and would recommend this beautiful place if you are ever passing through Bundaberg, Queensland.
