G's sister was down with her new partner (also gluten free) this weekend and wanted to catch up with us over dinner. So we had to find somewhere where we could get gluten free, something ryan would eat, and affordable.

first choice was Digress, which sounds amazing and comes highly recommended by a friend. however we just couldn't afford $25 for ryan's lasagne plus another dish for each of the rest of us. Plus they never called me back to confirm they were gluten free...

so then i had the idea of the Southern Cross Club. we'd only been to the Woden one (for my nephew's birthday a few years ago) and while it had been disappointing (and expensive as they'd made us sign up as members, though it expired a month or so ago) we figured it was worth trying the Jamison one , and we wouldn't have to sign up as no one else in my family had needed to at Woden, just us (error on the part of the girl on the front desk)

well, we were wrong. we DID have to sign up just to eat (this is ridiculous) but at least this time it was only $12 for the family, not the $40 the woden one was.

after a short wait in the queue i ordered - kids meals for ryan and emelia (ham and cheese pizza, and a junior beef burger). Rora and i had the malaysian chicken curry, and G had the chicken parmigiana.

by the time my SIL went to order she had a looooong queue to wait in, and it took about 15 mins to order - they only had one person taking orders. not to mention stupidly having the cash register right next to the door to the kitchen, so every order in or out had to go through the line waiting...

Ryan enjoyed his burger with chips and ate the lot. emelia got chips with her pizza and that was all she ate. she said she didn't like the pizza and i have to say it was DROWNED in cheese and looked awful (unless you like extra cheese!). Our curry chicken was disappointing. it was edible sure, and it was great quality chicken (either tenderloins or sliced up breast) but the whole meal was chicken! there must have been a good 400g of chicken on the plate if not more! the sauce was kind of bland and there were NO vegies in the meal :( it did come with boiled white rice. G said his parmigiana was ok, so so...

for dessert ryan and emelia got a free icecream to go with their kids meal (nowhere on the menu did it say this, or that they got a free soft drink), ryan had a frog in a pond, and rora tried the GF chocolate mousse, which she didn't like much. G & I ate the leftovers and it was DELISH but i think maybe a bit too much of a grown up taste for rora. G said there were around 4 different gluten free cake options which is great :)

there was an outdoor play area for the kids which was great (even though we hadn't thought to bring coats ;)) and an indoor play area where you had to pay to buy tokens to play etc, bit of a money sucker. especially when the kids won 59 tickets and went to ge ttheir prizes only to discover it was minimum 100 tickets for a prize which was one tiny bouncey ball, or one tattoo. bit disappointing.

the place was VERY busy though, so obviously popular. while it wasn't faublous it's certainly nice to have another option that can meet all our needs and keep the kids happy!!!