Caffe Primo Norwood

This post was due several months ago before I went overseas, but due to different problems, it finally came today. Well, every caffe primo restaurant has a large number of customers. Many of them are fully booked and occupied for most of times. When people say ” go to places where the locals go”, they mean it. However, I don’t really agree with the word because caffe primo is one of a negative example.

When I was in Uni many years ago, a group of us used to love to go to Caffe Primo on Saturday to have their famous chicken salad. Laughing, talking and so on …..lots of good memories and joys. Since my graduation, I never went there again but in May, a good friend of my wife invited us for a food and movie “package” (:D) to thank me for helps. We accepted the invitation and went to Caffe Primo Norwood which was located just aside of the cinema. However, the experience, particularly food, wasn’t up to my satisfaction.

This is a restaurant with large dining areas and is always crowded, especially at pre/post cinema time.

Customers order at the counter as in most cafes and can grab a free bottle of tap water ….

The friend ordered garlic prawn ($18.90). Honestly, this dish was not bad – a generous serve of prawns cooked in rich garlic butter with creamy, spicy and salty taste. I had a taste of the dish and found the only downside was the over creamy taste， but I think it was only me cos I am not really into creamy creamy dairy taste. Fortunately, I didn’t smell/taste any ammonia like I did in Fasta Pasta . The sides were rice and salad and can definitely feed a hungry one well.

 

 

The worst parts of the meal came from the following parts, ie. dishes me and my wife ordered~ :(. My wife had the seafood platter ($21.90), which included crumbed fish, prawns and calamari with salad, chips and tartar sauce. It was a total disaster! No matter it was the fish, the prawn and the calamari, they were all over cooked and was very hard to bite. I know I am not at a high standard restaurant, but at least you would expect they shouldn’t go wrong with crumbed seafoods?! Even the Rumours cafe in Adelaide Uni can do a better fish and chips! However, I admit the salad was fresh and the chips were crispy but this did not make up the failure of the seafood. The tartar sauce was neither rich in flavour. Looks like the chef has pre-fried their seafood, which became hard eventually and after reheating, they went even harder – stone hard. Btw, the fish was really thin.. 😀

 

 

I thought I would stick on to my old time favourites, chicken salad ($16.90) and chef’s salad ($19.90). However, I was wrong again! The two salads were nowhere near the taste in my memory. Maybe I expected too much from this place or my taste has totally changed. I don’t know, but the salads didn’t taste right. The salads were rather very smelly (from the cheese?, but it was not a cheesy smell!!!) and the chicken fillets were obviously pre-cooked and tasted very dry and tough. The worst part was that the two salads tasted exactly the same!!?? At least, I can’t find any difference on taste after a careful investigation. What a shame on these “once famous” dishes!

 

 

 

 

Okay, to be fair, diners get a complimentary pancake with golden syrup, which was sweet but ppl are paying for mains not deserts!

 

I think this restaurant should work its out a better way. I know this is not a super good restaurant  but lowering your price doesn’t necessarily mean you have to lower your food quality! Be a real cafe chain not a fast food restaurant!

Food: 2/5
Service: 2/5
Value: 3/5
Ambience: 2.5/5

Total: 9.5/20

 

Caffe Primo Norwood

185 The Parade

Norwood, SA 5067

 

P: 08 8331 2744