1 Norman Rd, Silver Sands
Phone: 8557 4000
Dine in or take away
Wednesday-Thursday: Lunch noon-3pm
Friday: Lunch noon-3pm, Dinner 6pm-10pm
Saturday: Breakfast 9am-noon, Lunch noon-3pm, Dinner 6pm-10pm
Sunday: Breakfast 9am-noon, Lunch noon-3pm
Public Holidays: 10am-5pm

Review / John McGrath

YOU heard me. There is a restaurant in South Australia called Lake Coolangatta. As in Gold Coast, Queensland. This is how it got its name. Once upon a time, at Silver Sands, the beach below Aldinga, there was a fresh water pool just behind the first sand dune from the beach. The local children, some of whom lived on nearby Coolangatta Drive (hint), played happily with the tadpoles and water boatmen and dragonflies at the pool. It came to pass that the Authorities* heard of all this enjoyment and drained this, and other, pools. (*One can’t name the culprit authority because it will only squeal like a stuck pig and claim that a Greater Authority bullied it or that plagues stalked the land in those times.)

Two of the childhood friends who played in the pool and lived on Coolangatta Drive have now re-opened the tiny kiosk at Silver Sands as a restaurant and kiosk combined. The place overlooks an unparalleled sweep of coastline at the front and a barren depression at the back, the ex-pool, now affectionately named Lake Coolangatta. Clear?

The Fearless Surfer and I lunched at Lake Coolangatta on one of those days. The towering surf sometimes reached 30cm and went plop not roar. The breeze merely caressed. The temperature under the umbrella peaked in the searing low 20s. How we didn’t phone all our friends to say nyah-nyah-na-nyah-nyah is a credit to our pleasant natures.

As time drifted by all manner of traditional beach activities were enacted for us. A father and son played beach cricket. A group of young males showed off their sporting skills to the only female member of their group. She, wisely, looked out to sea. A boyfriend heroically piggy-backed his girlfriend over a treacherous patch of smooth pebbles that would have been more than a metre wide. There was a Kombi Van, and a genuine Sandman. Even the drivers of 4WDs just drove quietly up and down the beach. Not that I saw any of them actually stop and get out of their precious vehicles. Hardly the point of having a 4WD I suppose.

All this – and food and drink. The place had only been licensed for a few days and the list consisted of one fizz, Coriole 2003 Chenin Blanc and a house white, two d’Arenberg reds and two beers, Coopers Pale Ale and James Squire Original Amber Ale. There will be richer pickings on the list by the time you read this.

I always do as I am told in restaurants, so we ordered the recommended salt and pepper squid with lemongrass, chilli and ginger. You know the common or garden squid rings that could double as a handy tourniquet or ockie strap. Nothing like it. Fresh, meltingly tender and properly flavoured. About as close to perfection as this dish gets. Our other shared entrée was a panzanella salad with four sardines topped with a mixture of garlic parsley and olive oil. More bright flavours in a dish perfectly suited to the spot and the day.

You couldn’t come here and not try the fish and chips, so it was Cooper’s beer-battered flathead with salad and chips, accompanied by half a lemon carefully wrapped in muslin to protect against horrid juice spits, and a beautiful mayonnaise. A firm-fleshed fresh chilli Blue Swimmer crab with jasmine rice capped a memorable meal. I was reminded just how good Lake Coolangatta’s crab dish was when I ate a similar crab dish a few days later (at another restaurant) and the flesh was mushy. Simplicity is a lot trickier than it looks.

In case you are getting the idea that there is only seafood on the menu here, we could have had a kangaroo fillet on a sweet potato, baby spinach and caramelised onion cream gratin, pan-fried quail, or ravioli with roast pumpkin, baby spinach and pine nuts with a brown butter and sage sauce. Prices ranged from $10.50 for the sardines to $21.50 for the chilli crab.

We split a bottle of cold crisp 2003 Coriole Chenin Blanc, a wine that could have been designed specifically for our meal. I tried a slurp of the James Squire Original Amber Ale, a new drink for me. It has a distinct flavour of grapefruit under all the malt and hops, and a nutty finish. I’m not a huge beer drinker but I’ll be having this one again. If we had chosen a bottle of d’Arenberg The Stump Jump blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Mouvedre, it would have set us back $20. What a bargain.

Meredith Riley and Shane Ortis are the enthusiastic partners in the ambitious Lake Coolangatta. They have parked a food service caravan next door to the kiosk to supply drinks, ice creams and beachy snacks to the beach lovers who will flock to Silver Sands in high summer. They will also run a buggy up and down the beach dispensing the same sort of stuff.

Lake Coolangatta is fabulous. It will be the hit of the summer.