Maiala Rainforest Teahouse and Restaurant

For Australia Day, Karen and I retreated to Mount Glorious, where we sampled the Devonshire Tea at Maiala Rainforest Teahouse and Restaurant on Mount Glorious Road. The best part was the beverages. I had English Breakfast tea from the Sir Thomas Lipton premium tea range, which I hadn’t had before. It’s almost as good as the Dilmah Gourmet Ceylon Supreme Tea. Karen was drinking hot chocolate; she’s given up coffee and tea for now. She assures me the hot chocolate was excellent – better than the hot chocolates she’s been drinking at Gloria Jeans recently. The scones, jam and cream were okay, but nothing special (we had the plain scones, but you have the option of pumpkin scones if you want). In terms of atmosphere, Maiala seems very popular with the bikies. There are tables inside and outside. If you want to sit outside, you have the choice of the roadside tables or the verandah on the side. These were all taken, so we sat inside, but still had a nice view of the garden at the back. All in all, quite a pleasant establishment, with friendly staff and efficient service. If you’d like something other than Devonshire Tea, Maiala offers a fairly standard cafe menu.

After indulging our Devonshire Tea craving, we headed to Winenhoe Outlook. The dam looks very dry from up there. The lookout was a popular place for people celebrating Australia Day. Several families had Australian flags on display, some of them quite large, while they BBQ’d their lamb chops and snags.

We finished the day by attending Clinton’s and Anthony’s house warming. They’re renting a nice place in Highgate Hill. Karen and I had a great time.