La Vista Restaurant and Bar, Geelong

On Father's Day a couple of weekends ago, it was ironic that I had lunch with my mum and my daughter.  Sylvia did a great job of finding a venue online.  It was a restaurant called La Vista in one of the newer buildings overlooking the waterfront.  (I say newer from the viewpoint of someone who remembers Geelong waterfront before it smelled any whiff of a developer.)  La Vista is on the first floor with a great view of the beach.  Unfortunately we had a sunny seat at the window and asked to move to a less sunny seat further from the window.

We ordered drinks first.  Sylvia and I honed in on the mocktails.  She had seen Appletinis on the tv so was excited to be able to try a non-alcoholic Appletini.  It comprised apple juice, lemon juice, granny smith apple syrup.  Sylvia said it was scrumptious athe perfect balance of sweet and sour. I went for the Cuddle on the Beach: peach, cranberry, orange, lime .  I think that was meant to be a PG rated version of Sex on the Beach.  I chose it because I love peaches and because the silly name amused me.

First dish to arrive was the Crispy cauliflower bites.  These battered and fried florets of cauliflower were bit sized and perfectly cooked.  This is the sort of side dish to convince someone of how good cauliflower can taste.  We were all impressed, including Sylvia who has only recently come around to cauliflower.

I had ordered the Grilled Corn and Halloumi Salad which according to the menu was a bowl of "pickled red cabbage, grilled corn, cucumber mint, golden halloumi, chickpea & tomato chilli dressing".  I liked it but it was not as promised by the menu.  More surprisingly was that the main vegetables seemed to be baby spinach and raw red onion, neither of which were mentioned on the menu.  I like baby spinach but it overwhelmed the corn, cucumber, chickpeas and pickled cabbage promised by the menu.  I don't really like raw onion so I had a considerable pile of it at the side of my plate when I finished.  Despite my complaints, I really liked the salty halloumi was lovely with the fresh vegetables. They were lovely with the cauliflower and potatoes side dishes.

Sylvia likes leaves far more than me and ordered the Green Garden Salad.  It was lots of leaves with tomatoes, cucumber and onion.  Sylvia loved it (except the onion) with roast potatoes.

Lately we had a generous bowl of Oven Roasted Rosemary Chat Potatoes.  These were excellent.  They were crispy and crunchy with salt and herbs.  We kept going back for more and praising them to the high heavens!
 

It was a really lovely lunch: a nice view of Eastern Beach, satisfying food, great service and good to gather three generations together.  After lunch we went to my parents' house where my dad had returned from watching Collingwood at footy training with my brother.  Some of my siblings and niblings came over for a Father's Day afternoon tea of scones, profiteroles and ginger cake.  A fine day of catching up with family and enjoying some Geelong sunshine.

La Vista Restaurant and Bar
120 Brougham Street, Geelong  VIC  3220
https://www.lavistageelong.com.au/