Morter & Pestle and Ben & Jerry's; Manly

The husband and I had a date night in Manly. We head to a little Thai place we discovered on our last trip called Mortar & Pestle. It was a hot evening, so they had the walls/windows wide open, creating a lovely open environment which felt very suitable for a beachy environment. Since M&P is off the main roads, it's filled with locals and is reasonably priced. Add friendly service and tasty food, it makes for an excellent dinner in Manly.

 

Massive fold-out menu.

  

Hello vegetarian section! Woot, the choices.

  

The interior is very modern, with the Thai food authentic =  a perfect combination.

  

The husband has a coconut ice drink, the name of which escapes me. Young coconut? Whatever it is, it's refreshing and light, and probably full of sugar.

  

We order the vegetarian spring rolls - the serving size is only three, which is a weird number. They are tasty and filled with delicious things, and we fight over the last one.

  

The husband chooses a seafood main - calamari. He says it's super tasty.

  

I have vegetarian Pad Thai - my fave. It's really delish and I eat it all, despite registering fullness half-way through.

  

  

Next stop is Ben & Jerry's, which is across from the beach. The ice-cream market must surely be reaching saturation point (we counted seven ice-cream sellers while walking around Manly), yet B&J is going gang-bustas. We enter the store and join the queue ...

  

A very apt sign, as this was indeed where the queue began.

  

Lots of flavours, some sadly sold out.

  

I love the cartoony design, and the cute cows. They look happy, and I like to think my ice-cream comes from happy cows. We had simple single scoops, but next time I want a sundae.

  

I had a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough in a waffle cone, plus chocolate fudge on top. It was a huge scoop (it would want to be for the price) and was more than enough to satisfy this one. We watched the staff make waffle cones while in the queue, and it made me keen for the waffle since it was literally made in the store.

  

  

The ice-cream was really nice - but not spectacular. I enjoyed the giant chunks of cookie dough and chocolate chips, but would really prefer a stronger ice-cream base. I will definitely return though, and try more flavours.