Palm Court - Sandwich Bar

The menu at palm court is fairly wide ranging, but today we'll be focusing only on the sandwich bar. This is on the counter on the left as you enter from Victoria Parade.

There are typically three types of bread available: sliced white, sliced wholemeal, and rolls (which can either be white or wholemeal depending on what side of the bed the purchasing guy woke up on). My favourite is the wholemeal roll, but there is usually only around a 25% chance of this being available.

Once you've selected your bread its now on the to the fillings.

My two favourites are:

• cheese and salad with beetroot and pickle - a nasty sour thing that makes you happy
• smoked walu and salad with pickle - a happy salty thing that makes you nasty
  

There are many other fillings and you obviously can customise your sandwich with various combinations.

Your sandwich gets wrapped in the tightest cling wrap known to man. It will take three times as long to unwrap as to eat.

Turn up early, by 1315 the place fills up with yuppie scum who eat up all the wholemeal rolls, and breathe too much oxygen. In fact get your sandwich and go back to your office, classroom, or the the park across the road.

In Summary:

Palm Court

Victoria Parade, Suva

Opening hours

?am - ?pm Monday to Saturday

Spend

$3 - $10 per person

Verdict

Thumbs-up (for the sandwiches, thumbs down for the yuppie scum patrons)

Sweet-T-Pie Coffee Café

This Nasese eatery has closed ... well, it's been closed and sold and is currently under renovation by it's new owners. We will doubtless see further action at this location (it's too close to the new FIRCA hq to go to waste), but in the mean time, take yourself to the new Cakes 2000 digs on Butt St.

Cakes 2000 has had more locations and incarnations than I care to remember. Their latest incarnation in Nasese takes the form of a combined cake-shop and café-style eatery, alternately branded Cakes2000 and Sweet-T-Pie Café.

Their lunch menu consist mainly of:

• A BBQ/Grill section

  The grill has never made me happy ... steak not tender enough, chicken breasts not quite cooked ... or maybe I've just been on all the wrong days.

• All-Day Breakfasts

  A range of protein-rich, 'get-me-started' meals from $6.50 - $11. These have never let me down. The omelettes in particular are always good. Absolutely recommended.

  

• Miscellany at the counter

  A very boring selection of sandwiches, a couple of very heavy stuffed-croissants, a couple of salads, and quite possibly the best fresh fruit-salad in Suva. If you're lucky, you might visit when chocolate éclairs are available, otherwise there will be a small selection of deserts and cakes.

Drinks are a little limited. There is a small selection of fresh fruit juice & smoothies, and a limited espresso stand. A request for anything beyond that will get you a recommendation to visit the soft-drink fridge in the corner shop next door.

I am unable to recommend eating-in unless it is pouring rain, or you turn up very early in the morning to partake of the breakfast menu. The only tables available are outdoors, and under a heavy canvas awning, which does a wonderful pressure-cooker impression if the sun is anywhere in sight. This recommendation may change ... there seems to be work on a new premises on Butt St in the heart of Suva, which promises a large indoor eating area.

Update by kania tiko on 19th April: While the omelettes in general are good, the notable exception are the ones with cheese in them - they use some nasty processed kraft-like "cheese food" substance - prompting me to ask "what's wrong with good old Rewa Cheddar?" In their defence, Picky Eater swears he got the good stuff when last he ate there.

In Summary:

Sweet-T-Pie Coffee Cafe (aka Cakes 2000)

Ratu Sukuna Rd, Nasese

Opening hours

7am - 6pm Monday to Friday, 7am - 3pm on Saturday, 8am - 2pm on Sunday

Spend

$5 - $10 per person

Verdict

A caveated thumbs-up, and thumbs down to "processed cheese foods" of all kinds