Tasting Melbourne – Rickett’s Point, Beaumaris

Howdy all. You know where it’s a nice place to have a bite to eat, at most any time of the day? The beach! That’s where! And on the day that I filmed at Rickett’s Point for Melbourne Revealed, another little snorkelling expedition which you will be seeing in a few weeks. Joined by Tim Blight of Urban Duniya, after a little snorkelling and walking, it was time for, what’s the word… lunch! And so we headed to the beachside café. Or is it a restaurant?

I think we were both stumped because the logo on the outside of the building – on the inside of the menus – it simply says ‘Rickett’s Point, Beaumaris’. Clearly we live in a strange world where if we can exactly define something, chaos naturally ensues. But it had called itself the location it was in. Did that mean we could choose to head out to the rocks and expect table service 200 metres from where the food was prepared? Well, we didn’t ask. I’m only thinking of this question now. But I suspect the answer would be a ‘no’ in that regard.

Enough of the descension into what feels to me like some sort bizzarro world right now, Rickett’s Point, Beaumaris the ESTABLISHMENT rather than the geographical location is a large mostly wooden building which appears built to let in light and is a pleasant spot, and you may choose to call it either a café, a restaurant or something else (an eatery perhaps?) as you prefer. Anyways you can get a meal there. And Tim and I did on this auspicious occasion.

It was, as most of my lunches seem to be, a late lunch heading in after 3pm. Oh – online they list themselves as ‘Rickett’s Point Beachside Café’. The ratings online are not great – but it’s been refurbished and the menus weren’t worn, so perhaps we would find it a great option to eat?

The menu was a mix of things – completely devoid of a chicken parmigiana notably but still, a reasonable mix of styles and tastes to offer something for vegetarians, those who are not vegetarians, there were eight mains and a choice of three pizzas, but also a number of snack options as well. A bit of seafood – fish and chips a natural, and the prices were around $15 to a maximum of $25AUD, which for a well-to-do suburb such as Beaumaris was very reasonably priced. Ice-cream also served here, which we had at the end of our meal.

So I guess it’s a great place for brunch or afternoon tea as well as lunch. They are open at 9am on week days and close at 430pm, but once you hit Thursday they stay open for dinner service and on the weekends open at 8am, presumably doing a little breakfast trade.

Anyways. You’re just 20 metres from the ocean, we ate on the deck which is the best place to eat although we were behind a sort of plastic covering. It was a bit windy so maybe on calmer days that plastic is rolled up. We looked through our menu, and Tim chose the Open Lamb Flatbread, and I went with the Rickett’s Point Burger.

Food came in good time and was well-presented. Nice chips! Tim was very happy with his, and I found the burger to be pretty tasty too. A huge beef patty and some tasty sauce – pickles, cheese and tomato. I’m pro-pickle. How about you? It came in a large bun which I wasn’t sure about and as a result I decided to eat it, please forgive me if you are a traditionalist, with a knife and fork.

Afterwards, we took ice creams in a cone and walked along the beach. We were happy and gave it a thumbs up. My only criticism was that for our drinks we were given glasses with ice. And that ice was already partially melted so there was a fair bit of water in the bottom of the glass, which I don’t think is a good look really. I presume that the glasses were sitting with ice inside waiting for the next customers? But unless it’s an ice bar, I’m not sure that’s a wise approach.