Groove Train, Burwood

Groove Train is a chain restaurant that serves modern Australian fast food in a hip and young setting. Modern Australian fast food? I hear you scratching your head. Modern because it's a little more refined and fast food because the food is fast and lots of chips are involved.

As an aside, I think Australia is obsessed with chips. No one can bypass the bucket of hot chips at a garden show, sporting venue, birthday party, restaurant, concert hall etc. They are everywhere. They come in all sizes and shapes and sold all over the place from fancy restaurants to the petrol station-side kebab shops. 

There are eggplant chips, diamond cut chips, chips with chicken salt, shoe string fries, fat chips, sweet potato chips. They are served with salad (bah!), rice (double carb), steaks, on the side, on its own in a fatty bucket, in a bag. 

Even though it has its roots in America, I think Australia has truly laid claim on the humble chips and made it its own national food. 

In Groove Train, the chips are served with salad in this Moroccan Lamb with Cous Cous and Salad. The lamb was juicy and there was a lot on the plate. We saw tables of leftover food, mainly chips because there was too much food. But as always, we polished off our food out of respect for the chef who had laboured over the preparation of our meal.. and also because our stomach capacity is quite large (getting larger by the week)

I ordered the Spaghetti Pascatore which came with loads of seafood in a light sauce. The pasta was well cooked. The seafood was nothing special, it reminds me of marinara mix but it was fresh enough and I enjoyed the dish.

The service was good even though it is a big restaurant for the waitpersons to cover. The food was served piping hot and as I'd mentioned, in big portions. There are plenty of car parks out at the front where the Burwood 1 Shopping Centre is (although it is a little annoying because of 'reserved' car parks for the adjoining liquor shop - difficult to spot which is reserved and which is not at night).

I do think that the price is a little steep for an ordinary meal. The price range is around $25 to $30 for main dishes like the one we ordered. As newer mod Aus fast food places pop up in the burbs, Groove Train will have to up the standard and reduce the price to compete with these other joints.