We recently spent two weeks up the Sunshine Coast at Caloundra and as a treat we went to Spirit House for an extended lunch. Luckily most of the tables have a view of a pond teaming with wildlife which kept the kids distracted. We started with a couple of entrées:

• Miang of smoked Chicken with Lime, Golden Shallots & Peanuts: served on betel leaves that were quite bitter, and was a bit overwhelming for me
• Crispy Pork Belly with Citrus Caramel Sauce: awesome – beautiful texture and flavours. No recipe in their cookbook for this one, but David Thompson has one that I will try soon.

We then shared four mains:

• Coconut Braised Duck with Three Flavor Sauce & Spiced Salt: excellent – the salt seemed to release lots of flavours
• Chargrilled Beef Ribs with Sweet Chilli Dressing & Orange, Mint & Tomato Salad: excellent too – son #2 loved this
• BBQ Deep Water Prawns with Golden Shallot, Ginger & Mint Salad: very good, perhaps the prawns were a little too charred, and the salad was refreshing rather than flavoursome. I think I should have tried this before the duck and the beef ribs
• Issan Curry of Smoked Pork Shoulder with Roasted Pumpkin, Kaffir Lime & Dill: very good, though pumpkin isn’t my favourite vegetable

After a short break, we shared one dessert:

• Wicked Chocolate with Gingerbread Ice Cream & Spiced Cherries: most excellent

So, it was a three hour lunch. Service was very good. Cannot really comment on the wine list – pretty standard stuff from memory. Overall, a lovely dining experience.