Parkway Parade Eats: Mad Jack and Scoopz

This is an invited review of a few of the eating places in the refurbished Parkway Parade. Located at the ground floor of this very busy shopping centre, the eateries are quite interesting.

The concept for the tasting was also quite interesting. The bloggers were given a pass each, and free reign to visit where they wish, and most of the stalls were open to us ordering whatever was in the menu. We started with Mad Jack.

I had been at Mad Jack once before, and had their burgers...a value for money place rather than a fine dining establishment. But was surprised to see a wagyu steak offering, costing $49.90...so I had to order that.

The steak looked a bit thin...but aroma of beef was very mice. Cutting open, I found it to be just right medium done as specified, but no charring of the outside.

The steak was rather tender. Very nice flavour...and just short of bursting in the mouth as one bites into the meat. Rather nice, methots. My lunch companion thought it was rather good too, but a bit pricey.

We also had the fish and chips...initially we wanted to order the barramundi and chips, but the manager persuaded us to go for the Premium Fish and Chips...so we did...

A rather ordinary looking fish and chips...two rather large battered fish slices with chips and a small salad. Cutting open revealed a rather nice crisp batter and light, flaky white fish within.

The fish meat on its own lacked flavour...with a bit of salt, it certainly did pick up, but the batter was very good...light, crisp, and only very lightly greasy.

As they served a lava cake, we tried that too...

As it was served, the chocholate lava was quivering...and cutting open the thin crust...not really a crust, but skin like, the hot chocolate lava burst open. Very liquid...not oozing slowly like I wished it would. Taste wise, it was ok, tasting rather like molten chocolate. No ice cream was offered as an option.

We moved next to Scoopz, a stall offering handmade ice cream, made in situ

Flavoured milk is poured into a shallow bowl, I guess with refrigeration below...and the staffer stirred it vigrously until it became ice cream.

We had the waffle with vanilla ice cream

The waffle was rather plain waffle...made also a la minute on the waffle iron. The crust was a crispy, cutting open to reveal a light batter within. The ice cream was a nice and cold counterpoint. I was expecting artisanal vanilla ice cream to have more punch in the vanilla department, but I guess that's why they call it plain vanilla...it did not draw attention to itself...making me wish more that the waffle was more spectacular. A bit of maple syrup on request did lift the taste somewhat, but still far from being spectacular.

The speciality of this little store was their lava cake too..and one had to be ordered...

The crust was much drier, and had a cake like consistency than the one at Mad Jack...cutting open, the hot lave oozed out like it should.

This lava cake was much better than the earlier one we had...and with the counterpoint provided by the cold ice cream to the hot lava allowed the chocholate flavour of the cake and molten interior to take on an added dimension. Quite nice, I must say.

Thanks to Cheryl Guzman from Creoadworld for the invitation.

Mad Jack and Scoopz
Ground floor
Parkway Parade, 80 Marine Parade Road