Skip to main content

Hotel Alba, Skootz Cafe, The Butterfly Table Cafe, Adelaide CBD, South Australia

Hotel Alba Signage, front and side of building.
As part of our trip into Adelaide to spend a gifted voucher to The Meat & Wine Co Steakhouse Restaurant my partner, Enigma, thought it would be nice to make a relaxing weekend of it by booking a stay in a city hotel for a couple of nights.

As the Adelaide Fringe Festival was in full swing all places we've previously stayed at were booked out. Fortunately the Hotel Alba, 226 South Tce, Adelaide, who are relatively new, had rooms available at a great price. 

With four levels you get a choice of city or park views. We chose park. While I'm sure the city views were great as well, I feel like maybe, even on level four you'd be seeing quite a few air-conditioning units of the surrounding buildings in the foreground.

At the time of our stay the hotel's restaurant and pool area was still under construction - or maybe refurbishment as the pool was there, filled with water. 

The friendly and very helpful reception staff suggested we could go to the nearby Terrace Hotel for breakfast and dinner if we didn't want to travel too far. However we found three other options, all just as close if not closer including Fasta Pasta (South Terrace), The Butterfly Table, and Scootz Cafe.

In the interim, staff were more than happy to make you a tea or coffee from (what I presume is a temporary) tea and coffee bar set up in the foyer.

Our room, as mentioned was park side with a king bed, separate ensuite, and a balcony you could go outside onto for a clearer look at the view. The room itself was a good size and did not at all feel cramped, neither did the ensuite.

Our room from the balcony door. TV is on the wall above the desk.
Our room from the balcony door. TV is on the wall above the desk.

Beyond that it had everything you'd expect from hotel accommodation. Free Wi-fi, Smart TV, in room tea, coffee, mini bar, etc. If you want something a bit more home style they do have larger open plan rooms with room for a dedicated lounge area in front of the TV.

There's not much more to say. It was comfortable, air conditioned, and we spent an afternoon watching a movie on the TV (using our own streaming service accounts).

All Day Breakfasts and Lunch

Scootz Cafe

Skootz Cafe.
On our first morning at the Alba we decided to skip breakfast, planning to have an early lunch, since we left the hotel mid morning. However Scootz Cafe, which is just around the corner at 441 Pulteney Street, Adelaide, has an all day breakfast menu.

We got there after spending the morning wandering through the Japanese Garden on South Terrace, and then a wander around Adelaide Central Markets. It was just about midday, so we decided to order lunch.

All the staff here at Scootz were very welcoming and  conversational, while making sure we knew the specials or their recommendations.

Enigma and I have been on a bit of a semi unofficial mission to try out different restaurant's home style burgers so I went with their Hamburger with the lot upgraded to their special that includes a side serving of chips and 375ml drink.

Enigma opted for a Steak Sandwich with the lot, also upgraded to the special.

Both meals got our tick of approval. My burger was particularly cooked well and cooked all the way through - which sometimes doesn't happen with the thicker style beef burgers.

We enjoyed our meal so much we decided to go there the next day to try breakfast. Unfortunately, we discovered Scootz is closed Sundays so...

The Butterfly Table

The Butterfly Table - A selection of menu items.
The Butterfly Table - A selection of menu items.
A few doors up at 449A Pulteney street is The Butterfly Table, a new all day breakfast and lunch cafe that we learned had only recently opened in October of 2022.

We weren't really looking for anything too fancy for breakfast so, while the menu did look particularly inviting, I settled on a Ham and Cheese Croissant with a white tea and Enigma was a bit more adventurous with Fried Eggs Benedict and Bacon topped with fried Shallots and a Banana Smoothie.

Opening times.
Opening times.
The food was nice but unfortunately the owner was having a particularly busy Sunday morning with Menu Log and Uber Eats orders. So while the cafe itself wasn't particularly busy we still had quite a wait for our food.

I would have preferred to have my tea with my croissant but the tea was brought out first and there's no way it would've still been hot if I had waited for my meal.

That aside the owner, Annie, was well aware of the wait times, and was apologetic. She even gave Enigma an extra piece of toast because she felt the two slices she'd served were on the small side.

Formerly Cafe Luna, The Butterfly Table features this long wooden counter.
Formerly Cafe Luna, The Butterfly Table
features this long wooden counter.
Possibly the only thing I'd like to see is a few more regular table and chair options indoors. The long, wooden topped breakfast bar that runs the length of the dining area, with stools at each side looks really cool and all but I think I prefer regular chairs and normal height tables.

To be fair they had regular tables and chairs out front but it was quite a cool morning so we opted to sit inside.

However, you can't really argue with a good menu and I'd certainly go back to try out their lunch options.

Fasta Pasta

I mentioned Fasta Pasta earlier, which is literally right next door to the Alba at the corner of South Terrace & Pulteney Street.

We went here for dinner on our second night at the Alba and I've decided to feature them in a post on their own because they've managed to appeal to more than just my Travel and Places readers, crossing over into Internet and Technology. I'll link their upcoming article when it's published.



Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Review: Captain America: Brave New World (2025) *No Spoilers*

I  decided not see Captain America: Brave New World in a cinema because everything I heard about the film pointed to a disjointed mess, from testing poorly, to whole characters being added in during reshoots. The trailers looked okay but, since they featured Red Hulk, quite a bit, it felt like there wasn't much left as a drawcard for seeing the film in a cinema. Having now seen the film on Disney+ I feel it was a good decision. While the big budget effects no doubt would've looked better on a big screen, the story wasn't particularly complex or intriguing enough to make the film stand out. If anything, it's a straight forward action movie with a hero who is just kind of... there. The story revolves around a plot to kill the newly elected US President, former General Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Captain America (Anthony Mackie) must find who is the real mastermind in order to clear his friend and the original Super Solider, Isaiah Bradley's (Carl Lumbly), name. I...

Resident Dragon: Checking In with My Daily Gag Cartoon/Comic About a Fire Dragon Living in the Suburbs

A t the beginning of the year I introduced you to my latest cartoon/comic series, Resident Dragon (because a dragon's got to live somewhere).  A daily - well, week-day-ly - gag cartoon about Red the Fire Dragon, living in a shared house in the suburbs, with his human friend, TET and his two pets, Grrr Dog and Cool Froyd the cat. Back then I had about 100 cartoons sketched out, with eleven completely digitally inked and coloured.  As of writing this, I haven't yet skipped a day of my schedule, and am seven toons short of an even 200 sketched out, with 31 fully inked and coloured. Actually, it's 33 but I only publish one full colour toon each week, so I have two in the wings. I'm not planning on doing daily toons forever. My goal is to hit 366 so I have enough to fill a daily desk calendar, should I decide to sell one. Currently you can buy individual prints of my finished toons in my Resident Dragon Store . When I have enough finished toons I will be compiling them into...

TV Series Review: Star Wars: Andor - Season 2 (2025, Disney+) *No Spoilers*

D isney+'s Star Wars: Andor  the first season is widely regarded as some of the best Star Wars since the original trilogy, and I don't disagree in my  Andor Season 1  review. Despite that, it does have its problems, mainly a lot of space between action pieces. That's not to say nothing is happening in those spaces, but I do remember being frustrated how long season one took to get to a promised heist scene, going from conversation to conversation over several episodes. However, when Andor does have action, it usually delivers, with action that serves the story rather than action because 'it's time for some action now'. Unfortunately that gave Andor the reputation for being Star Wars 'for grown ups'. People who understand how tension and intrigue can come just as much from character interaction, who is talking to who, and what they're saying. That lead to low viewership and the show's proposed number of seasons being reduced to just two (I believe...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood  Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

Movie Review: Thunderbolts* (2025) *No Spoilers*

G oing into  Thunderbolts*  I was a tiny bit concerned that not seeing the previous Marvel Movie, Captain America: Brave New World , might be a problem. Fortunately, if you've seen the trailer to that film, you mostly have all you need to understand the brief references to it here. The bigger issue you may bump up against is not really knowing who any of this team is, if you haven't been watching every Marvel movie or TV series. The movie is counting on you at least knowing who Yolena (Florence Pugh), Bucky (Sebastian Stan), and Red Guardian (David Harbour) is to draw you into seeing the film. It is kind of a better experience if you know who John Walker - Captain America Lite (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr - Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov - Task Master (Olga Kurylenko) are but there is enough backstory given, to at least place them in context of the wider MCU as misfits. Having said that, the story really lends itself to filling in the backstory on almost all...