The Ritzy Gritz New Mexican Grill, Kiama - Review

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We arrived in Kiama at around noon and booked into our hotel. Once again we booked into The Sebel Harbourside Hotel as our last experience was very pleasant. The room wasn’t quite ready, but we were both hungry so we left our luggage at reception and headed off to have fish and chips at Barnacles by the water. Unfortunately there were way too many people so we parked the car back at the Sebel and walked down to the shops. And that’s when we found the Ritzy Gritz, a Californian New Mexican style restaurant.

On the wall are many awards for excellence dating from 2001 to 2008. I wondered what had happened in 2009/2010.

The prices are very reasonable and there are a nice assortment of dishes to choose from.

After being seated, Paula ordered a Stirred Margarita. This cost $11 and proved to be quite refreshing, being made from Daiquiri, Cointreau and lime juice, she could have had a frozen Margarita but decided it was a bit too cold to try one of these. There is an extensive range of drinks available, and you can have either alcoholic and non- alcoholic.

Seating is available both inside and outside, we chose to sit inside although many people were taking advantage of the sunny but quite cool day.

I ordered a Chicken Quesadilla for $18.00 and Paula ordered the lunchtime Nachos for $15.00. We were also thinking of getting a sticky date pudding for dessert, but we were really full and there was no room to fit in any more food by the time we finished our main course.

The servings are very large and the food is beautifully prepared, tasty and satisfying. My quesadilla came with a small jug of dressing and it was just heavenly. Not being sure what was in the jug to start with I only poured out a little onto the plate but after tasting it I poured out the rest. On inquiring what the dressing was, we were told it was Raspberry vinaigrette and it was developed by the owner’s son Jake who is a chef that travels the world following the snow. A very talented chef if this dressing is anything to go by.

ritzy-grill.kiama, trave, — Chicken Quesadilla

As I said we had intended having dessert but couldn’t fit it in, and there is a nice variety available at $9.00 each

Baked cheesecake with white chocolate and lime

Sticky Date Pudding with warm Caramel sauce

Double layered mud cake

Sweet Tortilla with raspberry couli

All of the desserts are served with fresh strawberries, cream and ice cream.

We enjoyed lunch so much that we are going back for dinner and to try out some of the desserts.

Dinner at the Ritzy Gritz

And so here it is the next night and we head down to the Ritzy Gritz for dinner.

We start with 2 daiquari’s, one alcoholic, one non-alcoholic, both are tasty.

For dinner we choose the Fajita for two.

This dish consists of two plates, one is a cast iron sizzling plate on which there is a selection of onions, capsicum, tomatoes, and our choice of chicken and beef.

You can have chicken, beef or lamb or a combination of two meats.
The other plate has an arrangement of lettuce, grated cheese, chopped tomatoes, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.
The meal is accompanied by 8 tortilla in a tortilla warmer.

There is so much food and it is beautifully presented.

I ask if its possible to have a small serve of the beautiful raspberry vinegrette to accompany the meal and the waitress very obligingly makes sure that we are given a jug of this lovely nectar.

Then we set about devouring our meal, which in the end we can’t finish, mainly because we had decided before heading out for dinner that we were definitely going to try the sticky date pudding.

We order one serve between us and it is once again beautifully presented and very tasty.

This is truly an experience not to miss, the food and the service are excellent.

Sticky Date Pudding Ritzy Gritz Style