The Teez Café Teezed Our Taste Buds

 Having left Strahan for Hobart (4.5-hour drive), we found ‘The Teez Café’ in Tarraleah by accident – I was not aware of its existence. 

After traveling for about two hours on the Lyell Highway, we saw this sign displayed on the path on the side of the highway “The Teez Café” and underneath it “Tasty Lunches” (literally we reached midpoint – a sign displayed on the T-Section ‘turn right to Strahan (175km) turn or left for Hobart (125km)’. It was a bit after midday, so we gave this place a go… we were hungry. We turned left into this long, long gravel road going to nowhere until we noticed this small café off the beaten path (don’t be fooled by the long gravel road). 

At this point, we weren’t too sure if we had made the right decision stopping here for lunch but the appearance of the café looked very inviting and clean – free parking available at rear. 

When we entered the café, we were greeted by the one and only friendly staff, he showed us to our table (you have the option to eat indoors or outdoors) and left us with a menu – not a large selection of dishes for lunch, but in my opinion, it was just right – makes choosing far easier. 

We enjoyed the ambience of the café, it was homey but spacious with large tables and comfortable seats and clean toilets are available. There were five lunch options to choose from (lamb, chicken, beef or bacon) or their daily specials which that same gentleman who greeted us gave us a brief overview. Once we knew what we wanted, I went to the counter and placed and paid my order – it is table service too. 

I had ‘BLT’ @ $13.50 (served on toasted Turkish bread, bacon, lettuce and tomato) with a side of fries. Turkish bread toasted to perfection, the tomatoes cut nice and thick and the taste was flavoursome – just like homegrown tomatoes and bacon nicely grilled. Their fries are your café fries, thick and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside – perfect lunch snack. 

My wife and daughter had ‘Warm Chicken Salad’ @ $16 (marinated chicken breast with Spanish onion, tomato, cucumber and honey mustard dressing). You can tell by the expression on their faces that they loved their meal. According to them, they said that the chicken breast was moist, tender and the coating was just right. The salad wasn’t sophisticated but the ingredients simply worked together and the honey mustard dressing was a nice, light vinaigrette dressing that complimented the chicken – not overpowering. 

My wife asked the gentleman to pass on “my compliments to the chef” – not something she says freely or on a regular basis. As for my other daughter, she just wanted a sausage roll, which we thought was a sausage roll displayed at the counter but the chef explained to us that it is vegetable pasties @ $6.50 – which she enjoyed to her surprise, as she is not a huge fan of vegetables but she said it tasted very nice and ate every single bit of it and loved the pastry too – crisp and flaky crust. 

Lunches didn’t take long, we waited perhaps about 20 minutes. Our lunch meals were absolutely delectable, the ingredients were fresh and oozing with flavour, to our surprise, we had a serendipity experience! I am so glad that we stopped at The Teez Café, well worth the stop and their lunches do not disappoint. 

They live up to their advertisement “tasty lunches”. Although we didn’t have room for dessert, we just could leave the café without their homemade desserts, we bought a caramel slice (not too sweet – perfect), a slice of orange cake (moist and full of flavour) and a piece of pecan pie (again… not too sweet – perfect) to help us on our travels for the next couple of hours. 

I highly recommend this place, their meals are freshly cooked, tastes amazing and priced fairly – so glad we stopped here. Open seven days - 8am to 3pm for breakfast and lunch. Kudos to the chef and keep up with your great work. Oh yes… signage does work… “tasty lunches” grabbed our attention! 

We did not know there was a little town tucked away down that long gravel road only to reveal a neat, clean, little village there waiting to be discovered with accommodation and another restaurant opened during the evening.