Author: Alex

Rob Roy Hotel

- Alex Leave a comment

Chicken Parmi at the Rob Roy

date of visit:  Thurs Sept 16 2010

PUB QUIZ:  the Rob Roy runs a pub quiz every second Wednesday.  Please contact the pub for further details!

The Rob Roy Hotel is, perhaps, a little out of the way of most city centre workers. After all, you have to get all the way down Pulteney Street to Halifax Street to find it …

However, if you can manage it, it’s more than worth the detour. Continuously licensed since 1840,  restoration and extension work has been sympathetic. The interior is modern and spacious and there’s plenty of outdoor space and seating.

As a malt whisky specialist pub, there always seems to be a whisky tasting or dinner in the event calendar, as well as wine dinners, quiz nights, and members’ nights.

But we weren’t there for any of that (not even the pints). We were there for the Thursday evening $10 schnitzel. Yes – $10 for a schnitzel (add an extra $2 if you want parmigiana). So, what would it be like? Would it be a tiny portion that left us dissatisfied? Or would it be a monster that put the normal $20 pub schnitzel to shame?

It turned out that there was surprisingly keen interest in this experiment: 10 of us turned up to suss out the cheap schnitzel. One person ordered from the menu (and another would have, except her husband informed her that a schnitzel extravaganza meant she had to order schnitzel) but the rest of us opted for schnitzel with parmigianas being heavily represented.

As usual, I chose a chicken schnitzel parmigiana and I was happy. The schnitzel part was good: thick and juicy, and the topping was not too tomato sweet. While I was not thrilled with how generously salted the chips were I was pleased that it was not the usual ridiculous quantity of them (Andy, while agreeing on the salt, thought there could have been more). The salad was disappointing – far too overdressed, leaving it soggy and being all about balsamic vinegar.

That reflects the general consensus. The $10 schnitzels might not be the best schnitzels in Adelaide (to be honest, we’re still working on finding those!) but not only do they represent excellent value (let’s face it, with a schnitzel dinner you can live without a great salad), they also demonstrate just how overpriced the average pub schnitzel is.

I’d definitely head back to the Rob Roy on a Thursday … but before then, I have to try out Tuesday and the half price pizzas!

Arni Souvlaki – Easy Greek Lamb

- Alex 1 Comment

IMG_0229

14 Sept 2010

With winter retreating, albeit very slowly, it’s time to start thinking about ways to use the BBQ. We were actually trawling some cookbooks looking for a hearty, warming dinner before we realised that actually we didn’t feel like a big pie or casserole. Something lighter and quicker was definitely in order.

Elizabeth David’s A Book of Mediterranean Food* provided inspiration in the form of her recipe for the Greek classic arni souvlaki. This is another great example of needing a recipe to keep things simple … because I know that, given a pile of lamb to marinate, I’d end up using most of the spices in the spice drawer – whereas in this case I used just the one.

David’s recipe doesn’t specify any quantities but I used (approximately) the following. We had about 600g of diced lamb to which I added the juice of two smallish lemons and about 2 tsp of oregano (she specifies rigani and substitutes marjoram). I gave it a good mix and finished off with plenty of pepper and a little salt. That was it. Oregano, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Let’s face it, sourcing the lamb is going to be the most difficult part of this dish.

The mix only needs to be left for about half an hour. If you’re aiming for a more authentic Greek dish, you can thread the lamb on to skewers, but if you want quick, then just fire up the BBQ. Once it’s good and hot, throw the lamb on, grill it and you’re good to go.

The lamb cooks quickly and it should be reasonably tender (depending on cut, I guess) and you get a lovely herby, lemony, grill flavour. It’s not cluttered – just simple flavours that marry together well.

Of course, such a simple, quick dish needs a simple, quick accompaniment. For something with a mediterranean flavour we opted for couscous. Add a cup and a half of boiling water to the same amount of couscous, stir it through and cover. Then, I coarsely chopped an onion and fried it off with a very large clove of garlic. When it was softened I added a chopped red capsicum to the pan and turned off the heat.

Mix some good quality olive oil and butter through the couscous – you might need to put it back on the heat – and then add in the capsicum and onion mix. I finished with a generous handful of parsley and mixed through a small amount of crushed chilli, a teaspoon of ground cumin and a generous sprinkling of sumac.

All far far too easy and, best of all, very tasty – we’ll definitely be serving this at our next BBQ. And don’t worry about cooking too much and having leftovers – it’s tasty even reheated in a microwave the next day for lunch!

* also available from Amazon UK, Amazon US or from The Book Depository for world wide delivery.

King’s Head Hotel

- Alex 7 Comments

 

 

date visited: Friday 10 Sept 2010

The sole criterion for Friday night’s dinner was that it was on King William Street, as that happened to be on our way to the car. We made it past the smells and bright lights of Gouger Street and were tempted very briefly by La Trattoria (until we saw how packed it was!) before deciding a peek at the King’s Head menu was in order.

The King’s USP is that it’s strictly South Australian. That’s right – all South Australian produce (they bend their own rules a bit for cocktails, so spirits drinkers can relax). Of course, this caused a bit of a problem when one of our first requests was for a James Boags … but things were righted by the arrival of a Coopers Lager. We grabbed a table in The Den, which is the à la carte restaurant, but you can also eat in the bar. We had no reservation and there were seats free, but the restaurant was sufficiently busy to warrant booking for future visits.

The service was incredibly friendly and it was certainly efficient. Perhaps a little too efficient, if you were after a leisurely meal … our main courses arrived as the plate from our entrée was being cleared! However, the efficiency did translate to speedy drinks service – I find nothing more irksome than being seated in a restaurant and waiting an age for a waiter to decide to take your drink order!

We started by sharing the arancini. Four generous balls of roast pumpkin and sage that were just the right temperature for picking up and eating, but hot enough for them not to be stodgy and the cheese to still be melty.

For main course I chose one of the blackboard specials – spaghetti puttanesca. The pasta was perfectly cooked (in that it was still toothsome) and the saltiness of the olives and anchovies offset the potentially sweet tomato sauce perfectly. I did think that the dish itself lacked some essential chilli (I’m confident a puttanesca pasta sauce is meant to have some heat to it!) and also found the mound of dressed rocket on top of it utterly superfluous. Still, it did mean I ate some greens, so it’s not all bad.

Andy ordered the fish and chips, which he was a little underwhelmed by. He passed comment that the batter was excellent but that the chips were under par, apparently being the standard oven type.

It’s interesting to note that The King’s chef is Sam Worrall-Thompson, son of UK celebrity chef Anthony Worrall-Thompson which is reflected in the British gastro-pub style menu. The menu covers pub basics (yes, there’s schnitzel and even pie floaters) as well as more interesting dishes, so most people should be able to find something to eat. And the execution of the dishes, based on our sample size of two, seems more than competent but perhaps a little uneven.

I know I’m not raving here, but the experience was definitely good enough for us to say we’d return. The Den is a comfortable dining space that is definitely a cut above most pub restaurants, the service is sharp and the food represents good value for money. Most main courses hover around the $20. We left having spent around $65 – not bad for the food as well as three drinks.

King’s Head Hotel

Interesting, good value pub food

Rating:3.5 stars
***1/2

King's Head Hotel on Urbanspoon