Author: Alex

Seacliff Beach Hotel

- Alex 3 Comments

Seacliff Hotel Schnitzel

date of visit: Sun 29 August 2010

It had been quite a long time between schnitzels and a friend had returned from a long stint working in Hong Kong … so rather than wait to organise a more substantial night we headed to the Seacliff (or, more properly, the Seacliff Beach Hotel) for a Sunday evening meal.

I haven’t been to the Seacliff for years (living abroad does that) so the original plan was to meet in the upstairs bar for a drink before eating in the Bistro. Now, ten years ago or so, I’d enjoyed quite a few quiet Sunday evenings playing pool in the upstairs bar, but while the pool tables remain, the vibe now is distinctly … rowdier. There was a live DJ and the crowd seemed to be winding itself up for a reasonably big night.

Because I’m a grumpy old lady type, particularly on a Sunday night, we scurried down to the front/sports bar. While we weren’t too interested in the various types of racing being shown around the bar, we could at least hold a conversation.

We moved in to the Bistro, where we had a totally unnecessary reservation. At the start of our meal there was just one other table (of two) occupied and by the end of our meal, we were the sole diners. Of course, it was a Sunday night – I wouldn’t like to comment on a Friday or Saturday evening.

There’s no table service – you order (and pay) at the counter which makes it ideal for large groups, or groups incapable of splitting the bill. We started with some garlic bread which was pretty underwhelming and not very garlicky before moving on to the schnitzels. Disappointingly there were no chicken schnitzels left so it was beef schnitzels all round – mostly parmigianas, one with gravy.

The schnitzels were pretty much pub standard. The parmigiana was nothing particularly special: the tomato sauce was topped with a thin slice of ham and melted cheese. It did avoid the (seemingly common) problem of the sauce being overpoweringly sweet. The chips were standard frozen chips and the salad was OK although a little heavily dressed for me (I would have to say that about 95% of dressed salads I eat so it’s not much of a criticism). One thing though … if sufficiently ripe tomatoes aren’t available … just don’t put them in the salad. No one orders a schnitzel explicitly for the tomatoes in the salad, so no one will miss them if they’re not there.

Schnitzels are $18 ($20 for parmigiana). This is a standard price for a standard schnitzel. I’ve certainly had far worse.

And let’s not forget, the Seacliff has great views over the sea so roll on summer and daylight saving!

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Pride of India, Glenelg

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date of visit:  Sat 28 Aug 2010

With our dinner at the Yakumi well and truly stymied, our group of six was left to wander the streets of Glenelg looking for food.  At around 8pm on a Saturday night.  The Glenelg BBQ Inn, which would have been our natural fall back, was packed. Everyone was grumpy (some more than others) and people were getting thirsty.

As curry usually keeps everyone happy we headed down the road to the Pride of India to try our luck. We were lucky, in that they could accommodate six – taking the restaurant to approximately half full. Frankly, that’s about where the luck ran out …

It soon became apparent there was something wrong … I’m going to be kind and suggest that the restaurant had been left in the lurch by staff calling in sick. There appeared to be two ‘proper’ waiters – a man and a woman who were both wearing a uniform, and one of whom clearly knew what was going on. There seemed to be two other ‘waiters’ who had been drafted in. I suspect they may have been delivery drivers, given their very casual dress, and, in the case of one, absolute cluelessness about front of house restaurant service.

I do genuinely feel sorry for those dropped in a professional situation for which they are ill-equipped. However, I also feel sorry for me, when I’m at a restaurant and my waiter REALLY is Manuel of Fawlty Towers fame. So, drinks were ordered by pointing to pictures of beers on the menu. Our bottle of sparkling wine arrived and was placed on the table unopened. In some circumstances we’d have been worried about the grubby fingerprints all over our glasses, but we had to get that bottle open first …

As you might expect, the food ordering process was pretty shambolic. Our group tried to keep it as simple as possible but moments later the waitress (who knew what was going on) had to return to our table to clarify our meal: clearly the delivery driver cum waiter hadn’t been briefed on how to take an order.

So – service-wise, I’m sure you get the picture. Things did improve slightly as the meal progressed but there are obviously some very serious staffing issues at the Pride of India.

All of our food did arrive, and as ordered. The main courses were far superior to the entrées, which we mostly found to be a little unexciting. My mixed pakora was OK, but a touch salty and certainly nothing to rave about. Salty seemed to be a common complaint around the table.

Main courses were much better. I chose the dal gosht – lamb and lentils, along with a bhatura (deep fried bread … how can you go wrong? While I definitely enjoyed my main more than my entrée, I’m not such a fan of the use of kidney beans in dal and a hungry eater might complain that the portion was a little light on meat. For me, it was pretty much the perfect size.

Other main courses ordered included the tandoori lamb chops, the hot Malayalee prawns and the lamb nawabi. Everyone was in agreement that their main courses were superior to the starters … but no one was convinced that the experience was worth the effort. As I’ve mentioned of the Taj Tandoor, curry in a restaurant just can’t be ho-hum. While I can’t vouch for the authenticity of any curries made in our household, I do know that they’ll be tasty, the meat will be tender and the meal will be cheap. If I’m paying $20 for a main course, I need to feel that somewhere along the way, something is being value added. And I’m not talking about comedy service.

The evening wrapped up, costing just under $50 a head. Unsurprisingly, we were in the restaurant quite a while, so I wouldn’t recommend Pride of India for a quick meal. In fact, I’d only recommend it for potential comedy value …

Pride of India

Comedy service, average curry

The food just wasn’t good enough to make up for the amateur service …

Rating:2.0 stars
**

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Yakumi, Glenelg

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date of visit:  Sat 28 August 2010

Yakumi, a tiny Japanese restaurant on Jetty Road, Glenelg has been something of a favourite venue amongst my extended family for quite some time.  So much so that my uncle and aunt actually booked out the whole restaurant for my cousin’s 21st birthday.

So you might be thinking that you’re about to read about the family’s latest, greatest experience, eating fabulous Japanese food and enjoying an all round top night out.

You could not be further from the truth.

There aren’t many seats at the Yakumi as it’s popular and, as we were planning a Saturday evening sortie, my father rang the Tuesdsay beforehand to book a table for 6 people for 7:30pm.  The phone was answered, the booking was taken (including name and contact number) and the family promptly put the date in its collective diary.

And when we arrived at the restaurant on Saturday night we found my uncle and aunt on the footpath … apparently not a record of our booking in sight.  With a full restaurant there was nothing that could be done except leave and find somewhere else to eat – always a handy thing to do as it pushes 8pm on a Saturday night.

So there’s no raving about the food here, just a comment on how truly awful service is at the Yakumi.  Taking a booking isn’t rocket science … 6 people, 7:30pm, Saturday … I’m pretty sure even I could manage it.  And if I ran a restaurant, I’d want to keep both potential customers happy and I’d be making sure that repeat customers keep on coming back – and that starts by not messing up bookings.

I’m prepared to accept that mistakes happen and bookings do get lost … but this isn’t actually the first time my family has had this experience so we can only conclude that while whatever happens in the kitchen at the Yakumi might be good, front of house leaves a lot to be desired.

Perhaps you won’t mind the embarrassment and hassle that a misplaced booking causes but for us, it’s more than a good enough excuse to check out some of Adelaide’s other Japanese restaurants.

Yakumi

Terrible Service

If your front line staff can’t take a booking, customers will never have the opportunity to try your food. The eating out experience starts when the phone is first answered …

Rating:0.5 stars
1/2

Yakumi on Urbanspoon