Hilton Brasserie – 30th Birthday Lunch

- Alex Leave a comment

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date of visit: Wednesday 28 November 2012

The short version of this post is that the food was very, very good.

The long version? Here goes.

Adelaide’s Hilton is turning 30 and, for the month of November, the hotel has been running a ton of promotions. I spotted one of these promotions on Facebook: a $30 3 course lunch, valid mid week for the entire month. The deal duly grabbed, it loitered around in my inbox until I happened upon a day off work. As instructed, on 26 November (so a good way into the month!) I rang the Brasserie to make a booking. The first person I spoke to hadn’t heard of this deal and put me on hold, the second person I spoke to (perhaps someone who randomly picked up the phone) also didn’t seem sure. “Hmmm, maybe the deal is not valid at lunch time, I only work mornings, no, it should be all ok.”

When we arrived, our reservation was in order and our voucher was examined and taken. We sat down and were presented with the à la carte menu. “Are you sure this is right? Do we not have a special menu for the $30 lunch deal?”. Hmmm, the waitress wasn’t sure, so off she went to check. She returned with the special menu. Sigh.

Next up, I started inspecting the wine list. Bubbles is the civilised way to start any meal and the Brasserie offers 4 by the glass. These were mostly wines I wasn’t too familiar with so I asked about the $8 a glass Hardy’s Riddle Brut Reserve. The response? It was along the lines of “ooooh, I wouldn’t have that, it’s not really very good”.

Oh my god. I’m assuming the odd international guest stays at the Hilton and maybe even eats in the Brasserie. In case whoever is driving the wine list at the Hilton hasn’t noticed – South Australia produces a reasonable amount of quality wine. There is NO EXCUSE to have a wine on your wine list that your staff are actively suggesting people stay away from. I’m sure you can find a good South Australian bubbly you can sell for $8 a glass …

After I’d picked myself up off the chair a cruise through the wine list saw me spot an error (guys – the grape variety is Grüner Veltliner, the place in Austria is just Kremstal) so I wasn’t that surprised when a question about one of the wines meant that the waiter had to disappear off for ages to find someone to ask. If you’re interested, we ended up ordering a 2009 Yalumba FDW 7C Chardonnay. It retails around $25 a bottle, so the mark up to $68 is a bit steep. Cracking wine nonetheless.

You’ve probably figured out that the Hilton Brasserie is winning no points from me for its wine list (which I’d describe as pretty solid but tending towards boring) or wine service.

As I’ve mentioned – the food was really lovely. The lunch menu gave us a choice of 3 entrées, mains and desserts. I started with an octopus salad, followed by a chicken breast and wrapped up with a chocolate and hazelnut icecream.

All the dishes looked beautiful and tasted the same. My octopus salad was well seasoned, with the charry octopus set off by salt and the salad dressing (hmm, that might not sound as complimentary as it should … it was delicious). My chicken breast (huge!) was beautifully cooked, so the meat was lovely and moist. The crushed potatoes were really good and the red wine sauce worked – all top notch. My parents were similarly impressed with their food (grilled feta, followed by whiting and hand cut chips and Italian sausages). In fact, my dad’s comment was “hmmm, these sausages aren’t too bad at all” (that’s really high praise!) and they were both very enthusiastic about the chips. As we had an extra portion of chips, I can confirm that they were, indeed, excellent.

The desserts were lovely too: Haigh’s chocolate and hazelnut icecream, with black pepper roasted strawberries? What could go wrong?! Mum had the cherry ripe cheesecake and her only observation on that was that it could have done with a bit more cherry flavour.

Service wise, things are casual in the Brasserie but the staff were all attentive and keen to help out and answer questions. I could not fault their professionalim in that respect.

After such a beautiful meal, it’s a shame I’ve come away thinking that, while I personally would return, I wouldn’t take interstate or overseas guests there.

Please, Hilton, please, please fix your wine list and wine service.

San Choy Bow

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It’s all hot, hot, hot here in Adelaide (for a few days, at least). We’re expecting 37°C today, and 39 tomorrow so Saturday’s 31°C is looking like a cool change.

With this in mind (and probably a long hot summer ahead), meals need to be light, fresh and quick and easy to prepare. No one wants to heat up the kitchen or spend hours at the stove or even the BBQ.

Andy announced that we should have san choy bow one night this week so we picked up some pork mince on the weekend and I was left to my own devices (the internet) to come up with a meal.

You’ll have noticed that we don’t eat a ton of Chinese food. I’m not a huge fan and the only style that gets me excited for eating out is Sichuan. We have an underused copy of Fuschia Dunlop’s Sichuan Cookery and we frequently eat a spicy chicken stir fry. But that’s it.

I did a bit of googling, searching for an appropriate san choy bow recipe and found that they were mostly unbelievably bland sounding. I found an Anna Gare recipe that sounded like I was onto a winner. Although the list of ingredients looked a little intimidating, I could tell that it was going to provide me with a great base dish.

As always, I used her recipe as a guide and unfortunately the original recipe is no longer on line.

I began by finely chopping 1 and half onions and frying them, in the wok, with a couple of cloves of crushed garlic and a generous teaspoonful of ginger*. When the onion had started to soften I added 500g of pork mince and stir fried until that was cooked through.

I then added a generous few splashes of fish sauce, the juice of half a lemon and a good glug of soy sauce. Finally, I mixed through 1 scant teaspoon of palm sugar. I raised the temperature to ensure that the palm sugar was melted through and to boil off some of the sauces. San choy bow isn’t meant to be saucy!

That was my work done for the day. The cooled mince mixture was put in the fridge overnight, ready to be pulled out for a quick after work dinner.

When we were ready to eat, Andy julienned some carrot and finely chopped a green capsicum and hese were stir fried with the pork mixture. To finish, we mixed through some chilli flakes and some sliced spring onion and served in lettuce cups.

A little bit messy to eat, perhaps, but a perfect meal on a hot day!

* We’ve given up buying fresh ginger (which is invariably imported). You can buy Australian ginger paste in small jars from most supermarkets.

Sonas, Dublin

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date of visit: Thursday 25 October 2012

Sonas is now closed.

Er, yes, I’m still catching up on all the eating we did abroad, even though we’ve been back almost a month. Still, it’s a good thing we did visit quite a few places because we’re yet to get back into the swing of dining out in Adelaide again!

Our last morning in Dublin and I had made the mistake of munching on some cereal so while Jenn and Andy were starving, all I was interested in was a coffee. As we’d been staying on Lower Liffey Street, we’d walked past Sonas several times and its bright, cheery exterior had caught our attention.

This little café is bright and cheery on the inside too, with friendly staff and an interesting array of sweet and savoury snacks to choose from. Quesadillas and crêpes might sound like an odd combination, but it’s the type of menu from which everyone will be able to find something they like. The cooking is done on hot plates at the counter, so it’s perfect entertainment for nosy toddlers.

Andy chose the Sevillana quesadilla and Jenn the apple and cinnamon pancake. As you can see, this was no measly portion and it was beautifully presented. At the time, I thought it was a bit excessive for breakfast, but in hindsight, I think it shows a lovely concern for detail. There’s no reason why breakfast food should not be beautiful.

The quesadilla came with corn chips and a dip, and between the two plates of food, I felt most left out nursing my long black. From all reports, the food was good.

If you’re looking for a breakfast/brunch/afternoon tea and you happen to be in that area of Dublin, I suggest ducking in and checking out the food. Sonas definitely has the feel of somewhere that’s catering just as much for locals as it is for tourists. Tasty, friendly and won’t break the bank!

Sonas on Urbanspoon