Restaurant Reviews

Flagstaff Hotel

- Alex Leave a comment

date of visit: Sunday 29 April 2012

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written up a pub meal (the most recent I think is the Victory at Sellicks) and I think it might even have been that long since I’ve eaten in a pub.

Anyway, I’m going to rectify that with two pubs in quick succession. We took the baby for an early Sunday dinner at the Flagstaff Hotel. That’s right – the big, can’t possibly miss 1950s building at the Darlington end of South Road. I guess you could call the Flaggy one of our locals (although certainly not within walking distance).

We’ve only eaten there once before (it was a quick lunch back in 2009) so we thought it was time to give it another try. That, and the fact we had an Entertainment Book voucher!

The dining room at the Flaggy is massive and, depending on where you sit, you can get some impressive views. The website suggests booking – I scoffed at this. We’re going at 5:30pm on a Sunday night! Well, quite – 5:30pm on a Sunday it may have been but there were several large tables booked and by the time we left the place was heaving.

We had a window seat (overlooking the carpark and Flagstaff Road – maybe not the most exciting view ever!) and a spotlessly clean high chair for the baby. One thing to note is that the high chair didn’t have any straps so wouldn’t have been suitable for a very small or very young baby.

The menu is, of course, pub staples but the Flagstaff’s distinguishing feature is its massive salad bar which is included in all main course orders. Salad bar isn’t quite the right term for it – it’s more like a giant fruit and vegetable buffet! You help yourself to bread (loaves of all different types in the bread basket) and there are an array of sauces, hot vegetables and fruit as well as the salads. If you wanted to make an utter pig of yourself, you could.

Food wise both Andy and I went with the seafood basket – reasonably pricey for a pub meal at $26.50. This was a selection of prawns, salt and pepper squid and barramundi (no note of provenance – hopefully it was Australian …), served with chips and salad.

I am not so naive to imagine that this did not come straight to the table via freezer and fryer. Even so, given the price, I will note that the (battered) prawns were tough and utterly tasteless – think fried, slightly salty eraser and I reckon you’re on the money. The barramundi came as two fillets – two very thin fillets so that the fish was completely swamped by the batter. I only ate one of mine and fed the rest to Andy and the baby (minus the batter, in the baby’s case, obviously). The highlight of the plate was definitely the squid which was tender, pretty tasty and not at all greasy.

Andy, who is something of an expert in seafood baskets, rated this one as better cooked than that at the nearby Victoria Hotel, but said that the Vic’s is bigger and overall better.

The chips and salad were pub stand chips and salad.

As the wine list was pedestrian I opted for a beer with my dinner.

All up I’d rate the Flaggy as perfectly adequate for a pub meal, but on the expensive side. For $26.50 you can go to a lot of more upmarket restaurants and be fed something that takes a lot more effort (Andy’s pork belly at Press was the same price). On the upside, the dining area is massive, there is a small play area and the hotel is clearly set up to cater for large groups.

However, for a quick family meal, my vote goes to the Victoria Hotel, further up South Road.

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Press Food & Wine

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date of visit: Thursday 29 April 2012

Press* Food & Wine on Waymouth Street has been on my list for quite a while. It’s bizarre because while I think I eat out a reasonable amount a lot of restaurants languish on the list for far, far too long.

Anyway, last week I attended a Château Coutet tasting at Press and decided that I should have my dinner there too. After all, once I was in the building it would have been rude not to.

Press is divided into two areas: downstairs it’s a bar with big communal tables and upstairs it’s a very trendy restaurant. It has a distinct warehouse feel to it but fortunately they’ve gone with quite a few soft furnishings so you don’t feel like you’re in an echoing cavern. Full marks to whoever decided to have proper upholstered seats rather than wooden or plastic ones. Golly – I sound like a right old grandma!

The menu for Press is online and if you, or your friends, are picky eaters in any way, I suggest you check out the menu before heading there. It’s very meaty. Don’t take your vegetarian friends. There are a few vegetarian dishes (mainly salads) but selective eaters are, quite decisively, not the target market.

What is very exciting about Press is that there’s a section of the menu dedicated to offal. And that’s where I started. At present they have sweetbreads which are one of my favourite things but we were with a friend who wanted to try them so I went with the lambs’ brains served with potato salad.

But I’m jumping the gun! What about service? What about drinks? What about entrées?

I’m hesitant to comment too much about service because Press’s sommelier had been at the tasting and I always wonder if you get slightly different service if you’re known to staff. So I’ll limit my comments on service to saying that, in general, we found it very good although there was quite a long pause between entrée and main. If you’re in a hurry, it might be best to let your waiter know in advance.

For entrée we went for steak tartare, the fennel salad (under the raw section of the menu – it was huge) and the chargrilled squid with chipotle mayonnaise. I shared the squid and it was excellent. It was tender and had that really great chargrilled yet slightly caramelised taste and the chipotle mayo had just the right amount of heat. To accompany our entrées we opted for wine by the glass – 2 glasses of an Italian Kerner and one glass of a Gamay from the Northern Rhône.

Yes, wine geeks will no doubt find that selection interesting. Because I was feeling lazy I’d put our drink choices in the hands of the sommelier. As Press has an interesting wine list that features things you won’t come across every day, I recommend you do the same.

With our main courses we had a bottle of the Alpha Box & Dice Touriga Nacional. It was fantastic and got top marks from everyone at the table.

Main courses: Andy chose the grilled pork belly which looked absolutely beautiful (I was lucky enough to get some crackling and that was good). My lambs’ brains and potato salad was excellent. It’s quite a small portion (it only cost $16) but it was perfect for me after the squid. Lambs’ brains are super rich (let’s face it, your brain is just a big ball of fat) and I was sceptical about how potato salad would work with them. Press’s potato salad worked really well – the potatoes were finely diced so it looked appealing and didn’t overwhelm the brains and the weight of the potatoes acted as a really sound counterpoint to the lightness of the brains. While rich, the salad dressing had a good zing to it from the capers, so you didn’t feel like you were only eating rich food. I thought this was a really well thought out and executed dish.

The sweetbreads got a big tick from the sweetbread novice. They were honey and anise roasted and she was really pleased with how the anise came through. I had a taste and, while the flavours were good I thought they were a touch overcooked – they had just started to become a little bit tough. Not as good as Eden’s sweetbreads, that’s for sure.

We were tempted by dessert (in particular, I was tempted by the fact they had Epoisses on the cheese menu) but it was a school night and getting late so we wrapped up with coffees.

The bottom line came to $80 a head (including a small tip) which sounds really expensive but you should remember that almost half of that was drinks. You could spend less and come out both well fed and watered. And happy.

I’ll definitely be heading back to Press and I have no doubt that my dad will be there in the very near future. It’s fantastic to see an increasing number of restaurants offering more offal and not relying on the standard cuts of meat.

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India House, Hallett Cove

- Alex Leave a comment

 

 

date of visit: Sunday 15 April 2012

I’m probably the last person on the planet who has got around to using a group buying deal for heading out to a restaurant. There are plenty of reasons for this but the main one is that people to have a very different experience when dining out on a group on deal. Check out the comment on my review of the King’s Head, for example. I’m also unsure about how fair the relationship between group buying site and business is but I’ll leave you to google to make your mind up about that one.

However, a deal came up for India House and as we’re always keen to visit places close(ish) to home, and as relatively few had been bought*, I thought no harm would come of giving it a try.

Our deal included pappadums and pickles, a shared samosa entrée, followed by our choice of curries, accompanied by naan and rice, as well as a bottle of wine. This set us back just $39 (a considerable discount on the advertised value of $85 – main courses come in around the $15 mark).

I had no troubles getting in touch and making a booking (a common complaint amongst voucher buyers) and when we arrived (6pm) there was just one other table occupied in the restaurant. The restaurant is tiny – there are maybe eight tables, with a few more outside – but it’s obvious that India House does a healthy takeaway trade.

We sat in the window and this suited the baby just fine, as he could maintain inspection of all the comings and goings (and the bright lights of the cars on Lonsdale Highway) while stuffing himself with tasty morsels from our plates. Naturally, we did have to order extra pappadums!

The papadums came with mint chutney, mango chutney and hot lime pickle – my favourite. We decided that the hot lime pickle at India House is better than that which we normally buy at home. The mint chutney was good – it had a clean, fresh mint taste to it, but it was a touch sweet for me. The vegetable samosas were really good: fried in hot, clean oil they weren’t greasy at all, and the filling was excellent. You could definitely taste the fennel. The baby loved the filling but wasn’t so keen on the pastry and I’d have to agree with him. The pastry could have done with being just a touch thinner.

For main course, we ordered with the baby in mind. I chose the butter chicken and Andy the chicken saagwala. The butter chicken was mild but it had the slightly sugar sweet (rather than tomato sweet) taste that you get with tinned tomato soup. This made it a bit cloying after a while and I certainly wasn’t about to gobble up the remaining gravy. Andy’s chicken saagwala was much tastier. It had a bit more of a spice kick to it (although not a lot) but that was tempered by the spinach with a hint of sweetness from some onion. I had no problems finishing off his sauce!

The naan breads were good: the garlic naan looked a bit scary (it looked like there was a TON of garlic on it) but they were both light, crispy and buttery.

Service wise, the staff were really friendly. I’d hazard a guess and say this is a family business with mother and son running front of house. We’d booked a high chair and when we arrived it was given a thorough wipe down in front of us, which is always reassuring. Both waiters were happy and efficient.

India House is not somewhere I’d head for a celebration curry but I really don’t think that’s where it’s pitching itself either. It’s somewhere I’d be perfectly happy to head back to for both take away and a quick meal eating in. We took a takeaway menu with us and I can see us working our way through it over the winter months.

* I bought close to the deal closing and only about 40 had been sold. Compare this to a deal for another restaurant I’d like to try where close to 300 have been sold … I have my reservations about just how well that restaurant will cope.

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