Restaurant Reviews

Tasca Viva

- Alex 1 Comment

Tasca Viva

date of visit: Monday 9 January 2012

There had been a bit of buzz on twitter about Tasca Viva when it opened late last year but it’s taken us a little while to head down to Jetty Road to check it out for ourselves.

It’s a good thing we ended up going on a Monday because I rang up about an hour before we wanted lunch to book a table for 6, plus a high chair. No problems at all. Marvellous.

When we arrived we’d been seated at one of the high tables inside (the inside part was requested) but we quickly decided we didn’t fancy sitting on bar stools so we asked to move. No problems at all. This helpful, friendly service set the tone for the whole rest of our lunch. Full marks for a casual venue getting it so right.

Finally settled in, we were able to take a serious look at the menu. Tasca Viva recommends 3-4 tapas plates per person or 2 raciones (larger portions) so for our group our waiter recommend 8-12 raciones. Inside I was having kittens because the raciones all come in around the $20 and this was meant to be a light (and therefore not too expensive) lunch.

Because everyone at our table had eaten breakfast at different times, we felt justified in ignoring the advice and ordered 5 raciones and two serves of patatas fritas (that would be chips, then). This actually turned out to be the perfect amount of food so I’d say unless you’re starving, go easy on the ordering. The great thing about this type of food is that it’s sharing food and comes to the table in a staggered manner, so if you’re still starving you can order more and indulge in some people watching while you wait.

We chose whitebait, octopus with chorizo, meatballs, pork belly and the chickpea and spinach stew. The definite winner was the whitebait. They were fab – crumbed in panko they were crunchy, fishy and not a bit oily. Served with a bit of parsley and lemon, they were perfect bar a pinch of salt.

Everything else was good too – just not as good as the whitebait. The octopus was tender, the meatballs (a very generous serve) were dense, tasty and with just the right amount of sauce, the pork belly, with apples and spinach, was melt in the mouth and the chickpea and spinach stew was aromatic with spices such as cinnamon, which remind us Spain has a Moorish past.

The chips were actually forgotten so we had a brief hiatus, which provided a useful excuse to order another bottle of wine. While the chips, with a smoky paprika and tomato sauce, were better than average, they actually fell a long way short of everything else we’d eaten (although my mum said she’d go back for the chips and whitebait alone).

We finished up all feeling quite full – so a walk along the jetty was called for. The final bill came in at $40 a head, which included 2 bottles of wine and 6 beers – so my initial worries about lunch being expensive were unfounded.

You could spend a fortune at Tasca Viva but our experience suggests that you needn’t. I imagine that on a Friday or Saturday night the place is packed, but if you’re after a lazy lunch then Tasca Viva can tick that box too.

Tasca Viva Restaurant Tapas Bar on Urbanspoon

The Stirling Hotel

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Stirling Hotel

date of visit: Wednesday 14 December 2011

Time off work as a family is a bit novel in our house but we have visitors from overseas so we’re trying to maximise our opportunities to do stuff. And of course, a fair bit of that ‘stuff’ involves eating. With my initial first choice of lunch venue kyboshed (not that I’m bitter) we headed up to Stirling to check out the Stirling Hotel.

Stirling is pretty small and you can’t really miss the pub – it’s on the main drag (technicall Mt Barker Road). It’s a semi rural setting and it’s a lovely old building so it’s all quite picturesque. One thing I think that spoils it is the decision to have some car parking in front of the outdoor eating area. It would be more pleasant to have that as garden, screening the area from the main road. However, people do drive and do need places to park – and no one forces you to sit outside.

Inside the Bistor it’s all very modern – white and neutral tones, clean lines. The menu is definitely a cut above the pub standard. Yes, it does feature schnitzels (well, goodness me, it wouldn’t be a pub if it didn’t!) but you can eat much more interesting food here than at many other places.

We decided to start by sharing wild mushroom arancini and the duck spring rolls. These are both from the “Shared” part of the mneu which is available all day. The arancini were excellent – mushroomy, not greasy and the rice was properly cooked. The duck spring rolls had a delicious filling but I felt were spoiled a little by having quite a thick (and hence a little doughy) wrapper. Andy disagreed with me and he felt that they were obviously made in house. To be fair, I did only have a tiny taste of the spring roll so we should probably take his word for it.

For main course I had salt and pepper squid which was very good. I particularly liked kipfler potato wedges (far superior to the pub’s standard chip which appeared with the schnitzel) and the garlic aioli was delicious. The squid was tender, not greasy and was tastier than the usual pub standard (and let’s face it, most pubs get their salt and pepper squid straight from the freezer, direct from a food processor – it’s ALWAYS the same).

Andy had the beef schnitzel with gravy which passed his schnitzel test. Also at our table we tried the chicken breast with brie and smoked ham and the char grilled pork cutlet with parsnip mash, broccolini and spiced rhubarb chutney.  These were polished off so they must have passed muster.

As it was lunch and I was driving, I stuck to water and everyone else just had drinks from the bar but we wrapped up with coffees. The only hiccup of our meal was that one coffee cup arrived with lipstick residue still in situ. Now I appreciate that lipstick is a proper pain to clean off glassware and crockery but I’d kind of expect whoever made the coffee to notice. I sent the coffee back and it was collected with appropriate apologies, a fresh coffee was made and the cost of the coffee was refunded. You know what? Sometimes I really like it when something goes a little wrong with a meal because when a complaint is handled well, like this, everyone ends up feeling warm and fuzzy.

Overall I was really impressed with everything about our lunch at the Stirling and I’d definitely go back. The pub also has a restaurant (The Grill) for a more formal dining experience and now I’d like to give that a go too!

Bistro, Stirling Hotel on Urbanspoon

Tongue Thai’d

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date of visit: Friday 16 December 2011

There are some places I eat at where the service is so good it helps me gloss over inconsistencies in the food. And then there are some places where it’s all about the food. Tongue Thai’d would be one of the latter.

So do you want the good (the food) or the bad (the service) first? I’m going to start with the bad so I can end on a positive note.

A friend had booked a table for eight for a Friday night before Christmas. Now, I know December is party month and everywhere is booked out but once you do actually have that booking you rather expect that everyone will be able to sit at the table. I think we were very lucky that person number eight didn’t arrive, because she would have had to have been paper thin to fit between the table and the wall or she would have spent the entire meal having people (staff and customers) push past her. Yes, Tongue Thai’d is extremely popular, but I do feel that the management’s eagerness to serve as many people as possible rather outweighs the restaurant’s physical size. People might enjoy their meal just that bit more if they had a bit of wriggle room. I’ve seen some sites describe the restaurant as family friendly but having been there I certainly wouldn’t turn up with a child that needs a high chair!

Aside from a rather squeezy table, the service, at best, can be described as adequate. Some staff were a lot more on the ball than others and I think the issues we experienced (missing drinks, the bill taking a long time to arrive) could be rectified easily by employing one or two more people and perhaps having well defined sets of tables that are looked after by individual staff. Our friends who are regulars here did say that since the modest expansion of the restaurant the service has taken something of a battering.

So now the good. The food. Which did land on our table in a timely manner and the staff, and kitchen, did cope with our requests for additional dishes with no problems. Being in a group, we started with a selection of entrées including an excellent crispy rice ball salad which everyone liked so much we had to order another one. We also had spring rolls, Thai samosas (quite different from Indian ones) and fish cakes. Everyone was happy.

For main courses we ordered the signature dish, the Tongue Thai’d eggplant. This was crispy aubergine with a sweet and sour sauce and chicken mince. That description really doesn’t do it justice. It’s the dish everyone raves about and it really is worth trying. At my insistence, we ordered another aubergine dish from the specials menu – more crispy aubergine but this time with fish, chilli and garlic. I liked this dish even more. In fact, I would go back for this alone.

We also tried the prawn and mango curry – not something I would ever have ordered myself but also really good, as well as the whole flounder.

After rather a lot of food, we somehow found space for desserts. I ordered the hazelnut meringue with apricot and cream and the only other person I’ve discussed dessert with tried the sticky toffee pudding. I liked the fact that the dessert menu made a real effort at the non-Thai dishes, but we did both feel that we could have done better making our respective desserts at home. But let’s face it, how many of us go out to Thai for the desserts?

It was lovely to go to a Thai restaurant that features some different dishes on the menu (more aubergine in Thai restaurants please!). Apparently Tongue Thai’d focusses on northern Thai cuisine which, on the basis of my visit, I’d say is something we don’t see enough of in South Australia. Having said that, more conservative Thai eaters aren’t left behind and the menu does feature the staples of Thai restaurant food such as pad thai, and green, red and massaman curries.

There’s plenty of food and, once you do get the bill, it is reasonably priced. Just be aware that you will need to book, the restaurant can be a bit cramped and noisy and the service … well, it’s casual. But once you have some crispy aubergine you probably won’t care.

Unfortunately, Tongue Thai’d doesn’t have a website (grumble, grumble) but you can you see a menu online here and it does have a facebook page.

Tongue Thai'D on Urbanspoon