date of visit: Monday 2 Nov 2009
We’ve been drinking visitors at the Stag on previous occasions – sucked in by the imperial pints and spacious, generally calm atmosphere we can put up with the slightly steep prices. On the food front the Stag sells itself as “serious about meat” with a menu covering pub staples (burgers and parmis) as well as some serious steak. If you’re looking for a pub in Adelaide that sells Wagyu … head to the Stag. 300g of prime Wagyu Porterhouse will set you back $50.
It was a rare occasion when we were on a schedule which wasn’t helped by the fact I was starving. We arrived at the Stag just after 5 to discover the kitchen doesn’t open until 6. The affable barmaid said she could sort us some chips but that would be it until 6pm. Plans thrown in to disarray, we opted to have a cheeky schooner while re-grouping.
We decided to sit it out until 6 … This gave Andy enough time to join the Stag’s club. The club is free to join and gives you $1 discounts on beers, $5 discount on steaks and $10 discount on the Stag’s food and wine events.
All of this gave us ample time to inspect the menu and when 6pm rolled around we ordered straight away. We ordered two chicken parmigianas and a side of bug tails and before long huge plates of food arrived in front of us. Like most things at the Stag the parmis aren’t cheap, at $18.50 each, but the menu does claim it’s free range chicken and the serves are generous. Given the size of the schnitzels I was surprised by how small the portion of bug tails seemed: 3 tails, pan fried in white wine and lemon juice for $10.90.
We powered through our meal: I was famished. Andy felt that they were a little generous on the sauce topping and I thought someone had been heavy handed with the oregano but neither of these niggles was enough to slow us down. They also mean I’m not going to claim these are the greatest schnitzels in Adelaide!
The thing that really stood out at the Stag was the friendly, polite service from absolutely every member of staff we dealt with. The friendly barmaid, the barman who discounted our cashew nuts because Andy was a member, the waiter who gently steered us out of the restaurant and back in to the bar … it actually seems as though the staff enjoy their jobs and want people to enjoy the pub.
And that makes me more than happy to pay a premium for a beer.
contact: The Stag Hotel, 299 Rundle Street, Adelaide, SA, 5000, phone: 08 8223 2934
Super friendly pub
We had our second visit to the restaurant in June 09 and we left vowing we would never go back again and we haven’t, don’t mind restaurants having bad nights but when you profess to be the best for steaks in Adelaide you need to have something to back it up. The first visit my partner and I both ordered wagyu steak and side of salad, the salad arrived first and with a puzzled look on his face, my partner asked me if Greek salad should have cherries in it, bewildered I asked the waitress and she confirmed no it shouldn’t…then why does ours have cherries in it? Oops, must have mistaken olives for cherries., OK pretty funny and salad was replaced. Being new to Wagyu I was not impressed with my steak, stating I did not know what the fuss was about, mine didn’t taste any different to any other good cut of meat I have had, my partner thought I was being harsh but after hearing him gooing and gaahing I decided to taste his and well after tasting my partners wagyu, my steak was definately not wagyu, my partner then decided to taste mine and very promptly ate humble pie. I had only eaten a small amount and so asked the staff if they could check, but I was clearly told you cannot argue with the chef. Oh well. We did return and on our second visit we decided that maybe it had just been a bad night and we were eager to give it another go, I was determined to have the same taste sensation that my partner had had, we perused the menu and after making our choices were promptly told that there were no scotch fillet, fillet or wagyu steaks available, only rump, Oh lordy! We had also brought my partners sister and her husband to try out Wagyu as this place proclaims to be the best steakhouse in Adelaide?? My partner promptly stated he had pre booked and pre ordered Wagyu, after a discussion with chef all was ok. We then waited over an hour for our order, not good for my pregnant sister in law who had been at work all day and was in desperate need of food. Whilst waiting it caught our attention that 2 large tables that arrived some time after us was being served quite promptly, after being told not to say anything I could not hold back and asked the inevitable…WHY? It was discovered they were having a staff tasting for a menu change and had misplaced our order, but will attend to it straight away… Not good enough Stag. Nice you want to impress your staff, what about your customers? I am guessing with us eating wagyu that was not supposedly available, some of the staff missed out. Oh well.
Thank you for such a detailed response Julia!
The cherries/olives story is unbelievable and the lack of steak seems a real worry. When we ate there I did think we should try something other than schnitzel but now I’m kind of glad we didn’t!!!
Other readers, is Julia’s (double) experience typical?