I'm going to give each restaurant I review a rating out of 10, which is going to be very selective. Somewhere might have fine food, for example, but get a lower rating for their prices. Generally I find "fine dining" restaurants in Perth charge like wounded bulls for food that's not great - just ok. Given what you get for similar prices in Sydney for example (can't comment on Melbourne, as I only worked in hospitality in Sydney) I think there are quite a few places with overinflated prices and exggerated concepts of how edgy and stylish their food is. I'll try and explain why I've given the score I have.
1-5. Basically, if this is the score I've given, I'd rather eat at home. I take the following into account:
Relly bad service - I've worked in hospitality and I know waitresses and waiters have many reasons to be unhappy, but service here is bad enough that I've complained to a manager. Service in this category will usually involve rudeness or sulkiness from staff, as well as stuff that usually indicates a kitchen/ front of house disconnect. An example of this would be the overblown snootiness that the staff at the Raffles get into. This is esp. uncool when they charge $40 / main.
Food - I don't mind going out and paying for average or ok-ish food as long as it's not overpriced. Food in the 1-5 category is either awful, like the Saint in Doubleview, or overpriced, like Meads. I also really don't like unfocused menus. If you're going to have Thai, have Thai. If you're doing curry, be a curry restaurant. Steak= steakhouse. Having steak and thai green chicken curry and chili mussels on a menu means you're tying to be everything to everybody, which I know some people think is a sign of versatility. To me, I think it means you should stick to making caesar salad for plebs, because either you don't get good food or your boss had made you do a centrally-ordered menu. Example: ALH pubs.
Wine list - bad wine doesn't usually matter too much for me when reviewing, unless they have a bad wine list and also won't let me bring my own. Anywhere that has Brown Bros. Crouchen Riesling on the list usually has bad wine.
6-10. I'd be happy to go here again. In some cases, I want to go once a week.
The service will be acceptable by Perth (ie low hospitality wages, students as waitstaff, mining boom on) standards and may even be good. Also a lot of the restaurants in this category will be the sort where I have no expectation of good service - somewhere that charges $7-10 for mains, I'm not fussed as to how the food gets to me. More expensive food will have good service attached.
The food will be good - fresh ingredients, well cooked, tasty.
The menu will be meaningful - it will all be Indian if it's Indian, will all be Vietnamese if it's Vietnamese etc.
Good winelist, or they let me bring my own.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Hot food disclaimer
I think something that will come up a lot in my food reviews is that something isn't hot enough. I like really hot food. One of my favourite memories is of sitting in a restaurant in Mumbai and sweating because of a really good curry and then feeling a bit sick afterwards. Actually, that kinds of sums up why I loved our trip to India. Having said that, too much chili is no substitute for good seasoning.
Hippo Creek - Review
The first of what I hope will be a long list of food reviews!
Hippo Creek African Grill, 251 West Coast Hwy, Scarborough
I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first, as it is quite minor - and only one is food-related.
1. The menu had spelling and grammar mistakes. I'm not aware that ' cidar' is an acceptable variant spelling of ' cider'. Happy to be corrected on this one, but as you can check to see how it is spelt on the bottle, I think this one is just dumb. Also whoever wrote out the menu hasn't been told about or chooses to ignore the " read it out loud to yourself before you hit print/sent/copy" rule. I'm going to start carrying my camera with me so I can put up photos when I see stuff like this, because if you told me that someone had printed what was on the menu, I'd think you were lying, because who is that stupid? Anyway.
2. Chicken liver was overcooked and still sinewy. But kudos for having it on the menu, as not enough places use chicken liver. Also I would have thought that Peri-Peri should have been less creamy, and I'm going to insert my usual ' not hot enough' complaint. I'll put up a disclaimer about this however as I tend to like food really hot.
Good stuff!
1. This place is a steak house. You can get lots of meat. There's one or two chicken dishes on the menu but they are clearly not the point, and I like that. A person who says no to meat says no to life. A good place to go for steak! I had mine rare (and could have had it blue) and it was good. Being a food purist though, if I ran this restaurant I wouldn't let people order a well done steak as my mother did. yuck.
2. Best mixed grill ever was the call from Daniel (better half) and it looked really good. Chops are your friend.
3. The restaurant is small but they haven't jammed the tables in, so it's not too loud. However given that you have to book six weeks in advance, this no-crowding thing may be why they are moving to a 270-seater in Hillarys. Barren cultural wasteland that Hillarys is, I hope they keep the same menu and chef and don' turn it into one of the overpriced blah-fest eateries out there.
4. Service - it was actually ok, and way above Perth's norm. We had a waiter who was clearly in his section and following the sequence of service.
Things I would add/ change:
Better wine and beer list - the list is a bit dire and brand-centred, and very little is available by the glass. I'd like to see more South African wine, but I do understand probably no one would order it but me. They also used to have interesting African beers like Tusker on the list but don't anymore.
Overall - 8/10.
Hippo Creek African Grill, 251 West Coast Hwy, Scarborough
I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first, as it is quite minor - and only one is food-related.
1. The menu had spelling and grammar mistakes. I'm not aware that ' cidar' is an acceptable variant spelling of ' cider'. Happy to be corrected on this one, but as you can check to see how it is spelt on the bottle, I think this one is just dumb. Also whoever wrote out the menu hasn't been told about or chooses to ignore the " read it out loud to yourself before you hit print/sent/copy" rule. I'm going to start carrying my camera with me so I can put up photos when I see stuff like this, because if you told me that someone had printed what was on the menu, I'd think you were lying, because who is that stupid? Anyway.
2. Chicken liver was overcooked and still sinewy. But kudos for having it on the menu, as not enough places use chicken liver. Also I would have thought that Peri-Peri should have been less creamy, and I'm going to insert my usual ' not hot enough' complaint. I'll put up a disclaimer about this however as I tend to like food really hot.
Good stuff!
1. This place is a steak house. You can get lots of meat. There's one or two chicken dishes on the menu but they are clearly not the point, and I like that. A person who says no to meat says no to life. A good place to go for steak! I had mine rare (and could have had it blue) and it was good. Being a food purist though, if I ran this restaurant I wouldn't let people order a well done steak as my mother did. yuck.
2. Best mixed grill ever was the call from Daniel (better half) and it looked really good. Chops are your friend.
3. The restaurant is small but they haven't jammed the tables in, so it's not too loud. However given that you have to book six weeks in advance, this no-crowding thing may be why they are moving to a 270-seater in Hillarys. Barren cultural wasteland that Hillarys is, I hope they keep the same menu and chef and don' turn it into one of the overpriced blah-fest eateries out there.
4. Service - it was actually ok, and way above Perth's norm. We had a waiter who was clearly in his section and following the sequence of service.
Things I would add/ change:
Better wine and beer list - the list is a bit dire and brand-centred, and very little is available by the glass. I'd like to see more South African wine, but I do understand probably no one would order it but me. They also used to have interesting African beers like Tusker on the list but don't anymore.
Overall - 8/10.
Friday, July 25, 2008
New blog!
Yay, have finally got someone to tell me in small words how to set up a blog - many thanks to Astrid, coincidence it happened over wine? You decide...
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