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.
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2 comments:
I liked Hippo Creek too, although I haven't been back since a year or so ago (and I'm sure back then there wasn't a six week wait? wow). Do you have any thoughts on the 1kg steak?
I'm not sure how I feel about the 1kg steak. Primarily i think it's a boy thing, especially given that they put your photo on the wall if you finish it. Something about making consuming lots of food as a competition seems wrong to me, but perhaps this is how boys generate enjoyment out of eating. I also think it's really easy to cheat the system on this one as a rare 1kg steak will still weigh around 1kg, whereas a well-done will look like something you scrape off the bbq when you're cleaning it and weigh a lot less. So not something I'd do myself, however if you want to make dinner some kind of endurance trial, then fine. I guess if you do eat nothing else because you're saving tummy-space for the 1kg, it's not like you'll miss out on other menu items that are completely different, cos it's all steak.
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