Sunday, March 23, 2008

Zafferano - at the old swan - 1 star

Having read reports of the excellent food and the slow service I thought I know what to expect.

It started with poor service, as expected. We arrived a little earlier than our other dinner guests and so they decided the way to treat us was to ignore us for 10 minutes.

The location is great, down by the water, with the cool breeze and city lights.

The starter duck salad and oysters are excellent. The Mains alas, old fashioned and stoggy and, in my case, very very very garlicly - raw garlic is never good, what are they thinking. The pasta was not linguine as advertised, but spaghetti and overwhelmingly garlicy. Totally bad.

For $120 each all up is was very poor value - the Red Cabbage for 2 weeks ago is way better (except for the view)

The wines we had are excellent, if expensive - Smith and Shaw M3 Chardonnay and Green point SB. Both really yummy.

We won't go back for a while (ever).

Broken Hill Pub "They do good chips here" - 2 stars

Summary
Go for drink in the beer garden. Go somewhere else to eat.  Beware of places that are pub of the year.

Detail
Renovated and new looking inside, but somehow out of character.

The service as seems all to usual for Perth is very average to crappy.  Why can't they just pay a little bit of attention, rather than walk buy apparently scared to look up. I would rather go to the bar than wait for these slack asses. "They do good chips here" is a bit telling - no ownership or interest really in the place or the food, she dis-associates herself from the place. PS - chips are not that great - ordinary in fact.

The mussels where very very salty - they don't try there food before they send it out, if they did they would not send this out like this. What are they thinking? Overall the sauce was not bad, except for the salt.

The wine somehow was not good either. Poor wines and poor food. hummmm.

Friday, March 14, 2008

The Red Cabbage - South Perth - 3.5 stars

Overall excellent food and service.

A little expensive at $130 each.

  • Poached and Tempura Boneless Quail: wrapped in nori, served with Asian glaze, Wasabi and homemade pickled ginger - Excellent
  • Twice Cooked Pork Belly: pickled red cabbage, duck canelloni, sauce cumberland - totally good
  • Hahndorf venison: quondong marmalade, pomme beaucaire, hennessy XO jus -excellent
  • Braised wagyu: shin and shank suet pudding, flavoured with horseradish and baked cauliflower cheese dauphinoise - only OK
  • Truffle Mash - excellent
Not very busy when we went and the location means some traffic noise when the inevitable hoon cannot resist a quick burn.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Little Creatures - 4 stars

This place always impresses.  This time after a slow start was no exception.

The food, the atmosphere and the location and the service are all really excellent.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Oak Over Wines - 3.5 stars

We were recommended this place by a friend

Overall it did not disappoint. The wines are really very good, surprisingly good. The wooded chardonnay and regular chardonnay in particular.

The location, outside on a sunny day could not be better......

Everyone seemed very happy with there food and the starter platter was excellent. My chicken was a little over garliced but, tasty generally. At $40 each including the wines it was great value and an excellent afternoon.

The service disappeared that the end of the afternoon, perhaps because we became a little merry and jokey with the staff. You know how things are funny when you are drinking and just not when you are aren't......

Anyway a great location and afternoon out. No much better that that Rose and Crown pub......

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Jo Joe's Pizza - 4 stars for take out Pizza

This place is the best.

Really great Pizza, nothing really fancy, just great pizza

579A Canning Hwy, Alfred Cove - (08) 9317 1719

http://www.jojoespizza.com.au/