I find that the crowd is generally older. I don’t think I am ready for this place yet. I Facebook checked-in and receive a response from a slightly older friend that it is a great place! Yup. We order a lovely Temperanillo to get us in a great mood.

The menu did not strike me as fine dining material but classier pub food if you will. They have a variety of parfaits and carpaccio which we were not in the mood for. So we decided to go with 6 Albany Rock Oysters ($20) and 6 South Australian Oysters ($20) for our entree. The oysters came as you would expect from a bar – served over salt  and with a bowl of vinaigrette.

The South Australian oysters were plucked from franklin harbour and are typical of oysters- meaty and fresh. The Albany rock oysters are smaller but more filled out and creamier to taste. I love the Albany rock oysters.

For mains, Jay decided to go with a glammed up version of Bangers and Mash which they call the ‘Must’ pork sausages, confit fennel, sweet potato puree and herb salad served with Jus. ($39)
The sausages tasted of fennel and it crumbled easily. It had a sweetness that I suspect is from the sweet potato puree which poured like a thick sweet liquid rather than mash. The deep fried fennel bulb was soft and without its aniseed flavour. You could have told me it was boiled cabbage and I would have believed you.

I asked Jay what he thought and this is what he said:

” Cataclysmic combination of flavours inspiring the palate with transcending rustic overtones of a well loved and traditional English dish. “ 

Would you, my reader, prefer me to write poems about the food?

Having chatted with Amanda earlier in the day about steaks, I was in the mood for red meat. (RAHHH!) Otherwise I would have surely picked the roasted duck. I asked if the steak is good. The waitress said ‘yeah, its butterfield beef.’ I didn’t know what that meant but I take her word. Now I know its grain fed cattle from WA.
I had the Chargrilled butterfield rump steak (dry aged for 28 days) served with potato pie and Shiraz Jus. ($39) Yes, another glammed up English pub food dish! I don’t mean this in an insulting way – I like pub food. Here, you get better quality pub food and better wine and a crowd that is possibly classier.
For $39, the steak is really good. I asked for medium rare and the steak came slightly bleeding which is exactly what I wanted. I would not take this for granted. Lots of kitchens get it wrong. It looked and tasted like it was fresh and I have nothing to complain about in terms of how it was cooked.
The potato pie was filled with a creamy potato mixture that was very hearty. I had little of the Jus but it was lovely and did not overpower the steak.

On the side, some fries they call ‘ Pomme Frites ‘. You get what I mean…

We were so full from the wine and so we decided to share dessert: Bread and Butter pudding with chocolate chip ice cream. The ice cream is DIVINE. The toasted bread was served in a warm custard. Strangely enough, it tasted better than I expected. I always thought bread and butter pudding had to be drenched in the custard. So there you go. One major surprise! Too bad we were too full to try out the other desserts.

Cheers to DATE NIGHT! Can you imagine we’ve been married for 6 months already? I know its nothing to most people but before you know it, we’ll be one of those white haired couples walking around together holding hands.

One less serious photo! Teethy smile!