In a word? Steak. And that's it, because there was little else here that was worth the effort (or prices).
Dear readers, it has been (quite!) a while. I suddenly skipped the country for a year in the UK. But I am back, very glad to be back, and keen to re-start my culinary adventures around Geelong and surrounds.
In celebration of my return, a couple of mates came to visit from Melbourne. Over a drink, one mused that she was in the mood for a steak. Perfect! There is a brand new (I assume) steak house on the waterfront that I had walked past in the last couple of days. Let's give it a go!
Where: The Steak House, 100 Western Beach Road
Meal: Dinner
Day: Saturday
Drinks: BYO only (apparently waiting on their licence)
After a very pleasant drink at the also-new-to-me Customs House wine bar (hoping to eat there soon for a review, watch this space), we headed to the Steak House, which sits off to the side of the pier point building next to Deakin Waterfront. We had been pre-warned that it was BYO only, and duly trekked across town to find an open bottle shop - what's the point of a great steak without red wine?!
In summary, the meat was excellent, but aside from that, well, they're new, and I hope things will improve for them...
Perhaps I'm still experiencing price shock after my return from the UK, where eating out seems to mostly cost about half what it does here. But the menu seemed, well, a rip off. I'm comfortable with paying a bit for for good meat, and the steaks are generally between $35 and $40. But that starts to look like pretty poor value when all it comes with is potato (chips or roast), OR a small garden salad. Any sauce is an extra $3.50. If you're vaguely interested in having a balanced meal, brace yourself. A side serve of vegetables? $12. Sorry readers, but I'm just not yet ready to spend $50 on a single main course, so I can't report on the vegetables. I will be having a detox day of fruit and veg to make up for it.
My 200g eye fillet was superb - cooked as I ordered it (medium rare), tender, full of flavour. Lovely. I wished I had got the bigger one, especially since my potatoes were in edible!
There were too many problems to give a good narrative of them all, but it just wasn't a smooth experience. White linen table cloths were accompanied by cheap paper napkins, cheap supermarket table salt and ground pepper. We were near the door, which has a bizarre semi-automated opening/closing mechansism, which did nothing to reduce our shivering whenever the door opened. The meal took 45 minutes to arrive, and when it did, mine was in the company of some unpleasantly undercooked 'roast' potatoes. The chips my partner had were pretty good, and one of my mates had the salad, which was a bit small and sad, but not surprising at a steak restaurant.
I do love an overheard conversation...
We skipped dessert because the desserts that were on the menu were not those that were available, and it seemed like we made the right choice. At the table next to us, two ladies sharing a dessert sent it back with the message that it was "revolting" and probably off and unsafe, and a suggestion that they shouldn't serve it to anyone Else. Which was a bit alarming, until the waitperson responded "I'm so sorry, I keep telling them not to serve it to people, because it keeps getting sent back, but they insist it is ok. I'm so sorry".
Ouch.
Ooh, just remembered another good thing - there was always plenty of water, without us having to ask. I love that, it is such a simple thing to do, that costs nothing and makes a restaurant experience so much nicer.
When we received our bill, it was 'a bit of a surprise' (to be polite) to have been charged $8 corkage, when we had no choice but to bring our own, necessitating a half hour detour in our evening to find a central bottle shop. Hilariously though, this provided another opportunity for the waiting staff to apologise and distance themselves from management decisions. Doesn't seem like a lot of love is lost among the team here. While paying I also checked which dessert is the one to avoid - tiramisu apparently. With this additional advice: "I would only eat the sticky date pudding, because they buy that in from a supplier". Wow.
