Restaurant Review: Blu Ginger, Civic

For my farewell dinner, friends organised a group dinner at Blu Ginger. I had heard many good things about this restaurant and was excited to try it.

The restaurant is always busy for good reason. The food (which is Indian cuisine) was absolutely delicious. We especially loved the lamb and pumpkin curry (my favourite), the goat curry and the chicken korma (really really good as far as kormas go!). There is plenty of choice on the menu, including a number of options that you don't see in just any Indian restaurant.

The food came out quickly and the servings were good for the price. In terms of atmosphere, it was packed on the Saturday night we were there (and very noisy) and they had squished us together on a too-small table, but it was bearable. It was warm and cosy at least, with nice decor.

I would go so far as to say that it is one of the best Indian restaurants I have eaten at in terms of the taste and quality of the food. Here is a photo of the deliciousness:

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the service which was disorganised and rude. We were a group of 16, but had split into smaller groups to share meals. I suggested to the waiter that he put the meals of the group of 6 people with whom I was sharing separately to the rest of the table, so that they'd know where to deliver the mains and sides. He said "no we don't do that here".

That's fine, but as expected when the orders were brought out it was chaos- sides had been combined into single bowls and were delivered randomly to different parts of the table, not to those who ordered them. At least one meal wasn't delivered at all. One person asked for another serving of rice and was brought a huge bowl which they probably charged at 4 servings. Another person asked for another serving of rice and it never arrived.

When we got the bill, we queried it because of the meal that hadn't been delivered. In addition, rice was $3 per serving and we had been charged for 18 servings (totaling $54, not an insignificant amount to spend on rice), which was not possible because we only had 16 people and not everyone had a serving (in our group of 6, we ordered 2 servings of rice between us and 4 servings of naan).

The response from our waiter to my polite query was incredibly rude. Apparently the meal that hadn't arrived had definitely been delivered "somewhere" (they just couldn't tell us where), and so they wouldn't remove it. We had also "definitely" ordered that many servings of rice. I couldn't be bothered arguing so we were just going to pay the full amount. The waiter then came to the table and said angrily "If you are really still disputing that the meal arrived, I will remove it, but it definitely was delivered".

To put this into perspective, the meal that we wanted removed from the bill cost $16. The 16 of us had ordered a main each, at least one side each (or 2.5 sides each if we accepted their rice bill, which we did because it would have been too much effort to dispute further), lassis, softdrinks, wine and beers. The total bill came to well over $400. The waiter caused 16 people to leave with a bad taste in their mouths and a tainted opinion of the restaurant due his rude attitude over a $16 meal. Very dumb by anyone's standards.

Food = 9/10 - Excellent!
Service = 2/10 - Terrible! Mostly thanks to one waiter, who should be fired.
What a pity about this discrepancy...

Brunch review: Cream, Civic

My friend and I went into Civic planning to use a Living Social voucher.  Unfortunately, Mill Cafe would not honour the voucher due to a dispute with Living Social. This was the first bad experience I have had through a group buying website, and it left a sour taste in my mouth - not least because the owner of Mill Cafe was quite rude.

We decided to cut our losses and went to Cream, which I had wanted to try anyway. The decor is modern and classy, and it looks great from the street:

 

The Scoring

Menu variety / creativity: 7/10. Not bad. The menu isn't very creative but there are enough sweet and savoury options to keep me happy.

Taste:  5/10. My poached eggs on toast with mushrooms was dry, bland and disappointing. My friend's french toast looked a lot more appealing, but really, a good cafe should not mess up simple eggs on toast.

Coffee: 6/10. Nothing special. I would rate it about average.

Setting / location: 8/10. A lovely casual setting with bright modern decor and plenty of natural light.

Service: 6/10. Service was reasonably efficient, although not friendly. Here's the funny part - I said to my friend "Have you noticed that all the waitresses are clones of each other? Tall and skinny with big hair, mostly blond? It's weird, because I said the same thing at Urban Pantry". To which my friend replied: "Cream has the same owners as Urban Pantry!". The waitress serving us spilt my coffee over the saucer and table as she put it down, and didn't even apologise despite clearly noticing the mess. A smile also would have been nice.

Price: 6/10. I can't remember exact prices, although I remember thinking it was a little exxy. French toast was around $18, and my eggs and mushrooms was around $15.

Verdict: I probably wouldn't bother coming here again, especially since there is such a range of cafes in Civic. Nothing about the food or service impressed me.

Review: Global Ethiopian Cafe, Civic

Global Ethiopian Cafe is not the kind of place I’d usually choose to eat dinner, as the decor makes it look like a dodgy cheap lunch bar. However, I bought a dinner for 2 voucher on Grabone and so we tried it. Firstly, the current menu prices are reasonable even without a voucher: $13.50 gets you a meat dish with rice or injera, which is filling. They also have cheaper lunch specials apparently.

We had some beef samosas and lentil samosas to start, and then the Doro Wat (chicken slowly simmered with tomato, paprika and hard boiled egg) and the Lamb Tibbs (spicy lamb with burbere spices, capsicum, onion & tomato).

The samosas were quite bland but the mince beef used was good quality. They tested fresh and were generously filled. The mains were very tasty- although I’m not sure where the hardboiled egg was in the Doro Wat (it was nowhere to be seen in the dish, which was disappointing). The lamb had a very interesting and delicious flavour- it was well cooked (so lamb was quite tough, perhaps this is typical of the cuisine?). It was a good quality lean cut, and I’d order it again.

The service was friendly; the cafe seems to be run by an Ethiopian couple who make genuine home style fare. I’d be more inclined to get takeaways from here than dine in- the inside is a little dingy, which isn’t helped by the grubby menus you are handed on arrival (big marketing no-no). Good food and cheap though, so I will call in for takeaways or a picnic lunch in the future.

A note about “injera”: This is traditional Ethiopian flatbread, and has a very unusual taste. In making injera, flour is mixed with water and allowed to ferment for several days, giving it a sour taste. It tastes almost as if it has had lemon juice added to it. It has a very fluffy, spongy texture. I probably wouldn’t have it again, so make sure you order some rice with your meal too incase you don’t like this.

Brunch review: Milk & Honey

Milk and Honey is a cosy cafe located in Civic. It was absolutely bustling on the day we went, as it was a long weekend Monday. The sun was shining but there were only seats available inside. I had:

 Gypsy breakfast - white beans, chorizo, tomato and spinach with a poached egg and toast - $16


The Scoring

Menu variety / creativity: 8/10. Plenty of creative and delicious sounding savoury options. The only sweet option was 'american hotcakes', which was dissapointing.

Taste: 7.5/10. The bean mix was very tasty and had a good amount of chorizo in it, which added a bit of spice. I would have liked the chorizo to be more finely chopped, to give the mix a nicer texture. What brings this meal down in score is the poached egg, which might as well have been hard boiled - no yolk to be seen!

Poached egg FAIL!

Coffee: 6/10. Just okay.

Setting / location: 6.5/10. Inside it's a bit dark, crowded and musty, and there is not much outside seating ( even then it's all in the shade, and looked squashy).

Service: 7/10. We were at a far away table but were not forgotten - staff were attentive and came promptly to take our drink orders, then meal orders and then to inquire whether we wanted any more drinks.  Not particularly friendly or smiley service, which always gets extra points. No mistakes with our orders, and they came out together after a 30 minute wait.

Final score: 35/50 = 70%

Verdict: This place has potential, and I'd like to return and try my luck on a different menu option. Maybe just not on a sunny day, where better venues abound ;-)