At a breakfast function yesterday morning at the Hobart Function Centre, got served a great little brekky - except it happened again! The toast came out not buttered!
Who the hell bought up these wonderkids (chefs) to feel it's the norm to send out the toast unbuttered with the hollandaised eggs already nattily perched on top?
It's like going out without your panties on! Some of you may find that a turn-on. To me, it's vital I wear that bit of clothing. As is eating buttered toast.
Apart from that, the brekky was great. They did a wonderful job catering for the 80-odd brekky crowd.
Dinnered the evening before at Salamanca Inn. Love the venue, love the staff. But a few things marred the meal. For a place named the Salamanca Inn Beef & Seafood Grill to have only one steak item on the menu is a bit wierd. Our waitstaff were sweet as, but in common with the Gen Y theme, didn't pick up on smaller details which are the make or break of a dining out experience - like serving up desserts for all four of us, then departing the restaurant to do washing up in the kitchen, leaving us sitting expectantly for 5 minutes waiting for the spoons to magically appear!
It would have been easy to just get up & get them ourselves, but, quite frankly, I was curious to see how long it would take them - to either return to the restaurant & realise their error, or to check on how we were going (and whether we wanted coffee, which they didn't) then see we hadn't yet started to eat - for reasons which would hopefully become apparent to them soon after!
Neither happened, and we had to chase up a staff member after 5 mins of contemplating the delicious-looking desserts in front of us.
I forgive Salamanca Inn because their manager is great. I like him. End of story!
PS Cartouche has bronchitis. I am so sorry you're feeling like crap. Get well soon.
Thursday, 27 September 2007
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8 comments:
I hope the desserts were yummy. Once you got the spoons that was lol.
I work in a restaurant one of the things I cant stress enough to new floor staff. Is if you take a entree,cray or steak, dessert/cheese once you put the order through get the cutlery strait away. There is nothing worse than a customer who has food but nothing to eat it with.
Oh yes and when you ask for desserts always ask about coffee/tea at the same time.Also if they want their coffee/tea with desserts or after. Then dont forget to make the coffees too lol.
Its not hard?? is it.. Ok maybe for some it is.
Also on the breakfast note.Does anyone know a breakfast place that has nice mushrooms?? I have tried lots of places in Hobart and the mushrooms always come out black and yukky.
Yes my place has great mushrooms anon...but it's home, sorry.
Mushrooms on toast with swiss browns, field mushers, enoki, shiitake, sauted in a little olive oil and lots of butter,
Magic.
Sir grumpy
The chefs dont butter the toast as it take more time, simple as that.
In many function centres the process always comes before the product. Such an irony really especially when dealing with what is a universally recognised meal.
I'm with you Rita on buttered toast in general. Who wants to unwrap a foil-entombed butter pat whilst your freaken, by now, cold toast becomes as brittle as a pensioners bones! ( Bad taste I know but I was on a roll!) It always shatters into shrapnel at the slightest pressure & you overcompensate with extra hollandaise, butter or bacon grease to try and get some semblance of fat-saturation that approximates properly buttered toast!
Here's a tip, butter the bloody toast whilst it's hot, up to the edges & keep it warm until its ready to go out & there wont be any trouble!
Oh, toast with no butter is just rude! Bloke and I went to breakfast at a place in the Adelaide Central Market a few weeks back that we hadn't visited in a while. We're usually a bit tardy on a Sat'dee morning, and this place is often quite busy, but since we were early, we got a table. It was, quite simply, the worst breakfast I've ever paid for.
Toast: plastic bread (no name sliced - I saw bags of it by the door), no butter, one slice was the end of the loaf and tough;
Bacon: too fatty, neither crispy nor juicy, just bad;
Grilled tomatoes: floury;
Mushrooms: tasty, but there were exactly three of them and they were small;
Eggs: Overcooked;
Total result: 1/5
I had a couple of bites of the toast and egg, ate all three mushrooms, tried the tomato and bacon and concluded that I could have done better at home even had I been blind drunk.
When the waitress came to collect the plates, I just couldn't help it. I said, "I know you're busy and I know you didn't cook it yourself, but that was really AWFUL." Her face fell. I knew she'd been expecting me to send my compliments to the chef, and I know I'm a bad person, but when I do a lousy job, someone tells me quicksmart. Was that wrong of me?
Anon - I too was trained to do exactly as you have described - put down the cutlery after you've taken the dessert order, then asking about the tea/coffee. We went further as well. In todays terms it would be called 'upselling' but then it was actually just plain using your brain! Along with the tea/coffee, we had the cheese and port trolley, complete with all the associated glassware & cutlery, which was wheeled to peoples tables after we'd cleared back the mains. Nine times out of ten, when the customer was confronted with the appealing looking cheese platter and 5 varieties of port from which they could choose exactly what they wanted, they ordered it.
I experimented quite a few times by just verbally offering them cheese & bikkies and a port, but was usually knocked back. The winning factor was having it there in front of them!
I have to agree with Sir Grumpy about the mushrooms. The best ones I've had were at home, or at someone elses house.
Thanks for your words Gobbler. And no offence taken with the pensioners comments!!
Red - your Adelaide Market brekky sounds horrible. I think you did the right thing saying something. I would have caved in to being fair and not said anything to poor little waitperson, then kicked myself for the next 24 hours for NOT saying anything. I love my breakfasts, so getting dished up that sort of rubbish gets my day off to a lousy start.
God, Redcap, I miss the central markets.
Do they still have Charlesworth hot nuts and that little place in the other area that used to do the Spanish Peanuts, near the bottleo?
I used to load up with the peanuts on Friday to work up a thirst for our late-arvo beer up.
Aaah memories.
Sir Grumpy
Hi Redcap was it the cafe that facesout to Gouger st with its rear in the ectral market, cafe Zuma I think, is it still there? Sir Grumpy, you were in Adelaide also? My wife pines for the central market & we wish Hobart had a similar one right in the city, not just on saturdays.
Yes Gobbler, fish and chips in Gouger Street (go on, you know that's my weak spot).
The great meat tray sell-offs and the banter as competing stalls offered the bargains.
I remember eating lamb just about every night for a fortnight after the missus bout a meat pack. It was held way above head height and was a bit of a lottery.
The bloke previous always seemed to get the sirloin etc, so everybody went mad for the remaining offerings which were less good (mince, lamb, lamb, mince, minced lamb!).
And the hot nuts and cheeses. Oh yes, great days.
Sir Grumpy
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