A day of eating out for Rita today, starting with a breakfast meeting at Dukkah, then lunch at the Botanical Gardens Restaurant (pictured above).
Breakfast was good. I ordered Scrambled Eggs, served with sourdough toast on the side, and English Breakfast tea. The eggs were perfectly fine, as was the service. What surprised me was the fact that it seems to have operated under the radar but was so busy. No one has ever said to me “You must go to Dukkah”. Why not? It was a great little venue, with a constant clientele. The food was typical upper-market café food. The prices average. I’m sorry I can’t remember the price of the Scrambled Eggs, but think they were round the $10 mark. A great little place tucked away in Elizabeth Street. I must remember it’s there and get along there again.
Lunch at the Gardens was another of those experiences where I’m so badly wanting it to be fabulous then find the food simply doesn’t match up to the promise of the place.
Like the breakfast at Dukkah, it was a working lunch, and both of us ordered their Caesar Salad ($13). BTW – everyone in the world who writes menus – it’s CAESAR, not Ceasar. Perhaps that could be a clue as to the actual meal itself – if they can’t spell it, can they do a decent one? Well the answer today was a disappointing, no.
Todays Caesar really let the team down. There was way too much very finely chopped bacon (which actually wasn’t mentioned along with all the other ingredients listed on the menu – a negative for my companion who was vegetarian and deliberately selected that dish because there was no bacon mentioned. How does that work? There was one bit of anchovy in the salad, with the menu having told us anchovy was in it, but tons of bacon in it, and that wasn’t mentioned!). It was very average.
Another disappointment was the lunch menu. I found it extremely limited. In days gone by, you could get a varied choice there, from a full plated meal to a snack-type toasted sandwich. In other words they catered for all wants and needs likely to be required at a venue such as this one. They also did the very best Roast meal in Hobart, bar none.
It’s a most beautiful, tranquil place to eat, and have a wander round the gardens afterwards. Come on guys, make it perfect and up the ante a bit!
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9 comments:
Have heard a lot of similar comments about this place, not bad just not living up to expectations!
What? No more roast beef and yorkshire pud? That and a heart icecream afterwards were always part of childhood visits to the gardens.
I'm with you there Lonie. I mourn the loss of such vital and traditional ingredients to a trip to the Gardens!
They also used to do a fabulous little platter which contained two 1/4 sandwiches, and 2 little homemade cakes of some kind. A brilliant idea for someone going there wanting a nibble for either afternoon or morning tea, and not wanting to go the whole hog foodwise as they also wanted to have the necessary energy to walk round the gardens.
Better, surely, to have that on offer for bums on seats, than the ultimatim of a full meal and that's as far as we're prepared to go? You can see from my photo that they probably would have liked more custom.
I went to the gardens a couple of weeks ago with mum - wasn't spectacular and for the number of people there the service was abysmal.
The Gardens "restaurant" has been an embarassment for a long time. I don't think the young staff are terribly experience and the food is bog ordinary. And what's with cheapo tables and chairs?
This place should be a shining light, showing the numerous visitors what fantastic produce Tasmania has.. but it's just tragic.
For me a caesar always has had bacon, poached egg, anchovies, croutons etc.So personally I would expect to see the bacon in there (mentioned or not), but thats me. And again, just me, I think its an uninspired shit salad anyhow, lots of people complain about them, I never order them, because they are nearly always disapointing, and I absolutely never have them on my menus.
As for the botanical, done it a few times and always gaze around thinking, potential, potential, potential. But I stress that I know nothing of the current operators limits restrictions etc and am guessing there is more to it than meets the eye.
You never mentioned, was it busy?
Cartouche.
Yes, a caesar is a caesar..it should really follow a recipe but the customer can ask for changes.
I hate poached eggs, for example, so there you go.
As for the RTBG restaurant ...it has always underwhelmed me. Even 15-20 years ago the service was slow and basic.
Scones and cream was a laboured event. A full lunch could take most of your day out!
But the gardens, ah yes the gardens...still beautiful even if you BYO a bag of crisps and a fanta.
Agree Cartouche. Those contents you mentioned are always a given for me when I think Caesar. And you're right about them mostly coming out like the boring salad they can be - but I sometimes try one again...just in case it turns out to be the creme de la creme of Caesars! Essentially, it seemed to me to be the lightest of meals on their lunch menu, hence my decision to order it.
Current operators are, because it is now a state-owned entity, public servants! So - you have here some public servants operating a restaurant! How good is that? That's the job for me!
Actually, the guy in charge of FOH at RTBG now is ex Maldinis, so I'm actually doing him a diservice describing him as a public servant, even though technically he is.
No, you can possibly see from the photo that it wasn't busy at all really.
Sir G - you're probably better off doing the BYO thing.
At the risk of sounding like a scratched record,the kids and I went to the Republic today for lunch, and I had what I consider to be a great caesar.
Cos, bacon, parmesan, poached egg, anchovies, croutons, grilled chicken. Tasted fantastic and plenty of lettuce. Loved it!
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