Portia's Place Kingston - 28 March 2018

Present: John, Jim, Kim, Megan, Karen, Ron.  Andrew was in Sydney for a funeral, we think

We had: Duck pancakes

Pork ribs in aromatic sauce

Stuffed eggplant

chicken with dry long beans

Wasabi king island steak

sizzling fish with ginger and shallots

 

Portia's is one of our favourites and sometimes we see politicians there but not this time.  We have heard that it has been sold recently but the same chef is there, so the quality and dishes offered are the same.

 

The duck pancakes were really nice: they came out quickly, very meaty, with the right amount of hoisin.

 

The pork was sweet: eggplant stuffed with prawns fabulous: the chicken and beans had a fabulous smokey flavour, the best version we have had for a long time: the beef went well with the red wine that Jim had brought along.  The fish was the least interesting, it was a bit bland but we kind of needed this to balance the other meals which were a bit heavy and/or spicey, so made for the perfect meal.

 

Desserts were banana spring rolls, sticky rice pudding and mango sorbet.

 

Service was quick and friendly, place was busy but noise level not too loud (not too quiet either). 



Barbeque Nation Torrens 14 March 2018

 

 

Present:

 

Jim, Kim, Ron, Andrew, John, Megan.

 

Barbeque Nation have opened a restaurant at Torrens, as well as their one in Erindale.  We used a couple of vouchers for this meal, which gave us one entrée and one main for each person plus one glass of wine.  We were able to add to this, something which we did do.

 

The décor of the restaurant is pretty much the same as it was for its previous incarnation, Pistachio, but that is not a bad thing.  

 

For entrée we had samosas as well as a mixed plate of meat entrees and mixed plate of vegetarian entrée, all very nice and tasty.  The mains were a mix of chicken, lamb, beef and vegetarian.  No notes were taken on the night so no critique except to say that they were all very nice, all different and well presented.  The staff were friendly and attentive.  Because we were using on of the vouchers we were not allowed to BYO but that was okay and we were happy to drink their house wine, a chardonnay which was fine for a house wine.

 

We enjoyed the night, restaurant was not full, so the noise level was low.  A pleasant evening.

 

 

 

 

 

Au Lac restaurant Woden 28 February 2018



Present:

John, Jim, Ron, Andrew, Megan

We had:

Soy duck wraps

Spring rolls

Wontons

For Mains:

Salt and Chilli Squid

Massaman Beef Curry

Ginger Fish

Mushrooms and Snow peas.

We decided to try this vegetarian restaurant for a bit of a change and because a few of us had been there previously.  It one of those restaurants that uses lots of tofu to imitate meat and fish and does so in a remarkable way, such that it is very hard to tell the difference in some of the dishes.

The wraps were excellent in texture and flavour: the wontons were a bit ordinary and spring rolls okay.  As one of the men said, on a desert island they would be inoffensive but otherwise not very interesting.



The squid was very realistic, amazing.  The fish was nice, crispy skin, great ginger flavour; the beef with the potatoes was excellent and the mushrooms with the vegetable selection was a good contrast to the rest of the meal.

The desserts were lovely, even the tofu fried icecream was more than acceptable, even delicious.

It's a relaxed, casual restaurant with a steady stream of people coming in and out.  It had a friendly atmosphere with some diners there by themselves so if had a comfortable feel.  It was a warm evening so we should have enjoyed the outdoor area but no matter.  It was not too loud and service was good.

China Plate February 14th 2018

 

 

 

Diners: Ron, Megan, John and Kim

Entrée

Duck pancakes succulent duck.  Delicious nice fresh pancake served with cucumber. The sliver of spring onion which usually accompanies this pancake was missing.  Others though that the pancake would have been even better with additional hoi sin sauce.

Mains

Char Kway Teow – nice but seemed to have more sauce than the usual drier style of char kway teow
Duck in the Pool – nice but seemed to be the same duck that was in the duck pancake entrée but with sweet and sour sauce.  No complaints because the duck was very succulent.

Honey pepper lamb hot pot - tasty
Yeung Chow Fried Rice – delicious

We went to China Plate because we wanted to do a bit of polli watching, and this is one of the places they frequent.  When Ron booked they wanted us out by 8:30pm, and by the time 8:30 came around we realised why, the place, which had up until then been very quiet, all of a sudden was buzzing with  so many politicians we didn't know ourselves.  So a great place to dine out and see who's who on a Wednesday night when Parliament is sitting.