Having seen quite a few photos of the very popular Six Acres Restaurant situated in Rydges along King Street, a friend and I decided to check it out after work one day for a quick mid week dinner. The walk from the CBD to King Street provided good exercise, and I was there 5 mins before our 6pm reservation.
The setup was modern but rustic, with the exposed lightbulbs really adding to the vibe. Service was friendly, however waitstaff were severely understaffed. Throughout the majority of our meal, there was only one very overworked waiter attending to the needs of everyone. The poor guy was very flustered by the time a waitress came out to help him.
The menu comprised of a fair few more options than a standard steakhouse would have. But being mainly a steakhouse, we stuck with the meatier options.
Being one of the first tables there that evening, our shared entrees came quickly without much drama. This was the scallops gratinated with confit garlic & herb butter, aromatic bread crumbs. The scallops were fairly large, and had a firm meaty texture. The crumbs were very fragrant and provided more mouthfeel to the scallops. The added lime gave it some tang, but my companion preferred to have it without lime. As an appetizer, it was refreshing and light. I really enjoyed it.
The reason why I took so much notice at the one poor waiter who had to look after the whole steakhouse was largely due to the fact that there was a considerable time lag between when our appetizer came out to when our dinner came out. Given the position of our seats, I was also able to spy the food coming out of the kitchen, and noted that our meals sat on the counter for roughly 20min before it came to our table.
As a result of this, my companion's Scotch Fillet, which was ordered medium rare, came out both barely warm as well as well done. She was very disappointed in this, especially given the high expectations she had of the restaurant. The meat itself was quite touch and chewy too. Normally in these situations, the sauce would still be reasonably hot, but not in this instance, so pouring it on really was no help. In the regular course of action, we would have sent it back to the kitchen to be reheated, but given how overdone it was and how long it took for us to get it, it really wasn't worth trying.
Given my companion's scotch fillet, I was amazed at how different my rib fillet turned out to be. Although it too was on the colder side of the spectrum, it definitely was rare and juicy with a wonderful mouthfeel. My pepper sauce didnt have any pepper taste to it whatsoever, but it was still reasonably warm, so I offered some to my companion which she gratefully accepted.
To go with our mains, we also had two sides.
The crunchy fries, parmigiana cheese and truffle oil were indeed exceptionally crunchy. It came served in a paper cone, which was novel enough and ensured it didn't get too greasy. The cheese gave it tang whilst the truffle was very fragrant. We both really enjoyed this side.
Our second side was the House Leaf Salad. It was crisp and refreshing, leaves were fairly fresh, but portions were definitely small, especially given salad takes up a lot of space.
For dessert, we shared a Vanilla bean creme brule with biscotti and merengue. For a caramelised dessert, this came out cold. The caramelised sugar on top, which was supposed to be thin and crisp was unforgivably hard and thick. The custard had a light enough texture that was creamy and smooth, but again it was very cold. Having said that, we found the biscotti and merengue to be tasty enough. Given the calibre of my steak, I have no doubts that Six Acres has the ability to make quite a spectacular dinner, it was just a shame that there was such a level of inconsistency between the quality of dishes that we had that evening.Taste: 5/10
Value: 5/10
Service: 6/10
Environment: 7/10
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