Every week, Dr L and I make a point to dine out, our main motivation is to keep up the habit of date night but the secondary motivation is of course to try new restaurants. Usually I have a list to work through and don't lack inspiration, but when I do, I defer to First Table or Eat Club to give me ideas. Last week we decided to check out Squires Steakhouse at Southbank with another couple.
Making a reservation on First Table ensured that we weren't going during peak dinner time. We arrived at 7.30pm and other than our table, there were less than half a dozen other tables, making the large venue somewhat empty. In spite of this, I found service to be quite poor. It was very hard to get the attention of the waitress or the manager. When we did manage to get this, it came with fairly poor attitude such as eye rolling when we asked for water. We were also surprised at how uninformed they were of their own menu, being unable to answer simple questions of portion sizes (e.g. how many scallops are in one serve) and flexibility (can you adjust the portion of scallops to match the number of guests). At the end of the meal when paying, the manager was also very hostile, which was fairly shocking for me given I had not vocalised any of my dissatisfaction (as I had not been asked).
Anyway, onto the meal. We started off with four drinks, fulfilling the conditions of the first table booking. We had one beer and three ciders. These were fairly yummy but erred on the pricier side at $15 each.
First to arrive was the oysters kilpatrick. They were of a medium size and fairly (but not exceptionally) fresh. There's not too much to say about them other than they were generally well received. I do note that at regular retail price of $36 for the dish was on the steeper end.
We also had a serve of maple glazed bacon oysters served with onion jam. Like the fresh oysters, they were of medium size. I found the topping to be far sweeter than I would ideally like and it covered up all the natural flavour of the oysters.
Our other shared entree was the wood fired lamb skewer. It came with four pieces. These were well marinated but a tad smaller than I would have liked. There was also a lot more sauces and yoghurt than we could have possibly eaten with the skewers.
Our main event for the evening was the Tomahawk to share. At 1.2kg we had queried this with the waitress whether it would be sufficient for us to share between four. We were told that this would be fine, however we definitely found it lacking. Starting off, there was only seven pieces which made it awkward to share. Portion wise it was definitely insufficient for 4, it would have been comfortable for 2 or 3 but we definitely needed a bit more. The steak itself was executed well though, cooked to a medium rare without being too chewy. The sauces were also fairly standard. We enjoyed the cafe de paris most. I did also find the fact that a whole tomahawk was only served with one wedge of pumpkin to be lacking when individual serves of steak are also served with one wedge of pumpkin. If I had ordered this at the full price of $220, I would be exceptionally disappointed in the meal. At half price, I am less disappointed but still not satisfied that this represents value for money given the context.
We ordered two extra sides to go with the steak. The roast potato wasn't particularly crispy, but they were flavoursome and buttery. I don't mind it but it didn't stand out as a particularly outstanding rendition of roast potato.
We also had a serve of fried cauliflower. This was fine but not great either. The cauliflower wasn't too crispy but at least it wasn't overly oily, going well with the pecorino. Allegedly it was supposed to have truffle mayonnaise too but we weren't able to distinctly taste it.
By the time we finished our food, the general consensus was that we still needed something more. Service was so lacking that we were not offered a dessert menu and had to chase for a water top up. With that in mind, we decided to go elsewhere for dessert. I don't think I've ever had such bad service at a first table venue. On top of that, I consider the value proposition poor for a first table venue, given we still spent over $65pp and were not particularly full. Not sure if it was because of first table or if staff were just unhappy that day but I will take it as a cue not to return.
Taste: 6.5/10
Value: 3/10
Service: 1/10
Environment: 7/10
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