Another Friday night out and we had a joint birthday celebration for some friends so checked out Given Kitchen and Bar in Paddington. I had wanted to try this out since trying out Elementi next door and smelling the fragrant grilled meats.
I had made a booking ahead of time, but for some reason there was a mix up in the system and it didn't get recorded. Luckily there was still a plethora of seating available to us that evening.
They had a recent revamp of the menu and the items which we had anticipated ordering weren't readily available, but we still made our selections with the friendly staff.
Starting with drinks, this was the Green Tea cocktail. It was refreshing but a little sweet for my tastes, I liked the citrus flavours of orange blossom which infused the drink. It wasn't too strong and made for a delicious starter.
Starting off with a snack, this was the Longganisa Taco with pork sausage, achara, coriander and sweet potato puree. These were quite small and a lot more salad-y than I would have expected. As the photo would suggest there was very little pork in the taco to be found. The salads were however quite fresh and I enjoyed the sweet potato puree.
Not wanting to stray too far from my comfort foods, this was the Beef Pares Mami, with tender beef brisket, egg noodles, veggies and an onsen egg. Seeing the elements of beef and egg noodles, I immediately envisaged a traditional and hearty HK style beef brisket with egg noodle. This turned out quite different to my imagination with a thick hokkien style noodle and a stringy tender beef brisket. The broth was quite light and didn't have much depth, but the veggies were fresh and tender.
Next was the Sisig, a dish of sizzling pork belly with purple onions mixed with savoury soy dressing, lime juice and an onsen egg. For a main, the portion was very lacking. If we hadn't remembered to order a rice to go with this dish, we would definitely have been hungry. There was not all that much pork belly on the sizzling plate and what was on the plate was almost completely fatty. The flavours were good with the chilli and lime adding quite a bit of zing, but I wish that there was more quality meat to go with it.
Our final main, the Pork Adobo was just as disappointing. It comprised of braised pork belly with soy, vinegar and aromatics. The presentation was a bit of a let down even from the start because there wasn't even a shred of spring onion to garnish the dish. The dish was very greasy with almost a centimetre of oil topping the stew. The pork belly was like the ones we had in the sisig and almost completely fat. The flavours were homely and reminded me of Taiwanese braised pork rice, but the sheer amount of fat in the dish meant that we really weren't able to enjoy it. Unless drastic improvements are made, I really can't recommend Given and don't think I'll be back anytime soon.
Taste: 4/10
Value: 4/10
Service: 5/10
Environment: 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment