58% rating? Very funny Dr. Jones! Maybe less comical for the restauranteurs than the little kid in Temple of Doom. Going through the Manuka options in the Entertainment Book even if the food isn't that good (let's be honest - in today's food climate around Australia you have to be of at least some reasonable standard to survive, especially with average ratings, unless your restaurant is a front for drug running etc.), a free main course made it an easy decision to test out.
Excuse the photos - it was a high glare day sitting next to the window.
- Chipotle Chicken Wings (mind boggling chicken wings served with citrus creme fraiche) - tasty crispy, not overly oily. Moderately tender chicken. Didn't seem to have much chipotle/chilli kick;
- special Summer Seafood Paella - not a bad collection of mussels, prawns, squid and fish. Rice was well cooked (not al dente if you prefer that) with what I assume was a chicken stock base;
- Confit Duck (five-spice salted duck legs, ginger & shallot relish, superior soy caramel, nori coated rice cakes, roast baby corn & black sesame bok choy) - really good collection of flavours and textures. Particularly the rice cakes with crispy nori salty coating and chewy vinegar rice. The duck wasn't bad either but could have been more tender.
Overall the food was good with reasonable prices. The Entertainment Book made it excellent value. I'll be back next EB year.
02-2015
I actually tried to have breakfast at Penny University however on a Sunday their kitchen doesn't open until 8am. Considering that would have only given me 10mins to eat, I wandered down the street at found Me & Mrs Jones serving food from 7:30am. Since leaving London, I haven't seen black pudding served anywhere. Fyshwick did have one in a vacuum seal once but I didn't buy it. Hence my surprise when I saw it on the breakfast menu here.
I enquired as to a chai latte and was informed it was a powder that contained "a lot of sugar". Doesn't sound enticing.
- Mixed Berry Smoothie - blended berries, milk and possibly a banana but with way too much honey. It was too sweet;
- The Irish (fried eggs with black pudding, smoked tomatoes and bois boudran on house made potato bread) - reasonable fried eggs, excellent externally-bought black pudding on bread that I couldn't really tell contained potato. What was disappointing was that one potato was undercooked and firm and the tomatoes were burn-smoked and horrible.
I wouldn't come back here for breakfast. If I did maybe the fresh options would be better.
