A new branch of an Australian cuisine restaurant opened in Soho. Taking advantage of the location and 50% soft opening were surprisingly few people on a Sunday evening. Maybe there's limited interest in what Australian cuisine is. To be honest after living there for over 30 years, I'm often not so sure myself. There's the international cuisine aspect (particularly with modern use of Asian ingredients) and the pub food, which are both represented in the menu. Although other than the parmigiana, I wouldn't have read the menu blindly and guessed the cuisine was Australian.
The drinks menu is equally interesting with a variety of gins from around the world (although many of them were not available) and some creative cocktails.
Prices listed are full price (and I paid 50%).
- Beetroot, raspberry, goats curd tartlet £3;
- Beef shin cigarillos £7.6 - rare seared beef enclosing a great collection of herbs and greens. Beef shin isn't the standard cut of beef that would be seared and served rare so it was a little chewy but otherwise good;
- Sea bream ceviche, avocado, tigers milk, nori, crunchy corn £9.8 - nicely balanced and not very sour;
- Fire roasted aubergine, crispy rice, tahini, cavlo nero £8.8 - soft chewy wilted aubergine with a nice spiced sauce;
- Tuna steak 200g £14.4 - quite well cooked and topped with a parsley sauce;
- 30 day ribeye 300g £7.5/100g - a really excellent cut of meat cooked beautifully rare to order and fantastically tender;
- Giant chicken parmigiana (for 2) £30 - it wasn't bad to be fair. The coating was crisp and the flavours were there. The chicken was reasonably tender. Strangely it didn't seem giant. Even the waiter thought it was a single serve, then checked with the kitchen who confirmed it was the giant one. It was charged as a single £19.5 after the waiter's misinterpretation;
- Yogurt pavlova £7.8;
- Vegan chocolate cake £6 - really nice dark chocolate cake that wasn't overly sweet.
Overall the meal was very good. Even though a few interesting things weren't available (Byron bhel puri - perhaps named after Byron Bay) there was plenty to choose from and plenty of good dishes.
However the parmigiana for £30 was certainly not giant and I do find it difficult to justify the full price for that size.