Hatch & Co. GARDEN CITY

My partner and I took a stroll around the relatively new dining precinct at Garden city. Hatch & Co was one of the few restaurants that stood out from the crowd being the most aesthetically pleasing. We sat outside next to the water features and coloured lights which were gorgeous and romantic especially on a quieter night. We had high hopes for a good night but sadly the service and food was not up to scratch.

View of garden city's town square from out table

Prices for the mains were reasonable, cheaper than we were expecting for a place such as hatch & Co. I was however a little confused about their share menu, apparently most of the items were sold as a single piece and you had to order multiple ones before you can share it..which really defeats the purpose of a share menu. I hope they were decent in size at least because $5 for a single leek and Gruyere croquette seems a little hefty. We ended up choosing the lamb dumplings and some chips to start.

Dumplings were presented nicely and I quite enjoyed them. The lamb and yoghurt is always a great mix, spices and seasoning were on point. The chips with chilli salt and aioli were amazing and probably some of the best hot chips I've had in a while. I am aware that they’re only chips but the amount of times I’ve been served undercooked and soggy ones, I no longer take good chips for granted. For $9 however, I was hoping for a slightly bigger serve.

Spiced lamb dumplings with herb yoghurt 

My crumbed pork wasn’t the most visually appealing dish, but it was a decent size cut which was crumbed nicely and stayed crispy till the end. The pork itself was a tad salty and only got saltier the further I cut into it and made it hard to enjoy. I thought the fennel slaw that was served with it would balance the saltiness of the meat, but it was heavily dressed with a vinaigrette of some sort making it really sour and the dish only harder to eat. Now, I am also aware that pork can be served pink, but the pork was a little too pink for my likings which wasn’t evident till I was more than halfway due to the very dim lighting.

Parmesan and Thyme crumbed pork cutlet with fennel slaw and aioli

I can’t say much about my partners woodfire ½ chicken, nor am i able to provide a picture, but from what I recall of it the ½ chicken was very much on the small side and the potato bake it was suppose to come with was literally three slices of potato garnish. The stand out of the dish would have been the fried kale, but even then the kale wasn't too impressive.

Service could do with much improvement- it was practically non-existent that night. 

For starters, after requesting a table by the water and the waitress agreeing to set it, she was in no rush to and forgot to come fetch us afterwards so we were left waiting at the entrance not knowing what was going on. After finally being seated, it took about 10 mins before any menus were brought over and despite ordering drinks well before deciding on food, we only received them along with tap water a minute before entrees came out.

After entrees, nobody came back to reset our table so we were left without cutlery when our mains arrived. We had faith in the waitress noticing after dropping off our food and waited for her return, but after a few minutes we realised no one was coming back so I got up to get someone’s attention. Wait staff noticed me getting out of my seat but failed to see if I needed anything so I ended up having to approach the gentleman behind the bar. Our water glasses were eventually refilled by a disgruntled waitress who made it quite evident that she did not want to be serving us.

We decided not to stay for dessert and asked for the bill..but we would have been fools to believe one would be sent out to the table so we got up and went straight for the counter. It wasn't a busy night; there were only 10 other small tables and four people on the floor, so it was a bit disappointing that the wait staffs weren't a bit more attentive. No one was doing any checks or making any real effort to serve us. No one was even around in our section during our time there.

Overall, I found the whole experience to be very underwhelming, especially having paid $75 for dinner and two drinks and the best thing to come of it was a small bowl of chips. I could have gotten more and better elsewhere but it was worth a try. Would I come back here? Not any time in the near future, but if I had to it would only be for a drink so I could make use of the seating area.

Food:  5 /10
Value:  4.5 /10
Service:  2 /10
Atmosphere:  8 /10

Overall:  5

- wd

KU-O, SUNNYBANK

KU-O is an adorable Japanese restaurant on the edge of busy Market Square with beautiful decor, intimate booths, and colourful Japanese paintings along the walls. The place isn’t sleek and stylish like most modern Japanese restaurants, but looks more or less traditional and offers a comfortable and cosy atmosphere. It’s a lot more quiet inside compared to other restaurants in the area and really makes you forget about the manic scrambling to find a car park along with the notorious crowds of Market Square just outside.  There is limited seating and I can see this being a problem for peak dinner time and weekends, but for a Friday lunch, we had no problems getting a booth.

True to Japanese hospitality, we were greeted enthusiastically by all the staff as we entered, shown to our table by our waitress who offered us menus and left to let us ponder over the choices. KU-O offers a variety of meals such as Donburi, Yakitori, Oden, Sashimi, Agemono and Udon noodles soups. They even have meal sets to choose from as well as a couple of salad options.

We started off with a serve of cuttlefish oden and crab meat croquettes. There were only two pieces of cuttlefish balls but costing $3 we weren’t expecting any more than what we got. I still think it was a good choice as they were tasty and left us with a nice hot bowl of soup to accompany the rest of our meal. The crab meat croquettes were crispy but I was a little disappointed in finding them mostly hollow with only a small amount of a paste like consistency within. The texture and lack of crab flavour made them a little sickening after one, which was a shame as I was really looking forward to them.

We were just after some simple lunch so decided on rice dishes; fresh salmon donburi for my partner and seared salmon for myself. The serving sizes were quite generous and both came with their own side dishes consisting of various pickles. I quite enjoyed my dish, there was a decent amount of seared salmon atop the rice along with more mayonnaise than any other restaurant would offer, free of charge. I had a sneaky taste of my partner’s raw salmon and believe it could benefit from being a little fresher, however, the flavours were still good and there was nothing to really complain about.

As for drinks, I do not recommend this place for coffee, my partner’s latte tasted like it came out from a domestic espresso machine with about 5 teaspoons of sugar added to it. I found it more amusing rather than disappointing though, it seems like it’s placed on the menu for variety and that nobody really orders coffees from there anyway...well, apart from my foolish boyfriend. They have a nice list of hot and iced teas as well as their “famous” frappes. I was a bit deterred from ordering a frappe due to the price, but they do look amazing and are gigantic.  I suggest maybe sharing with a friend if you were to order one.

Overall, I was quite satisfied with my experience. Service was pleasant enough, especially compared to what you usually get from elsewhere in the square. The waitresses were friendly and competent and food came out before I could even finish admiring the decor. There is definitely room for improvement but I was content enough with my food that I’ll quite happily pop back in for lunch (and a frappe) if I’m around the area.

Food: 6.5/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 7.5

- wd

Bucci, FORTITUDE VALLEY

Thoa and I dined here out of chance a couple of months ago. The restaurant we were intending to go to was closed for an unknown reason so we took a stroll around the area and were drawn in by the impressive decor and style of the place.  The restaurant was quite packed for a Monday night but we were seated promptly without a booking.

My initial thought after being seated was to do with how close we were to the tables on either side of us; it really took away from the intimacy of the place. I felt like I either had to speak louder so that Thoa could hear, or lean over so our conversations could be kept private. Perhaps ask for a corner table when making reservations, or one near the open plan kitchen if you’re not big on conversations.

It took a little while for someone to come back to take our orders but when the time came, we decided on starting off with some bruschetta from their share menu. The waitress then rushed off before I could place a wine order..maybe I don’t look old enough to be ordering wine? Whatever the reason was, it was only after we received our entree that we were offered drinks other than tap water.

House made sour rye flat bread brushed with evoo & garlic, topped with dressed local tiger prawns, avocado, herbs, roast corn & smoked chilli preserve

 I wasn’t quite sure what to think about the bruschetta, the sour rye flat bread just didn’t do it for me. I’m not a big fan of flatbread in general  so that might have influenced my opinion but it felt more like i was eating toppings on some hard rye crackers than eating bruschetta. I was also expecting more “smoke” and or “chilli” taste from the preserve, instead it was quite sweet and i would have mistaken it for a fruit preserve if I wasn’t informed otherwise. The flavours as a whole was very good though, they worked well together but still felt like it was missing a bit of kick. The gentleman next to me ordered the arancini, and I’ll have to say, i had food envy and that would be the first thing I’d order if I were to come back.

For mains, i had the gnocchi and Thoa ordered the cannelloni. I really enjoyed my gnocchi, the gnocchi itself was made perfectly; most times I’ve ordered it, it’s either had too much flour and was tough and doughy or had too little flour and became lumps of watery mashed potato that were falling to pieces. The dish was quite simple but full of flavour and the lemon oil cuts through the cured trout nicely.

Home made parmesan gnocchi with cured ocean trout, spicy Tuscan fish stew essence, lemon oil, woodland sorrel & lemon balm

The cannelloni looked great, I only managed to have a little taste of the actual bug filling and thought it was quite tasty, however my friend made a comment that the dish as a whole was lacking an element. The truffle & lemon wasn’t that evident in the dish and the dill was overpowering and didn’t balance out too well with the other ingredients. I believed she still enjoyed her meal overall though, as I certainly did with mine.

Moreton Bay bug cannelloni, oven baked with truffle, lemon & tomatoes

Our plates were cleared quite some time after finishing our meals despite the restaurant being half empty at that point.  We were not offered dessert or another drink so we had the impression that the waitress had enough for a Monday night and no longer cared about serving us so we made the decision to settle the bill and leave. Hopefully i’ll have something to say about dessert next time as the Bombolini (rhubarb compote filled doughnuts served with vanilla custard) and saffron Panna cotta (served with dark chocolate and anise crumble and gooseberry) sound quite tantalising. 

Food: 8 /10

Atmosphere: 7 /10

Value:  6/10

Service:  5/10

Overall:  6.5/10

- wd