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.
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
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