Dined 6/4/09
Aquila, Aquila, Aquila. What you have done to the humble chicken Caesar almost defies description.
Every element of this tangy, delicious salad was destroyed in a serious bout of mediocrity.
At $14.90, I could have had the crispy chicken at McDonald's twice over and received a better meal.
The worst part is, you're normally so good. You scrambled eggs are delightfully fluffy, your bacon so crispy, the lamb pizza resplendent, your coffee spoken of in reverent tones.
But this was a soggy mess of non-descript muck.
For me, the heart of the Caesar salad is the dressing. There wasn't even the faintest resemblance to the traditional tangyness in this salad. There was no Parmesan wafting lazily on top, rather it was swimming around the bottom of the plate in the white muck of the sauce. The bacon appeared to be of the same standard used on $5 take-away pizzas. This horrible mixture was held together by chopped up pieces of boiled egg...this sentence cannot sufficiently describe why boiled egg doesn't belong in Caesar salad; coddled if you must, but not boiled.
The tasteless, if tender strips of chicken where one of the few saving graces. The use of two pieces of grilled sourdough(?) rather than croutons an affront to a purists heart.
I should however put this in the Fussy perspective. My dinning companion thought his was just fine and definitely isn't wallowing in disappointment like I am.
The best part of the salad was the LLB - delicious and comes in a huge glass and at $3.90 a bargain.
Aquila, for me, is becoming one of those places where the trick is to know what to order. For those unaware the results can be very disappointing.
Food excellence 0/5
Ambiance 3.5/5
Cleanliness 4/5
Price 3/5
Showing posts with label City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label City. Show all posts
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Pane e Vino - City, Brisbane
http://www.paneevino.com.au/
Dined 30/07/08
Pane e Vino has been a staple city restaurant for me for a long time. With the dearth of reasonable priced cafe style eateries in the city Pane is a frequent choice.
What I like about Pane is it's lack of pretension - it doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not. The food is middling at best but inoffensively stereotypical Italian.
Fussy BF and I stopped in for a quick bite on a Friday night. I wasn't all that hungry so opted for the mixed Bruschetta - Diced Roma tomato, garlic & basil / Prosciutto & mushroom
/ Eggplant, zucchini, capsicum & onion (1 of each)$11.50. All of which was satisfying if not all that memorable.
BF had the Spaghetti con gamberi - Fresh prawns tossed through chilli, garlic, spinach & fresh tomato w olive oil $23.00 and she was quite pleased with it although the garlic made it's presence known throughout the rest of the night.
As usual Pane came through with a good value, satisfying experience.
Dined 30/07/08
Pane e Vino has been a staple city restaurant for me for a long time. With the dearth of reasonable priced cafe style eateries in the city Pane is a frequent choice.
What I like about Pane is it's lack of pretension - it doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not. The food is middling at best but inoffensively stereotypical Italian.
Fussy BF and I stopped in for a quick bite on a Friday night. I wasn't all that hungry so opted for the mixed Bruschetta - Diced Roma tomato, garlic & basil / Prosciutto & mushroom
/ Eggplant, zucchini, capsicum & onion (1 of each)$11.50. All of which was satisfying if not all that memorable.
BF had the Spaghetti con gamberi - Fresh prawns tossed through chilli, garlic, spinach & fresh tomato w olive oil $23.00 and she was quite pleased with it although the garlic made it's presence known throughout the rest of the night.
As usual Pane came through with a good value, satisfying experience.
Food excellence34/5
Ambiance34/5
Cleanliness 4/5
Price 3/5
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Zen Bar - City, Brisbane
http://www.zenbar.com.au/ Dined: 12/08/08
For many years Zen Bar, for me, has been the same experience as the Gun Shop - great food, terrible (in fact woeful) service. Many a work lunch had me scurrying back to the office after gulping down my lunch at 5 to 2, sometimes having waited well over an hour for our meals.
Zen has been like that since I first started working in the city about 7 years ago but they seem to have finally turned the corner. The service of Tuesday was excellent and that's not a compliment I hand out lightly! Our servers were friendly without being obsequious, water and wine glasses were continually replenished and food was brought promptly.
The thing that has bought me back to Zen time and time again, even though the service was so appalling was the food. Not enough good things could be said about the chicken and prawn spring rolls, the duck pancakes, and the piece de resistance the chicken, spinach and cashew stir-fry. I think I can honestly say in 5 years I haven't ordered anything else. On Tuesday, it just wasn't up to par. I'll even have to damn it with faint praise and say it was "fine". Historically this dish was spicy, piquant, lush, rich and came with loads of cashews. This time it was just fine. Again, technically you'd be hard pressed to fault the dish but it just didn't have the usual magic that has me ready to lick the plate clean in a crowded restaurant.
Apparently there's an inverse relationship between service and food quality!
On a positive note, I hadn't ever seen the cheese platter before. I had skipped on the starter so decided to lash out with the cheese platter as quite a few of them seemed to be coming out of the kitchen. I do love cheese but am not much of a cheese snob but to my bourgeois taste, this was excellent. The crackers taste fresh and homemade, the dried fruits plump and the cheese a generous wedge (the choices were blue, cheddar or brie - I couldn't resist the brie). It was all beautifully presented and excellent value at $11.
I'm going to forgive Zen for the less than perfect stir-fry as they may have just been having a bad night but it's great to see the service so improved.
P.S. As per usual the pinot grigio delle venezie marano It 39.5 was lovely, 2 bottles lovely (there was 3 of us!).
For many years Zen Bar, for me, has been the same experience as the Gun Shop - great food, terrible (in fact woeful) service. Many a work lunch had me scurrying back to the office after gulping down my lunch at 5 to 2, sometimes having waited well over an hour for our meals.
Zen has been like that since I first started working in the city about 7 years ago but they seem to have finally turned the corner. The service of Tuesday was excellent and that's not a compliment I hand out lightly! Our servers were friendly without being obsequious, water and wine glasses were continually replenished and food was brought promptly.
The thing that has bought me back to Zen time and time again, even though the service was so appalling was the food. Not enough good things could be said about the chicken and prawn spring rolls, the duck pancakes, and the piece de resistance the chicken, spinach and cashew stir-fry. I think I can honestly say in 5 years I haven't ordered anything else. On Tuesday, it just wasn't up to par. I'll even have to damn it with faint praise and say it was "fine". Historically this dish was spicy, piquant, lush, rich and came with loads of cashews. This time it was just fine. Again, technically you'd be hard pressed to fault the dish but it just didn't have the usual magic that has me ready to lick the plate clean in a crowded restaurant.
Apparently there's an inverse relationship between service and food quality!
On a positive note, I hadn't ever seen the cheese platter before. I had skipped on the starter so decided to lash out with the cheese platter as quite a few of them seemed to be coming out of the kitchen. I do love cheese but am not much of a cheese snob but to my bourgeois taste, this was excellent. The crackers taste fresh and homemade, the dried fruits plump and the cheese a generous wedge (the choices were blue, cheddar or brie - I couldn't resist the brie). It was all beautifully presented and excellent value at $11.
I'm going to forgive Zen for the less than perfect stir-fry as they may have just been having a bad night but it's great to see the service so improved.
P.S. As per usual the pinot grigio delle venezie marano It 39.5 was lovely, 2 bottles lovely (there was 3 of us!).
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