Broken Hill Hotel

The Broken Hill hotel is nicely split into a restaurant and bar section, which is great because it nicely cater for our large group.


Food Choices


Besides sides there was only one main on the menu. It was pumpkin and feta tart that came with chips and salad for $16.50. However, there was a specials menu that had a vegetarian pizza ($18.50).  I went for the pizza and split it with my friend.


Food Quality

The pizza was very good. It tasted fresh and handmade. The tomatoes were very sweet and the feta made a good addition. Overall, I was very impressed with it.

Tomatoes, feta, onions, olives and basil

My friend ordered a chicken pizza, with feta, pinenuts, pumpkin and rocket. She told me that the chicken ruined it for her, and she picked it off. So, if you're looking for another option, you could always order that without the chicken.

Overall Rating


1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 2
Quality of meal (1-3): 3
Value for money (1-3): 2
X-factor (0-1): 0.5 I don't dislike it, but it's not amazing
Total: 75%


Guess I won't have to drink my calories tonight...

UPDATE: 20/11/2012  
 So I went back last week and the menu had changed. There was no longer anything vegetarian available. However, they were able to make a vegetarian option pasta special for $20.50. It was quite good, and seemed reasonable. I just wanted to note that maybe it would be best to check the menu before you go, to see what they can do for you.

 

Little Creatures Brewery

Little Creatures has a good reputation. Freo is generally a little far away for most of our group, but we thought we'd give it a go. We had been there once before, about a year ago, and generally had a good time. We had sat outside on one of their long tables. This time, after fighting for a place to sit, we sat inside, cramped up against another group of people. As it's Christmas time, you would expect the place to be busy, and it's generally hard to accommodate a group of 14, but the ability to make a booking to ensure we had a table would have been nice. Having two of our group go home before we even ordered put a negative light on the evening.

Food Choices

Little Creatures isn't the kind of place where everyone gets one main meal, it's more of a sharing kind of place. They had a range of pizzas (including a couple of vegetarian ones for about $19-$22) and what I would usually call sides (including chips, corn cobs, nachos and salads).

Mushroom and pumpkin pizza

Food Quality

I ordered the $19 mushroom pizza (mushrooms, mozzarella, olives) but replaced the olives with pumpkin and some frites ($9.50) which I shared with another person. The pizza was good but bottom was a little burnt. It didn't look burnt, but you could definitely taste it.

I had remembered the chips being amazing, but I wasn't too impressed.

My friend ordered the corn cobs, which strangely enough came out about 15 minutes before the rest of the food. She said they were a little burnt too, but that you want that in corn, so she liked them. Another friend got a salad, which she enjoyed. She said the dressing was good, but it could have had a few more ingredients on it.

Another friend ordered the nachos. He said "they are everything you could want in nachos". He was pleased with all the toppings, especially the capsicum, which he said worked really well. He said they were the best non-handmade, non-Mexican restaurant nachos he's ever had. That said, it's hard to get nachos wrong unless they are very soggy. 

Overall people seemed to think their food was OK, but not amazing.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 3 - It's hard to rank as they were all sharing dishes, but there was three vegetarian pizzas, and they were a few options with the sides.
Quality of meal (1-3): 1.5
Value for money (1-3): 1 - relatively expensive
X-factor (0-1): 0 - losing this for it being too loud, and not enough chairs.
Total: 55%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

Rosie O'Gradys (Northbridge)

To me, Rosie O'Gradys has always been one of those nice and cosy pubs that I've always had a soft spot for. Like The Oxford I was looking forward to reviewing it, and giving it a good review, as I was fond of it. 


Food Choices

For some reason everyone seemd to arrive really early last night, so I didn't have much time to look over the menu. The Deep Fried Camembert ($12) jumped out at me straight away, so I just went for it.

You can't really tell from the photo but the salad was actually more than just lettuce

 I didn't get an opportunity to check the Soup of the Day ($9.50) or the Pasta of the Week ($19.50), so I'm not sure if they were vegetarian. As they change I guess it's not worth commenting on further. Other options included a Salad for $17.50 and a Vegetarian Lasagna for $22.40.

Food Quality

The salad was pretty good. I liked the dressing and the inclusion of an orange. It was quite rocket-heavy, and I'm not a fan of rocket but there was enough other things to make it enjoyable. The deep friend Camembert itself was great on the first bite, but seemed to go downhill from there. It was really rich and creamy, which was great at first, but by the end I didn't want to finish it. At first I was pleased by the small portion size, but then I found it was too rich to finish, and then about an hour later I was hungry again.

Vegetarian Lasagna - I felt the need to caption this as you can't really tell what it is from the photo.

My friend had the vegetarian lasagna. It was over budget or I probably would have given it a go too.That said, it probably isn't the best choice for a hot summer night. I didn't really hear much about what my friend though about it, and if it was really good, or really bad I think I would have heard about it. Therefore, I am assuming it was average.


Overall Rating


1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 1.5 (1 for the deep fried Camembert, half for the salad)
Quality of meal (1-3): 2 - it really wasn't great, and it wasn't terrible
Value for money (1-3): 2 
X-factor (0-1): 1 - as I said, I like the place, it's got a great cosy atmosphere
Total: 65%


Probably, again, this is a place for drinks, not for dinner.


Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

Side Quest: V Burger Bar

To make this side quest official I have gathered a small team of adventurers who are going "Veggie Questing" with me. Their code names, for the purpose of this blog, are: Lancelot, Guinevere, Morgan Le Fay and Galahad. I'm King Arthur, because I'm the fussiest and hardest to please.

V Burgers had 3 vegetarian bugers: Med-Veg, Halloween and Gucaloumi.

Morgan had the Med-Veg plus mushrooms. She described it as moist, messy and filling.

Med-Veg with mushrooms

Lancelot had the Halloween. He described it as good, interesting and said that he would have liked another. He went on to say that it was lovely and crispy, but would have been nicer with more pesto, and less feta. Morgan said that she though the feta balanced out the taste of the pesto.

Halloween

Guinevere had the Gucaloumi. She described it as nice, perfectly salted with good guacamole.

Gucaloumi

As King Arthur, I of course have something to say about all of them.

The Med-Veg whilst very nice, unfortunately fell into the warm sandwich trap. Everyone can make a nice veggie sandwich. It was also quite messy to try and eat. 

The Gucaloumi also fell into the same trap. Whilst the cheese almost pulled off being a patty, it pretty much wasn't. I did like the cheese though and it was definitely an enjoyable warm cheese sandwich.

The Halloween, however, had a layer of crumbled pumpkin that could definitely pass off as a patty. It passes my definition of burger. I was pleasantly surprised, that seeing it had a patty, it wasn't horrible. The crumbed pumpkin was very nice, and seemed to work for the burger. It could have done with some more veggies, but I guess it can't have everything. 

Edit (19/12/11): I had this burger again last Friday night, and whilst it was OK, It wasn't great. When I did this review, I tried a small portion of each burger, and last Friday I ate a whole one to myself. The onions, which I hadn't noticed the first time, were very overpowering, and made the experience mostly unpleasant. After I picked them out I was happier and whilst it was still a good burger, I can no longer label it amazing.

Would recommend! 

Side Quest: The Burger Bistro

I was out with a couple of friends in Leederville looking for dinner and we decided to stop by the Burger Bistro. They had two veggie burgers on the menu, the "Veggie Max" and the "Chickpea Chow Down" both for $15. Whilst the Veggie Max looked nicer, I was afraid of running into another warm sandwich and I ordered the Chickpea Chow Down.

"chickpea patty hand made with zucchini, carrot, cumin, turmeric and paprika served in a sough dough roll with sour cream on a bed of our usual salads"

It was terrible. Not just bad, but really bad. There was one slice of tomato, and some rocket. I'm not a fan of rocket really, and the terrible patty didn't inspire me. I'm not really a fan of spicy, so if you are, maybe you will enjoy it. However, that said it was unnecessarily dry.

I wouldn't mind trying the other choice, but I think it will probably fall into the warm sandwich trap. 

Tiger Lil's

This is going to be a bit of a mixed review I think. I like Tiger Lil's as a bar, my brother had his 21st there earlier this year, and it had a great atmosphere, nice cocktails, etc.

Food Choices

There were two vegetarian options. A (non-standard) side, and a main. The main was a vegetarian curry for $18.95. The side was Spiced chickpea croquettes with lime yoghurt dipping sauce ($11.95). Now this would be fine, but I really cannot eat even the mildest of spicy foods. So this put me back at square one. I was tossing up between chips and onion rings, both $6.95 and I decided to go for the chips.

Food quality

I don't particularly like reviewing places based on their chips, but they were good chips. The lime aioli was particularly nice too.

My friends ordered the vegetarian curry. I didn't try it because I was afraid of the spicy, but they gave it the following review:

It was average, about 4/10. They'd expect something of that quality to be about half the price. They said it wasn't bad, it was enjoyable, but they were expecting better.

This was the serving dish, after it had been served...

Basically, Tiger Lil's is a great bar. Nice atmosphere, great cocktails. Nice snacks (the chips and the onion rings were both really tasty). However, I wouldn't go there for dinner again. Most people were generally unhappy with their dish, and they were all really pricey.

Onion rings and pak choy (sides)

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3):  1.5
Quality of meal (1-3): 1

Value for money (1-3):  1

X-factor (0-1): 1 - I like the place, it has a nice atmosphere.

Total: 45%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

The Breakwater

This place is really pretty. It's right on the waterfront which is really nice. I used to go to Hilary's boat harbour a lot as a kid, so it brought back a few memories for me.

Food Choices

Wow, the prices were as impressive as the scenery! Mains included: portobello mushroom ($23.90), fattoush with grilled haloumi ($22.90) and two pizzas (bocconcini, roma tomato, basil & kalamata olives: $19.90 and pear & gorgonzola, fontina, mozzarella, caramelized sweet onions & chopped hazelnuts $20.90). There were the regular sides as well as grilled baby eggplant ($11), an antipasto plate ($23.50) and arrancini balls ($15). So not really very much within my budget.

I decided to split a pear pizza, so even though $20.90 is technically over-budget, it was shared.

Food quality

The jury is out on the pizza. Three people tried it. One really liked it, one really didn't and I'm still kind of undecided. It was very sweet because of the pear and the caramelized onions. The cheeses kind of gave a very sharp contrast in flavours. I guess if you're looking for something you know will be good, order the other pizza, but if you're willing to take a risk, get this one. I do like sweet things, but I'm not sure if It quite worked.

My friend ordered the portobello mushroom. She was surprised at just how tiny it was for the price. However, she gave it a 7/10 for taste.  

 One of my friends mentioned this was a place for "cashed up bogans". It's seems apt. The prices are too high for the food. The food quality is average at best. The location is quite nice though. Maybe just come here for a cocktail by the harbour.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3):  2 - Looking at in budget only - half for both the sides, and 1 for the pizza.

Quality of meal (1-3): 2

Value for money (1-3):  0 - Everything there was VERY expensive

X-factor (0-1): 0.5 - I did like the place, it had a nice atmosphere, however the place was too expensive not to have table service.

Total: 45%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...