Steve's birthday lunch took place at Coombe - Melba Estate. I'm a fan of the wine but we usually go to the small cellar door so I thought it'd be nice to see this new place. It's very pretty but the unpredictable weather meant we didn't really get a chance to stroll through the gardens - there was blue sky and sunshine, then a heavy hailstorm and shower and then it was just grey.
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We started off with:
The octopus was tender but it was a cold salad which was a little surprising. Not unpleasant just unexpected. I had the pork belly and it was well balanced in flavour with a thin crispy crust and tender meat. Very enjoyable. |
Our main courses were:
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I enjoyed the salmon. However, when it first arrived there was a small green fly on the corner of one of the Champagne jelly cubes so I told the waitress and she brought out a new dish in a matter of minutes. The quick turnaround is a good thing but I couldn't help but feel maybe it wasn't a brand new dish but just a new jelly cube...
I had asked for the salmon to be rare and this fishy on my dishy wasn't really rare but it wasn't over dried and given I'd already sent the dish back once, decided to go with it. The dressing was like a shallot vinegar similar to what would accompany oysters. I liked the tang against the fish. The Champagne jelly cubes didn't really do it for me. I don't like savoury jellies and wasn't expecting them. I liked the freshness and lightness of the dish and it was enjoyable but not perfect.
Service was functional. It was busy and whilst we never really needed to wait for anything excessively it was all quite impersonal and lacked warmth. Although my greenfly dish was swapped, the apology came quite late on and whilst it was there was more perfunctory than personal. We received complimentary tea with dessert for the mishap. I think I'd have preferred a free dish but I wasn't going to make demands.

Dessert was custard donuts with passionfruit and it came with warm birthday wishes. Covered in crunchy sugar they were cheery bites of goodness although I did feel 3 donuts for the price charged was a bit cheeky, even if it did come with a shard of white chocolate!