Eggshell Green

Restaurant Review: Bordeaux Bakery

I can’t say I’ve been that impressed by Bordeaux yet.

We’ve only been when I have an Entertainment Book voucher to use up. Good thing because their prices are pretty high – $8.20 for a cheese/ham/tomato croissant!? I guess you shouldn’t expect normal bakery prices because they also trade as a cafe, but still, I think that’s pretty pricey.

I went in to the one on Thorndon Quay on Saturday to grab some lunch for the hubby and me. I didn’t think it would take 10-15 minutes to heat up a panini. It’s because they put it in the queue along with everyone else’s sit-in lunch orders. It’s pretty silly that they have two microwaves on the cashier side to heat up your pies (they don’t have readily hot pies either, boo), but they don’t have a panini press! So I stood there with my other goodies, including a hot pie, and waited and waited for my panini.

The panini (finally) was nice but nothing special. It was a bit of bacon, some mashed kumara and pesto. Not a lot for the $7.50 I paid for it. The hubby commented that his beef pie was “meh”, later clarifying that “it wasn’t good”. We also got a lemon danish and a custard square. The lemon danish was good but could’ve done with more topping. The custard square is better than most of the floury goop you normally get elsewhere, but not as good as the ones you can get from Aro Bakery.

I haven’t tried their sit-in menu so can’t comment on that. Maybe we’ll give it a go with the next Entertainment Book voucher… we’ll see.

Tags: restaurant, review

Restaurant Review: Zico

Well, well, well.

Unfortunately, my only experience at Zico last week was nothing to rave about.

We were a large group of ten, out for a birthday dinner on St Patrick’s Day, and the waiters were new or just clueless, so perhaps those factors have to be taken into account for the less than satisfactory service.

First off, getting the waiters to take our orders was more trouble than it should have been. We told one of them we were ready to order and he disappeared without saying if he’d be back to take them. Luckily there was another that we caught the attention of, but her order-taking skills could have done with some polishing.

Ms Constantine inquired about the salmon carbonara to ensure she could get it without bacon. Her carbonara didn’t just come without bacon, it came without carbonara sauce and was delivered as a pomodoro pasta – if you work in an Italian restaurant you’d know straight away that there was something wrong with that. The waitress however didn’t seem to know the difference and was confident that the dish was correct.

The three boys ordered the “real deal” lasagne which is “served with green beans and potatoes” as the menu stated. This turned out to be a vegetarian dish made with green beans and potatoes. Far from the meaty tomato-based lasagne that you would expect as the “real deal”. Until we realised that there was no meat in the lasagne, there was much confusion over where the green beans and potatoes were because the menu implied they would be on the side and not in place of the meat.

As for my meal, I ordered the duo of lamb and steak, medium please. It arrived mostly rare and some bits were barely sealed… at that point I just couldn’t be bothered with making more fuss so just ate what I could. The bits that were cooked to my liking did taste good though.

And at least I had a good glass of red wine.

'Medium' does not mean one half done and the other half raw

Tags: restaurant, review, Wellington

Restaurant Review: Satay India

As the name implies, Satay India do both Malaysian and Indian cuisine. However, sometimes they will only offer one of those (I think it depends on which chef is on that night).

Satay India, located on Allen Street in Wellington city, often does two for one deals during the week – as long as you purchase a naan bread with each curry, you get the cheaper curry free.

I have to say that they make the best butter chicken I’ve ever had. It’s creamy, tangy, and has a sweet caramel taste to it. And it’s not too sweet like most butter chickens can be. It’s just divine!

The naans are always fresh and delicious too. They make the stretchy bubbly type of naan unlike the floury bready stuff we got in the UK. In fact, our two experiences of UK Indian wasn’t that great. The butter chicken was a specialty at the restaurant we went to in Wales, but was not like any butter chicken we get here in New Zealand. It was certainly buttery, but not the right colour, texture or taste. It just wasn’t right. All I could think about was how much I missed the butter chicken at Satay India!

Aside from the butter chicken, their other curries are also very good – according to friends. I’ve had a few of the other curries but I like the butter chicken best. I’m not too sure about the vegie ones though – they always seem boring but maybe that’s because I like my meat!

If you are into your beers and curries, Satay India offers Kingfisher Strong in a 650ml bottle. For about $12 a bottle and with an alcohol content of not more than 8%, it’s not a bad deal at all.

They do takeaways which I’ve been told is great value for money too.

The only complaint I have is that you can’t take home any left-overs if you have the banquet. Something that isn’t obvious when ordering. Also, they forgot to give us our poppadoms that time too – boooo!

Tags: indian, restaurant, review

Yay for Green Day

Apart from the ridiculously loud volume level, which is the norm for all concerts, the Green Day concert was everything I hoped it would be.

I missed seeing them back in 1996 but 13 years and a baby later I finally got to experience them live and they were awesome! It was great to hear songs from an array of albums, including some short covers of random songs. They are an entertaining bunch.

Best line of the night: “Get out of here Joseph. You and your biblical name. Tell Jesus I said Hi.” Billie Joe said that to a sweet kid from the audience that volunteered to be his ’sacrifice’ for one of the songs. I love Billie Joe’s sense of humour.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a decent camera with us so we only got some terrible blurry ones on our cellphones.

It was the first time I’d been to Auckland’s Vector arena. Pretty nice venue but what a rip! Parking was $20. Then they confiscated my water bottle and snacks (I still eat like a pregnant lady), and proceeded to charge me $4.70 for a replacement 300ml bottle of water. Not only that, they wouldn’t allow me to keep the plastic bottle and I had to have it in a paper cup – the most expensive cup of water ever! Also, it’s hard to ‘put your hands up in the air’ with a cup of water in one.

It was a good night out though. We left Abby with my parents for what turned out to be a good six hours. I missed out on my evening nap so was absolutely exhausted by her 2am feed. Lucky the hubby was there to tag team with.

Certainly a night to remember for me. Yay for Green Day.

Tags: concert, review