20200214 Jamie's Kitchen and Pancake Kitchen DRINK: Lots... TURN: Richard

 It was Con, Stephen and me sitting in the booth in the Elephant putting the world right with our insights about politics and religion. Yes, the beers did help :-)

Chad isn't with us tonight - he is at a Fringe event. Richard was also at a show, but had booked at Jamie's Kitchen for 7.45.

We strolled down the mall, stopping halfway for a refreshment at the Richmond. Upstairs is a bit swish from the downtown office workers.

We arrived at Jamie's nearly 8pm. Richard was there sitting at a table near the entrance way. Richard had booked a circular table for 6 just in case Jen and Chad could make it.

Coming back to Jamie's, I remember all the reasons why I liked the venue the first time I came. It has a certain buzz about it. Great layout, feels like one big dining room yet intimate with the decor.

We had a look at the menu. This is the first point of recommendation for the restaurant. The writing was simply too small to read, especially the size 4 font at the bottom of the menu which explained what each of the symbols were.





Stephen asked for a house wine, but Jamie's doesn't do 'cheap' wine - the cheapest glass on the menu was $13. When the waitress brought the wine - albeit in a very large glass, the actual serving size was ridiculously small. The wine barely filled the bottom of the glass. The taste of the wine was awful too. Stephen said he had tasted better $7.99 bottles of wine.

Not a good experience drinks wise. The rest of us had table water which the waitress was all too happy to replace halfway through the meal.

Con indulged in the crab linguine - $28. He said that it had no flavour and was very bland. He said that he could probably make it at home better for less than $5.

Richard's meal consisted of a rocket and Parmesan salad with Tagliatelle Bolognese - $26 + $7. Richard thought that for what it was, it was way too pricy. He felt the pasta was a tad too hard and it wasn't hot enough. There could have been a little extra on the plate.

Stephen had, what I think, was the raw end of the deal. Not happy after his serving of wine, he was even more disappointed with the serving size of his meal. I think there were a total of 6 pasta parcels. Stephen had the Lamb Ravioli. Wait for it... $32 for his pasta! We had a serving of 'funky chips' which were again, so small that it contained less than 10 chips.

I had the Prawn linguine. What can I say? It looked good. It was a reasonable serving size. I felt the pasta was cooked perfectly and the prawns were fresh and delicate. The flavour was all there. My meal was $33 - way too expensive for what it was.

It would have been nice to have had complimentary bread - at the price we all paid, they could have done that without any problems.

Richard had a voucher so he got 15% off bill because he's a Fringe member.

Scores:
Me - 8 (minus 2 points for the cost) so now 6
Stephen - 5.5
Richard - 6
Con - 4

There was no Chad tonight and we very guiltily snuck over to PANCAKE KITCHEN!!! for dessert.

To mark the occasion, we flagged down a passerby and had this group shot especially for Chad :-)

Yummy pancakes - way too filling.

It is the opening of the Fringe and the other end of town was extremely busy, the tables in the streets and the end of Rundle Street closed off. Con, Stephen and I strolled back up to the car (parked near the old German club).

It's Con's turn next week, so I think it's another visit to the tried and tested Bun Cha.