Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Return to the Station Hotel

59 Napier St Footscray, 3011



Our previous visits to the Station Hotel had been OK without really impressing us. This time we went with family and had a really good meal.
 

The service, food and general experience seemed better. Our 4 seat table felt a bit more private compared to the previous 2 seater and arriving a little earlier at 6:30 pm on a public holiday Monday the restaurant was a little quieter than previously.

We seemed to get more attentive service, the staff actually had time to engage with us.
We didn't have starters, and all went for fish. The two red snapper and one flounder market fish were all served with the same prawn, caper and mushroom based sauce.


These were all well received, the fish being well cooked and the only slight reservation was the sauce been very rich and flavoursome and maybe being a bit strong for the fish.


I hadn't had Fish and Chips for a while and couldn't go past that option. The chips were big and hand cut, a vast improvement on the shoe string ones on a previous visit. the fish was firm and tasty in a crunchy fresh batter. The pea lettuce and mint salad went perfectly with the dish and brought back memories of the mushy peas and mint sauce I used to get in Nottingham.

I was the only one to abstain on dessert, but I ended up finishing the sticky toffee pudding and the Crème brûlée. Both of these were lovely, Crème brûlée was a favourite of from my time in France and this was as good as anything I used to get then, good custard and a crunchy top that cracked perfectly when tapped. The butterscotch sauce served with the sticky toffee pudding was the highlight of that dish for me, but the whole thing worked well. The pavlova looked great too.

So it was third time lucky for us at the Station, I'm glad we tried again, and we will come back, but perhaps it's a place thats best to visit with 3 or more to see at it's best...

Station Hotel on Urbanspoon

Taj Palace - Set Menu

We recently visited the Taj again, and this time went for the set menu.

The samosa's disappeared before I had a chance to take a photo, the pastry casing was the best I'd ever had, fresh, slightly crumbly and not at all soggy, the filling was great too.
 
The chicken tikka and seekh kebabs were accompanied by bonus tandori mushrooms.
Some of the chicken was a little gristley but this didn't ruin things.


The mains included a lamb rogan josh and a chicken shahi korma, they were nicely spiced and none was too oily.


The korma was more interesting than I expected, with more spice and flavour than I
normally find in this dish. As always the naan's were great.

We just about managed to fit in the passion fruit ice cream.



Taj Palace on Urbanspoon