Gouger Fish Cafe
It was a fairly warm Friday night and the seaside was calling me. However after another week of hard yakka and work being a fair way away from the seaside I had to settle for a seafood restaurant. The Gouger Fish Cafe was chosen because of its cool blue themed lighting and decor.
As the restaurant was obviously on Gouger Street I was able to pick up a bottle of wine from Vintage Cellars in Central Market. This place has a good range of more up market wines, not quite as special as the ones in say East End Cellars but still more varied and refined than your average liquor store. Having been persuaded to try something the wine chosen was the 2003 Arneis from the Garry Crittenden 'i' range of wines.
Arneis is a supposedly rare Italian white grape but after drinking it I can see it's rare for a good reason. However I must concede that Italian white wines are generally fairly insipid minerally wines because that's the way they they like it over there. Anyway the wine itself was textbook mineral and some faint hint of pear and stone fruit. Slightly harsh and very insipid but it was served rather warm, more chilling may have given more of an impression of crisp, inoffensive white wine.
Gouger Fish Cafe is a sensible restaurant with a vaguely nautical theme about it, a sensible place for grown ups to eat fish'n'chips. The menu is middle-of-the-road Australian seafood with a few tame quasi-asian and mediterranean dishes in addition to the usual fish'n'chips albeit done with a bit more finesse than your local fish shop. I had chilli balmain bugs for entrees, this turned out to be cooked balmain bugs in a chilli sauce that had more than a hint of sweetness.
The balmain bugs had been simply cooked I presume by quickly boiling them although I felt they could have been a tad more tender. The sauce did complement the texture of the seafood but it did overpower the gentle savoury sweetness of the balmain bugs. Overall a decent dish but with the potential to be a lot better if the sauce were less sweet and concentrated and the balmain bugs more tender.
For entrees there was no other choice in a vanilla fish cafe like this but to have the King George whiting fillets battered and served with chips. King George whiting is such a delightful eating fish that as long as it's reasonably battered and fried it will taste divine. The flesh is delightfully light and tender matching perfectly with the slight crunch of the batter. The tartare sauce and salad that went with it were standard fare, nothing spectacular, indeed the salad was the stuff anyone rustles up at home.
Overall, like the wine and menu, dining at the Gouger Fish Cafe was a mildly pleasant experience with nothing wrong but nothing spectacular. My choice of wine was a disappointment in this case, but at least it was a lesson learnt about Italian white wines. The service was rather ordinary like their paper napkins, my main gripe being the wine wasn't properly chilled. Perhaps a more zingy wine like a Clare riesling and a better balanced entrée would have made it a better experience.
As the restaurant was obviously on Gouger Street I was able to pick up a bottle of wine from Vintage Cellars in Central Market. This place has a good range of more up market wines, not quite as special as the ones in say East End Cellars but still more varied and refined than your average liquor store. Having been persuaded to try something the wine chosen was the 2003 Arneis from the Garry Crittenden 'i' range of wines.
Arneis is a supposedly rare Italian white grape but after drinking it I can see it's rare for a good reason. However I must concede that Italian white wines are generally fairly insipid minerally wines because that's the way they they like it over there. Anyway the wine itself was textbook mineral and some faint hint of pear and stone fruit. Slightly harsh and very insipid but it was served rather warm, more chilling may have given more of an impression of crisp, inoffensive white wine.
Gouger Fish Cafe is a sensible restaurant with a vaguely nautical theme about it, a sensible place for grown ups to eat fish'n'chips. The menu is middle-of-the-road Australian seafood with a few tame quasi-asian and mediterranean dishes in addition to the usual fish'n'chips albeit done with a bit more finesse than your local fish shop. I had chilli balmain bugs for entrees, this turned out to be cooked balmain bugs in a chilli sauce that had more than a hint of sweetness.
The balmain bugs had been simply cooked I presume by quickly boiling them although I felt they could have been a tad more tender. The sauce did complement the texture of the seafood but it did overpower the gentle savoury sweetness of the balmain bugs. Overall a decent dish but with the potential to be a lot better if the sauce were less sweet and concentrated and the balmain bugs more tender.
For entrees there was no other choice in a vanilla fish cafe like this but to have the King George whiting fillets battered and served with chips. King George whiting is such a delightful eating fish that as long as it's reasonably battered and fried it will taste divine. The flesh is delightfully light and tender matching perfectly with the slight crunch of the batter. The tartare sauce and salad that went with it were standard fare, nothing spectacular, indeed the salad was the stuff anyone rustles up at home.
Overall, like the wine and menu, dining at the Gouger Fish Cafe was a mildly pleasant experience with nothing wrong but nothing spectacular. My choice of wine was a disappointment in this case, but at least it was a lesson learnt about Italian white wines. The service was rather ordinary like their paper napkins, my main gripe being the wine wasn't properly chilled. Perhaps a more zingy wine like a Clare riesling and a better balanced entrée would have made it a better experience.
Labels: restaurants, wines
posted by Forrest Rivers at 20:48
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