The Local Taphouse In St Kilda [pub Review] Update

[absinthe]

well i just got back from the local tap house, the last time i went i could not fault it and gave it 5 stars ( http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...showtopic=44266 )

this time no such luck,

new menu, Tapas menu the portions are tiny and very high in price ($8.50 for a inch cube of pork belly), and the selection was very small, i did not count, but 10 to 12 selections 2 of which were bowls of chips and they were only standard edgell super crunch steak fries (i use the same in my restaurant). the meat balls the SWMBO had were served in a nutty nuts bowl (just like what you would find at the pub on the corner).

They still had a "standard" style bar menu but it was not offered in the restaurant even though we saw 4 kids get served main size meals from the bar menu in the restaurant.

There was only 4 main size meals on the menu, i had the lamb shanks. Although it was written as lamb shankS on the menu i only received a lamb shank, it was fixed after i pointed out the mistake and i received another one. $29 for one shank and some mash is very steep if you ask me.

SWMBO ordered the pappardelle (another of the 4 mains on the menu) it was a simple pasta with olives (not pitted so very hard to eat, pasta should always have pitted olives if you ask me or broken teeth will ensue) and semi dried tomatoes, $22.

so all around a big downer, they had something great but they have lost it.

2 stars

 

[O'Henry]

But what about the beers man?!?! It is a pub after all... I thought you were going to have a go at how they have been keeping them.

 

[absinthe]

[quote name='O'Henry' post='640155' date='Jun 6 2010, 11:28 PM']But what about the beers man?!?! It is a pub after all... I thought you were going to have a go at how they have been keeping them.[/quote]

the beer is still just as good as ever nothing has changed there, but the food was a big let down, and the service wasn't as good as last time but still good enough not to complain about that.

 

[O'Henry]

That is a relief. I have never been to the St Kilda taphouse. Hopefully they haven;t changed both menu's. Not that I go there to eat. Usually get a burger on Oxford st then roll down to the taphouse, as we never leave when there is food still available and drinking on an empty stomach is not so good for me.

@oztapguy - if you are reading this, what's the dealio?!?

 

[oztapguy]

well i just got back from the local tap house, the last time i went i could not fault it and gave it 5 stars ( http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...showtopic=44266 )

this time no such luck,

new menu, Tapas menu the portions are tiny and very high in price ($8.50 for a inch cube of pork belly), and the selection was very small, i did not count, but 10 to 12 selections 2 of which were bowls of chips and they were only standard edgell super crunch steak fries (i use the same in my restaurant). the meat balls the SWMBO had were served in a nutty nuts bowl (just like what you would find at the pub on the corner).

They still had a "standard" style bar menu but it was not offered in the restaurant even though we saw 4 kids get served main size meals from the bar menu in the restaurant.

There was only 4 main size meals on the menu, i had the lamb shanks. Although it was written as lamb shankS on the menu i only received a lamb shank, it was fixed after i pointed out the mistake and i received another one. $29 for one shank and some mash is very steep if you ask me.

SWMBO ordered the pappardelle (another of the 4 mains on the menu) it was a simple pasta with olives (not pitted so very hard to eat, pasta should always have pitted olives if you ask me or broken teeth will ensue) and semi dried tomatoes, $22.

so all around a big downer, they had something great but they have lost it.

2 stars

Hi Absinthe,


Thanks heaps for your feedback. We really appreciate anyone who takes the time to let us know how we are doing good and bad.



As you have noticed, we have taken our restaurant food in a more interesting direction lately and stepped it up a notch, having secured the services of South American born chef Richard Smith (formerly of Punch Lane in the CBD). We have decided to adopt a Spanish influence and offer predominantly tapas in the restaurant area along with 4 main specials which are changed weekly and all cooked with different (and usually current on tap) beers.



Thank you for pointing out the error on the menu regarding the lamb shank(s). This has been rectified today to reflect the fact that just one shank is served. I agree with you also on the pappardelle as I ate that dish on Saturday night and had a similar conversation with the Chef and the olives will now be pitted. Similarly, the Albondigas should certainly not have been served in the Nutty Nuts bowl this was the symptom of one of our busiest ever Sunday nights (for food) and a shortage of the correct dishes but more will purchased this week to avoid this happening again. The chips are actually beer battered rather than the Edgell Super Crunch.



We don't offer the bar menu in the restaurant but we do make an exception for young children. The bar menu is available throughout the majority of the venue and there will be more casual dining seating for about 50+ people when we expand next door later this year.


On the price of the pork belly we apply pretty much the same margin to all dishes and the pork belly is quite expensive to make and is actually prepared over 3 days including pressing and portioning so we charge accordingly.



My apologies your experience wasnt up to the standard you (or we) would have liked this time. I hope that you give us another chance and we can impress you as we did when you gave us 5 stars! Thanks again for your feedback which is always welcome and listened to in our quest to be the best.


Cheers,

Steve

 

[absinthe]

i just think Tapas has had its day, and you may want to look at doing a kids menu or half serves so not to cause any issues, as the friends i was eating with were very annoyed that we had such a small choice of meals and then they see full size bar meals arrive next to us,

if your tapas menu is to work then you will need to make it allot bigger range, the waitress recommend 4 dishes per person this would not have been enough without something to start with so 5 dishes per person so that makes about half your menu selections per person, can you see what i mean?

i still think the price of the pork is very high and i do know what is involved in making such a dish as i have made a similar dish many times myself, i still think it was priced high for the portion,

it is good to hear you will be adding some more "casual dining" but i think you should hold off on the tapas till you have this in place, and it is a little confusing because Tapas as far as i understand it IS supposed to be laid back fun drinking food traditionally one dish is brought out with each drink (in fact it started by using a plate on top of the beer mug to stop flies, then this grew into having some bread or cheese on the plate and it grew from there)

we were disappointed that we couldn't sit and have a very nice meal, not finger food, in the dining room, we could have sat in the noisy bar downstairs (no seats anyway) or outside with the smokers cold and rain.

please try and get some honest feed back from other patrons about your new direction. my table might be the only ones, but we might not, so please find out id hate to see such a nice place go down hill.

thank you for your reply and for listening

Chris

(p.s please update your website as it still has the old menu, this is becoming an issue with lots of restaurants the menu changes and the website does not most of my friends and myself will almost always look at the menu on the website before i go out and alot of places don't do regular updates, its almost as bad as handing out the old menu in the restaurant and then telling people when they are about to order that they have the wrong menu.)

 

[dr_nailz]

I think tapas is a great idea. If I ever started up a brewpub (which would be never, heh), I'd serve tapas with a pony of matched beer, and they'd be served one after the other (eat the dish with the beer, move onto the next, rather than serving them all together). This is pretty much what we did when I was there the other night, except we ordered most of the tapas on the menu (I agree a wider selection would be nice) and tasting paddles. If you could order a tapas "with the beer" (the one that's recommended on the menu) or "without", I think that'd be a great idea.

With the size of the tapas I think there is definitely a sweet spot, but people will have very different opinions between cheap+simple / pricey+extravagant, portion size, range etc. Personally I would have preferred more range, dishes that are easy to eat and easy to share. The meatballs were good, we could share them around. The prawns were good but messy (Peel them for me? Bowl of water?). I too would have preferred to know that the pork belly leaned towards the small+pricey side before ordering.

Lest this be seen as a negative, rest assured: I'm coming back, with more friends. Feed me tapas & beer

 

[oztapguy]

Thanks again for these constructive comments guys. I'll respond in bullet points!

* the new menu is just over a week old and we will be adding more dishes to it from tomorrow.
* we will be introducing a kids menu (available on request)
* once the menu has settled down, we will be offering 90ml tasters (as per our tasting paddle size) to match with tapas dishes. We did this sort of thing with the old menu.. Imagine Moo Brew Imp Stout with chocolate torte for instance..
* the new menu is downloadable as a PDF now on the website and will updated each week so it includes new specials
* the 4 weekly specials (main size) will be posted on our blog each Friday, possibly with Chef's notes.
* the feedback we've had (so far) has been almost totally positive and tips for waitstaff has significantly increased in the past week. I honestly had some reservations about bringing in the new menu before we could offer more casual dining area inside/next door but I have been proven wrong thus far.

Fun story re the origins of tapas Chris..

Keep the feedback coming!

S

 

[eamonnfoley]

My opinion is that if you are going to serve smaller portions at a significant price, the food better be bloody good. I hate seeing a restaurant serving ordinary food in small portions at a high price (Not referring to Taphouse, im sure the food is very good).

When I went to the St Kilda taphouse it appeared to be more traditional (but with a modern twist) pub fare of good quality and fair size portions. Very enjoyable. Surpised to see them moving away from what seemed to be a winning formula.

 

[bum]

tips for waitstaff

attn: everyone

stop this

 

[DUANNE]

attn: everyone

stop this

+ 1. why should good staff have to rely on tips to make a dollar? this is australia ffs.

 

[oztapguy]

My opinion is that if you are going to serve smaller portions at a significant price, the food better be bloody good. I hate seeing a restaurant serving ordinary food in small portions at a high price (Not referring to Taphouse, im sure the food is very good).

When I went to the St Kilda taphouse it appeared to be more traditional (but with a modern twist) pub fare of good quality and fair size portions. Very enjoyable. Surpised to see them moving away from what seemed to be a winning formula.

In short, we aim to please most people by offering both casual (but great!) fare and a separate restaurant where we are now aiming for the la cuisine de la biere to be of a very high standard. Each week we also have 4 special main courses usually featuring a beer we have on tap the same week.

So far the feedback has been very good and it gives us more scope to really play around with cooking with beer, another passion project of mine.

 

[beersom]

+ 1. why should good staff have to rely on tips to make a dollar? this is australia ffs.

They shouldn't !
I like to tip if I have had service above and beyond what I would reasonably expect to be good service and never if it is below this. If their service has added significantly to the experience then I feel a tip is in order .... I tend to tip generously when I do and have also tipped the chef as well as waitstaff.
I resented the fact that when i was in the US I had to tip (unfortunately it is a fact of life for waitstaffs survival over there). I feel that you should be paid a fair wage for a fair days work.
I have worked as a waiter and I never expected tips. No waitstaff should,it is their job and they are being paid for it already. When customers tipped I knew that I was providing a valued service.
It is a good barometer for venues as to the value of the total experience that they are providing. I have also worked for venues where the staff were meant to put all tips in the til..... wow, thats a real incentive for good service.

In summary - NEVER tip unless the service is above and beyond what should be expected and even then don't feel obliged.

 

[bum]

I resented the fact that when i was in the US I had to tip

They are lucky to make $6.50 per hour. You can't apply Australian standards to the US. They don't even have standards. Place is fucked.

My wife (who worked her way through college in the States as a waitress) was mortified when she got here and found out 17 year old kids were making $25 per hour waiting on a Saturday night.

Jam tipping up your arse. (Uh, not you personally, beersom. You know, just generally.)

 

[beersom]

They are lucky to make $6.50 per hour. You can't apply Australian standards to the US. They don't even have standards. Place is fucked.

My wife (who worked her way through college in the States as a waitress) was mortified when she got here and found out 17 year old kids were making $25 per hour waiting on a Saturday night.

Jam tipping up your arse. (Uh, not you personally, beersom. You know, just generally.)

I know what you mean... a friend of mine (from the US) was getting paid $2 p/hr as a waitress (15 yrs ago), the rest was meant to be made from tips.
From what she told me, over there you also get taxed according to what the IRS think you should be making in tips.... sux if the venue is bad.

Tipping does have its place here but is certainly not essential and should NEVER be seen as such...... EVER !

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Not sure what to expect now, come ANHC time in October. It will be two years come October since I was last there (Taphouse) Had planned on having a meal there again, will see what the feel is when we arrive on the 28th of October and we congregate at the Taphouse. My initial impressions ATM, we might be better off catching a pizza on Lygon and then heading down to St Kilda. Really hope the Hargraves ESB is still on :icon_drool2:

BYB

 

[Snowdog]

Tell me you still have that lovely rooftop bar and the salami pizza??? Of course I was hitting the place i nthe early afternoons over Christmas holidays, but it was lovely! The Feral Hop Hog & Razorback made it nice too.

As for tips... I agree with beersom, except for the fact of having to pay tip in the U.S. I don't if service is crap. Conversely, here in Oz I do give a couple bucks to those who go the extra mile (or .6 of a mile ... a km) and give exceptional service. Its my choice here to do that, and my choice there not to do it.

 

[absinthe]

I think tapas is a great idea. If I ever started up a brewpub (which would be never, heh), I'd serve tapas with a pony of matched beer, and they'd be served one after the other (eat the dish with the beer, move onto the next, rather than serving them all together).

i think if that was the case i would have been very happy. instead of it all at once and offer some more larger meals as well, maybe a choice of a pony or the tasting size with tapas to match at 5 or 10 min intervals i would have been very happy and drunk alot more beer.

as a chef i dont expect tip but it is nice when you do get them i agree that wait and kitchen staff shouldn't have to survive on tips but they do make you feel like you are doing a good job, above and beyond is when i tip and i think its the way it should be.

 

[bum]

I've been drinking since pretty early, feel free to ignore the following...

i dont expect tip but it is nice when you do get them

I don't doubt that for a minute but no one comes and give me extra money when I dig a good hole. I take pride in a job well done and that is as much as I can hope for.

above and beyond is when i tip and i think its the way it should be.

This might just be me but here's my wishlist from a waiter/ress: give me a menu bring me a drink take my order when the menus on the table are closed bring me food notice me when I'm trying to get your attention otherwise, **** off Nothing there deserves a tip. "Above and beyond" is annoying to me. "Above and beyond" is what I get in the States and it kills me to tip for it but people generally like it be able to eat so I'll tip to facilitate that because I generally do like people. But you know, don't christing ask me 3 times during my meal if everything is alright. It was the last two times, wasn't it? What have you brought me since that might have changed that?

 

[hefevice]

[snip]

But you know, don't christing ask me 3 times during my meal if everything is alright. It was the last two times, wasn't it? What have you brought me since that might have changed that?

Oh, I @#$%ing hate it when they do that in the States!! They always manage to time it such that you have a mouthful of food...

I will however, on the odd occasion, tip in Australia for fast, friendly, and efficient service.