A vegetarian visiting a steak house is rarely going to lead to glowing reviews, but I went to Steak Ministry determined to give it a fair go. As per usual, I had spent time perusing the menu, and thoroughly familiarised myself with the one vegetarian option on the menu. I may be sound a little sarcastic, but honestly, I’m not trying to be. I definitely didn’t expect multiple vegetarian options on a steak house menu, besides, the one option that they did have sounded pretty delicious, so off I went on a Monday night to pop my steak house cherry.
Our booking was for 7:30pm, and being the eagerlings (or rather hungrylings) that we are, we arrived at about 7:20pm. The restaurant was surprisingly busy for a Monday night, almost three quarters full, and both the floor and kitchen were bustling with staff. We were seated almost immediately, handed our menus, and told that someone would be around shortly to take our order.
Fast forward about 15 minutes, and we were still waiting. Finally someone came around, but all they did was take our drinks order and walk away. It took another 20 minutes for our drinks to arrive and then the waiter was finally happy to take our meal order. I ordered the vegetarian option that I had thoroughly studied from the menu, and the other half ordered a steak, obviously. It was now 7:55pm.
Credit where credit is due, almost immediately after our order was taken, two pieces of bread and some oil were placed on our table. I was starving, so I probably could have wolfed down a whole loaf, but two pieces for two people was going to have to do. I’m always a sucker for good bread, and this was a decent sort. I just wish there was more. Almost as soon as we were chewing the last of the bread, our board was whisked away, almost as a reminder that prompt service was available when they wanted to offer it. And then we were back to waiting.
Our meals didn’t arrive until 8:45pm. Yes, you read that correctly, we waited for one hour and twenty five minutes for our meals. By this time I was pretty hangry, and ready to inhale my plate. My chosen dish was deep fried stuffed zucchini flowers with quinoa and ricotta, roasted pumpkin puree and chilli chocolate sauce. It sounded like an interesting dish and I was excited to eat it. I cut into the first zucchini flower, and there was a definitely crunch, indicating a crisp batter. Unfortunately that’s where they excitement ended. The stuffing was rather bland. When someone says there is a quinoa and ricotta stuffing, I assume that there also will be herbs, spices, seasoning and other flavour inducing elements. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so presumptuous. The two or three little dollops pumpkin puree were equally bland, and I really could taste any sign that they had been roasted. There were some thin slices of heirloom beetroot and microherbs to garnish the dish that did little to enhance the flavour. And the chocolate chilli sauce which I had been apprehensive about (I am not a chilli chocolate fan) was just a bizarre way to attempt to tie the dish together. Overall, the dish looked beautiful but really didn’t work for me.
The other half ordered a medium rare steak with mushroom sauce. When you go to a steak house, it really is fair to expect a perfect steak, after all, that’s what they advertise themselves for. So imagine his disappointment when he discovered that his medium rare steak was more medium than medium rare. The mushroom sauce was also very watery and could have done with a lot more reduction. When the steak was served, the waitress asked if he would like some mustard with his meal, because apparently the mustard goes very well with the meat. He said yes, but in another nod to the super efficient service, the steak was consumed, the plates were cleared, and yet the mustard never arrived.
The highlight of the meal was the onion rings. We decided to order something other than the usual side of chips, and so we chose onion rings. These were delicious! Crispy, full of flavour and so morish. They were served with an amazing smoked garlic mayonnaise. Unfortunately there was only about twelve onion rings and 2 blobs of mayonnaise. At $9, I would have wanted at least thirty onion rings and a sauce bowl full of the mayonnaise.
Overall our experience at Steak Ministry was pretty underwhelming. Waiting almost an hour and a half for some pretty average meals is really not my thing, and it is unlikely that we will be back. I’m sure there are other steak houses, with a vegetarian option on the menu, that we can visit when the other half needs his steak fix.
Our booking was for 7:30pm, and being the eagerlings (or rather hungrylings) that we are, we arrived at about 7:20pm. The restaurant was surprisingly busy for a Monday night, almost three quarters full, and both the floor and kitchen were bustling with staff. We were seated almost immediately, handed our menus, and told that someone would be around shortly to take our order.
Fast forward about 15 minutes, and we were still waiting. Finally someone came around, but all they did was take our drinks order and walk away. It took another 20 minutes for our drinks to arrive and then the waiter was finally happy to take our meal order. I ordered the vegetarian option that I had thoroughly studied from the menu, and the other half ordered a steak, obviously. It was now 7:55pm.
Credit where credit is due, almost immediately after our order was taken, two pieces of bread and some oil were placed on our table. I was starving, so I probably could have wolfed down a whole loaf, but two pieces for two people was going to have to do. I’m always a sucker for good bread, and this was a decent sort. I just wish there was more. Almost as soon as we were chewing the last of the bread, our board was whisked away, almost as a reminder that prompt service was available when they wanted to offer it. And then we were back to waiting.
Our meals didn’t arrive until 8:45pm. Yes, you read that correctly, we waited for one hour and twenty five minutes for our meals. By this time I was pretty hangry, and ready to inhale my plate. My chosen dish was deep fried stuffed zucchini flowers with quinoa and ricotta, roasted pumpkin puree and chilli chocolate sauce. It sounded like an interesting dish and I was excited to eat it. I cut into the first zucchini flower, and there was a definitely crunch, indicating a crisp batter. Unfortunately that’s where they excitement ended. The stuffing was rather bland. When someone says there is a quinoa and ricotta stuffing, I assume that there also will be herbs, spices, seasoning and other flavour inducing elements. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so presumptuous. The two or three little dollops pumpkin puree were equally bland, and I really could taste any sign that they had been roasted. There were some thin slices of heirloom beetroot and microherbs to garnish the dish that did little to enhance the flavour. And the chocolate chilli sauce which I had been apprehensive about (I am not a chilli chocolate fan) was just a bizarre way to attempt to tie the dish together. Overall, the dish looked beautiful but really didn’t work for me.
The other half ordered a medium rare steak with mushroom sauce. When you go to a steak house, it really is fair to expect a perfect steak, after all, that’s what they advertise themselves for. So imagine his disappointment when he discovered that his medium rare steak was more medium than medium rare. The mushroom sauce was also very watery and could have done with a lot more reduction. When the steak was served, the waitress asked if he would like some mustard with his meal, because apparently the mustard goes very well with the meat. He said yes, but in another nod to the super efficient service, the steak was consumed, the plates were cleared, and yet the mustard never arrived.
The highlight of the meal was the onion rings. We decided to order something other than the usual side of chips, and so we chose onion rings. These were delicious! Crispy, full of flavour and so morish. They were served with an amazing smoked garlic mayonnaise. Unfortunately there was only about twelve onion rings and 2 blobs of mayonnaise. At $9, I would have wanted at least thirty onion rings and a sauce bowl full of the mayonnaise.
Overall our experience at Steak Ministry was pretty underwhelming. Waiting almost an hour and a half for some pretty average meals is really not my thing, and it is unlikely that we will be back. I’m sure there are other steak houses, with a vegetarian option on the menu, that we can visit when the other half needs his steak fix.
0 comments:
Post a Comment