I have a rule that I almost never break.
Writing reviews of cafes or restaurants shall never revert to stone age nit picking, whining or saber rattling rants.
Unless a couple of things come up during said cafe or restaurant visit.
And ironically, a restaurant I recently reviewed for EAT Magazine… Browns Social House, broke one of my golden rules in food service.
There are two such rules that cannot be broken.
Raw food that is dangerous when raw. Like chicken or pork.
And cold food that should be hot. That is colder than room temperature. Because that I cannot forgive.
While having a late lunch on Monday (after returning from a glorious weekend at Point No Point cabins), we stopped into Browns Social House for a quick bite; a blackened halibut burger (with fries) for me and a “flat bread” Pizza called the Royale with Cheese for Andrea.
The sandwich was good and as described: Blackened, spicy and thermally hot. The fries, on the other hand, were stone cold. Colder than room temperature… which was utterly remarkable and unacceptable.
Andrea’s flat bread was haphazardly thrown together – a flat bread with chunks of ground meat, sauce and cheese – a burned black on the bottom. Pity. It all could have been done right and these 2 offenses should have never left the kitchen.
Perhaps I have been watching Chef Ramsay and Hell’s Kitchen too much but really… when you think about it, if the chef does not care enough about the obvious details, like hot food, what the heck else is going on in the more subtle areas of preparation?
Anyway. In the end I got a plate of sizzling hot fries (that had not been fully drained of grease) and were way hotter than most people would get. There was no comp other than a “our fries are great and, by the way, sorry about that…”
Unacceptable.
Browns Social House in Victoria will now be on the blocked list for the next indefinite period until they can get their crap together.
Meantime, we now have the Atrium, Zambri’s, PIG BBQ and Al’s Organic Cafe to check out.
Comments please?