Prickles

Prickles BYO Restaurant is located in the Parap Shopping Village. The meals range from $19.50 for the Vegetarian Nachos to $29.50 for the Angus Scotch, with the majority of meals being $23.50.

I would have to say that by the time we left this restaurant we were all feeling somewhat PRICKLY!

The night started well with two interesting entrées.
Balls of Fire - cream cheese and jalapeños deep fried, served with capsicum jam and sour cream. $11.50
These Balls of Fire were delicious, even though we were left wondering where the capsicum jam was.
Trio of Dips - guacamole, frijoles, and chili con queso, served with char grilled tortilla bread. $16.50
Two out of three were very tasty. Unfortunately the frijoles was bland, lacking in spices.

Entrées

After seeing the entrées I was feeling optimistic that our main meals would be just as appetising. Little did I know that we had such a huge disappointment in store for us.

Tostada - crispy fried corn tortillas, sauteed vegetables, with a choice of either beef/chicken/chili con carne/ or mashed pinto beans.( I chose chicken and chili con carne.) Topped with melted cheese, salsa and fresh lettuce, $23.50. Mushy chicken,  minced meat! Plus the stodgiest, most revolting rice I've ever come across. The crispy fried tortillas were no longer crispy as they were sitting on this bed of stodgy rice, which by the way, was not advertised on the menu. The only thing that remotely redeemed this meal was the spice in the chili con carne.

Tostada

Fajito - sizzling strips of spicy marinated rump served with 3 flour tortillas, grated cheese, lettuce, salad and sour cream, served on a hot plate, $27.50. Chewy steak, scant salad, small serving. Check out the comments below as I'm sure that SSM will have lots to say about why she did not enjoy this meal.

Fajito

Fajito

Trio of Tacos - combination of beef, chicken, chili con carne, mashed potato beans, topped with a rich tomato salsa and fresh lettuce, $23.50. These tacos were also served on top of that stodgy, revolting rice resulting in soggy tacos. Why is a mexican restaurant making chili con carne with minced meat? Don't they know how to make a traditional chili con carne?

Trio of Tacos

I ate because I was hungry, and having lived in Darwin most of my life I wasn't sure what Mexican food should taste like.  My companions, on the other hand, have experienced the best in Mexican food and both of them were horrified at what was served up. One commented, "possibly the best part of the meal was the sour cream."

We noted that no tea or coffee was on the menu. We also noted that the waitress did not come back to our table to take our order for drinks, the ones we had told her we would order with our meals. No desserts, no drinks - get your meal down and go!

Upon leaving we told our waitress that we were disappointed with the meals. She promptly went to get the lady in charge and left us to explain once again what we didn't like. There was no sorry, no offer of a discount, no offer to come back on another night, nothing apart from an explanation on how the "cook" had been fired and that the owner of the restaurant was now the "cook."  She was surprised to hear that we hadn't enjoyed the meals. My advice to this team is that they should travel down south and try out some authentic Mexican restaurants.

PRICKLES, PRICKLES, PRICKLES!

Jilvies Bistro

Jilvie's Bistro can be found in the Plaza Karama Tavern.

This bistro was a pleasant surprise. Staff are working under strenuous conditions, with renovations to the shopping centre resulting in a leaking roof, however they keep the place running as if nothing was amiss. Buckets  are moved occasionally to catch any drips, customers are happy to pay no heed.

Scotch

Jilvie's served us with three excellent, down to earth, pub meals. Tbone steak, egg, and gravy, served with vegetables or salad and chips, $26; Scotch steak with vegetables or salad with chips, $20; Grilled Pesto Chicken,  with salad or vegetables and chips, $19.

T-Bone

All three of us enjoyed our meals. The steaks were a decent size, tender and full of flavour. The Scotch steak was ordered as well done, and the T-bone as medium,  both were cooked to perfection. The chicken was moist and quite a large serving. All meals came with a generous serving of vegetables or salad. The meals were large and certainly hit the spot.

Chicken Pesto

Only one criticism came from the main meals. The Grilled Pesto Chicken had quite a lot of sauce on the plate, hence the salad was swimming in it. Perhaps this salad should have been served on a side dish.

We decided to try the coffee and cake, at $6 a head we figured we couldn't go wrong.  I wasn't impressed with the coffee, I felt it could have been a lot stronger and hotter, however I was impressed that the beans were freshly ground.  We tried all three cakes on offer - Black Forest Cake, Chocolate Mud Cake and Caramel Mud Cake. All three were very tasty. They were only small serves, but after such a large meal that was all we needed.

The staff were pleasant and they actually knew how to wait on tables correctly. This was certainly impressive. This is not a restaurant however these staff had far superior serving skills than others we've been served by in restaurants.

Not bad for a local pub.

Dolly's Bar

Dolly's Bar - Hibiscus Tavern

Dolly's Bar has a pleasant atmosphere, a quaint decor with a mixture of interesting seating options inside, and is obviously a popular spot with the locals.

From off the menu we ordered Marinated Lamb Cutlets, served on a sweet potato mash $19.50; Tuscan grilled chicken breast with Italian salad, served with a light mango coulis, $16.50; and Irish Stew with tender pieces of lamb slow cooked with seasonal vegetables, $13.50.

We had paid for the meals on two dockets but had explained that we were sitting together on the one table. I ordered garlic bread and asked for that to be brought out first. Not long after we sat down the Irish Stew was brought out. Why? Where were the other meals? And where was the garlic bread? We sent the Irish Stew back, we wanted all our meals to be served together.

The young lass informed us soon after that she had found our other docket and the meals would be ready soon.

Yummy garlic bread. The first plus.

There were three medium sized marinated lamb cutlets which were quite tasty and the gravy was delicious.  Unfortunately though this meal was served with chips which really was ridiculous as the lamb chops were already sitting on a bed of (almost cold) mashed sweet potato. Two servings of potatoes on the one plate is not a brilliant idea. There was no salad. The meal was small and not filling at all.

Later on I inquired as to whether a salad should have come with the meal or not, and I was informed that yes, it should have. I asked for a small refund, the manager came out to speak to me, apologised and offered either a free drink or dessert.

Interestingly, we noted several other people had sent their meals back as they didn't have salads either and I overheard one lady at the counter complaining that she had not got hers. It seems the kitchen staff need some further training in this area.

The Tuscan Grilled Chicken was actually a very nice meal indeed. "Beautiful" was the comment given. It was presented nicely with not too many chips. Another plus.

The Irish Stew was a dismal failure. Tasteless, even the seasonings didn't help. The stew consisted of 6 small pieces of lamb, potato puree, potato chunks, carrot and celery. It had a pastry round on top to give the appearance of a pie. At $13.50 this dish was an injury to taste buds and  pocket. We wondered where the traditional dumplings were. This meal needed some drastic improvements.

The free dessert brought out was the Homemade Citrus Cheesecake served with ice-cream, cream and chocolate sauce.  I had seen it on the menu, it sounded good and I wanted to try it out. I shouldn't have. The texture and taste of the base was definitely that of a packet mix. It had a stale taste to it. The chocolate sauce was cheap and nasty, with a sharp taste that went up the back of your nose. Whipped cream from a can! How hard is it to whip fresh whole cream?

We were disappointed. One nice meal out of two. Not good enough.

It was almost a relief when the music forced us to leave.

Santa Fé Cafe - Berrimah

Chicken Spinach
Meatballs

This evening we ventured out of Palmerston and headed to the Hidden Valley Tavern where we dined at the Santa Fé Cafe. A quiet restaurant, but one with a certain charm.

An interesting menu, it was hard to choose.

From off the special's board a delicious meal of Chicken Spinach Meatballs, served with garden salad and rosé sauce was enjoyed immensely. This was, by far, the best meal at our table and well priced at $17.50.

Chilli Beef

The Chilli Beef at $17.50 was also a reasonable choice. Quite a filling meal, not too spicy, very tasty indeed. However, one thing that would have improved  this meal was the choice of meat. The meat wasn't as tender as it should have been making me think it was a cheap cut of meat.


When the Ovenbaked Lemon Pepper Threadfin Salmon was served I immediately thought it looked disappointing. And I was right. It was a small meal,  had little flavour and certainly was not worth $22.90.

Threadfin Salmon

Although the staff were pleasant enough the ladies serving could do with some hospitality training. Leaning across the table and handing the plate to the customer to place on the table themselves is just not the right thing to do.

We didn't stay for extra drinks, dessert or coffee. Need I say more?