NOTE: Salt n Peppa now has a liquor licence.
This restaurant is a welcome addition to Palmerston's eating establishments. Palmerston has been sorely lacking fine cuisine...now we have Salt n Peppa...this is a must-go-to restaurant. It has a warm, cosy ambience for diners seated inside, with its ochre hues and panoramic mirrored windows. The outside seating also looked comfortable; diners sitting on the front veranda made a picturesque setting.
The staff were pleasant and waited on us in a professional manner.
We started with Roasted Garlic Focaccia, $6.60 - four large, delicious pieces.
Moroccan Lamb - marinated lamb cooked medium rare served on a red lentil mash, harissa sauce and a mint yoghurt, at $19.00, was an absolutely delicious meal. The lamb was tender and not too pink; it melted in your mouth. The lentil mash had a slight spicy tang to it which made it very pleasant indeed. The harissa sauce and yoghurt complemented the meal with their unique flavours. The meal was served with baby spinach. I'm not sure if this meal was meant to be hot or warm. It came out warm, I wondered if it had been sitting for a while and had lost its heat. This however, did not detract from my enjoyment of the meal.
Thai Prawns - marinated prawns, vermicelli pancake served with a mixed herb salad and chili, ginger and lemon grass dressing (imported), $28.00. Nine extremely tasty butterfly prawns, a rather plain looking salad, and an interesting looking vermicelli pancake. This was an unusual mix that worked well.
Crispy Skinned Chicken Kiev - stuffed avocado and Camembert cheese served on wilted spinach, potato fritter and a home made hollandaise sauce, $29.90. This meal caused the most discussion at the table. It was chicken on the bone which looked like it had been poached then lightly fried, and it was swimming in chicken jus (which was not mentioned on the menu.) A diner at a nearby table ordered the exact same meal and hers looked quite different, with not as much jus, and the chicken looked crispier with a definite charred finish to the bone. We wondered what had happened to ours.
The meal was served with home made bread rolls, although we did have to ask for them after we noticed that every other table had been served with bread rolls and ours hadn't. They were delicious. It's really good to see a restaurant that still serves bread rolls, so few do these days.
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| Wildberry Stack |
The chef, Chris, came out to chat with diners at the end of the evening. It's great to see a chef who is keen to learn if his patrons enjoyed their meals, he took on board all our comments. He was eager to chat about his recipes and ideas for future menu changes.
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| Choc Mousse |
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| Choc Mud Cake |
It would be wise to book if you intend going.
I enjoyed dining at Salt n Peppa. The service was good. My meal, Thai prawns, looked good and tasted great. It was nice that the chef showed an interest in his customers, it doesn't happen often!!
ReplyDeleteBYO at the moment, but soft drinks, coffee and an abundance of water are available. I will be going back!!
Good luck guys, hope you will be around for a loooong while.
I didn't think the salad with my meal looked plain, I did wonder about the vermicelli pancake, it was a little 'different', but with the other food on the plate it was very enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteSounds as though you have have hit the jackpot...Can imagine when they start advertising, you will have to reserve well in advance
ReplyDeleteI actually learned about this place from my daughter so decided that we should try it. The decor was pleasant and the wait staff friendly, polite and helpful.
ReplyDeleteMy meal was the most expensive ordered and my expectations of it from reading the menu high. There was no Specials board but Chef Chris assures us that one is shortly on the way. The chicken was moist and tender but the avocado and camembert filling were 'lost'. Neither could be tasted and the camembert had obviously 'escaped' during the cooking process. The Hollandaise was lovely and gave flavour to what otherwise would have been a somewhat bland dish. The chicken jus was a surprise in that it wasn't mentioned on the menu. There was so much jus in my plate that when I requested a spoon the waitress asked if it was for my soup. The skin wasn't crispy and was just slightly coloured. Other dishes that followed mine looked as though they had been longer in the oven and were much more visually appealing. Was the chicken kiev worth $29.90? No! Not mine anyway as it lacked flavour and became saturated with jus.
The desserts were presented beautifully and looked mouth watering. The most difficult to eat was the chocolate mousse. Despite its wonderfully light texture it lacked depth of flavour which made for a mouthful of ambiguous 'cloud'. You knew it was chocolate mousse but if you closed your eyes you became uncertain of exactly what you were eating. If we hadn't been sharing the mousse it would have been impossible to finish.
Chef Chris spent a good amount of time discussing his menu and future plans with us. Given his considerable experience and enthusiasm I have no doubt that Salt n Peppa will be a force to be reckoned with on the Darwin Restaurant scene. I would recommend that you give Chef Chris and his team a go.There aren't too many places in Darwin where you can have a chat with a Chef that actually listens to his diners?
Have booked for this weekend.The restaurant is now fully licensed and no longer BYO. I am looking forward to a good night out.
ReplyDeleteHey guys, my partner and I went there last week and we found it fabulous.. Great team of staff.. We ordered the steak w/ oysters and Worcestershire sauce, and it was perfectly cooked. Our only suggestion is that there was probably a little too much sauce.. Other than this, the night was fantastic. Great work to Chris and his team.
ReplyDeleteCannot say much good about any dish served to us.."Trio of dips" lacked flavour, and seemed to have come out of a packet! "Scotch on the rocks" had the driest oysters i have ever tasted, the Steak had the appearance of being braised and the so called Kilpatrick sauce was so sweet it was a distraction. All in all will not recommend to any of my associates.
ReplyDeleteWe went there saturday night after only hearing good things, our meal was lovely. A little disappointed in the size of the kids meal. My eight year old ordered the spaghetti and it was about the quantity of a small saucer. Went to Maccas afterwards.
ReplyDeleteCOngratulations to Chris and his staff!! We have enjoyed hearty breaky's, and delicious dinners - all wrapped up with personalised service, value for money & close to home!! See you again soon
ReplyDeleteWe have been there a few times now, always ended up ordering the same thing, salt & pepper squid with chips and salads, really nice though I thought it's a bit salty on the squid but love the chips and salads! Hubby loves the breakky and also steak sandwiches. The service is great! the lady owner's always friendly and chatty. The chef is very flexible and always willing to make lunch menu food for us eventhough at the time it was still breakky time. A warm and welcoming cafe.
ReplyDeleteAmazing food and service!!!! Finally a restaurant in Palmerston that is consist and friendly. Have been six different occasions and each time left happy. Talked about it all the way home.
ReplyDeleteApart from the fact that our entree took 40 minutes to arrive after ordering, which is acceptable I guess as they did have a large group that evening, what would have been nice is an apology for the wait, however upon reflection apologies are not what this establishment are good at. Shortly after we received out main meal, as a regular customer we had our usual of Crispy Skin Chicken Kiev and my partner had his favourite Lamb Shanks, unfortunately when my partner began to eat the lamb Shank it was stone motherless cold, it had icicles! We brought this to the attention of the wait staff who took it away and within 5 minutes we had another Meal, this time thankfully it was hot. We finished our meal, which was now marred by the earlier experience. We presented to pay for our meal and was asked how it was, I stated that the second time it was better, this was met with the question of what had happened the first time, after explaining the oversight of the cook, I was met with the explanation that doesn’t happen as they are cooked for three hours, I told her again that it was cold and something must of happened, she stated that she would look into it, no apology no offer of a free anything. The following day I contacted them to find out what they had looked into and was told that they don’t have a freezer that it was in the fridge and micro-waved, and as they gave me a replacement meal, there was nothing more they could do and still, no apology. I have since called the health department and will follow this up, as I and many others I know like this cafe and would like to think that the customers are treated correctly and you get what you pay for. At the end of the day we all make mistakes, all that was required was a sympathetic ear, not necessarily a free anything, I was treated badly and paid $88 for the privilege.
ReplyDeleteMy partner and i went to this restaurant and it was horrible. Food was plain and over priced for what we got. Both my partner and i did not eat our main as it was that bad. We thought we ordered something simple but some how salt and pepper manage to stuff up a so called chicken keav. Will not be going back
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