Salt n Peppa

Salt n Peppa, Cafe Ristorante, is located on Woodlake Boulevarde, Durack, Palmerston. Ph 8932 1818.

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.

Wildberry Stack

We don't normally treat ourselves to dessert, but this evening we decided to try our luck. Chocoate Mousse, Wildberry Stack and Chocolate Mud Cake. All baked on the premises. The Wildberry Stack was the nicest of the three. All three desserts were beautifully presented and we were especially delighted to find they were served with real cream. The Chocolate Mousse was disappointing, lacking texture.

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.

Choc Mousse

Choc Mud Cake

This restaurant was busy, all tables being reserved. Since opening nine weeks ago they have done a roaring trade and have been packed nearly every night.

It would be wise to book if you intend going.

Fasta Pasta

Fasta Pasta, located next to the Casuarina Shopping Centre, is a popular local fast food franchise. I'm loathe to call this establishment a restaurant, it's more like an eatery. Being very noisy; it reminded me of an eatery in a large shopping centre. Patrons were casually dressed, overly casual in some instances. Thongs and singlets.


We had to line up to order our food, taking 10 minutes to move along the line. A friendly and courteous young lady took our order, apologising for the wait. We only had to wait 20 minutes for our meals, pretty good considering how busy they were.

Tortellini Zucca; at $16.40 this was a reasonably priced meal. Such a shame I could not eat it all due to the fact that the tortellini tasted like floury dough. The accompanying sauce, chicken and pumpkin tasted delicious. If I'd had a plate of that alone, minus the tortellini, it would have been a great meal.

Due Funghi; This meal was ordered from off the special's board, another reasonably priced meal at $17.90. It looked appetising with its crisp asparagus and porcini and swiss mushrooms.

Linguine Turismo; A delicious meal, reasonably priced at $17.90, however it did not have a lot of seafood.

We also ordered the Cheese Bread - melted mozarella on crispy toasted bread. Mozarella looks great melted, but it lacks flavour.

We noticed that a nearby table, with several young children, were a little agitated as they had been waiting quite some time and their children were getting hungry. A couple of the adults had been served their meals before the children. Food establishments need to consider children when preparing meals. If all the meals can't be served at the same time, then the children should be served theirs first. This would make the dining experience more pleasurable for all concerned.

Overall, I'd say this eating establishment is well priced, with an interesting selection on the menu. As long as you don't mind the casualness and associated noise I'm sure you would find a meal of your liking and would enjoy the visit.

We didn't stay too long, no after dinner coffee or cakes, far too noisy for my liking. We moved on to quieter surroundings.

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!