On the Thursday of our trip to Canberra, I attended the second day of my conference and emerged at 6pm, still with my sore throat, tired but surprisingly hungry.
After our not-so-great experience at the Shanghai Dumpling Cafe the night before, we were ready for something western for dinner.
Kingsley’s Steak and Crabhouse was mentioned in a couple of the guides we’d picked up along the way and it sounded good to us. We took a cab to Bunda St, my tummy growling all the way.
I ordered one of the specials of the day for my starter: Canadian scallops with crispy pancetta, peas and minted butter (AU$21.90). This dish was a wonderful combination of tastes and textures and was a pure pleasure to eat. The scallops were delicious -caramelised beautifully, bouncy and juicy. The minted butter flavour was whisper-subtle, adding a fresh note to the savoury scallops and salty strips of shatter-crisp pancetta. This was my favourite dish of the entire Canberra trip.
We didn’t manage to visit Poacher’s Pantry on this trip, but Jac was pleased to have the chance to eat cured meats from Poacher’s Pantry with marinated feta, olives, crunchy little sour gherkin pickles, toast and duck rillette, all served on a slab of basalt (AU$23.90 – this seemed on the expensive side, but Jac enjoyed it very much).
Jac loves pate, potted meats and terrines – she’d never tried rillette before. She LOVED the duck rillette and enjoyed stabbing her knife through the butter layer on top before spreading it generously on the toast.
As usual, we ordered a Virgin Mary for Jac, a lemon, lime and bitters for me. This was one of the worst LLBs I’ve ever been served in a restaurant. I was given a bottle of lemonade and a glass of ice topped with a squeezed lime wedge, filled with enough bitters for two drinks. Unfortunately, the bartender hadn’t given thought to what would happen when I poured my first drink – yep, lemon lime and much-too-strong bitters. Luckily, there was a large wine glass on the table I could use to remix my drink to make it drinkable.
For her main course, Jac ordered the Alaskan king crab carpet bag – tail end fillet steak stuffed with Alaskan king crab meat, served with tarragon butter and steakhouse chips (AU$37.90, 250g steak). Regular readers, here’s a question for you: see the photo below – what did I like best about the presentation of this dish?
YES! The steak was NOT placed on top of the chips! No steam trap effect, beautiful fresh, hot crispy chips.
The steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare, tender and stuffed in the centre with crab meat.
The thick-cut chips were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I’m glad Jac didn’t mind sharing!
This was a VERY TFP meal, as my scallops were followed by… pork belly!
For my main course I ordered the slow roasted Berkshire pork belly served with braised wombok, spiced apple fritters and soy honey glaze (AU$24.90). I first heard of Berkshire pork when Gordon Ramsay reared two Berkshire pigs in his backyard (then turned them into Christmas lunch) on his TV show The F Word.
The pork was juicy with a melting layer of guilt-inducing fat and golden brown crispy crackling. The portion didn’t look very big but believe me, that square of pork was rich and satisfying. The soft braised wombok was delicious, served as a cross-section, botanical diagram-style. A mystery blob of sweet chutney tasted fruity and figgy. The warm enticing aroma coming off this plate was amazing. I didn’t just eat this dish, I indulged in it.
The apple fritters were a twist on the traditional apple sauce accompaniment to roast pork: two apple rings battered and deep-fried like puffy soft doughnuts, just to make the dish even more wicked.
As we finished our main courses, we decided to share a slice of key lime pie for dessert. Neither of us has ever eaten key lime pie and we were eager to try it. We waited for a waiter to come over to clear our table. And waited. And kept waiting… waiting… waiting… Jac went to the loo, Jac came back to the table… and still we waited, and got sick of waiting.
In addition to all the waiting, trying to get a waiter’s attention became tiresome, so eventually we left without ordering dessert. I was disappointed as I had been looking forward to tasting key lime pie, but we refuse to spend any more money at a restaurant when we’ve been forced to suffer incomplete service. As we stood up to leave, I noticed several vacated tables, all with uncleared main course dishes. I wonder if Kingsley’s chef has ever been disappointed with the restaurant’s dessert sales.
Hot tip to restaurateurs: if you’ve ever wondered why your desserts aren’t selling, pay attention to closer your floor staff – are they actually following through after main course, clearing dishes and offering customers dessert?
When we went to pay, the maitre’d asked how everything was, and Jac answered honestly: “The food was great but no one came to clear our main dishes or take our dessert order, which was a shame, as we would’ve ordered dessert.” The maitre’d looked extremely uncomfortable at Jac’s reply. He fell silent, stopped looking Jac in the eye and suddenly appeared very focused on punching the buttons on the cash register. Not the recommended way to deal with customer feedback and certainly not the way to encourage repeat business.
Kingsley’s, your food was great but your service let you down.
Kingsley’s Steak and Crabhouse
North Quarter, Canberra Centre
125 Bunda St, Civic
Canberra ACT 2601
Telephone: 1300 546 475
www.kingsleys.com.au
Kingsley’s Canberra was the ACT winner of the best steak category in the I Love FOOD Awards 2010
Kingsley’s Steak and Crabhouse is also in Sydney and Brisbane (check website for details).
We dropped by Koko Black next door where everything looked beautiful and smelled intensely of chocolate coma. Perhaps just smelling all that sickly sweetness was enough; we decided to skip dessert and instead headed back to the hotel for much needed rest and digestion.
Canberra trip, November 2010
See the full list of posts from our Canberra trip, November 2010 in correct reading order.
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Too bad a great meal has to finish off like that. Service should be the easiest part. Take it from me, you will love Key Lime pie!
kathy,
Yes, it was a shame, really, as up until then it had been a great meal.
I’m sure I will like key lime pie, whenever it is that I get to try it. :)
Ahh, incomplete service – it happens waaay too often!
But can I say, those scallops look so delicious! So bursty and mmmmmmm, delicious! There’s something about scallops and bacon that is just to die for. :)
Katie,
Yes – I know I must sound like a broken record about this issue. :) Oh yeah scallops and bacon make one of the best combos of all time. As soon as I saw that special up on the board I knew I had to order it.
At least incomplete service is better than what you get most of the time here – bored, rude servers who don’t come to clear your plates. Ever.
Wei-Wei,
Well, yes… at least they weren’t outright rude. :)
For a fancy steak place, bad service is utterly unacceptable. It’s a big loss for them. At least the food was good!
Jon,
Yep. This could’ve been a rave review. Instead, it started brilliantly and ended on a negative note, like the meal.
Just tried the Sydney restaurant – was fantastic, but a shame it wasn’t mirrored at Canberra. The menu obviously differs between states – I would’ve liked to have tried key lime pie!
Forager,
Glad you enjoyed the Sydney restaurant. It was a shame we never did get to try the key lime pie – I can’t recall ever seeing it before on a restaurant menu in Perth or interstate. Oh well!
I check eatabilty just to see if your service problem was a one off sadly it is’nt
http://www.eatability.com.au/au/canberra/kingsleys-steak-crabhouse-canberra/
However those scallops looked brilliant.
katt,
I’m not going to say the scallops made up for the bad service, but they were spectacular. I probably wouldn’t go back to Kingsley’s Canberra, but would be game to try it in Sydney or Brisbane.
It’s a shame that your dinner ended in that manner, TFP. All the food really did look absolutely delectable! I was very close to drooling!
Lydia,
Only close to drooling? I must try harder! :P
loving those scallops. i wonder if they have the same dish in sydney :-)
Simon,
It was a blackboard special so probably not. But it would be great if you could taste it. I’d love everyone to taste it. And I’d like to eat it again!
Oh man, my mouth is WATERING! It all looks scrumptious, particularly that steak ‘n crab Jac ordered. I’d order it medium. I can almost smell those dishes, particularly the salty chips! Am very glad they served chips on the side; I wouldn’t like “steam trap effect” either. This is crazy, it’s very early a.m. here and I’ve not yet cooked breakfast or anything, and it seems I can smell steak! :-p Not a seafood fan, but those scallops are very enticing; would love to try one (or fifty!). Yeah, the battered and fried apple rings; yum.
A pity especially about the uncleared dishes. And from other (now-vacant) tables too? A swank place like that; no excuses. I can imagine your disappointment regarding no dessert follow up. Have never tasted key lime pie. I’ve always been curious about it (and key lime *cheesecake*) but I’m not big on citrus-flavored desserts (except for Orange Drop Cookies hehe) and always opt for something else.
Anyway, of all the places you and Jac dined while in Canberra, “I like” this place best.
Cindy,
Glad you liked it! :D Hahaha, I don’t think I could eat fifty scallops, but a dozen would be no problem. :) I love citrus desserts. So many places do chocolate desserts I get quite excited when there are other flavours to choose from (like citrus). So – now that you’ve read the afternoon tea buffet post – is Kingsley’s still the place you like best? ;)
i don’t even bother to feedback incomplete service anymore to the restaurant. i figure i just wanna get out of there quick as i can and tell everyone i know never to go there because the service was so sucky. and i vote with my feet! case in point would be the red herring in freo. had badly cooked fish and non-existent service about 7 years ago. never been back because there are plenty of places for me to spend my hard earned dollars in.
pei,
Yes. That’s something chefs and restaurateurs completely forget – sure, people can write negative things about bad service and/or food at their blogs, but ultimately an unhappy customer can vote with their feet and tell everyone they know – friends, family, colleagues – about their bad experience at a restaurant. The tip is not to perform badly in the first place, so blogger or not, there are only great stories to tell.
Haha, I didn’t think of myself as a regular reader until you showed us the picture of the steak and chips and I knew immediately why you were pleased. It seems like you’ve left quite the impression! :)
Lena,
Hahaha, awesome! :D It just means I’ve been harping on about it! :)
Such a shame that bad service ruined your chance at trying Key Lime Pie! It’s my favourite pie ever!
Nikki,
Yeah, it was a shame. I’m sure I’ll get to try key lime pie eventually. It’s on my list of foods I want to try (yes, a big list :D).
Oh no! I was going to comment on this as the most tasty looking of all your Canberra meals (which all looked lovely, but this one stood out), but I’m sad to hear about the end of the meal let-down.
That being said: OMG, I just about died when I read about the dishes. That scallops appetizer looks amazing, and I would totally have ordered Jac’s cured meats platter. And the entrees! They looked both innovative and delicious.
It’s interesting.. here in the States I feel like the waiters are always hovering over you when you’re about to finish and I always feel bad because I don’t often like to get drinks or dessert at a restaurant and feel like a big cheapie because I’m always saying “no, I don’t want dessert tonight.” Over here the waiter almost always brings your check to the table, so maybe that’s the difference?
“Over here the waiter almost always brings your check to the table, so maybe that’s the difference?”
That’s a good point, Megan. Whether it’s a family-oriented franchise (Denny’s or Uno), or a Mom & Pop restaurant, usually empty plates are always rather quickly whisked away, dessert is offered, the waitstaff brings the check to the table. I’d certainly expect that to also be the case in fancier US restaurants (it is the couple of times I’ve eaten in such an establishment). Owners of a restaurant should have staff adequately trained, and reinforce *service.* Selling dessert (or any food item) adds up to profits; and profit is why they’re in the business obviously.
Megan,
Hmm. Maybe. But then given how crap the service is I wonder if they’d just bring the check to the table rather than clearing it or offering dessert! I still think about those scallops. I’d love to eat that dish all over again. It was so perfect, so delicious…sigh!
What would I give to bite into that pork belly dish? It looks decadent, especially with the addition of those gorgeous looking apple fritters. DROOL.
Dea,
It was so good. I had no vision of what the apple fritters would look like, but when I saw them, my heart sang – doughnut-shaped apple fritters!!!
Oi, not fair! I have 3 more hours of work left, and now all I want is to hop a flight to Canberra, find this restaurant, and order everything you did for dinner tonight. Though, as I’m coming from the States, it might take until breakfast friday to get there…but I’ve eaten much, much worse things for breakfast.
Amy,
I would eat this food for breakfast, lunch or dinner! Especially those scallops. I’d have them for snacks in between breakfast, lunch and dinner!
What a shame about the Key Lime pie! Take it from me, it’s one of the best.
Especially when eaten right in the Florida Keys. Ah, food memories.
Whit,
I can just imagine how awesome it is to eat real key lime pie in the Florida Keys. I vow to eat key lime pie someday. One day I will get my chance again. :)