Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Kookaburra Bar & Bistro, Halls Gap


I was on the road last week and stayed over in Halls Gap.  There isn't a huge choice of eateries in Halls Gap, so when I walked past this place and observed the menu, I thought "why not?".  There was a good choice of light meals, entrees and mains. 

It doesn't look like much from the street, and with a huge 'Beer on tap' banner hanging on the outside, one could be mistaken for thinking that this place was just a regular drinking hole.  How wrong could we have been?!

Four of us reserved a table for the evening and arrived in good time.  A friendly lady showed us to our table and a waiter came by with menu's for us all.

The menu has a good selection of meals to choose from including fish and kangaroo.  There's even a kid's menu as well.  Tonight there were a few specials and we decided to share an 'Asparagus timbale with spears'.  Put simply it was described as a melt in your mouth asparagas custard baked slowly and served with new season's asparagas spears and reduced cream and rosemary sauce. 

Well, as you can clearly see, the tips are actually green bean tips...not asparagas.  We think they must have run out of asparagas in the kitchen...Nevertheless, it was well presented and we didn't complain as it tasted absolutely devine. 

For mains, I chose the 'Blackened barramundi' - coated in Cajun spices which blacken when grilled.  It comes atop mashed potato with a couple of poached prawns in a fish stock, tomato, wine and cream sauce. 

It was simply devine.  The fish was cooked just right - still soft and flaky.  The sauce was deliciously tasty and the prawns added to the overall Cajun inspired dish.  A thoroughly enjoyable meal. 

Service was attentive and friendly; the food was delicious and the portions were generous.  A great place to come to if you are visiting Halls Gap.

Kookaburra Bar & Bistro
125-127 Grampians Rd, Halls Gap VIC 3381
Tel:  +61 (03) 5356 4222 

Lunch: Midday-3pm Sat & Sun
Dinner: 6pm onwards Tue-Sun


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2 comments:

  1. I went there with my wife and child; my little girl is a well behaved 3 1/2 year old. We left after 10 minutes in disgust - because we had a child, we were forced to sit outside of the main dining area in a cold, dimly lit, separate room - right where everyone lines up to be seated.

    The restaurant was empty, there were only a few reserved tables.

    So - if you have a young child... avoid this place!

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  2. We visited this place last week while staying in the Grampians for a few days. The woman who greeted us (and I use the term lightly) was quite rude when we said we didn't have a booking which I thought was unnecessary seeing as it was only just past 6pm and the place wasn't even half full! She made some comment about "everything happening at once" and I was about to turn and leave but we were taken to a table and left for several minutes before a menu was presented.
    The waiter fancied himself as a bit of a wine connoiseur and told me my choice of a local sauvignon blanc would complement the chilli in my main dish of Thai style prawns. As it turned out, the dish was very bland and needed no balancing at all. In fact, I would go so far as to say the sauce on the prawns was out of a bottle.
    My husband did no better with his "Cajun barramundi". Coming from the deep south of America, he knows his Cajun food and said he thought this fish had been blackened using a blow torch as the Cajun flavours were non existent.
    There are not a lot of places to eat in Halls Gap but this would be one of the worse.

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