http://thecommons.com.au
Menu changes daily
In place of the highly successful pop up restaurant The Pond now sits this cosy restaurant which thankfully still cooks up some reasonably priced comfort food. The black board specials menu seems to change daily depending on what's in season and much of the sustainable seating and decor has been retained. There's mixed reviews about the food and service on Eatability giving a low score of 6.5 after 10 reviews but my experience has been fairly good. A reasonably priced 2007 Chain of ponds Sangiovese Blend 'Novello' ($36/bottle) is easy to drink followed by a Seasonal produce plate ($20) which has a selection of organic looking carrots, battered zucchini flowers and a vegetarian tart. They're all quite tasty although I've enjoyed the zucchini flowers more at MUMU Grill.
There were no complaints with the Lasagne of Biodynamic veal and free range pork ($18) which seems to tick all the guilt free meat eating boxes and the side of green beans ($5) were nicely cooked. Quite a substantial looking Commons Chicken Parmagiana with fresh mozzarella ($22) went down well and I enjoyed my Pumpkin and pine nut ravioli with brown butter and sage ($20) which contained some of the largest homemade ravioli I've seen since the The Pond. The Crème brûlée ($9) was quite small but smooth and had a nice caramelised top although I wished there was more vanilla bean for extra flavour. Our service was pretty accommodating and down-to-earth. For drinks only head downstairs to the bar at the back but we found it had quite a musty and dusty smell so perhaps not too good for asthma sufferers.
SNAPSHOT REVIEW:
PROS: Menu changes daily to use the freshest ingredients, Enjoyable dishes at reasonable prices, Quality ingredients, Cosy decor
CONS: Dishes tend to run out quickly during the night, Varying service experiences (see Eatability), Small stool seating quite uncomfortable over long periods of time, Can get busy
MUST TRY: Ravioli with brown butter and sage
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7 comments:
Those Stools look really uncomfortable!!
The bench and table arrangement reminds me of 2 years eating in the college dining hall!
That is one massive chicken parmagiana.
Oh, I love the Commons (and, unbelievable but true, have finally found a restaurant that I managed to blog about before you :P... http://penguinsandparentheses.blogspot.com/2010/06/true-princess.html). If you venture back and they have the root vegie stew, do give it a try - the dumplings are great!
hi jess, you're not wrong, especially if you're sitting for a while.
hi BGDino, hehe quite possibly you're right but i liked the use of wood and the design of them.
hi sara, i don't think they come much bigger than that do they hehe
hi blue penguin, i'll try and keep in mind about the root veggie stew and the dumplings. i don't think they were available when i visited in May.
I agree with the comment about the uncomfortable stools. I can't remember the last time I sat on something so uncomfortable! We had shocking service, where they forgot our order completely after sitting there for over ah hour! Although once they realised their mistake, the totally made up for it with fast service, lots of food and kept the drinks coming.
hi miss feathers, the stools at phamish aren't particularly comfortable as well. that good to hear they made it up to you guys with the ordering debacle. a good test of a restaurant is the way they treat you when they stuff up.
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