Wildfire

Spent Valentines Day At This Restaurant. We went for the $165 Degustation Menu.  Neither me or my wife are fussy eaters but almost none of the dishes were any good. Our table was average and we felt like we were sitting in the middle of a fridge.  They have an issue with their airconditioning system which results in extremly cold drafts of air blown directly into your face upstairs where we were sitting.   CITRUS CURED OCEAN TROUT: We were served Tasmanian salmon instead and this was the only dish that was not too bad.  BLUE EYE COD: The fish was overcooked and the dish was below average. CHICKEN LEG ‘BALLOTINE’: We were served some form of a processed chicken patty that tasted NOTHING like a Chiecken Leg. It was more like a chicken skin with fat mixed in. Couldn't even touch this one.  Horrible Horrible dish. SUFFOLK LAMB LOIN: The lamb was boiled rather than grilled and I am a Lamb cutlet lover and I couldn't even finish this dish. Horrible... LIQUID LEMON CHEESECAKE: Tasted totally off too.. Sour but in a bad way. Didn't smell good either. STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM” - Was told it was CRANBERRIES & CREAM by the waiter even though the dish clearly had strawberries. A mishmash of Strawberries and some cheap breakfast cereals... Nothing special and didn't taste good either. To top it off, one of the waiters was very rude and he was charging the tables $215/head instead of $165/head and he was very adamant that he was right even though he was clearly wrong as the $215 charge was for matching wines menu which none fo the tables around us had taken up.  Some poor/in-experienced souls actually complained but when treated with rudeness by the waiter backed off and paid the $215 and left ($100 extra per table!)  We complained and the manager pointed out the problem to the waiter and he got told off and our bill along with the batch of other bills with it had to be adjusted for the correct amount. And how long were we waiting for each serve? This is the fun bit. We were told that everyone coming for the degustation menu needs to be seated by 7:30. We arrived at 7:30, our first dish was served at 8:25 and then it took them another 3 hours to serve the remaining 4 dishes!!!! People were actually walking off their tables in between serves because they couldn't stand the cold sitting down for 3 hours! The food that was being served downstairs (the non Degustation menu) "looked" much better than what were being served upstairs but then again the food upstairs "looked" good as well. Either way any restaurant that classifies itself as top end and serves this sort of rubish to its clients should be shut-down or have its chef fired.  We spend in excess of $15,000 in restaurants on an annual basis and this place really didn't compare to places that are 1/4 the price. This place nearly ruined valentines day for us. I don't think we would ever go back to this place. Oh and if you are going for the view, don't bother. Apart from about 10 tables on the far right of the restaurant on the top floor everyone else gets none or very little views of anything.  One positive thing was that their drinks were not bad but that's not something to commend the restaurant for after-all I can get a good drink in any bar or club. I come to a restaurant for good food and this one definitely didn't measure up.

Posted on Wed 15 Feb 2012 00:20:44