Salt n Peppa Cafe Ristorante
• By Tuan Nguyen
Darwin Foodies have received a couple of recommendations aboutSalt n Peppa Café Ristorante in Palmerston and their online menu indeed looked very drool-worthy. One chick said these guys do the best pasta in all of Darwin, even better than certain other fancy Italian places. Interesting claim indeed.
Friday was date night so me and the lady used the opportunity to head on down the track for a nice meal and a Darwin Foodie road trip. After some minor dramas with getting lost in the car park, we managed to arrive at our destination in one piece (it was dark ok).
The inside is nice with an open plan design with the only thing separating the kitchen and indoor dining area is a bench and wine rack. That’s cool in my books as you get to see and hear your food being cooked, adding to the atmosphere and experience.
We started with the eggplant gateau for $14.50. The eggplant silky smooth and the sauce very flavourful. Beautiful way to start. Although there were many interesting mains on the menu like the Asian spiced duck, barramundi on sweet potato mash and kangaroo fillet, I had a craving for a good old fashioned chunk of cow. I rarely eat it at home so when dining out, my taste buds cry for a big steak.
My last beef outing was a major let down, with a 600 gram eye fillet on the bone that came out well done instead of medium rare. Man, that ain't even close in anybody's books. Needless to say, that place won't be getting a plug on Darwin Foodies. But I heard the steak at Salt n Peppa was good and so I ordered the grain fed scotch fillet with home made chips for $32. I asked for medium rare and I was happy with what I got. It was nicely seasoned with great steak flavour. I think it could have done with a jus though, the other steak options on the menu have it included so I wonder why this one didn't?
The lady usually gets salmon when eating out at non-asian places and she stayed true to form, ordering the Atlantic salmon with vegetable frittata and hollandaise sauce for $32. She gave it a score of 10, which is no mean feat. I think she's had the Salmon just about everywhere else in Darwin so that's high praise coming from her.
The service started out pretty shoddy I have to say. I made a reservation and when we arrived, I'm not sure what the norm is here but we were expecting to be seated. The waitress walked right past us several times without even a hello. I'm pretty sure I had left my Harry Potter invisibility cloak at home. Tired of waiting, we just sat ourselves down not too impressed. Also without a menu, technology came to the rescue and we resorted to looking at the one on their website with our our phones. The guy waiter was much better though, he (eventually) looked after us well for the remainder of the night and was very polite, appearing at all the right times despite a nearly full house.
As things got quieter, I noticed the chef wandering around talking to the diners which I think is really good of him. It shows that he cares about the customers, the food and his restaurant. Pat on the back for you mister.
The dress code is Palmerston formal (Darwin casual), I noticed a few fellas with thongs and singlets so I kind of felt over dressed with my jeans and white shoes on.