Airport Tavern
• By Tuan Nguyen
Ever since the demise of The Casuarina Club as a barely passable eating destination (edit: they're much better now as of June 2015), I've been searching for a casual weeknight bistro dinner in the suburbs. Well the Airport Tavern (formerly the Airport Hotel bistro) invited me for dinner and reckoned I had better bring my appetite. Challenge accepted. Apparently the food here has had a bad reputation in the past, I can't comment on that not having been previously, but there's a new team behind and in front of the kitchen looking to spruce things up (there's a new menu coming soon too).
The interior is spacious with lots of seating available as well as an outdoor beer garden. The atmosphere is casual and family friendly, I felt right at home with my pram and mid-range thongs/slip-ons. I wouldn't walk in with a pair of el cheapo double pluggers though.
A gander at the menu reveals the regular bistro offerings plus a couple of slightly fancier items (pork belly, oven baked chicken breast, oysters) and all at curiously low prices which makes me wonder why it's so cheap. I don't recall seeing anything above $30 except for the gigantic seafood platter which comes on the world's biggest plate. Most are under $25 in actual fact. There's one token vegetarian dish there too, something about a stuff capsicum. So I get the lamb shanks as I'm in the mood for some comfort food and the wife gets the oven baked chicken breast. The meat on my lamb was fall off the bone and moist, there didn't seem to be any extra flavour infused in to them but it was quite nice and for $22.90 one cannot complain. The mash was smoothilicious too. Lovely dish.
The oven baked chicken breast, similar to the lamb didn't have any special treatment done to it, but was cooked perfectly and harmonised with the rest of the elements on the plate beautifully. One of the roasted potatoes was half cooked and inedible though. We had some onion rings and chips on the side - the former was perhaps a little too oily and the latter was OK without being great or bad, might have been because there was no detectable amount of salt on the chips.
So my first visit to the Airport Tavern was quite enjoyable. But as whenever I get thrown a free meal I of course wonder if it's the true experience, so I went back a few days later - this time with the in-laws in tow who are possibly the toughest food critics on the planet.
I go the pork belly with potato puree, mixed greens and baby corn this time around ($23.90), I honestly didn't think it would be any good given I was in an Aussie bistro, but I was pleasantly surprised. Nicely cooked and with good flavour, the hoi-sin glaze was delightful - I wished for a bit more on the plate, and the potato puree was light and sexy. A crispy skin top would be have elevated this dish to lofty heights though.
The rest of the table all had the same dish (oddly) - grilled atlantic salmon (local) with dried tomatos, sauteed baby spinach with hollandaise ($21.90). It got the thumbs up all around, the parents in-law saying it was quite nice. Anything better than a "good" from a middle-aged Chinese couple is high praise indeed. For some reason the crispy skin was plate side down, that's the best bit and I'd put it face side up so that it both remains crispy and it just looks better. I'm not sure what happened the first time around but the chips and onions rings were much better. In fact, I'm pretty sure they even had zero calorie count as well so we finished the whole lot....
Well after two visits I reckon I've had enough info to go by and I'm liking the Airport Tavern. Sure the food isn't high end quality, but that's not what it's trying to do. It's all about good food at great prices in a relaxed family friendly casual environment and in that respect it's a winner in my books. I'll definitely add this to my weeknight I'm-too-lazy-to-cook destinations. Say hi to the security guard too, she's super friendly.