by Booney » Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:21 am
The Norwood Hotel :
With Miss Boon finishing at 9pm on The Parade we thought we would take the opportunity to dine somewhere prior to collecting her from work. Drove up and down a couple of times, settled on the Norwood Hotel at about 7:50pm.
Park, go in, up to the bar for a drink and the lovely lass behind the bar advises that meals must be ordered by 8pm so we don't have long. All good, thank you. Grab a menu, grab a table and as we turn around we see "250g T-Bone $10 every night after 5pm". Sweet.
"Two t-bones with pepper please, one medium, one medium well". We ordered right on 8pm, I think two groups got in behind us.
There was a rapper on in the function room out the back so the place was packed, almost every table was full but we found a quaint little table for two.
Mrs had a rose, Chapel Hill, that tasted a "bit vinegary" so I took it back to the bar, the lass agreed it smelt a little off so asked what she would like as a replacement. "Any Alicante?" ( Rockfords ), "Yep, there you go". I offered to pay the gap, she said "No, don't be silly, what are you having?"
"It's ok, I've got a pale on the go thanks" -- "Would you like another one?" -- "Not right now" -- "It's on me, sorry about the rose" SWEET. An alicante for Mrs Boon and another pale for me.
Meals came out around 8:20, solid sized T-bone with barely any bone in it, basically they'd left the top of the "T" but the "leg" of the T was gone making it much easier to carve into. Chips and garden salad.
The T-Bone was excellent, just a little piece of charcoal singed fat on the outer edge, perfectly cooked, pepper sauce was proper pepper sauce not just gravy with pepper corns in it, salad is just salad.
Service - Exceptional, gave us fair warning about the kitchen closing, replaced the rose free and gave me a pale pint as compensation for our inconvenience. 10/10
Food - You'd think a $10 T-Bone could be a risk not worth taking, it was certainly worth taking. 8/10
Cost - Two T-Bones, a rose and a pale came to $34.50, a free upgrade on the rose and a free pint of pale. 8/10
My experience at the Norwood Hotel last night can only be given a 9/10 when it comes to a $10 T-Bone and a pale ( or two ). Not fine dining, but a fine pub meal indeed.
PAFC. Forever.
LOOK OUT, WE'RE COMING!