Tuesday 2 July 2013

Grace the Establishment

Hi everyone!

I'm terribly sorry about the lack of posts recently. Quite frankly, I've had nothing to post about and I didn't think it was worth boring you over my everyday life! Term 2 has finished and I am lucky enough to have a 3 week break. There is SO much school work to be done, however all my teachers have stressed that it's important to go out and have a good time to balance out all the hard work, so my friends and I have a whole list of places we hope to visit before the end of the three weeks!

Today, three of my friends and I visited Grace the Establishment for lunch before catching a movie. I've heard so much about this place so I was pretty excited to try it out!


 It was divided into 3 sections; the restaurant (above), the beer garden and the bar (below).

 We chose to sit in the bar area today.

Condiments and bar food menu


 The food!
We had a pretty hard time deciding what to get so we narrowed it down to a couple of items to share.

 Fried Chicken
Cajun Spice, Bourbon Whiskey Jam  $12

"That's really not much for $12" was my first thought when this first came out. I didn't love this but I still enjoyed it. I liked the combination of the chicken with the jam, and I usually enjoy anything with cajun spice!

 Smoked Coca Cola Pork Ribs
Apple Slaw $18

SO GOOD! The meat was so tender and the sauce-y glaze was so rich and delicious. I didn't detect much of a Coca Cola flavour, though. They weren't overly smokey, which I liked, and were complimented very nicely by the apple slaw. I'm not usually a fan of coleslaw but I actually really enjoyed this one. I definitely recommend giving this a go!

 Korean Pork Bun
Kim Chi, Chilli, Mayonnaise $9

Mini New York Style Hot Dog
Schultz Bacon, Pickles & Cheese $9

(Top left) Chilli Fries with Aerated Cheese $7.50
(Bottom right) French Fries with Tomato Ketchup $6.50

With their 'Sliders & Buns' deal, 2 sliders and/or buns with fries cost $18. We ordered two so that we'd all be able to try a bit of everything. I think these might have been my favourite item out of the whole bunch. The buns were so delicious, soft and not too dense - just the way I like it! The pork was so tender and juicy and tasted amazing with the kimchi and mayo. The hot dog was great but I think it was the pork that definitely won me over. I definitely recommend trying both!
The fries weren't overly special but thoroughly enjoyed by all of us.

Mac & Cheese $8

This photo is SO deceiving. It looks quite large but the portion was so tiny! If you scroll back up to the photo of all the food, you'll notice how small it is compared to everything else. We all still enjoyed it - very warm, creamy and cheesy! Worth $8 though? I don't know...

Dessert! 

Grace Salted Caramel Chocolate Bar
Nougat, Peanuts, Milk & Dark Chocolate $7.50


Too be completely honest, this tasted like a slightly fancier version of a Snickers bar with salt sprinkled on top. However, the salt did add a nice touch to it and we all enjoyed it! Splitting into 4 was so difficult because the nougat was almost rock hard, making it an absolute pain to cut through! I thought $7.50 was a bit too expensive for this, though. 

D.I.Y Donuts
Cinnamon, Aerated Chocolate Sauce $10





I love this idea! It was lots of fun (and very messy!) playing with the syringes and injecting their contents into the donuts. However, I personally didn't love how it tasted. The donuts were really dense and that made it hard to inject more of the chocolate or raspberry. The donuts also had a strange taste - almost bitter. My sister also had the same experience the last time she dined here. So basically, I think this is a really fun idea and it would be even better if the actual elements of it tasted better. 


Though I didn't adore the food as much as I thought I would, I still think it's a great restaurant. I love the atmosphere and how the decor really adds to it. The bar area is very relaxed and I liked how the large tables made sharing lots of food very easy. The restaurant looked so gorgeous and I liked the use of natural lighting. Also, the staff were super friendly which made our visit much more pleasant. I found it a little annoying how the advertised opening time is 11am, yet the kitchen only opened at 12pm. We were left waiting for an extremely long time (~ 40 minutes) with only a jug of orange juice. That would probably be my biggest complaint. 

One day, I'll have to come back and try the restaurant food, as well as take advantage of some of their specials deals like 'Taco Tuesday', 'Rib Night' and their Happy Hours (when I'm legal, of course :P). 

Overall, 8.5/10

Vy 
xo



Grace The Establishment on Urbanspoon 

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