Restaurant food menu

Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons opened at Crown Casino with great reviews and very fair prices. With that combination in mind we headed for the restaurant. There are no bookings so my group just rocked up for Sunday lunch.

We came to the restaurant but it looked close. We saw the menu on its stand at the front door but the doors were closed and it looked closed inside. You can’t see inside either as the outside is covered in art of old Italian buildings.

We walked passed it and around the corner. No open doors. We walked back to where the menu was on the stand and peered through the glass. We couldn’t see anything through the art on the doors. We looked around again. It looked closed. We decided to try the doors maybe they are open, why would they be closed? The giant glass doors opened and inside the restaurant was full.

This didn’t impress any of us. They should have the doors open inviting people in not keep them guessing. I wonder how many people wanted to go to the restaurant but seeing it all closed up thought the restaurant was closed and went elsewhere. This was the first of many disappointments .

The decor inside looks like large bathroom tiles from the seventies. The waiters look like scientist but are actually dressed as butchers. They wore jeans with a butcher coat. It is meant to represent the way the butchers in the old days wore the coats to prepare the meat. Hmmm…

On the table there are cutlery buckets which fit into each table. The knives almost look like machetes. The prongs on the forks were incredibly long. Everytime I tried to eat the sausage I ordered I kept biting those damn prongs!

The menu is on paper place mats. It is not easy to read. It is a little confusing considering the headings are in Italian.

I wanted something Italian and something different to what I normally order so I tried the G,A & Sons own Pork Sausages, Made from 100% Black Berkshire Free Range Pigs, Lentils and Pearl Onions.

My friend tried the Orecchiette Pasta, Cherry Tomatoes, Ricotta and Basil and my other friend tried the Hand Dived Wild Hervey Bay Scallops with Watercress, Radish Salad, Lemon, Green Chilli and Garlic.

It was disappointing.

My meal was served in a red enamel dish like the bushmen have in their napsacks in the outback. The meal was made for a truck driver with no class, it was all slop. It was three large sausages with lentils heaped on and three onions. It could almost be cheap prison food. The meal was incredibly salty and the sausages were dry.

The Hervey Bay Scallops with the the salad was poor. There were five scallops with scrapings of a little carrot, radish and juices. You come hungry and you leave hungry.

Unfortunately dessert wasn’t any better.

It’s always hard when you are lactose intolerant to find a suitable dessert to eat. I chose Chocolate Meringue, House Made Clotted Cream and Spiced Strawberry Compote.

It wasn’t a wise choice.

It was incredibly inelegant to eat. I was chewing on the meringue like a cow chews grass. It was hard to cut pieces with my fork. I was terrified my meringue would go flying across the room every time I tried to cut a piece to eat. The strawberries did not taste right. A few hours later the cream turned my stomach.

My friends decided to share the “Zuppa Inglese” My Trifle which is meant to be shared by two people or more. It wasn’t sweet. It was almost savoury. Maybe they should start a new category and put it under that. It certainly needed to be put under something.

And that is our first and last outing to Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons.