the foodies club

Review: Table for 20 May 2009

Once upon a time there were 8 children who grew up in different countries and then they met and decided to eat together. But they wanted an environment where they could relax and enjoy each others company, so one of them made a booking for them to eat at Table for Twenty.

They started their night by having a cocktail or two at Sticky and they got happy. Then they went down to eat at 8, but as is the case with homestyle cooking sometimes the chef forgets things as he had a fight about the toothpaste in the morning so he forgot about the piscaterian in the midst as all he could think was where is my Colgate, why did I have to use Listerine? And our Piscaterian wasn’t happy and we were sad.

But then we had the other food for the carnivores amongst us and the food was good. In the midst of this all one of our party turned 21 again, and had sparkles and a guitar solo. We ate and chatted while the night passed by in the relaxed atmosphere. And so in the end we had a fun night and planned for more.

All in all great place to go with your friends as long as they are not vegetarians, otherwise just go up to Sticky and get some great drinks and cheese platters.

Foods Tried

We had a set menu for the night and the following was served:

• Entree: Papadelle with Truffles, Salad for the Vegetarians
• Main: Osso Bucco with potatoes and Side salad(which seemed to be the same as the vegetarian entree but much tastier), Vegetarian pasta with mushrooms for Vegetarians
• Dessert: Flourless Chocolate Cake

Also a variety of cocktails, wine (Kristi bought her 2002 Coriole Shiraz!) and limoncello.

Favourite Foods

The favorites amongst our group were varied some liked the Bloody mary whereas some liked the cake. But the main favorite was the Papadelle with Truffles followed by the Osso Bucco with the cake.

Most memorable flavours

Papadelle with Truffles

Ratings

Atmosphere

Atmosphere was the big winner for the night some comments were:

“Fantastic – this is a great place to dine with a group of friends. It’s very community like – 2 big tables with 20 people on each”

“Nice modern decor, very nice and cosy bar”

“The only issue were the plastic chairs which looked fabulous but caused the quite undesirable “hot ass” syndrome”

Service

Service was friendly and was centered on people taking their time with their meal so at times we found it slow.

“Bar staff & waiter were engaging, very attentive, but not overpowering. Friendly and fun!”
“1 point off for forgetting about vegetarian option and putting hands on my shoulder. But the “complimentary” wine made it close to perfect”

Food presentation

Platters worked for the family style eating environment but at the same time it didn’t so opinions differed.

“The food looked fantastic, displayed on large family style platters”

“I liked the family style – but unclear how to portion it out”

“Particularly enjoyed the sparklers for Krista’s ‘bday cake’ “

“Stuff on plate, no decorative touches – my 7 year old niece is more imaginative”

Food quality

Food quality was quite good and enjoyed by most of the group for the meat dishes but the vegetarian option failed miserably:

“Vegetarian option a joke – and not a funny joke”

“Amazing – you could tell the ingredients were fresh and the Osso Bucco was prepared in the traditional way”

“The pasta was very oily, the osso bucco a little bit tough”

Food taste

“Yummy starter and main’

“Vegetarian pasta overly salty and very oily. No discernable flavour except when I bit into a piece of thyme which tasted like thyme”

“Really enjoyed the truffle entrée but the osso buco a little fatty and a little oily”

“The osso bucco and rice base that it was served with were very flavourful”

“The pasta was fantastic and earns a 5 – the Osso Buco as well”

Overall Rating: 3.60/5