West
End Garden
190
Melbourne St South Brisbane
Value: Good
Quality:
Good
Atmosphere:
Good
 |
| View from outside dining area. |
I’ve been to West End Garden before and my previous
experiences might colour this review with a hint of nostalgia. West End Garden
is sort of an institution – almost everyone has been there at least once – and
the food is quite good. Usually what makes this place a warm memory in your
heart is the history of dinners with good friends. This is the sort of place
you can compare to your neighbourhood Chinese place growing up, where the food
always tasted great until you moved out of home. West End Garden still has that
hold over me, although I didn’t eat there until I was 19. I should really get
on with the review itself.
West End Garden's major draw card is its outside area, which
makes up 90% of the restaurant space. This area which is a tad tacky – it has a
little water feature in the corner and is rimmed by fairy light – but is very adaptable to different table
sizes and seems quite conducive to sizable dining groups. This, provided you
have the right company, usually results in great conversations and overall a
pleasant experience.
 | ||
| Vietnamese Duck |
The staff here hasn’t
changed in years; they still wear the “traditional” white dresses, and are
still as attentive as they always have been. Really in general this place has
changed little in the 4 or so years that have passed since I last went here.
I’m pretty sure even the menu is still the same. The food was prompt, and was
perfectly timed to coincide with us finishing our entrees. We ordered two
dishes and shared them between us. The entree was spicy quail, a favourite of
mine, which, though a little dry, carried a lovely flavour with the requisite
refreshing spiciness. This was followed by the “Vietnamese Duck” which while it
tasted like crispy skin boneless roast duck, came with fresh vegetables and
what I’m pretty sure was sweet chilli sauce. The duck itself was cooked exactly
right with just the right level of crispiness in the skin and juiciness in the
flesh. The vegetables while masterly cut
to look wonderful, were just vegetables of decent quality.
West End Garden is open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday
and is open only for dinner on Sundays and public holidays. Meals cost $6-$13
for entrees (the Spicy Quail we had cost $9.90) Mains around $15-$36 with most meals being
on the very less expensive end of the spectrum. The Vietnamese Duck we had cost
$29.90 but was enough for two people. West End Garden also have many vegetarian
options, which tend to be on the cheaper end of the spectrum as well.
Drinks start around the $5 mark for domestic beer and go up
to $34 for bottles of wine (our beers which were Tsingtao’s cost $6, other
imported beers are the same price. West End Garden is also BYO for wine only
with corkage being $2.50 per person.
West End Garden have a Website with all their menus and their
drinks list at www.westendgarden.com.au
