End of year function at Sails on the Bay.

[jkim]

Recently, my company had an end of year function at Sails on the Bay.

Well... I know food isn't everything when people choose restaurants, but I gotta say that I wasn't impressed.

The atmosphere and service were better than fine. Being on the beachfront, with large full-height windows, the view is very pleasant, bar the occasional teenager being a smart arse and throwing sand balls at the window. The waiter was very knowledgeable with his wine and I had great wine... yes... the only edibles that was great was the wine.

What really ruined it was the food. They offer a 3 course editable menu, with several alternatives for each course. I had the pork bellies, steak, and cake. My wife had the tuna, trout and white chocolate. Of course I tasted all of my wife's dishes too.

The pork bellies were very dry, and extremely average. There was nothing special about them, and my back yard Korean BBQ pork bellies were superior. My wife's tuna was nothing special either. Seared ultra rare tuna, served with wasabi mayonaise. Nothing that couldn't be done at home, and would have been appreciated more as just sashimi, rather than fake sashimi done bad.

It's really hard to do a bad steak. As steaks go, the quality of the meat is usually the determining factor. But the steak here was bad as steaks go. Yes... an $88 /ph restaurant was using inferior quality meat. Either that, or the chef was really bad and managed to somehow ruin good quality meat to that tasting the same as Coles or Safeway $10 / kg "smart buy" steaks. Maybe I am a bit biased against lean cuts such as sirloins... but then I recall The Point doing a really great steak with sirloin, so I doubt that's the case.

If my steak was bad, then my wife's trout was worse. The fish and the sauce all didn't really work to make a memorable or even an enjoyable meal. It was the same old same old bland cream sauce on cooked fillet thing. We finished everything and pretended to enjoy for political motives (since the big boss chose the joint), but definitely will not return for the food.

The dessert was somewhat the highlight of the food section, being only marginally acceptable. Well... I gotta admit the white chocolate was quite good, but I don't know if that was because I was so disappointed at the previous 2 courses, that average quality impressed me, or because it was genuinely good. My almond and lemon cake was not very nice though.

[Piglit]

Thanks for the review jkim, and I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your end of year do. This confirms why I've never eaten at Sails in my life, despite growing up almost next door to the place. I've never heard a good thing about it, except for the view it is blessed with (and only that is good during Melbourne's warmer months!).

Several friends of mine - despit the average reviews - have looked at is as a good wedding venue, given it suits bigger functions. However, tellingly, none of my friends have ever booked it for their receptions.

I shall continue to stay away (or perhaps I'll just visit for desert).