Southern Cross Garden Bar Restaurant
Reviews · · · ·Rating: 2
We ate lunch here in December 2021.
Pork belly bites
Haloumi fries
Pan fried fish with asparagus, Anna potatoes, and lemon caper butter
Lamb shoulder with kumara mash, broccolini, and port wine jus
The service at Southern Cross is capital S Speedy. The entrees came out so fast that we assumed that there had been a mistake. The pork belly bites were tasty, but could have been better rendered, and the haloumi fries were delicious but came with an underwhelming sauce. They really did come out fast though.
The mains also came out absurdly quickly. The fish was meant to come with beans, and it was an unwelcome surprise when asparagus showed up. It’s not that there was anything in particular wrong with the asparagus, but the Fee-Rex is not a fan, and doesn’t think that restaurants can assume that it’s okay to swap one green thing with another without warning. Business Andy absolutely loved the little crispy fried capers that came on the side, and although they weren’t on the menu either, they were a much more welcome surprise. The fish itself was so-so, and the potato was pretty good.
The lamb dish was really good, the jus did a lot of work, and went with everything. It’s hard to go wrong with lamb, broccolini, and kumara mash, although it didn’t appear to have been roasted as was stated on the menu.