The Little Snail, Pyrmont
We used to visit The Little Snail back when it was in a pokey premises on Broadway. The new location at Pyrmont offers romantic water views but is compromised by the questionable interior decorations of plastic palm trees, swinging monkeys and fake tree stumps.
The garlic snails are always a winner although we really should remember to order bread rolls to mop up the garlic butter remains. The trout was tender but the kangaroo was a little overcooked for our liking and drenched in an overly sweet sauce.
Chocaholic cocktails
Escargots de bourgogne
Snowy Mountain rainbow trout herb crusted, baked whole and served with a creamy dill sauce
Kangaroo fillet served with native plum glaze
The Little Snail
50 Murray Street, Pyrmont
Tel: 02 9212 7512
The garlic snails are always a winner although we really should remember to order bread rolls to mop up the garlic butter remains. The trout was tender but the kangaroo was a little overcooked for our liking and drenched in an overly sweet sauce.
Chocaholic cocktails
Escargots de bourgogne
Snowy Mountain rainbow trout herb crusted, baked whole and served with a creamy dill sauce
Kangaroo fillet served with native plum glaze
The Little Snail
50 Murray Street, Pyrmont
Tel: 02 9212 7512
posted by Anonymous on 5/21/2004 04:59:00 am
5 Comments:
At 8/03/2004 12:02 am,
Rebecca said…
I went to this resturant a couple of years ago (1999) when it was in Broadway and it was delicious. I thought it had closed and now realise it had just moved to Pyrmont. I will have to visit again.
At 8/05/2004 7:15 am,
Jess (fushmush) said…
Just recently we were considering revisiting the Little Snail. We haven't been since it moved to Pyrmont. Maybe we won't now...
At 10/30/2007 1:39 pm,
Anonymous said…
Undoubtedly good value...the food was average verging on bland. The snails were good though!
At 11/01/2007 10:12 pm,
Helen (Grab Your Fork) said…
Hi Jen S - I haven't been back to the Little Snail in a while. It is good value but I agree that on the other hand sometimes it's just worth splashing out every now and again as well.
At 1/21/2008 12:52 pm,
Anonymous said…
It's a case of expectations.
If you are after a delicious quick meal, one that is value for money, you will be very satisfied. However, if you are discerning about your dining choices and after an authentic 'French Dining' experience, you will be sorely, SORELY disappointed, like we were.
The way The Little Snail has been classified/ promoted as 'French Cuisine', is GREATLY MISLEADING. The restaurant management should play a more active role in correcting this. "Modern Australian Cuisine' will be more apt, but here, its delivered in a quick-fix, 'fast-food', pre-prepared sort of manner...a.l.a school cafeteria.
Our entrees of escargots and calamari arrived just 30secs (!!!???, hello??? Am I at Macdonalds or Oporto here????) after we placed our orders, which means that food is not prepared fresh for every customer, more like pre-prepared in a big batch and just microwaved before serving. Tasty escargots, chewy calamaris.
To add to the strangeness of this experience, the waitress served our bread saying, '' Sorry you had to wait a bit, we just BURNT the first bread ( in the kitchen)......" ??? I felt like I was in some weird zombie-movie setting and bewildered at why a staff will even reveal that needless piece of information............( make a guess...).
Our mains of kangaroo fillet and slow-roasted lamb were good, the preparation of the meat were excellent, great texture and tasty. However, both were presented on mash drizzled with the same type of gravy. Which again, presented the customer with evidence that the food here is pretty much ready made before hand, and heat up to serve.
French food, is ALWAYS ALWAYS served freshly made in authentic French Restaurants. There is a valid reason why the French are food snobs..oh-lala......
Lastly, perhaps to make up for the fact that they served our entrees too soon, we had to wait about 25 minutes before the grand appearance of our deserts. Again, good value for money, but nothing outstanding.
It all made sense at the end - when, presenting our bill, the waitress apologized for the hold up with our deserts saying that its because ' the chef is throwing tantrum in the kitchen''. (hmmm.....customers need to know this???)
We told her that this is definitely not a French Restaurant (nor French-dining experience), and she said, its been a French restaurant for the last 46 years, and when told that this is definitely not French cuisine, she said she wouldn't know because she has never eaten French food ! (?????). We also learnt that The Little Snail has changed few bosses and management within a short period of time, and there's a lot of internal arguments about the authenticity of the 'Frenchness' of it all.
I can't help feeling bad for the staff. To give them credit, they gave good service and are very polite, despite the vibe of internal struggle between staff and management, which makes diners like me, feel uncomfortable. A lot of tension and tightness in the air. This creates a very unpleasant ambience for discerning customers and the management should not treat this lightly.
Bottom line, if you are a food connoisseur looking to indulge in some authentic French cuisine, you will be disgusted and miserably disappointed. ( It's so hard to find any good French restaurants in this city, and as much as I so love modern Australian, I do have the occasional craving for French food.). But if you want a hearty meal and a really good deal, you will enjoy yourself.
And no, I am not French ;))) Just a globe-trotting food connoisseur who loves her food.
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