I didn’t know whether to title this post H’s birthday or ‘The Night Gillian Ate A Lot’. H had mentioned Nicholsons Bar and Grill quite a few times, saying that the portion was huge and it was great pub food. After some research, I realised that it’s pretty well known in Perth, quoting a colleague ‘I’ve never had anything bad there, the portion is HUGE and I couldn’t finish my steak!’. Good enough for me, convinced, I booked it for H’s birthday.
No surprises, no balloons this time, just me, Jo and Gill. It was a very cold night (winter suddenly arrived in Perth and it’s freezing!) so we were glad to huddle in the cosy pub interior complete with a fireplace.
Nicholsons menu is gorgeous and filled with meaty, hearty good pub food. I was tempted to try everything and want to return to try their Beef and Beer Pie and everything else on the menu. But we decided to order four dishes to share. First up was Jo’s order of Seafood Marinara ($21.00) which came with fettucine and a lovely tomato cream sauce. While it wasn’t Ciao Italia’s chockful of seafood, it was still really tasty with a nice mix of calamari, mussels and prawns. Big portion by the way.
Gill was torn between steak or seafood. Since I was going to order the seafood platter, she decided on steak. And what a steak it was! The menu description for Livingston Steak ($37.00) was grilled scotch fillet covered with prawns and garnished with oysters smothered in a rich creamy garlic sauce, covered with prawns and garnished with oysters, this I wanted to see. The oysters were sooo big, Gill said there were bits of grit in it so she didn’t like her oyster. But everything else was good but oh so sinful. Bursty prawns, tender beef and dripping in creamy creamy garlicky white sauce. Why are yummy things so bad for you?
My Nick’s Seafood Plate ($36.00) which came with a bowl of chilli mussels, grilled fish, fried crumbed prawns, calamari , beef battered fries and salad. We ordered some bread ($3) to dip with the chilli mussels sauce, the sauce was quite good and I know Gill really enjoyed the big mussels coz she polished them off! Having cooked quite a bit of fish recently, I wasn’t so impressed with the fish and thought it was just average. In truth, the Left Bank’s seafood platter is now my epitome of a good seafood platter (will blog about it next time) so I think this was just good but average.
H’s Hickory Smoked Ribs ($26.00) which was my favourite dish for the night, the ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender and slathered in rich bbq sauce. Usually bbq ribs are messy to eat but this one was fork easy. Very yums.
I’ve read reviews that complain about Nicholson’s service, but truly, the service was impeccable that night. The waitresses were polite, friendly and accomodating. They offered to bring out our birthday cake and blare the birthday song on their radio system and even lit our candles for us. H was quite embarrassed because the bday song went on for sooo long and everyone in the restaurant was clapping along and even whistling at the end.
They even took our icecream cake out of the box and placed it on a nice square tray and dusted it with cocoa powder! Good service right?
I think H was quite happy, he sure was in all smiles (actually he’s always smiling) while unwrapping his presents.
But I think he was happiest while eating his icecream cake which we specially ordered from Baskins and Robbins. H is the ultimate sweet tooth and loves all icecream. I found the cake tooth achingly sweet and couldn’t take much but of course no complaints from H.
We had a lovely night and a fantastic time celebrating the nicest guy we know (I’m sure Gill and Jo will agree), so happy birthday H, next year you get a birthday hat and balloon Y(^___^)Y!
Daitaoha ratings:
Food 7/10 daitaoha
Service 8/10 daitaoha
Nicholson’s Bar and Grill
6 Birnam Road
Cnr Nicholson Road
Canningvale
Western Australia 6155
Tel: 08 9455 1800
http://www.nicholsons.net.au