Have you ever been to a restaurant and had a waiter say ‘you don’t want to order that’ when you point to an item on their menu? No, neither had I until the other day at Red Cray on Beaufort, and I’m so pleased he did.
© The Ponder Room
The Red Cray on Beaufort had been recommended to me a long time ago so finally it was time to check it out with two friends. We started with garlic bread and I’ve never had such an oozy, buttery, garlic shrouded mini loaf of bread. It was so rich, but oh so delicious.
My guests opted for the salmon and the beef cheeks, both dishes they often order, making them connoisseurs. The beef cheeks were served with a mashed bean pure and broccolini. Swimming in a rich dark sauce the large portion was very well received by our cheek lover, as were the falling apart cheeks. Although if truth be told he would’ve liked some mashed potatoe to soak up all the delicious sauce, but he conceded that was just personal taste, the bean mix was fine.
© The Ponder Room
Similarly the salmon (shown at the top of this post) was well received, cooked medium as ordered. Served on a bed of wilted spinach, we all enjoyed stealing some of the macadamias from the sauce. The addition of some black Lumpfish caviar was a nice touch.
I was intrigued by the three ‘Bucket’ options – Green (lemon, pepper and herbs); Yellow (peri peri chilli and herbs, heat level 6) and Red (mega hot, which if finished had the added bonus of a 50% discount, a t shirt and a photo on the Hall of Fame on Facebook). It was as I pointed out the red option that the waiter declared ‘you don’t want to try that one’. Not that I had any intension of doing so, but it was good that he warned me.
When the Green Bucket arrived it was indeed a bucket, a wine bucket so no false advertising there, and it was huge! It immediately sparked a conversation with the neighbouring table who declared ‘that looks good.’
© The Ponder Room
The rest of the meal was like a lucky dip, seeing what I’d fish out every time I dove into the bucket. I found – two prawns on a skewer; two fillets of fish; a Morten Bay bug tail; several squid tentacles; one or two soft shell crabs (I’d lost count by them) and a couple of handfuls of chips.
© The Ponder Room
I managed the bug, prawns, one fish fillet, three calamari and about three chips. All of the seafood was cooked to perfection, my favourite was the crab which was covered in a light peppery batter. My friends enjoyed several calamari and chips before we finally raised the white flag.
© The Ponder Room
It seemed a sin to leave behind so much glorious seafood but experience had taught me that a doggy bag was unlikely. The last time I’d been at a restaurant and enquired so I received a verbal dissertation about food poisoning and potential law suits should said left overs make their way to by own humble kitchen bench. I chose not to be offended by the connotations about the cleanliness of my abode. And yet this seafood was just too good and too much to leave behind I had to try.
As the waiter came to collect our plates I employed my best pleading tone and ventured ‘I don’t suppose I can have a doggy bag?’
‘Yes madam of course you can I’ll box it up for you,’ came the reply conveyed in a French accent (or maybe Italian I don’t have a good ear for such things.)
If I’d known that I wouldn’t have tried to push my way through the last three mouthfuls.
Dessert was definitely out of the question. There wasn’t even a slither of space left to drip a thimble of coffee into.
The service was excellent on a very busy day.
The décor was modern, dark and intimate.
As I ate the left overs much, much, much later that night I pondered …
- Anyone who can finish the Green Bucket is legend, let alone one with a mega hot Red level. The mind boggles about the after affects of the Red Bucket.
- At $36 the Bucket was exceptional value, it could have feed all three of us.
- No wonder it won the Gold Plate Award for seafood in past years.
- I’ll definitely be going back, I just need another month for my stomach to be ready.
For more information go to Red Cray