Our Place, Darling St, Balmain

Our Place, Darling St, Balmain
Saturday 24 November, 2007

After enjoying a very entertaining life drawing class at the Artful Hen with our model, Rodney and several glasses of champagne we made our way across to Balmain for a late lunch.

Our Place is located on Darling St next to the church where the markets are held every Saturday. We had booked the upstairs courtyard overlooking the church for our lunch today and it was decked out with fantastic photos of our hen as place settings. To get to the courtyard you walk through the cafe on the street level and take the stairs to the right of the bar. The stairs are narrow and old and at the top you turn right and head down the ramp, past the toilet block to the courtyard.

Our owner/ waiter was very slow in organising drinks, music and menus and as we had been drinking since 11am we needed to eat. The large group menu included an entree and main and we had a choice of 3 options for each course. The snail pace of the service meant that after we arrived at 2pm it took until 3.30pm for us receive our entrees.

I ordered the house made spanner crab ravioli, cherry tomatoes & manchego cheese sauce for entree and the marinated pork with salsa topped whole potato and green salad. The spanner crab ravioli was a real disappointment - it was basically cherry tomatoes and a minuscule amount of crab inside the large, flat ravioli with cheese drizzled across the top. This entree was served first and by the time the other entrees were served the cheese had hardened and the ravioli had lost its heat. The pork was OK and served a little overcooked.

The highlight of Our Place is definitely the courtyard. It's covered and is an oasis away from the hustle and bustle of Darling St. The toilets are in need of a refurbishment and could be cleaned more frequently. The food was average and whilst the service was well meaning - it was far too slow.


Our Place - 225 Darling St, Balmain - (02) 9810 4677



http://www.ourplaceondarling.com.au/