Beer and Burger

Woodcroft Tavern
Panalatinga Rd (cnr Bains Rd) Woodcroft 5162
Ph: (08) 8325 1555
www.woodcrofttavern.com

Now I live at Woodcroft, so I guess you could call the Woodcroft Tavern my local. But in the 7 years I have lived in the area, I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve been there. How can I describe it… I guess it’s like a lot of suburban pubs around the place. It gathers a lot of bogans and sporting teams and old people who don’t like to go far. Not that theres anything wrong with any of those, thats just the crowd you get. The reason I don’t go there a whole lot is mainly because the first time I went there years ago, I had an average meal, so I wasn’t in any rush to get back there too often.
For this review, the wife and I grabbed our friends and neighbours from across the road to go for a counter meal and several (lots of) beers.
We headed straight to the bar to grab a drink and check out the bar menu. I grabbed myself a Pint of Toohy’s Extra Dry and got the wife a glass of wine. I ordered myself the Steak Burger ($9.90) and my wife the Salt N Pepper Squid ($11.90). I had an entertainment book voucher on me which was a 2 for 1 offer. Of course I was told that this had to be used in the actual bistro area not the bar meal area. After smiling nicely the friendly and helpful bar staff offered to place my order in the other room for me so I could use the voucher. Much appreciated!

We took a seat in the lounge area next to the dance floor where a 2 piece entertainment act was starting up. It was a bit hard to talk to anyone where we were sitting, but there wasn’t much other choice.

Our meals arrived after about 20 minutes. First impressions I wasn’t too sure. The chips weren’t heaps hot a were a tiny bit soggy. The burger looked like a bit of a mess, but looks aren’t everything. I pushed my lettuce to the side and got into it. The first thing that hit me was that this place has an awesome grill out the back. The steak and the bacon had that great BBQ grill flavour on it. The steak had also been marinated and was tender with a great taste. It was good to see and taste some properly cooked bacon for once too. The Sesame seed bun was a bit of a let down on the burger. These buns tend to get soft and fall apart easy. The overall temperature of the meal wasn’t all that fantastic either.

My wifes salt and pepper squid was quite tasty. It was a little bit oily still. I think she got a whole squid tube to herself though as the way the kitchen staff had prepared it was like they stopped cutting it up half way down the tube. All for looks I’m sure, but it put my wife off the meal a bit when she started to image the animal… . ah women. I finished it off and it was good. Our neighbpurs both went for the Cesar salad (they must have needed their greens for the week). They both gave it a “it was alright”.

Overall the food I got on this night was an improvement to what i had had there before. It still wasn’t brilliant, but I was satisfied. The staff were all very helpful and friendly, beer was a reasonable price $4.10 (pint) and the band got a dancer in the end after my neighbour enjoyed many beers, as did I. Check him out on YouTube for a laugh.

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