Waiters Restaurant is a Melbourne institution and has been around since 1947. Back then you needed a secret password to get up the stairs! It is also the location of the famous siege where 30 diners were taken hostage – newspaper clippings of this event are proudly displayed on the wall near the entrance.
Waiters Restaurant
(aka The Italian Waiters Club)
20 Meyers Place, Melbourne City
To get to the Waiters Restaurant you have to leave the bright lights of Bourke Street, turn into a side lane, go through an unmarked doorway, up a suspicious looking set of stairs, open the door…and there you are. It looked just like it would have in the 1960’s with plastic-covered tabletops, no menus, just a simple chalkboard advertising the day’s specials (but without the prices!). However, the diners don’t mind. The restaurant was full of people from every walk of life, from students to professionals to those of semi-fame – Myf Warhurst (from ‘Spicks and Specks’ and formerly from Triple J) was eating at the next table over from us!
This week’s intrepid Italian ingestors where Marty, Sai, Rami, Caroline, Deb, Paul and Nick.
Mains:
Tuna Salad
Rabbit Cacciuture
Grilled Sardines
Penne Puttanesca
Saltimboca
Marinara
Chicken Al Vino
Drinks:
Red wine – lots of it! Drunk from water glasses
Desserts:
Tiramisu
Tarufo
The Meal:
The tuna salad was served with warm tuna on top of a green salad consisting of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and asparagus. Unfortunately the tasty dressing was very oily which detracted from the natural flavours of the vegetables.
The rabbit dish was very good, but when pushed to describe his meal, the diner could only come up with “bony, slurpy, bouncy, messy, tasty” – which sounds like a great night out if you ask me!
The grilled sardines were split down the belly and spread out on the plate exposing both fillets. However the bones had not been removed and made eating the fish difficult. The sardines unfortunately were quiet bland, with a tinny flavour, thankfully they were served with a lovely salad.
The penne puttanesca was an oily dish which had a nice mixed flavour of olive oil and chilli. However, it was too much as a main dish and would have been better as a shared side dish.
The saltimbocca is a veal and prosciutto dish that was served with asparagus and potatoes. Unfortunately, although the potatoes where delicious everything else was dull and the serving was too small given the price.
The marinara was also a disappointment with salt needing to be added to give it flavour. This seafood content of this dish was unbalanced with too many scallops and not enough prawns.
The Chicken Al Vino was probably the highlight of the mains. It was a tasty dish served in a white wine sauce with vegetables as a side.
Both desserts sampled were of great quality. The fresh cream of the tiramisu was refreshing and offered a wonderful counterbalance to the coffee flavours; while the tartufo was any chocolate-lovers fantasy, with the candied cherry in the middle a welcomed surprise.
Overall:
The Waiters Restaurant is a laid back place that has the feel of family owned and run restaurant. Although not exorbitant (mains are between $17-$25), for what you’re served, the prices are probably $5 too expensive; but the history and reputation of this restaurant lets them charge what they like.
Oh, and if you’re interested, Myf ordered the Tortellini Bologna and seemed to enjoy it.
2 comments:
The rabbit was quite a decent meal. What I meant by "slurpy" was that it was one of those meals with a lot of bones and you needed to suck the meat off them. Very hands-on and quite messy as a result. The meat tasted like a gamey version of chicken and was suitably tender - the cacciatore sauce was beautiful.
For the sake of everyone who cares about the english language, I am going through and fixing the spelling. Apologies that we allow Rami to publish unedited. (But thanks for writing the reviews, Rami!)
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