After late night shopping today we went to one of the Rundle street pub called Austral Hotel for dinner. It is quite a popular bar close to the two universities and is quite packed with university students and young professionals who gather there after work. The Austral usually has a local band playing during weekends and the place can get quite rowdy inside. It was our first time eating in the pub and it sure was noisy from the band and people yelling over each other. The eating area looks very plain with bits of paint peeling. In some ways it looks a bit like an old bar from the outback but I believe the bar intends to go for that kind of appeal.
The usual pub scene on a Friday night.
Winny and I struggled a bit to get service with all the people busy bar tendering. After a short while we flagged a staff down and after he took our order at the bar, he showed us to our reserved table. The eating area was packed out and we were given a table at the centre of the rowdy room. Everyone around us were chatting away with a beer in their hands and eating pub meals such as schnitzels and nachos.
Too loud to chat, just play on our phones.
Our meals came quite promptly and we were pleasantly surprised that they looked very appetising. Winny ordered the Marinated Kangaroo Salad. The Salad was quite big in portion with a generous amount of char-grilled kangaroo fillet marinated in native herbs and spices. The salad has beetroot, goats cheese, spinach, blood orange and bush tomato topped with sticky balsamic dressing. There was a whole different mixture of vegetables including bean sprouts and lettuce and baby spinach leaves. The Char-grilled kangaroo tasted quite tender with the meat cooked roughly medium rare. The spices and herbs on the kangaroo didn’t taste very distinct but the balsamic sauce worked beautifully with the meat. The salad had an overall Thai salad feel because of the bean sprouts and the sweet sauce. The whole dish was delicious.
Marinated Kangaroo Salad- char-grilled kangaroo fillet marinated in native herbs & spices served with beetroot, goats cheese, spinach, blood orange & bush tomato sticky balsamic AUD$27
I originally wanted the Moroccan spring lamb Tagine but unfortunately it was sold out. Luckily I had a second dish in mind and that was the Tasmanian Salmon. The Salmon was cooked with crispy skin and served with dukkah potatoes and dill avocado salsa. The Salmon was quite fresh tasting and the creamy dill avocado salsa complimented the salmon quite well. The salmon was a simple and a nice dish.
Tasmanian Salmon- crispy skinned tasmanian salmon served with roasted dukkah potatoes & dill avocado salsa AUD$28
We were quite pleased with our meal although the pub probably isn’t the best place to have a peaceful dinner and a have a conversation. If a pub atmosphere and a nice pub meal is what you are looking for when you are in town, I recommend you to give The Austral a go.
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