The Little Snail

I have been going to this place since 1995, when our French class used to come for an "excursion". In the years since, I've faithfully visited for LOTS of birthdays, catchups, Christmas parties... I've seen them move from their old digs at Broadway to their swanky new spot at Pyrmont.

In this time, I'd like to think that my food palate has evolved and not the quality of the restaurant has decreased, because I used to think that their food was wonderful and cheap, to lately, it being just average and expensive.

Anyway, I'm back again, this time for a work function, so here is what I think of this latest visit.

Food

We started off with some garlic bread, which unfortunately, arrived at our tables only warm. The bread was soft and had a crunchy centre, but the garlic was very faint. Also delivered with this was some coleslaw type salad - cabbage, onion, tomato, carrot, smothered in salad dressing. I only had a bit of this and it tasted like nothing much.

Soon our entrees arrived, my "in short supply" (see Service) Honey cured ocean trout with watercress salad should really be described as Water cress salad with honey cured ocean trout instead, such is the lack of trout. Maybe that's how they made 4 servings enough for the rest of the restaurant, by dividing them into 20 serves!! Seriously, there was only about a 50 cent sized worth of trout in the whole thing. The trout itself lacked the deep smoky flavour and was a bit sweet, but I actually quite like the salad, the water cress had a crunchy texture and the dressing was nicely controlled. Still, I felt like I was ripped off.

Maybe that was a good thing because the mains were HUGE. Since I'd tried every single thing on their normal menu, I decided on the blackboard special of Lamb fillets with eggplant and lentil puree, which turned out to be the BEST MAIN I've ever eaten at this restaurant. Admittedly it's not that hard since all their other mains are only so-so, but this one, wow! The lamb was cooked medium as requested, the still pink flesh tender and juicy, atop a huge mound of creamy and nutty puree. The sauce was complex, slightly salty, and complemented the slight sweetness of the puree very well. I polished this one off. It's just too bad this is not on their menu all the time, because I know what I would be ordering! All mains come with a platter of mixed vegetables - carrots, beans, squash, potatoes on this occasion. Actually, on ALL occasion it has been this combination of veges. They are ok but not great.

I was quite full after the main, and at another restaurant, I probably would have stopped ordering, but since you HAVE to have dessert, I ordered another off the specials board (yup, tried all the normal dessert offering) of espresso ice-cream with wafer basket. The wafer was well done, more brown than normal. The ice-cream was smooth, the coffee flavour was strong but a bit too sweet for my liking. I also taste tested some chocolate fudge cake which was very dense but a bit dried.

But wait, there's more, with our coffees (which I didn't try so can't comment) came a plate of petite fours, or maybe they should be "grande" four, as each morsel took at least 3 bites to consume. The rum balls were low on rum and not very chocolaty, the cinnamon biscuits a bit better, but nowhere near as good as my desserts :)

Rating - 6.5 (7.5 for the lamb and 5.5 for the other stuff)

Atmosphere

Every other time I've visited, it's been a Friday or Saturday night (except for those lunch visits for school of course), so I was used to seeing a full restaurants with lots of groups and the waiters being run off their feet. This visit on a Thursday night was completely different. There were only a few tables and we were definitely the only group there. The atmosphere is nowhere near as good as when it's a full house.

Still, our group created our own atmosphere, with our "Porn name" name tags, trivia questions and tasks we have to do. Plus, if you don't enjoy the company, you can always look out the huge glass windows at the passing parade outside Darling Harbour.

Rating - 1.5

Service

Our waiter was melodramatic (I don't think he was French though), making it out like he was especially serving us, and throwing in lots of hand gestures for good measure. He explained how we were to order, and said that there were only 4 trout entrees left on the menu, and that we would have to be quick to snap it up, as if he was doing us a favour by telling us about some exclusive deal.

We can't really blame them, but we kept swapping seats, so they just had to call out the meals when they brought it out. They could have been better at refilling our jugs of water and replenishing empty bottles of wine though.

Rating - 3

C-factor

The Little Snail works on a 3 course system, where you pay a set price for all 3 courses. It's usually $45, and they also have a special price for groups, where for $55 p.p you get 3 courses and garlic bread, salad,s coffee and corkage. B.Y.O is $5 corkage per bottle. Of course, for me, this was all free. Even though I'm not a huge fan of their food, I had a good time. As a whole package, especially for a group, it is one of the better places to go in Sydney.

Rating - 1.5

Brownie Points - 12.5

Info

50 Murray Street
Pyrmont
NSW 2009
Phone (02) 9212 7512
Website