|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
User Reviews on Terroir
|
| |
|
Displaying 1 - 10 of 13 comments
|
| |
|
Page:
1
2
Next
|
|
| |
|
|
| Overall |
 
|
Recommended |
 |
Food 9 |
Ambience 8 |
Service 8 |
Value 7 |
|
|
|
Simply divine - great food, great wine, great place.
|
| |
|
Was this review helpful?
|
|
| |
iHEARTfoodANDwine -
See my reviews 1 , 16 December 2008
|
Manage this Listing to respond
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Overall |
|
Recommended |
|
Food 9 |
Ambience 7 |
Service 8 |
Value 8 |
|
|
We really enjoyed our visit. The food was perfect (I had the vegetarian haloumi dish which was wonderful, my husband had the venison which he enjoyed also), and the service was great. We ordered 2 rosés by the glass, and when these were not available we selected a bottle instead. When we went to pay we had only been charged for the 2 glasses we initially ordered, which we thought was great.
The waitstaff, though young, were keen to help and always had a smile on their faces. The bread was warm, homemade and lovely, and the butter dish was refilled when we gobbled it all up (unlike the hard cold rocks we were served the previous night at the 2 chef hat awarded restaurant we also ate at while in the Hunter).
Yes, apart from the huge fireplace this is not an interior that stops you in your tracks, but the food was very good and when you're eating out that really is what counts. Highly recommended!
|
| |
|
Was this review helpful?
|
|
| |
|
Kathrinevad -
See my reviews 16, 01 December 2008
|
Manage this Listing to respond
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Overall |
|
Recommended |
|
Food 7 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 9 |
Value 7 |
|
|
Terroir certainly has the wow factor; from the second you pull into the driveway it feels special. We had a party of 10 on a Thursday night, including two children. We waited at the bar area for the rest of our guests to arrive, a comfortable area with a huge open fireplace looking through to the dining area, surrounded by a glass fronted cellar.
The staff were young but worked well together as a team, and made the effort to greet us at the door and introduce us to our waiter where he then seated us in the bar area. Such an easy simple thing to do, but amazing how many establishments forget or can't be bothered to make your first impressions an important factor. He was also interested enough to help guide us through their wine list and even steered us away from an early choice towards another in the same price range, and which turned out to be as good as he proclaimed and brought us menus to peruse while we finished our drinks.
The restaurant itself is also a standout with high angular ceilings and a massive open kitchen, which provided an interesting backdrop and surprisingly the sounds really didn't travel through to us in the centre of the restaurant and any that did were more of an accompaniment than an obtrusion. We steered away from the degustation menu, as we had children with us and we had a rather later than expected start (8:30ish).
Many of us had the grilled scampi which came with squid ink gnocchi and actually was the low point of the meal. The scampi was slightly overcooked and the gnocchi was bland – they really didn’t seem to compliment each other. I understand the more regular scampi entrée is with a scallop and truffle tortellini and tomato essence that would sound a far better balance to me. If not for a beautifully oaked chardonnay the course would have fallen into the “ah well” basket.
The mains were a good deal better at least for the meat eaters. I had the venison which was cooked to perfection and came with roasted chestnuts which were beautifully “squishy and sweet” everything came together just right and with a lovely (waiter recommended) Hungerford merlot just hit the right note. The eye fillets and the lamb shank, owners also professed a keen interest in their choices and were very complimentary. The fish was the only negative, again being overcooked and dry.
After a long day the kids were getting a little tired and the staff were so sweet and offered the sofa on the now empty bar for them to sleep out the rest of the meal. It was perfect as we could still keep an eye on them through the open fireplace and it didn’t offend the other diners. They were even thoughtful enough to tuck them in with a table cloth. A far cry from other establishments that frown on children and the extra half an hour that afforded us, allowed us to finish our meal at the correct pace and we all came away with a great memory after a lovely meal.
Perhaps restaurants do listen to sites like this as the service was really very good, which seems to have been an issue for previous customers. The waiters were polite, informative and attentive without being overly so, they went the extra mile in friendliness and thoughtfulness and worked very well together as a team. The food – the seafood really wasn’t good enough and that needs to be addressed, but the richer meat dishes were all fantastic and worthy of the hefty price tag. I guess a mixed bag all in all, but the experience the wine and the staff gave us alone made it a very special evening.
|
| |
|
Was this review helpful?
|
|
| |
|
kingdomd -
See my reviews 2, 03 October 2008
|
Manage this Listing to respond
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Overall |
|
Highly Recommended |
|
Food 10 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 8 |
Value 8 |
|
|
After reading the latest Good Food guide awards I decided Terroir would be the perfect lunch spot for my upcoming trip to the Hunter; I have always loved any Peter Doyle dining experience and after reading that Hayden Ellerton trained under him I knew the food would not disappoint!
I started with the duck which was not only beautifully presented but tasted outstanding. My girlfriend had the scampi and was equally impressed. For the mains I had the lamb shank which melted in the mouth and was lucky enough to share some of my girlfriend’s kingfish as she was saving room for the desserts.
Without a doubt the absolute standout of the meal were the desserts, the hardest part was choosing! I finally decided on the rhubarb crumble and was blow away not only by the crumble but it was served with vanilla vodka and rhubarb jelly which was absolutely delicious!
Overall it was a wonderful dining experience! The food was fantastic, the wines complemented the food perfectly, thanks to the sommeliers' recommendations and the staff were friendly. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting the Hunter that has an appreciation for beautiful food. I will definitely be back and I would love to try the degustation next time.
|
| |
|
Was this review helpful?
|
|
| |
|
brendanw -
See my reviews 1, 17 September 2008
|
Manage this Listing to respond
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Overall |
|
Highly Recommended |
|
Food 9 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 9 |
Value 9 |
|
|
|
I took a group of people to Terroir on Sunday 24th August. We started with entree followed by mains and dessert after. The food was fantastic, we were given beautiful home made bread rolls prior to the entree. The wine advice from the sommelier was well respected. Hayden Ellerton is doing a fantastic job here in his first stint as a head chef.
|
| |
|
Was this review helpful?
|
|
| |
|
robyn doran -
See my reviews 1, 01 September 2008
|
Manage this Listing to respond
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Overall |
|
Not Recommended |
|
Food 4 |
Ambience 3 |
Service 1 |
Value 1 |
|
|
Well, I should have read the previous reviews before bothering to waste my time or money. Friends had recommended this restaurant to us and we decided to go. Clearly we didn't realise that the good chef had gone, but apparently so have all the other good staff.
Once we sat down all we could hear was the conversation between staff and the kitchen clanging around. It wasn't busy but the senior staff was obviously too busy to top up our water or even try to sell us some wine, whilst our waitress was attending to another table. Our mains were cleared and we could hardly eat anything, yet no one asked if our meals were ok. Then, 1/2 an hour later, we had to call the waitress over so we could ask for dessert menus, except she must have thought we were going to ask for the bill and brought that over with her.
It was too painful so we just paid the bill, left and had dessert down the road where we were made to feel most welcome! I don't even know why they bother opening, I have never felt so unwelcome in a restaurant before.
|
| |
|
Was this review helpful?
|
|
| |
|
lovewine -
See my reviews 4, 05 August 2008
|
Manage this Listing to respond
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Overall |
|
Not Recommended |
|
Food 2 |
Ambience 1 |
Service 1 |
Value 1 |
|
|
After rave reviews from my partner and other colleagues I decided to purchase the degustation dinner for myself and my partner for his birthday.
On entering the restaurant we thought we would like to share a drink at the bar before dinner, we were quickly persuaded by the older waitress not to do so as the degustation would be delayed as it would take close to three hours. We decided to order the matching wines to the degustation and were terribly disappointed at the minimal amount of wine we received.
It was honestly no more than a tasting you would get at the cellar door. We expected we would have to order a taxi to get home, however, this was not the case as we soon left the restaurant stone sober and ridiculously famished.
When asked by the waitress in the middle of our courses what our favourite had been so far, we were both left wondering for a moment as nothing we had just eaten had jumped to mind. Unfortunately, for Terroir & the kitchen staff the only memorable part of the meal was the sorbet .... and last I had encountered on a degustation menu, the sorbet is always known to be a palate cleanser rather than a 'Course'.
The meal portions were embarrassingly small and there was certainly no 'wow factor' with any taste sensation in any one 'Course'. My partner & I are regular diners of reputable restaurants in Sydney & Melbourne and I cannot relay how disappointing it was to pay this exorbitant amount of money for the lack of value that was received.
Considering the restaurant was only 50% full the staff were ignorant to normal service needs. We had to request our own tea/coffee and once that was served there was no mention of any petit four. As we were both considerably disappointed with our entire experience we thought the restaurant may be able to redeem itself with some delicious sweet treats........unfortunately, we were delivered 2 tiny round balls of chocolate which had been delivered direct from the FREEZER! What a joke for a restaurant of this calibre!
From an ambience point of view, the wait staff chose to seat all guests practically on top of each other and then the chefs began scrubbing the kitchen floors with heavy-duty cleaning products whilst we were still eating our main meals. This is certainly not something I wanted to smell, see or endure at 9:30 pm when I am supposed to be enjoying this amazing dining experience!
To make matters worse the staff then went and switched all the kitchen lights off as if they were hinting they wanted us to leave. Laughable considering we were earlier informed that dinner would take approximately 3 hours and we were out of there within 2.
I am sorely disappointed with this experience and feel that this restaurant needs to reconsider its position at this time. On speaking to reputable vineyards close by the following day it was noted to us that Terroir had only been as good as its previous head chef Darren Ho. Terribly disappointing that we learnt this information some $300 poorer for the experience. I can, perhaps, understand if we just hadn't liked the food, but to think the food was mediocre at best and the fact that we left the restaurant stone sober and famished is unbelievably disappointing.
|
| |
|
Was this review helpful?
|
|
| |
|
nicand88 -
See my reviews 20, 23 May 2008
|
Manage this Listing to respond
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Overall |
|
Below Average |
|
Food 5 |
Ambience 4 |
Service 3 |
Value 3 |
|
|
We went here for a Saturday lunch, and had a disappointing meal compounded by very poor service. To put our experience in context, the restaurant was at most serving 5 tables, which is probably no more than 20% of capacity.
Despite the emptiness of the restaurant, we were seated next to a table with a (fortunately largely well behaved) small child, not a cardinal sin but given the available space a little more privacy should have been afforded.
Perusing the wine list is not for the faint of wallet, with very little choice below the $100 mark. Service was, to this point efficient and polite. However, following our order being taken we were roundly ignored for the 45-50 minutes it took to deliver our mains (we had not ordered any starters).
In fact, the staff seemed more concerned with clearing the unused tables in the restaurant, making us feel most unwelcome. During this time nobody checked to see if we were ok or to make any apology for the slowness of service, nor did they do so when serving our food.
The food was good, though not as hot as it should have been, as we could see them resting on the counter for some time before they made their leisurely way over to us. It was certainly not worth the premium prices that were being charged, not uncommon in the Hunter Valley it appears. We thought about ordering dessert, but upon being given the bar menu by the waiter, decided to call it a day.
Considering the prices ($35-$40 a main) and the setting, you would expect a lot more. If you are looking for a special meal in the Hunter, look elsewhere.
|
| |
|
Was this review helpful?
|
|
| |
|
put437 -
See my reviews 21, 16 March 2008
|
Manage this Listing to respond
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Overall |
|
Highly Recommended |
|
Food 9 |
Ambience 9 |
Service 10 |
Value 8 |
|
|
I have had some amazing meals at Terroir over the years. The food, ambience and staff are always a pleasure. Darren Ho is the Head Chef here and he is a lovely guy, with a talent and vision for his menu.
I will be back when in the Hunter Valley next...
|
| |
|
Was this review helpful?
|
|
| |
|
kinkynun -
See my reviews 33, 01 February 2008
|
Manage this Listing to respond
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Overall |
|
Recommended |
|
Food 7 |
Ambience 8 |
Service 8 |
Value 6 |
|
|
Staff did everything to please and even went beyond the call of duty. Had a la carte, not the degustation. The food was very nice, but have been to better ones in the hunter region. Vegetarian and scallops for entree were light and whetted the appetite. Mains of eye fillet and lamb were pleasant but were a little uninspiring.
Suggested wines matched wonderfully with mea |
Special OffersRegisterTell a FriendAdvertiseRestaurateursLogin
Hi, Anonymous
Favourites
Map
Weather
Tell Friends
Print
Add to your list
