I understand that The Bruhaus had a few teething troubles with its food, as a few reviews along the lines of "service was sloppy, food was below par." Fortunately, the owner is the sort of person who pays attention to feedback, and a few weeks ago on Twitter I spied a message about their new, improved menu, which was all it took to ensure our visit would be on the immediate horizon.
We popped in for lunch today, and we were pretty early thanks to an unsuccessful shopping trip (Mr Cake wanted new sports gear from Rebel - unfortunately, as there's a sale on at the moment the only size left in the men's section seemed to be XL. Mr Cake wears Small, so XL is not really workable!) so there weren't many others dining yet.
The staff were very friendly, and we took a seat and looked at the menu. The GrabOne voucher precluded us from trying the $10 lunch menu (since I guess those items are already discounted), but there were a few good options so we made our decisions and placed our order.
We found the drinks menus a bit too hard to navigate - on the beer menu, there were a number of cider options, but the menu (which, given the nature of the establishment is several pages long) is ordered alphabetically by brand - all the drinks are muddled up together. I'm not normally a beer drinker, and was thinking I might try a fruity beer but given the lack of categorisation (or description) I ended up opting for an English pear cider - but that wasn't available. In the flustered way of the person who hasn't considered a second choice I selected the Macs green apple drink - only to be told a moment later that they didn't have that either. Mr Cake's first choice drink also wasn't in stock. It's that funny thing - if the options hadn't been presented to start with we wouldn't have minded at all, but because we had the opportunity to anticipate we were then disappointed.
The food was great, though! Mr Cake had the baked fish, while I had the baked chicken - and both were simple but well executed. Good, solid pub food. Both our dishes allowed us to choose our spud of choice, and Mr Cake chose wedges, while I went with chips, and as part of our meal we got a side salad to share.
Mr Cake's fish was nice, perhaps a little on the tough side but the lemony sauce was nice and the wedges were crisp, perfectly cooked. My chicken was pretty much the same - well cooked, delicous sauce with capers and white wine, and the chips were just so. Who cares about the chips, you may ask... Well, I do! I love my fancy food but I am also a sucker for basic comfort foods - and it never fails to surprise (and disappoint) me how many pubs can't cook them properly. The Bruhaus have it down, though. And they're extra yummy when used to sop up the rest of the sauce. Are you fussy about your chips?
The Bruhaus is located on the corner of Featherston and Willeston Streets, Wellington, ph 04 472 2120, www.thebruhaus.co.nz
Hi! I'm Rosa, a.k.a. Mrs Cake, and I live in Wellington, New Zealand. I love food in all its forms, my fabulous family, and a bit of good old-fashioned Kiwi DIY. This blog started around food but has evolved to include some other bits and pieces - I hope you'll join me for the journey!
Totally fussy about my chips, I hate soggy ones!
ReplyDeleteThe worst possible thing to happen is when you order chips and end up with wedges. A wedge is not a chip, but some places don't get the distinction.
ReplyDeleteI guess I don't like wedges as most of them are coated in some sort of fake flavour. Just give me good old basic salted chips and I'm happy.
Tough fish? That is weird. Do you mean the batter was hard or do you really mean that the meat of the fish was tough?
ReplyDeleteI love wedges slightly more than chips I think. I like the hearty robustness of a good wedge. Bad chips are awful. I'll still eat them, but I might complain.
I love it when places give you a bowl of dip/sauce so you can deal to your chips however you like.
I had a little giggle when I read that Mr Cake wears small. I always imagined Mrs and Mr Cake to be smiling rotund figures that possibly live in a bundt cake shaped house with their round little dog.
Stef, totally - they've got to be crispy and piing hot!
ReplyDeleteKaz, I love my salted potato product too - I don't mind wedges sometimes, but plain chips win me over.
bunnyeatsdesign, it was the fish - it wasn't tough the way other meat would be, but it was a bit chewier than fish should be. Also, I love your imagining of us - but alas (or perhaps fortunately) it is reasonably far from the truth. ;-)
I totally finicky about my chips- if I'm gonna eat fried starch it had better be delicious! Nothing is more disappointing than soggy or tasteless chips. It seriously irks me that most of the 'gourmet' burger joints in Auckland have lousy, tasteless chips. I think the best chips I've eaten were in Melbourne at a burger chain call Grill'd. They used a load of delicious seasonings on them and had a range of super yum dips.
ReplyDeleteAm definitely fussy about chips, why not? :) Haven't tried the ones at Bruhaus, glad to hear they're good. I definitely recommend the ones at Ti Kouka, it's tough competition but they're some of the best in town.
ReplyDeletekbot707, exactly, the calories have to be worth it, right? I actually really love the chips from our local Burger Fuel, they seem to cook them pretty well. :-)
ReplyDeleteLaura, I will have to try Ti Kouka - I am such a chip-lover so it sounds like a plan.
I've been to Bruhaus lots for drinks (what can I say, I do like my beer) and have had their chips lots. Agree with your assessment. It was nice to read about their food though, hadn't tried anything (other than the chips, of course!)
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried Ti Kouka's chips so I don't know how it compares but if they're as good as the other food I've had there then Bruhaus might have some competition for the best chips in the willis-lambton end of town ;)
Clearly Ti Kouka are very worthy of a visit - the problem with Welly is there are so many great places to eat, I have a list as long as my arm. ;-)
ReplyDelete