Barramundi Cafe, CBD

Came to Barramundi Cafe on a Friday evening looking for some casual Modern Australian dining.  Since I walk past it every day going to work, thought it would be nice to try it for a change.

Getting at table at 6.30pm was no problem.  We were promptly seated, and and asked if we had a voucher - which we did not.  As it progressed through the night, it seemed like most diners had a Groupon/Scoopon voucher for the seafood platter mains and a bottle of wine. 

We were content with the a la carte menu, of which we chose the Crispy skinned salmon fillet on a mushroom cous cous ,tomato salsa and minted yoghurt.  Salmon was quite a large portion, cooked perfectly with a crispy skin.  The cous cous underneath was enormous, with a scattering of enoki mushroom throughout.  Couldn't taste the mint in the yoghurt, but the combination of the cool yoghurt with the salmon together make it smooth and refreshing to eat.



Crispy skinned salmon fillet on a mushroom cous cous ,tomato salsa and minted yoghurt ($26)



We also had the Mixed platter of Northern Territory barramundi fillet, soft shell crab, prawn skewer, calamari served with garden salad ,chips and homemade tartare sauce.  I was disappointed in this dish - the fillet was skimpy and soggy, the batter for the others was heavy and overwhelming, and the chips were pretty dull too.  A fish and chip shop could have done about the same but with less of the price!  The garden salad was drenched heavily in the dressing, making it limp.  Come to think of it, without the tartare sauce, everything would have been dry. 



Mixed platter of Northern Territory barramundi fillet,soft shell crab,prawn skewer,calamari served with garden salad ,chips and homemade tartare sauce ($25)


For dessert, we tried the Sticky date pudding served warm with ice cream since its a staple Aussie treat I haven't had for 6+ years :)  It came out promptly - a large hot slice surrounded by large amounts of toffee syrup.  Quite tasty but was more like a dry version of a date cake, and not as moist as I was expecting.  The toffee syrup did help, but with all that sugar, it'd better make it great!  Ice cream was just the regular vanilla ice-cream, would have been better if it was vanilla-bean but that's just me being picky.




Sticky date pudding served warm with ice cream ($9)



For the price of the food, would have expected a little better than what we got.  I did enjoy the salmon fillet, since it was by far the best dish of the night.  Would only return for a corporate lunch/dinner, but if work is paying, I'd prefer to try something else :D