This year for Christmas was spent with my family at Mooloolaba. Usually a home cooked dinner is in order for Christmas Day, however this year Dad decided to book us in for a lunch at Buderim Tavern. He emailed me the menu and so it was decided.
The last time I recall going to Buderim Tavern was when I was a kid, and that memory is as vague as remembering they had good vanilla icecream with chocolate topping..... hmmmm.
The Christmas lunch was a set course for $89 per person for a four course meal. Drinks cost extra at the bar.
We arrived and were promptly seated along with what seemed like hundreds of other people. The great thing about Buderim Tavern is the ‘million dollar views’ of the Sunshine Coast out to the sea. It was certainly worth it just for the view alone.
The bad thing was that as soon as we were seated EVERYONE decided they wanted drinks, so there was a huge queue up at the bar. Fortunately there were 4-5 people serving and they managed to get the line moving quickly enough.
Our meal is outlined as follows;
Amuse Bouche’ of duck sausage on sourdough with goats cheese and apple ceviche:
This was to put it bluntly, a horrible starter! The apple on the top was probably the best part, however all I could taste was apple and there was absolutely no goats cheese taste at all. The sausage was thickly sliced and the sourdough was thin. Unfortunately the sausage tasted ‘similar to dog food’ according to my sister. I think the whole thing would have been a lot nicer if there was a nice thick piece of bread with a thin spreading of the sausage on top plus more of the apple topping.
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| amuse bouche amazingly presented on paper napkin... |
Entree, alternate drop of Chicken terrine and Ocean trout:
L had the ocean trout which was flaked and served atop blini with crème fraiche, caviar and rocket. He liked the trout saying it was fresh and simple. The only thing wrong that I saw was the the “blini” which I always thought was pancake-like, was a piece of bread.
My chicken terrine was nice enough, but didn’t really stand out. It had parma ham wrapped around the outside, and was served with asparagus, peas and a chutney on top. The chutney was quite nice but I didn’t really think it matched the dish? All of this was atop a piece of ciabatta which tasted like it was mixed with concrete. I think I almost broke a tooth on it.
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| chicken terrine entree |
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| ocean trout entree |
Main course:
This was touted as a choice of either Roasted turkey breast roulade, Petite Eye fillet with pea and potato pie, or yellow fin tuna with nicoise salad. Needless to say, we all decided to opt for the turkey, I mean this was Christmas day after all.
The turkey had a chestnut and apricot stuffing and was wrapped in prosciutto. There was accompanying vegetables and a “Cumberland sauce” which I found out was a cranberry type sauce. The turkey itself was a little dry, but it was a tasty dish. It is fairly difficult I suppose to guarantee that all dishes like this were 100% when serving such a large volume of people, so I can forgive them the dryness somewhat. The only thing that I would have liked would have been a gravy instead of the cranberry sauce, as it made the entire dish extremely sweet.
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| turkey roulade main |
Dessert, alternate drop of Plum Pudding with brandy anglaise and cherry, or Pavlova with berries, Chantilly cream and couli:
Needless to say we were all fighting over who would get the pav and who would get the pudding. L and I were personally crossing our fingers for the pavlova. Thankfully, a kind waitress saw that we were both wanting it and after placing a pavlova in front of me, came back with one especially for L. The pavlova was a miniature version with cream atop and a berry coulis that was tart but delicious. I guess its hard to go wrong with good ol’ pav, but this dish was a winner.
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| pavlova for dessert |
Dad got the plum pudding which looked dry and was only served with a minimal amount of custard. It would have been so much better with more custard and a nice big dollop of cream as well.
Afterwards there was tea and coffee which they actually ran out of!
All in all, we were there from 11.30am until just after 3pm, so it was a long lunch. It was generally enjoyed, besides the few hiccups with some of the dishes. I got the feeling they were trying to make the food sound a lot more ‘posh’ than it was. I think a home-cooked dinner is in order for next year!
Love,
C
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