150 East Riverside Bar & Restaurant, Ascot

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Late last year some of my workmates and I were lucky enough to be the winners of the annual Vetpath Quiz Night.  Our prize was a $250 dinner voucher for 150 East Riverside Bar and Restaurant.  Nearly six months came and went and we still hadn’t managed to coordinate a night where all six of us could come along.  Getting everyone to agree on a set date felt a bit like trying to herd cats but with only one month left on the voucher before it expired; I successfully locked down a night when all but one of our winning team members could all attend.  The member who couldn’t join us had recently moved to live in Queensland, so I figured that was a reasonable excuse!

150 East it is currently situated along a highway that appears to be undergoing something that is close to becoming the Greatest Road Works of the Decade here in Perth.  Great Eastern Highway is being widened from two lanes to three lanes each way and for those not familiar with this area it may sound like no big deal.  However the reality of it is that currently all telecommunications, power and gas lines lie under the existing footpaths which will soon be turned into highway roads.  So prior to widening the roads, all these need to be located, dug up and moved.  They are also adding bike lanes, bus lanes….the works. To complicate things even more the highway is the major gateway from the Eastern suburbs into the city thus making it a project of mammoth proportions which I believe is costing more than $225 million.  All along this stretch of highway peak hour traffic has been slowed down to mind numbing speeds of 30-40 km/hour.  I am lucky enough to get to travel along this every day to get to work!

As a result of these road works the access into 150 East is quite difficult as it is pretty much centred in the eye of the storm. Surprisingly despite this fact I found that the restaurant was relatively full.  They had a live musician playing some covers of Angus and Julia Stone giving a relaxed and chilled out ambience. Some of us met at the bar for a couple of pre-dinner drinks to settle into the mood before we were shown to our table.

Seared scallops, crispy pork belly, truffle emulsion, micro herbs

I shared a main sized entrée of seared scallops with crispy pork belly.  The scallops were cooked beautifully and were soft tender little pillows that nearly dissolved in my mouth.  The pork belly was a bit of a letdown.  Each mouthful left that lingering fatty aftertaste and the crackling wasn’t crunchy enough.  The dressing failed to tie these two ingredients together either and needed a little more sweetness to it to marry the flavours.

Fresh hand cut tagliatelle, prawns, crab, sun-dried tomatoes, Cajun cream sauce

A few at our table order the fresh hand cut tagliatelle with prawns and crab.  I was informed that the sauce clung beautifully to the strips of delicate pasta, the prawns were crunchy and fresh but the Cajun sauce lacked the punch they were looking for.

I ordered the fish of the day and I realise some of you may be a little weary of my incessant ordering of Barramundi.  I agreed that maybe I order it a little too frequently but when done correctly with crispy skin it is one of my favourite types of fish.  This time I was fairly disappointed to find my fish was slightly overcooked and didn’t flake apart under my fork.

Duo of duck, confit leg, duck, pear and cognac sausage, merlot and aniseed braised cabbage, Swiss chard, jus

The duo of duck was the most popular dish of the table and consisted of a confit leg with a duck and cognac sausage.  The sausage was juicy and bursting with flavour and the confit leg wasn’t dry at all.  The only negative feedback was the fresh pear garnish was a bit too hard.

Despite all being quite full, we all were really aiming to push the boat out for this rare occasion and make the most of the wonderful evening.  I shared the vanilla and mandarin crème brûlée which was a beautiful smooth consistency but could have done with a hint more citrus after notes. Needless to say I still nearly licked the bowl clean.

The gingerbread pudding was soft and fairly moist but apparently needed more caramel sauce and as a result my colleagues didn’t finished their serve as it became a bit too stodgy without any extra gooeyness.

The biggest flaw in our evening was the cheese platter.  It included a brie (Mon Sire Franche, Comte, France), a blue vein (La Traditional Du Bon Fourme D’Ambert, Auvergne, France), and a hard cheese (Gutshofer Schafskase, The Netherlands). So much potential was completely lost on our taste buds due to all three cheeses being served cold and seemingly straight out of the fridge.  The brie was the literally the hardest hit by this oversight as many dear readers can surely empathise making the resultant cheese tasteless and barely edible.

We waited quite some time for our bill to arrive until eventually our waitress came over to inform us their computer had broken down and it would be a long wait until they could reboot it.  It was getting quite late so we asked if we could just let her know what we ordered and pay.  We were met with reluctance to do this but after further waiting with no computer recovery in sight she allowed us to go through the menu with her. Lucky for us our winning voucher covered the majority of the bill and we had minimal remaining to split amongst us.  Given it being a near freebie meal, we all left very full and relatively content.  However I hope once the highway access improves for 150 East, so will the quality and attention to detail in their restaurant.

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150 East Riverside Bar Restaurant
150 Great Eastern Highway, Ascot 6104 | (08) 9479 0099 | www.assuredhotels.com.au
 
Price:                     $$$$ (Entrees $11.50-24.50, Mains $23.50-42)
Food:                    2/5 (porky aftertaste, overcooked fish and cold brie)
Service:                2.5/5 (average no major hiccups)
Ambience:          3.5/5 (loved the live music)
Drinks:                  3/5 (reasonable wine list, includes a lot a lovely Margaret River wines)
Total:                     11/20

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4 thoughts on “150 East Riverside Bar & Restaurant, Ascot”

  1. Dear Chompchomp,

    Thank you for taking the time to blog about us. In reviewing your comments I would like to pass on our appreciation for raising some valid points and feedback. I have discussed this with our Food & Beverage team and we have reviewed some of our current practices to improve our products and services.

    In saying this, the issue of our computer systems crashing was due to a upgrade of all of our hotel operating systems and this issue has also been rectified. However, the manner in which your particular table was handled was not acceptable and I welcome the opportunity to discuss the matter with you.

    Please feel free to call me at the hotel on
    08 9479000.

    In closing, thank you once again for your critiquing of our establishment and your experience. I look forward to discussing your feedback should you wish.

    Regards,

    Brendan Craig
    General Manager

    ASSURED ASCOT QUAYS APARTMENT HOTEL

    1. Dear Brendan,
      Thank you so much for taking the time to read and respond to my blog. The makings of a successful business is to ensure to listen to all customer feedback both good and bad and act on it when needed. I don’t always such a constructive response as yours to my blog posts, I guess some people don’t want to listen to opinions from bloggers that can sometimes be portrayed as untrained or unprofessional.
      To have such a proactive response from yourself instills great confidence in your establishment in ironing out these little issues,
      Thanks once again for your reply
      Chompchomp

  2. We used to go here for breakfast when we lived in Belmont and it was always fairly good. The fact the management have responded in a positive way to take constructive criticism on board is a very good sign which suggests that even if occasionally they miss he mark they are striving for excellence. I will certainly think of dropping in For dinner sometime as I’m always looking for restaurants in the east.

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