I'd been meaning to try SAC for a while, but it's often fully booked. Eventually made it with the Mrs and two friends last Thursday night.
The place is a nice looking, slightly pricey but more than Linda Mc sausages cafe by day, and spruces things up (and ups the prices) of an evening.
Menu looked tasty and we were a bit spoilt for choice, but the Mrs and myself split the difference and got one of each main we'd fancied.
I SOOOOOO wanted this to be good. Right-on veggie establishment making (I assumed) an effort to make us non-meat-munchers feel it was worth eating out. In reality is was, well, a bit crap.
Starters:
Me - "Tortelloni piselli £4.90
A homemade Milanese style pasta filled with mashed butter beans with basil pesto and mozzarella. Served with a white wine and cream reduction sauce with peas and veggie parmesan."
Overcooked, dried-up pasta parcels in an admitedly quite tasty sauce with very soft TINNED PEAS.
Mrs - "Thai style spring rolls V £4.50
Stir fried vegetables flavoured with garlic, spring onion and ginger wrapped in spring roll pastry and deep fried. Served with a hot Thai red coconut sauce."
Nice enough, but tasted bought-in rather than home-made.
Mains:
Me - "Cuban stew V, GF £8.80
A delicious stew of chilli, turnips, cumin, pumpkin, new potatoes, tomato, peppers, banana and more. Served with a black bean rice and a spicy tomato and coriander salsa."
I'm really annoyed now I've looked that up on the website. It contained no banana or pumpkin and didn't come with the salsa. Oh, and it certainly wasn't delicious. I'd expect a stew to be cooking for a while and thickening up a bit. This was watery and tasteless.
Mrs - "Okonomiyaki pancake £8.90
A Japanese style omelette filled with white cabbage, beansprouts, mushrooms, spring onions and miso. Served with deep fried tempura vegetables, ponzu dressed noodle salad and a wasabe mayo dip."I must have been feeling off-colour, as I rarely accept sub-par offerings. The omelette was quite obviously way overcooked, burnt even. noodle salad was tasteless. Three tempura vegetables.
Friend No. 1 - "Pumpkin Cordon bleu£8.80
Slices of pan fried butternut squash filled with fakin’ bacon and brie, breadcrumbed and then pan fried. Served with mashed potato, roast parsnips and a creamy honey and mustard sauce."It just tasted weird to the point of unpleasantness.
At £5 a starter and £9 a main I'd expect to be attempting to skip out the door with happiness, foiled by a full belly. As it was we were all a bit gutted.
I can only hope it was an off-night (it certainly was for me - I've no idea where my head was at, not complaining at the time).
I can only hope it was an off-night (it certainly was for me - I've no idea where my head was at, not complaining at the time).
Unlicensed, £1.50 per booze head corkage.
