Restaurant and food reviews from Perth, Australia

Monday, March 8, 2010

The George, Perth

In the CBD, there are a range of pubs that cater to city workers, city-goers, as well as being a good casual place for people to catch up that is central.  The George is one of those places, but to say it's just a pub is a gross understatement.


When you enter The George, you notice that it's too flash for a pub with decor and decorations giving it a much classier feel than your normal pub and in fact feels more like a nicely decorated stylish restaurant.  Some of the decor such as the chandelier, huge carvings and interior choices actually give it a nice classy and charismatic feel.  On top of that, there is a decent amount of seating ranging from tables, raised bar stool seating and booths done up in a classy and modern way.


Menu wise, there is a reasonably good selection of food that has some pub classics (though done The George style) through to other more fancier selections to choose from.  These include the steak sandwich, to oysters, sashimi, and other offerings you would expect to see at a proper restaurant.  Most main courses range in the $20-35 bracket.  To accompany the meal, there is a very wide selection of mainly Australian but also some international wines on offer, your usual pub beers and spirits, and tea and coffee.

Chicken breast parmigiana - $23

This chicken breast parmigiana was a reasonable sized chicken breast fillet that was coated in crumbs and topped with melted cheese and roasted tomato and capsicum.  The parmigiana was laid on top of a bed of shoestring fries, and served with  a side salad.

The chicken was cooked just right and the crumbed coating was very crunchy.  Notably, there was no tomato based sauce with the parmigiana, but the melted cheese topping was tasty and overall the parmigiana was good and a tasty, well made dish.

The serving of shoe string fries was quite quite reasonable given that the parmigiana was also fried.  The taste and texture of the shoestring fries seemed quite standard, though the fries that were laid directly under the parmigiana were a tad soggy by the time I got to them.

The side salad included vegetables of of gourmet lettuce, rocket, tomato, cucumber, red onion, and was dressed with a light vinegraitte.

The george ultimate steak sandwich - $23

The steak sandwich consisted of a steak that was about half a cm thick, with lettuce, tomato, cheese and what seemed to be an onion relish in a ciabatta bun. This was served with shoestring fries and side tomato sauce and topped with a couple of onion rings.

The steak was cooked medium (as opposed to many pubs doing a more tougher well done cheaper cut of steak). The chips were the same as the ones used with the parmigiana, and the onion rings were coated in a light in texture but deep-fried-oily batter with onion rings that still had a medium raw taste to it.

The George's interpretation of a steak sandwich was quite good and tasty though it came at a premium over many other mainstream pubs (and deservedly so).

In summary, The George offers a good selection of food that is restaurant grade (as opposed to pub grade). There are some good dishes and ingredients on offer that (combined with the classy venue) make this quite an upmarket place in the middle of the business part of the CBD.

Points to note: Though it is categorised by many as a pub, the atmosphere and food is well above your normal pub and more like a restaurant.

Go for: Very good food compared to normal pub standards. More like restaurant grade food with an extensive bar and wine list.



The George
216 St Georges Terrace
Perth WA 6000
(08) 6161 6662
http://www.thegeorgeperth.com.au/

Trading Hours
Monday to Friday: 7am to midnight
Saturday: 5pm to midnight

The George on Urbanspoon

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