Week 17 of 52
Milk – IGA
Beans from Jo D’Angelo
Blend – Central and South American
Cappuccino and Ristretto Cost – $4.00ea
We usually associate good coffee with a ‘cafe’ or a ‘coffee shop’, of which only a handfull in Adelaide strive to give us pleasurable coffee. So what other establishments could possibly be able to make a decent cuppa? A restaurant should. So you go to a good restaurant that may make a fantastic starter, then a really good main course and ending off with a cracker of a dessert, then you have a less than average or disappointing coffee. Oh dear. A bad way to end the evening after a good meal isn’t it.
The Pot Food and Wine was voted as a top 10 restaurant in 2010 in Adelaide by readers of the Gourmet Traveller. So we arent just talking about any run-of-the-mill place here, they have good food but how is the coffee?
I ordered a cappuccino and a ristretto.
The cappuccinos’ presentation came with a pattern, but then was mostly covered with brown dust. What is the point in that? The barista/coffee maker oughta be showing off what he or she can do for the presentation of the coffee, not hiding it so show us your artistic skill and know that there is more than one way to present the brown dust. The froth was creamy and thick in texture but the milk taste was ordinary. Using plain-jane milk which in this case is the cheap home brand bought from across the road will only give you a mediocre result, something I know this business doesn’t strive for. With the froth gone the coffee was making its way down my throat – the temperature was fine, strength was good matched by the colour and overall was an average coffee.
Below: Cappuccino
The ristetto crema appearance was a ideal tan colour, but the tight, perfect and smooth looking crema often results in a thin runny ristetto as this one was. The temperature was an issue with this being luke warm at best with no stand out flavour other than ‘its coffee’.
Below: Ristretto at The Pot Food and Wine
The IGA milk they used isnt the normal brand they use I am told, they had run out of the other brand and weren’t able to tell me what they usually use. You can see the sugar sachets above that says ‘Rio Coffee’, well, they dont use Rio Coffee and for some reason feel the need to promote that company on sugar sachets. Customers can quite easily go away thinking they use Rio Coffee and pass that onto friends – i’m sure the current coffee supplier wouldnt like this.
The same attention to detail and love they show in their food at The Pot Food and Wine didn’t come across in the coffee they serve.
Open for Lunch & DinnerTuesday – Friday from 12pm,
Sunday from 12.30pm 160 – KING WILLIAM ROAD – HYDE PARK – SOUTH AUSTRALIA PHONE 08 8373 2044
EMAIL EAT@THEPOTFOODANDWINE.COM.AU
Cheep home brand milk and left over sugar sticks promoting their last coffee brand, all this to save money and your paying $4.00 for the privilege, Its a waste of time and money to do coffee review!
When eating there.. if you want coffee have it elsewhere has been a motto for sometime. It is very ordinary.
Scottie Callaghan said almost the exact same thing in a recent Bean Scene article. Why do these upper class and high end restaurants spend many dollars on food and wine, but then serve sub-par coffee? Would they put untrained chefs in the kitchen? Would they buy wine from the supermarket to serve? It just boggles the mind that the attitude of “coffee is coffee” is still rampant in not only Adelaide, but Australia as a whole. Customers experience a lovely meal and enjoy a great wine list, only to leave the restaurant with a, more often than not, incorrectly extracted coffee, leaving a horrible taste on their palate.
We really need some more places, such as Bar 9, The Coffee Branch, and the new place Belfari to open up and get people to notice what coffee SHOULD taste like.
Having spent my fair share of time in a restaurants in the 90′s i’ve had a few cups of badly made coffee. Still having this impression that restaurants – even ‘good’ ones serve mediocre coffee I wanted to visit at least one Restaurant over the 52 weeks and write about there coffee. So who makes the coffee? The waitress/tor, manager, owner, bar person? Multitasking is often required by staff, but what is really needed is more attention to the finale of the evening, and that is the coffee.