August 2000 Volume 81 Number 8 "serving the protectors"
Dining
By Jason Squire

Welcome Revival of Hotel Dining

evived hotels has been one of the positives to emerge from South Australia’s relatively new poker machine industry. Many large suburban hotels had offered a pretty poor scope of food and struggled to survive before poker machines debuted.

In dramatic contrast, the Brahma Lodge Hotel represents the quintessential renaissance hotel. The dining room serves good, value-for-money food, and has restored the hotel to a hub of the local and extended communities. Indeed, this community revival is reflected in the hotel’s slogan: “Entertaining the Community”.

My partner and I were pleasantly surprised by the modern dining room and its warm feel. The staff provide table service for both drinks and food, which has unfortunately become rare in these times of price-cutting. The dining room concept is that diners choose their main courses or entrées and help themselves to the vegetables, salad and bread in the centrally-located buffet. And unlimited ice-cream is available for dessert.

My partner tried Vietnamese cold rolls for an entrée while I had oysters natural. Both were fresh and filling. My SA oysters looked - by their size - as if they came from one of those great oyster destinations on the Eyre Peninsula. The cold rolls - one of my partner’s all-time favourites - were big and packed with prawns and chicken.

I was in a rare steak mood and selected the scotch fillet mignon. This was served with a mushroom sauce and crusty croutons. It was cooked exactly as I asked. My partner had chicken schnitzel, which wasn’t the dried up, millimetre-thick item which often appears in other establishments. It was a whole chicken fillet lightly beaten out and crumbed, which my partner couldn’t finish.

The buffet of vegetables and salad was impressively presented. Lots of fresh vegetables and delicious potato bake found their way onto our plates. The salads all looked fresh as did the bread selection.

The hotel runs lunch and dinner specials which represent excellent value. For Monday-to-Friday lunch - for $5.90 - diners get a selected three-course meal with unlimited consumption from the vegetable, bread and salad bar. This costs $9.90 for dinner, which is incredible value given the size and quality of the meals.

We found the hotel a hive of activity as we looked around after dinner. The poker machine room and bars were well patronized, while the pokie room offered free coffee and snacks for the punters.

The Brahma Lodge Hotel is a great spot for lunch and dinner: good quality, value-for-money food and great service in an excellent dining room. What more do you want?

Where:		Brahma Lodge Hotel, 1572 Main North Road, Brahma Lodge.
Specials:		lunch $5.90, dinner $9.90.
Entrée:		$3.90 - $7.50.
Main course:		$7.50 - $13.90.
Kids’ Menu:		$3 - $5.
Wine:		$10 - $80.

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