Saturday, February 19, 2011

Finlay's Joint

Brand new year! Yay! More dining out to be done.

First foray for the year was Finlay's Joint. I went with a friend on Sunday last.
I'd booked for lunch at 12 but we were both hungry earlier so we got there at 11:30.
Man that place is noisy! The acoustics are really bad and as soon as there are more than about 12 people inside the large dining room it's hard to hear each other talk.
I love the old furniture and the chairs are really comfortable.
We grabbed menus and quickly went to order.
We were informed that the lunch orders wouldn't be made until after 12 as it was still their breakfast service time. The only other places that do this so strictly to my knowledge are places like MacDonald's and Hungry Jacks. Finlay's is a restaurant/cafe with a full kitchen so I'm at a loss as to why they couldn't do a steak sandwich and a chicken parmigiana before 12.
We were told that we could order now (11:30) but wouldn't get the food for at least another 25 minutes.
As we didn't want breakfast foods, we made our order and ordered tea to drink in the interim. The tea came out quickly but was really weak, it was awful.
There are self-serve/shared bottled sauces and self-serve water from a cooler.
When the food arrived, there were generous servings.
The steak in the sandwich was good quality and tender; and the chips were really good.
The chicken schnitzel was a good thickness and well-cooked.
Unfortunately there were rotting greens in the salad. I find this disgusting and it's really a pet hate for me - it should never happen.

ambience: 5/10
food: 7/10
service: 6/10
wine list: none
value for money: 8/10

1 comment:

Rachel said...

I don't like Finley's most of the time because as you say it is really nosy inside.

However, it is also a great place to take children becuase of the garden, there is nothing like sending them off on an adventure to see the dinosaur while you can sip you drink in peace.