The Little Snail, Pyrmont
Friday, January 06, 2017
Happy New Year, everybody! I hope everyone entered this new year with a blast and this first week had been kind to you all. When I reflect on it all, 2017 will without a doubt be a big year for me because it brings my last semester in university and I can't decide whether that scares or excites me. I've been battling a love-hate relationship with my degree the entire time I've been here but the time is coming to finally decide what to do with it. I really hope 2017 will be my year and I wish the same for you all!
For this dear blog of mine, it's been one year since I first started it up and it has been nothing but amazing. With a simple goal of sharing my passion and experiences with food, I offer a big thank you to all the readers, supporters, brands and restaurants which I have had the pleasure to work with. Because of you all my little voice on this vast world wide web has been able to connect with and inform people about the many experiences that I have had. This blog has proved to be more than just a meaningless hobby and for that I am really grateful. I am currently working on moving my blog over to my own domain but just had to say, I couldn't have got this far without everyones support. Thank you!
It wouldn't really be too interesting on my blog if I didn't do a nice review so todays post will be about The Little Snail Restaurant & Bar! 🐌 ✨
The Little Snail is situated neatly by the end of the Pyrmont bridge coming over from Darling Harbour.
On this occasion my family and I were celebrating both my dad and my sisters birthdays which fall within the same month. My parents hardly choose to dine anywhere fancy on account of costs and convenience so Anne and I thought The Little Snail would be a nice but really casual treat for them both. Thankfully there is usually a Groupon voucher floating around for this restaurant which offers a great deal of $88 for two people to have a 3 course meal (entrée, main, dessert each) and choice of cocktail or wine. The usual price is $60 pp for the 3 courses. Not only do you save around 40% but you each get a drink with the deal which isn't included in the usual menu offering at all!
Click HERE to check out the latest The Little Snail Groupon deal! And please use that link if you are planning on purchasing. That would mean so much to me 💖
Front desk
Bar
Waiting area
The staff at the front desk were really friendly and our booking was not missed. We were seated in a little waiting area for a while before a waiter came to lead us to our table.
View into the kitchen
To my delight, our table was just right by the top of the stairs where we had this overarching view from the top of the restaurant towards the floor. It wasn't close too close to the toilets or the kitchen which was great. I regret we didn't get to sit by the window and overlook Darling Harbour/Pyrmont but it was still really nice!
The design of the restaurant is very modern. There is the curved glass walls as mentioned above, carpet flooring, and wooden furniture. The simplistic and almost rustic decor paired with the lighting is not too flashy and not too dull giving a sense of casual finesse and comfort.
What the top floor looks like when it's empty.
The waiters and waitresses are really nice and the manager in particular who comes to check up on us time to time is so friendly! His conversation about French and Vietnamese culture and language with my dad at the end of my meal probably made my dads day 😂
The only gripe I have about service is that when I went over to ask the waiter who took our order if they could write "Happy Birthday" on both the dessert plates my sister and my dad ordered, he said that it wasn't possible and they could instead put candles on top so I agreed. What happened? The desserts came out without candles or any sign of birthday and I couldn't say anything because I had wanted it to be a little surprise for the two.. and also I hadn't seen the waiter since he took our order. This wasn't a big deal until I went on Instagram and checked out the tags the same night and found a girl had posted a picture of her dessert with "Happy Birthday" written on the plate and thanked the restaurant for the surprise ending to the meal.
I'm really disappointed that this happened but now that I've gotten my issues with The Little Snail service out of the way, I can move on to actually review the food.
The 3 course dinner menu is $60 pp as aforementioned and there are lots of delicious choices for entrées, mains and dessert! There are 4 of us here which allows me to review a good portion of the menu but to be honest, I really wanted to try it all. There are also sides you can purchase which is really great if you're someone who likes their garlic bread or fries, etc with their meal!
This probably does not apply to the regular menu but thanks to our voucher deal we are offered a choice of drink. My parents both go for the red wine while my sister and I choose the fruity cocktail. On the voucher it actually says Strawberry daiquiri but when ordering we were told they only had this cocktail on offer. Slightly disappointed but it was still very sweet, tropical and refreshing! On the latest vouchers it now says "cocktail of the day" so that makes sense.
My sister introduces my parents to Snapchat filters in the time we wait for our entrées to arrive. It takes quite a while but thankfully all four entrées arrive at the same time.
By then we are starving and everyone is so keen to eat they would not wait for my photo 😂
Bouillabaisse de Marseille
First up is my dads entrée which we all marvel at and are actually really jealous of. Without a doubt this seafood soup looks the most delicious out of all our choices. Bouillabaisse de Marseille is a traditional French seafood soup, this one served with mussels, fish fillets, prawns and an accompaniment of garlic baguette. I think I saw this on the Food Network once and have always wanted to try it. No complaints about the seafood but the thick soup is quite gritty. It has a nice capsicum and herby flavour though. I wish I could describe what the herby flavour was but in the end I'll say it was good.
Boulette de Fruits de Mer
This is definitely not fruit but more like a giant seafood meatball. On the menu it says it is steamed salmon, prawn and blue swimmer crab with tomato and chervil veloute. The seafood is very chunky and tender. With each spoonful you get a combination of chunky salmon, prawn and crab. It is really nice with the creamy chervil velouté sauce yet the sauce didn't seem to have any stand out flavour.
Salt and Pepper Calamari
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? ... Who orders CALAMARI when you are given the opportunity to eat French cuisine! Well, the answer is my sister. But if I was honest, I can think of a handful of friends who would not pass up the opportunity to order calamari 😂
Anyway the rings of calamari are coated and fried in salt and pepper panko. They are served with petite mesclun (salad mix) and cornichons aioli. My sister thought they tasted really average in the end, but I think that's expected.
Escargots de Bourgogne
(My friend Cathy would hate this HAHAHA)
And finally, don't leave The Little Snail without trying to the escargots! I've been waiting a long time for this experience. Eating these escargots is scary especially when you imagine all those slimy garden snails on rainy day in your backyard. But everyone I know who has tried these say it is good so I really had to try it for myself. For starters, these are definitely not garden snails lets get that straight. And secondly they have been marinated in herb-infused bouillon and baked in garlic butter which sounds delicious.
The tongs and fork tool are a bit tricky to use (e.g. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman) but you will get the hang of it after 2 or 3 and don't fret because there's a generous number of escargots for you to practice on! The escargot itself reminds of eating a muscley piece of meat because it is chewy and yet somewhat tender. It freaked me out so much when I got the first escargot out of its shell because I kept imagining gross garden snails. The garlic butter is the saviour to that issue and also my favourite part being oh so garlicky and delicious that you'll forget you're putting a snail in your mouth. The two slices of bread are perfect for soaking up the butter and I really wish I could've had more bread for that purpose!
I don't think I'm one to post empty dishes but I thought it was so neat how the plate the escargots are served on are conveniently shaped for placing their shells on top so you won't clutter where you are eating from.
Everyone is very content with their entrées and we're off to a great start. Next up is our mains:
Where both my parents dishes look AMAZING and not going to lie, but my sister and I's dishes look like TV dinners.
Kangaroo Fillet (Rare) on Garlic pommes puree w/ Dijon mustard and honey bordelaise sauce
This looks like a real hot mess on my plate but the taste was phenomenal! It honestly looks quite small and clumsy but underneath the abundant amount of sauce are thin slices of rare kangaroo fillet, some greens (forgot whether it was spinach or salad leaves), and creamy garlic mashed potatoes. The rare kangaroo fillet is absolute perfection and makes the perfect combination with the sweet and yet sharp bordelaise sauce. I still think about this dish a lot and would come back just to order this because I enjoyed it so much!
Cote de Veau
A bit better than my kangaroo fillet, yet still lacking in presentation is my sisters. The cote de veau is a veal tenderloin with champignon and chardonnay beurre blanc, potato croquette and seasonal greens. Nonetheless it was actually really delicious which goes to prove again you can't finish judging a dish until you have tasted it! The greens and potato obviously don't stand out but its the buttery chardonnay beurre blanc sauce with champignon mushrooms that elevate the veal and the entire dish.
Chilli Prawns and Basil Linguini
This linguini is very beautiful with a generous amount of fresh and juicy chilli prawns on the top. The chilli isn't actually very spicy at all. The linguini is tossed with olive oil, tomato concasse, and basil giving the pasta a very fresh and modest taste. It's actually nothing special but it's very classic.
Magret de Canard
Now this is also beautiful! It is crispy skin duck fillet with wok tossed spinach, and cassis and raspberry sauce. The duck is served around medium rare to medium allowing it to be very tender and juicy as the skin has a nice crispiness to it. Not completely crispy but not soggy either. The sauce is sweet and yet has an acidic kick to it as raspberries tend to, and this goes so well with the savoury duck!
We were so satisfied with the food and dessert was no exception:
These all were such wonderful treats to end our meal with!
Fourme D'Ambert
My dad opted for this cheese plate as he is not a fan of sweet sugary desserts. On this plate there are two triangles of mild blue cheese, strawberries, thin crackers, bread stick, and that thing in the middle which I think was a sort of thick jam? I think that was a really great choice for him as there are sweet components and others that balance it out such as the cheese and crackers!
Chef churned Hazelnut and Praline Ice Cream
This is SO beautiful, what a beautiful way to serve a simple scoop of ice cream! It was on a round and crumby shortbread with a caramelised sugar disc and Grand Marnier caramel. The ice cream itself is so smooth and creamy and I loved the addition of the sugar and shortbread to give this dessert more oomph.
Warm Sticky Date Pudding
Probably the best dessert because it has a warm and sweet pudding, butterscotch sauce, French vanilla ice cream and of course that beautiful caramelised sugar on top. Crowd pleaser!
Classic Crème Caramel
Usually in all the other review photos I've seen this creme caramel has a strawberry on top? Sad missing garnish allowing this dessert to look very plain. It is huge though and the texture is sublime being very smooth and silky!
Stairs on the way down
Overall we had such an amazing fine dining experience in the comfortable and yet elegant setting of The Little Snail Restaurant. From entrées to dessert we were treated with great food and service making it all very good value for money and I highly recommend to everyone!
Remember to use my link here to buy or purchase the latest voucher deal. Please let me know if you've been to The Little Snail as well and how your experience was. I would love to hear all about it! xx
TL;DR:
Price: Set menu is a great deal
Quality: Not all authentic but delicious nonetheless
Service: Friendly, fast!
Ambience: Casual, modern setting
The Little Snail
50 Murray St,
Pyrmont NSW 2009
Open 7 days a week
Lunch: 12PM - 3PM
Dinner: 5:30PM - 9PM
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