Brownsugar Restaurant

Dined at Brown Sugar in Warners Bay last night, (Easter Saturday), just hubby and myself. We had been there a few times in recent years, but it had been a reasonably long absence, so we decided to treat ourselves. With only booking it a couple of days before, I was pleasantly surprised that a table in the front window terrace section was still available, and because we knew from previous experience that this dining area is preferable, I was happy to grab that one.

Arrived on time for our 6.30 dinner (hubby & I are aged in our mid 60’s so we tend to eat earlier rather than later) and we were shown straight to our table on the terrace, so all good. Off to a good start. The waiter came almost immediately and poured some water which was already on the table. We had already looked at the menu online beforehand so we already had a fair idea of what our choices would be, but we still took a few minutes just to relax, get settled and view the menu again anyway while we discussed our choices. The waiter returned shortly after to take our order which consisted of gluten free bread to start with (hubby is GF) with respective entrees of glazed pork belly skewers and grilled king prawns with both of us having the Duck L’Orange for mains.

It was probably around 25 minutes when the entrees arrived, and we were a little bit annoyed that the bread was delivered to the table at the same time as the entrees. Although we didn’t specifically make a point of telling the waiter to bring the bread out first, I would’ve thought that surely this was not rocket science. Bread is almost always first, ..not served at the same time as the entrees. And then when the bread was placed on the table, ..it looked awful, absolutely awful. It was 4 pieces of toast sized bread, uncut, & it had garlic & cheese on it. I went to pick up a slice, and it was just so “wet” with the topping, it had soaked right through the bread, and it just flopped into mush in my hand. Awful, awful, awful, & one bite was enough for me. Hubby not impressed either at the whole bread situation. In terms of the entrees, my husband’s prawns he said were 10/10. Perfection on a plate he said and delicious. My pork belly skewers were OK, … but not wow. The duck was beautiful, cooked perfectly and with the cherry masala sauce, albeit a little on sweet side, but very nice. It was served on a bed of truffle mashed potato, even though neither of us could taste any truffle at all, and it was also served with broccolini, but this was way undercooked and still very hard, so much so that it was hard to get a knife through it. It’s amazing how sometimes the smallest things can make a difference to the overall enjoyment (or lack of) of the dinner, & the broccolini definitely let the dish down in that regard. At just under $50 per duck meal, it fell slightly below par.

I felt that an accurate rating would’ve been 3.5 stars, with top marks for hubby’s king prawns and the duck itself being 2 great elements of the meal, but on this particular occasion, it lost a few marks for the bread being awful and it being served with the entrees, plus the broccolini with the duck undercooked and too hard to eat.

One other minor thing I would point out was they charged a public holiday surcharge of 10%, even though Saturday was not a public holiday but they obviously counted it as one, being during the Easter break. This surcharge added $18 to the bill, so it was a $200 meal for just the two of us for bread, (which we didn’t eat), entree & main, & one glass of wine. No desserts, so not a cheap night.

Overall, despite just a couple of things that were disappointing, I do however still hold Brown Sugar in high regard. It IS a quality restaurant which does tick quite a few boxes, & in just being human, diners experiences are going to vary, and even the best restaurants can have their “good days” and “not so good” days. We do hope to return at some point in the future.