OMG Am I really the first to be reviewing this place? Good lord! Why!????
Look here's the scoop:- Cafe BIrkenhead as a name opened (if memory serves) in 1996 or 1997. It won accolade after accolade for sensational food, with a seasonal menu (yeah they changed it every season) and million dollar waterfront views of the harbour, right across to North Sydney (you could see the brown block of RNS in the distance), but with magnificent Cockatoo Island in the foreground. I adored this place. Then it changed hands and everything went a little "cheaper".. same type of food, but instead of delicate obviously fresh whiting fillets for "fish and chips" something frozen and re-fried was slathered on top of a pile of greasy chips.
Then Birkenhead point changed. Cafe Birkenehead had to move, and it now has.. a-hundred-thousand dollar views of... other peoples apartments in Balmain, across sparce water filled with a marina, with little traffic. Worst, the layout of the new place is so wide that the views aren't that great from the ample couch seating at the entrace side.
Too many staff now dominate the floor, and I don't think any of them know what they are doing, at least none of them knew enough to take our order in a timely manner (the first time we returned) or to serve it in a timely manner (the second time; yes I had to ask for the food to be brought out)
Who eats polenta chips? Honestly? they are greasy and disgusting, and frankly sound like a way of using up left-over polenta carried over from one of the other restaurants owned by this multi-congolomerate restaurant chain (Blackbird at Darling Harbour have you mended your broken wing yet?!). Why do I mention these polenta so-called "chips"? Well, because they are absolutely ubiquitous on the fabric covered menu. Everywhere.
The schnitzel was generous, and lovely, if you discount the mushroom sauce which was obviously made with that "sauce base" you can buy in a beer bottle (look for it at Coles) and the fish was actually quite well cooked although its en-crustment of chickpea neither holds up to that wonderful crunch I expect from deep fried fish, nor to taste, as anything remotely pulse like in the batter was lost amidst the staple batter ingredients.
Food that arrived late, food that pretentiously apes at classy bistro food combined with late, un-interested and un-caring overall service, ritzy "look there's fire!!" decorations, fancy exposed beams and air-vents (that's Birkenehead Point's signature look).. Does this sentence make sense? No? neither does "Cafe" Birkenhead. My memories are of a better place.
Sorry, cafe birkenehead, keep trying. I'll review this again no doubt in the coming months because I am a sucker for punishment. read more