I'd heard some good things about Walt & Burley, and being that this Monday was one of our rare coinciding days off my girlfriend and I decided to give it a go.
Upon walking in it seemed Walt & Burley was a bit less pub and a bit more casual restaurant for the most part. We were met by a waitress who told us the restaurant area was all booked out but that we could sit at one of the bar tables (long tables with stools).
We sat down and were brought menus and water. Good start :) The waitress then said "and when we are ready to order we go to the bar". "We"... Interesting way to phrase it... Anyway!
Looking through the menu they had a mix of starters/snacks, ranging from cheeses and charcuterie boards, to pate and squid. They all sounded great, so we thought we should come back and get a selection some time, but today we wanted a nice big lunch. There were various mains, and a separate section for burgers and a sort of BBQ grill area (think similar to Smoque I'm the city).
My girlfriend ordered the steak burger ($18) and I ordered the pork belly ($24). My girlfriend also ordered a glass of Shiraz. Surprisingly there were only 2 reds by the glass on their wine list.
A few minutes after ordering we were told they had run out of pork belly. I asked for a recommendation and was recommended the chicken burger ($18). Two burgers it was then! The barman we ordered with said he would bring the refund difference over to us.
Then we waited. And waited. Finished our drinks. Still waited. At around the 35 minute mark one of the other waiter/barmen, after being prompted by a colleague, asked us if everything was ok. We told him we were still waiting on our food. He said he would go check on it.
Next time we saw him was about 8 minutes later collecting our empty glasses, at which point we actually had to ask him what was happening with our food. He said it shouldn't be too much longer.
At about the 50 minute mark our food came out, with nothing more than a cheery "sorry for the wait, guys".
The chips were nice thick cuts. The burger buns were pretty standard. I had a nice piece of chicken in mine with an aoli, but other than that the burger had iceberg lettuce and a slice or two of pretty flavourless tomato. Pretty sure that's the same recipe as Chicken Gourmet (which, as most canberrans know, is certainly not gourmet).
My girlfriend's burger had a very small amount of steak in it, mixed with cheese and mushroom. Seemed like it would have been quite nice had there been significantly more of it. When we asked about whether the burger had the correct amount of meat, the waiter seemed rather awkward about the whole thing, but said it was indeed the correct amount. We asked if we could have some sauce for our chips, which was free, so that was nice.
About 4-5 minutes later our sauces arrived, along with the cutlery the waiter realised he had forgotten.
The chips were very hot which was nice, but the burgers were luke warm at best. We wondered whether they hadn't cooked the chips in time and whether our burgers had been sitting around.
When we finished our meals and our plates were collected I had to remind our waiter about the difference they owed us.
$18 for each burger, both with iceberg lettuce and tomato. I would have been happy with it for $12 but not $18. When I can get a better, more creative burger for $12 from Grill'd in 10 minutes, $18 for a boring burger in 50 minutes is very disappointing. Hell, Brodburger is a 3 minute walk away!
Maybe the stain glass windows, the paved stone floor and the copper surfaces on the bar had lead to greater expectations, but really the whole experience was very disappointing, and with so many great places springing up in Kingston, I don't really feel like Walt & Burley is worth another shot. read more
