How often have we all been caught out by a menu which sounded like one thing but looked, or was, totally different when it arrived? Too many! What makes it worse is that you may well have enjoyed the dish more had your expectations not been diverted in another direction. “It’s nice” we say, “It’s just not what I expected”.

A couple of months ago on a trip to Margaret River, a dish was described as lamb fillets on artichoke mash. Great, I thought. I love globe artichokes and as it was spring, assumed the restaurant was making the best of the season’s bounty. When it came (suspiciously white) it was clearly Jerusalem artichoke – a very different beastie. In fact, it is a member of the sunflower family not really an artichoke at all and a VERY different flavour and texture from what I was expecting. When the menu says whiting tempura, I expect a piece of that fish – not a mousse that could be anything. At a swanky inner city restaurant a fellow diner was served what had been described as slow cooked beef fillet. Now I wondered then and there why you’d need to slow cook the tenderest part of the cow, however we were curious. It turned out to be braised beef cheeks which were served in that familiar shape of the fillet slice. Again, a completely different expectation. Two of us loved that unctuous, gelatinous, wonderful cut of meat that just falls apart and melts in the mouth when cooked properly, however the new owner of the dish did not! The maitre d’ said when questioned “Diners won’t eat it when we call it beef cheeks but will order it when we describe it otherwise”. I wonder how many are sent back! These are just a couple of examples of diners not being treated as though there have more than a couple of brain cells knocking about in their heads! Today’s diners are mostly very savvy with a huge range of food and cooking styles. I believe we would rather know exactly what the menu means rather than be mislead or ‘babied’. If it’s scrambled eggs say that – not buttered eggs. If it’s mutton or hogget then say so as both those meats have tremendous flavours and textures when prepared properly. And so on and on and on…

Am I the only one experiencing this? Does this attitude from a small number of restaurants get your capretto? Let us know.

-Verity