50 Murray Street, Pyrmont Sydney
The end of the $54 Groupon deal! Nooo!
As far as I can remember, each time I’ve checked out the Groupon site, there has always been the ‘Little Snail’ deal, enticing you to go out on a romantic dinner for 2 (or with a group of mates) for 3 courses of French food, for $54 pp (inclusive of a glass of cocktail). And unfortunately with all things in this current financial climate, the Little Snail Groupon deal has been another victim of the cost of living pressures! If you check it out now, the Little Snail deal is no longer available. *Sad look*.
We purchased our deal for 5 people in April, and when looking at booking in a date we saw in the fine print that the Groupon deal which we had just purchase had to be redeemed before the 30 June, so we booked in for Saturday 29 June.
Dining with 3 friends who had never been to the Little Snail, they didn’t know what to expect. Although they did read some blog posts from 10 years ago, and the menu hadn’t changed since then. Haaha. For us, it had also been 10 years since we dined there, that time we had used our Entertainment book which wipe-off $50 from the bill, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely those times (we went twice in one year as we had 2 Entertainment Books that year). And my wife and I often recollect with fondness over those meals, especially over their Garlic snails, something which you can’t get every day.
This time we had booked for 6pm, thinking that we’d beat the evening crowd, but the entire restaurant was already buzzing when we arrived, filled to capacity. We were led upstairs (never knew that they had an upstairs) and seated at a pretty intimate (as in small) table for 5. We had all studied the menu beforehand, but with everyone around the table we still flipped open the menu and compared notes/choices. Coming into it, I was convinced that I was going to order the snails, as when in France……. But I made a last minute change of mind, opting for the Boulette de Fruits de Mer, while my wife got the Snails (one of us had to!).
For mains, I got the Seafood Plate (very French!), as this time I was planning to order the most expensive items off their menu (after weeks of eating only the cheapest things off menus), since the Groupon deal allowed you to order anything, we did our homework and checked out there a la carte menu prices, and the Seafood Plate was the second most expensive main at $40. Moohaaha. My wife ordered the Cote de Veau (whatever that is!).
For desserts, the majority of the table ordered the Warm Sticky Date Pudding, while my wife went renegade and ordered the Hazelnut ice cream (chef churned they say).
And with the included Cocktail, it was Passionfruit liqueur, red wine mixed with Pineapple juice and probably some soda water for the fizz (there was a mocktail option as well).
And in the short time we had between placing our orders and the Entrees coming out, our friends studied the décor of the restaurant, commenting that the place looked a bit tired and out-dated (but aren’t we all a little bit like that these days?). And the food came out fast and furious after that! Within minutes all of our Entrees were place before us (perhaps a minute or two after our drinks arrived).
Turns out the Boulette de Fruits de Mer is like a giant fish ball (size of a tennis ball), it was puree salmon and prawns, probably held together with flour and egg, then steamed- so it was almost like a firm dough, the knife went straight through it and it was nice. Flavours were delicate. My wife and I shared our Entrees, so I had 6 of her dozen snails, and have to admit, they weren’t as good as I remembered them to be. I know the restaurant is called Little Snail, but these escargots were particularly petite. So, eating them, it felt like I was simply forking up morsels of food which had broken off a much larger piece, trying to quickly finish my plate before having it taken away by the waiter. But in fact, I was forking up 50% of my wife’s Entrée in less than 2 minutes, which felt like I was disrespecting her dish. But one point to me, if we’re keeping score in who chose best this night! *Smile*.
After the Entrée plates were cleared away, we had some time to savour our drinks, we all looked at our friend’s mocktail in envy, as it did look more Insta-worthy than ours. But the cocktail was tasty, wine and pineapple juice, marriage made in heaven! A boozy heaven that is…….
Then the mains touched down, I’m thinking as the menu isn’t that extensive, the chefs must have the process nailed down like a production line to Chern out these meals so quickly. But fast, doesn’t equate to poor quality though. Even though my Seafood Plate was essentially a Fisherman’s Basket (minus the potato chips), it was a notch above the average fried seafood affair. I started off with the garlic prawns, they were large and so fresh! Then I tried the chilli muscles which was tasty, had Asian flavours there. Then it was the calamari rings which were larger than usual (more like bangles than rings). The deep fried soft shell crab, maybe I could of done without, a crab stick would probably of been tastier. While I saved the best till last, the piece of Grilled Salmon was a little small, but nice and fresh and tasty (had a nice sauce over it). My wife’s Cote de Veau was actually 2 pieces of Veal tenderloin served with a beurre blanc, and I have to admit I enjoyed her Veal more! It was super tender and so full of flavour. She mentioned that now she understood why the French were so obsessed with their sauce, as the sauce was what made the dish French, otherwise it was just meat and 2 veg. Now scores were even after 2 rounds.
After Entrees and Mains, most of our table were already full, some were unable to finish their Beef tenderloin fillets ($44 dish). But for me, I was good, as both dishes were seafood, so after having 2 lighter courses I was so ready for dessert! And dessert didn’t disappoint. The warm sticky date putting was everything you wanted it to be, and the butterscotch sauce was DeVine. My wife only tasted a little of the sauce and she already deemed my dish better than hers. I didn’t try her Hazelnut ice cream, as I could already imagine what it might taste like, so I’d say my Pudding won the 3rd and deciding round! YES!
In the end, The Little Snail has been serving up these same dishes for a very long time now, and they have perfected them, that’s why people keep coming back for more! But now with the $54 Groupon deal a thing of the past, as a result of the cost of living pressures, are people going to come back for more, at the stock standard price of $69 pp? I guess, only time will tell.
The Little Snail
https://www.thelittlesnail.com.au/menus/dinner-menu
50 Murray Street, Pyrmont Sydney NSW
Ph: 02 9212 7512
Lunch: 11am – 3pmEveryday
Dinner: 5pm – 9pm (Sun-Thurs)
5pm – 10pm (Fri-Sat)
Four Senses: Touch Smell Taste Sound
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