Dinner

Press, 9 April 1980, Page 11

Dinner

A. PETIT

Matai Room Avon Motor Lodge 356 Oxford Tee Phone 791-180

The Avon Motor Lodge is a member of the Flag Inns group, the Australian marketing and booking chain I have mentioned here before. Flag Inns aim at providing good internationaltype accomodation and food in what may be called the middle price range. The Matai Room in the Avon Motor Lodge is a pleasant dining room which can take care of quite large parties and yet is flexible enough to allow for a relatively large number of tables for two.

The colour accents are reds, browns, and

black; the comfortable chairs, upholstered in black, tone in well with the warm tones of the carpet and the browns and reds of the walls and curtains—unobtrusive international decor which is warm and pleasant.

The menu is a la carte on all nights except Sundays; on Sundays and public holidays- the Matai Room is open from 5.30 to 9.30 for dining, with a three-course table d’hote menu (three or four choices for each course) at $9.50 a head. The a la carte menu provides a good range of choice: seven appetisers, two .soups, six entrees, 10 main platters, three cold platters, eight desserts, as well as the specials, which are marked the “chef’s pleasure of the day.” We dined at the Avon Motor Lodge on a Saturday night, and the chef’s pleasures that night included crayfish Momay, Thermidor, and Newburg; oysters, either natural or fried in beer batter; and avocado neptune—the name speaks for itself. The menu has some original and interest-

ing dishes in all sections: examples are potted shrimps, an iced liqueur sherbert, hot grapefruit soaked in rum, and pate-filled mushrooms crumbed and deep-fried among the appetisers; whitebait with remoulade sauce, or a diced ham and chicken vol-au-vent among the entrees; a prawn and oyster (cooked in wine and cheese) pancake, a whole pound of Simmenthal porterhouse steak—the “Avon sizzler”— or fried chicken zingara: chicken done in red wine with a ham. mushroom, and olives sauce, among the main platters; a cold collation of cottage cheese, baby shrimps, and asparagus; or the coupe top hat (ice-cream on a sponge base, topped with nuts, chocolate sauce, and advocaat) among the desserts.

In fact, one feels like the ass between the two haystacks, you cannot make up your mind. In the end we chose an appetiser of potted shrimps, which was a solid helping of the real article served with thin slices of brown bread land a salad garniture, and an entree of paupiettes de sole Newburg, lovely little rolls.-of white fish done, of course, the Newburg way. From the main platters we chose venison aux cerises, tender venison fillets with a rich cherry sauce and supreme de volaille noisette, slices of breast of chicken with real; liazelnuts and brandy sauce. This delightful fare TVas followed by the only hot pudding (apart from the crepes Georgette, which are for two) on the menu: an apple flan with a meringue topping. This was good but not great. The Irish coffee was undoubtedly the best we have enjoyed for a very long time—one of these days we are going to go back to do nithing but drink Irish coffee all night long. Dinner for two, with coffee but without wine, came to $29.75. -