Zambrero Waterford

Today was the opening of Zambrero at Waterford Plaza and they did one of those famous burrito giveaways. To be frank, I was pretty excited about it as I've always wanted to try Zambrero. When I drove past the place 40 minutes before it opened and saw a line of ~30 people already I decided to start lining up too. Once they opened the doors, they were pretty quick with making the burritos and got through everybody in front of us in about 5-10 minutes. I was pretty impressed with the 'factory-line' assembly of people serving on the other side of the glass display case. One person to toast the tortillas, one to put the refried beans & rice, one for the meat & guacomole, one for salad, one for salsas, one for sauce, one to wrap and one to work the till. We were pretty chuffed with our free burrito and decided to eat it at home.

My lovely wrapped burrito tucked in like a baby

I got the pork burrito with everything (except for the red onion and coriander salsa) + chipotle sauce. I was really enjoying my burrito until I got down to the last few bites. I came across something 'crunchy' in my mouth and took it out. At first I just assumed it was dried bayleaf or something from the pork until I examined it closely. I could start to make out some legs and a mangled wing before realising what it was. My appetite quickly shut down. 

I cropped the critter out cause I didn't want to ruin your appetite too but here's the link to it
http://oi61.tinypic.com/2vknehz.jpg

WICB? I'm not sure. It was nice but I'm a bit 'ickked' out about the bug. To be fair, this could've happen to anyone at any establishment. I considered going back to tell them but I don't know for sure where it was hiding. I want people to note though that this is no way a reflection of the restaurant or the company and probably just my bad luck!

The Trustee

Following our room escape, we went to our dinner reservation at The Trustee. I've heard of a lot of hype with this place so I had high hopes. Plus being a peanut lover, I was looking forward to their Snickers dessert. 

Usually I try to avoid Wilson Parking like a plague since we found out they charge $15 for the first 30 min during the day. Needless to say, we quickly got out of that Wilson and parked at one of the CPP. Funnily enough the same parking is $6 flat rate from 5pm to midnight when you pre-book it - a bargain in the CBD! It took out a lot of stress trying to find parking in the city on a Friday night.  Although the car park entry is directly opposite the restaurant, we had to go around the Central Park building for 'safe passage'.

We went downstairs to the Bistro part because that's what they indicated when we booked online for 6 people. There were 2 waitresses chatting by the till and the one facing us ignored us (she looked 'new' so maybe she didn't know what to do yet?). It wasn't until they finished chatting and the waitress with her back to us noticed us that they looked up our reservation - which was actually upstairs. 

Our waiter was attentive at first but we soon found ourselves looking around for him throughout the night and having to flag the waitress (who was very nice and friendly). I was keen to try their marron as it's not a very common ingredient on menus and it seems like a pretty good deal for what you get. Unfortunately the marron wasn't available that night but they've got a special menu item instead: ribs slow cooked for 12 hours (I think, I forgot sorry!), falling off the bone, with beetroot and espresso sauce served with chips. The waiter assured us that the sauce is actually "very good and not weird". 

Slow cooked ribs with beetroot and espresso sauce served with chips

My ribs were actually pretty good. Not what I expected and wasn't as tender as I would've liked but still nice. I don't think my other friends' ribs were as tender and definitely weren't "falling off the bone". I liked the salsa-type sauce on top better than the espresso sauce (he was right, it wasn't weird but it was interesting...). My chips were pretty soggy but okay with the same salsa that came in a little pot. However it definitely paled in comparison to the side of fries my friend ordered that came with "dill aoili and paprika salt".

Lamb osso bucco with pearl barley risotto; veal T-bone; fries side dish

Beef cheek with pearl cous cous and beetroot puree

I didn't try the veal but my friend said it was average. The lamb osso bucco was very nice and I quite liked the bit that I tried. I was quite keen on the beef cheek too but was left disappointed. It was a bit too acidic, stringent and weird for me. My friend and I agreed that we don't like it.

Snickers bar

Lastly, dessert! I really like their take on a Snickers bar. It was the right texture and amount of peanut, chocolate, caramel and sweetness. The salted caramel ice cream tasted more like a lovely vanilla ice cream but there's plenty of caramel on the side.

WICB? Maybe. Their service and mains were a bit of a hit and miss. My love for peanuts and desserts is strong enough to want to come back though. I want to try their pork belly parcels and duck rillette if I come back next time.

Mystic Clue

I thought I would kick off my blog with what I think is one of the best entertainment in Perth, Mystic Clue! If you ever wanted to let out your inner Sherlock Holmes and try to escape from a room, this is definitely the place to be.

I've been here before to take on the Inception and 221B rooms, which were great fun. I think the guy thought we were a bit crazy doing 2 rooms one after another but we all loved it so much that we were forever planning on tackling their other room, Prison. We finally got organised enough to get together before they close this room and 221B to make way for a new room.

The idea behind Prison is that everyone in the group are prisoners trying to escape with an undercover cop hidden amongst us. There are 2 ways of escaping, one for the prisoners and another reserved for the cop. Everyone is given a card at the beginning telling us of the "crime" we were guilty of or if you're the cop. If the cop manages to break free on their own, the prisoners lose. If the prisoners break out as a group, we have to identify who the cop is or the cop wins.

Once we all received our card, we were split into 2 groups and locked in different cells. We were pretty slow to get started - I think it was a good 30 min before we got our first clue. I would say that this was the most frustrating room out of the 3 we've done due to our slow progress (and we spent half of our time almost giving up on the floor during Inception!). We took a sneaky chocolate break halfway which gave us enough brain power to eventually break free ~sigh of relief~.

So, final verdict, WICB? Definitely! We all can't wait until the new Batman themed room opens in mid November. The guy said that it's going to replace 221B and Prison so you better book these rooms before they close on 2nd November!