Review: Simmer at Souths

When I saw a daily deal voucher (two mains and two glasses of wine) for $29 for a meal at Simmer at Souths, I jumped at the opportunity. It may be a restaurant inside the South Sydney Rabbitohs’ clubhouse, but led by Brigid Kennedy as the Head Chef, it’s no ordinary clubhouse restaurant.

K and I had a booking for Tuesday night (our regular date night) before we went to a screening of The Dark Knight Rises at IMAX. We decided to make an elaborate meal of it, and ordered entrees and desserts on top of our complimentary mains. (See full menu here)

Entree

We shared the Crispy Pork Belly with Apple Slaw and a Quince Glaze. It was remarkably well done – the pork belly was beautifully soft, and the apple slaw had a great flavour to it.

Mains

I ordered the Chargrilled Lamb Rump with a Sweetcorn and Sweet Potato Rosti, Minted Pea Puree, Crispy Garlic and Redcurrent Jus. K had the Macadamia Crusted Barramundi Fillet Flavoured with Mustard with Green Beans & a Carrot and Tarragon Oil.

The garlic in my dish was possibly the best roast garlic I’ve ever eaten – and I’ve had my fair share of meals out. The lamb was possibly too strong in flavour, but still quite tasty. The macadamia crust on K’s barramundi was beautiful, though the fish was just marginally overdone.

Desserts

K had the Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart with Raspberry Compote. I had the dessert special of the night, which was a chocolate brulee and a vanilla brulee.

Beautiful. The chocolate tart was quite heavy, but the raspberry compote gave it a tart lightness. The brulees were really tasty, though by the time I started on the vanilla brulee, it had sat for a while and had gone a bit runny.

Overall

Overall, we had a really nice dining experience. The decor was modern, the background music was at the perfect level, and the whole dining area was very quiet for the time that we were there (there were only about four or five other groups dining at the same time), so we had very personalised and attentive service from the wait staff. I can only imagine that the restaurant gets busier when there Rabbitohs are training on the nearby club grounds, or when there’s a game on.

I rate Simmer at Souths a 7 out of 10, with points off for slight imperfections in the main meals. It’s new in the Redfern area, and it’ll have to significantly raise its profile and/or lower the price of their mains and improve the quality in order to compete with other restaurants in the area like Patagonian Toothfish (which I love!).