Sunday 28 July 2013

School is back in! @ The Classroom

Tick! I said to myself after visiting The Classroom (354 Charles Street, North Perth) last weekend. Located opposite the McDonalds and BP station at the corner of Scarborough Beach Rd and Charles Street this is a nicely decked out bar!

There is the main public bar area (long and narrow and tables/seating is a premium! next door is two private function areas called the School Yard (closer to a tuck shop/ cafeteria in decor ) and the Library with some very nice chesterfield sofas about the place (think a den - though I think someone called it a Harry Potter type library room!)

The Classroom's strength is in its array of cocktails and alcohol selection, a different spread (but pricey) with a good selection of small plate food menu; think eating lots of entrees for dinner (not quite as small as tapas but not as large as restaurant type mains. food style could be described as modern with a gimmick, pipettes for dispensing Tabasco? 

Most dishes have multiple servings to share but each item was roughly $15+ (wedges were $7). All up our total food bill for a group of three was about $40 each, four dishes and chips with some drinks left us mostly satisfied food wise, not too hungry and if we had more drinks we wouldn't have cared ;)

So our order that night consisted of:
Shaker hand cut chips (wedges served in a hot chips cup with a paper bag with shaker salt + lime(?) ) 
(It was just chips.... That were limp and soggy - apologies on the pic, maybe a brown paper bar doesn't really convey what a bucket of chips with skins on really looks like right?? Imagination people..... Use it :D why inside that bag could be something much more awesome like.... The next dish??)


Beef Brisket (yum - came with pickled veggies and extra sauce) - the vegetables felt more decorative than being an important component of the dish however, cauliflower, carrots in a jar? I'll have the meat thanks!


Fish Fingers - more like fish footballs :D three little footballs of fish paste sitting on top of a fennel salad and anchored in place with tartare sauce - tasted nice, better than my school days of fish fingers :D

Fried Chicken - four pieces of fried chicken! Supposedly 12 secret spices, looked nicely friend and crispy though lacking in something, maybe the 13th spice should be flavour hmmmm. Was cool it came in a little bucket and napkins to absorb the grease...


Finally we had the Chicken Quesadillas - with Tabasco in a pipette and fresh guacamole (three pieces) 
Not too bad, crispy, filling and guac was fine


Overall the food did its job, the people were very friendly and service was very attentive! They were very happy to answer questions, cleared up the table quickly (flipping tables probably their priority) and drink orders were delivered promptly. Food was pushed out quickly and they used a buzzer system so you ordered at the bar (or waitress) and collect your food from the "canteen" essentially you bus your own food to your table from the pass lol. Anyhow the decor was great, decent food and alcohol selection. My overall impression is not too bad but am looking forward to lounging on them chesterfield..... hmmm yes :D


Thursday 11 July 2013

[Life] Sony Dinner Sessions!

Two highlights from Thursday night, eating at Butterworth Bar & Kitchen and geeking out with Sony's 2013 product line up :D

So important things first, the Butterworth Bar & Kitchen was a new place for me in the city (opposite Australia place off St George's Tce) and street parking was not so easy to get (but I did hurrah!)

It's quite a small place with not many other guests dining in on a Thursday night but I reckon our party definitely made up for it.


The Sony reps had booked out the front section, I presume it was the bar area with some great lounge seating and high bar stools and tables. For dinner they had a nice long table with bar stools fitting about 15 people.

Around the table were an assortment of gadgets for us to play with whilst the waitstaff came around to take our drink orders.

Big shoutouts as the bar was fully available and the liquor selection was very enticing to explore had I not been distracted with so many shiny doodads...

Anyhow the focus of the event was a gathering of the Sony X community, essentially a networking event of fanboys (and girls) and meeting face to face with some of Sony's marketing team, Jamie Wong - Community Manager and Kevin - product marketing for Imaging. Also present was Craig, Sony's sales rep for WA.

After a brief round of intro speech we were introduced to the products around us, from the 55" 4k TV ( someone want to buy me one?) to the mega muteki - code named "Shake" - literraly a disco light speaker system (2.1) with bass expandion to give you pseudo heart palpitations and a full range of cameras from the NEX 6, a99 and the Rx1 (ok I want one of those!!)

We then proceeded with the round table of personal introductions then food orders were taken (and more drink orders)

Menu wise it was all very swish, pricing was a bit extravagant, with entrees around the $20 mark and mains low 40s and desserts... Well I stopped looking at the price and just went at it.....


Kevin - image marketing , Jamie Sony x and Craig sales Sony wa