The Best Of Both Worlds

I really don’t get it… It goes like this:

“Hi papa, nice to see you… You really need to lose some weight dad! Anyway, where would like to go today?? How about a nice steak? I got told by a friend about this great steakhouse… It is unbelievable and you can try the 1kg steak challenge…”

 I need to lose weight, and yet, every single occasion we get together, we ended up in either a restaurant or a pub… While I’m working on this deceitful double standard, let me tell you about this two completely different experiences…

It is no secret that like most Italian, I do go out of my way to find a great meal, possibly located in a beautiful locality, but as it turned out these two, rarely go hand in hand.. For a great homemade meal, you will normally found it at a truck stop roadhouse, where for a good meal and some variety, you need to find a popular pub. If you are after a chic atmosphere and a meal cooked professionally, then you need to hit the expensive part of town..

These two locations, are no difference.. Well they actually do have something different from the standard..

Steakhouse48 it really does offer the full experience as far as you can take it, for a great piece of meat.. You will pay $40 for a 400g rump steak, but after the first bite, you will understand why it was so expensive and completely forget about the initial feeling of discomfort while reading the menu.. Or perhaps the initial discomfort is given by the fact that you are sitting on a very hairy cowhide chair, not sure.. You also have large pictures of cattle on every wall, and would be forgiven for thinking that you actually are in an abattoir.. Lot of pictures like this one and body parts everywhere, to give you the full experience.

I don’t think a vegetarian or vegan would be ever able to enter this restaurant, not even for a simple salad.. But for the meat lovers, this is heaven.. You see them, you can smell them, you sit on them and eventually, you eat them.. The owner and staff are nice and you also have a good selection of beers and alcohol at the bar..

Yes, yes, everything is expensive here and not for everyone, but like I said, if you are a meat lover, and you know what a piece of medium rare meat should look, feel and taste like, don’t let the best of life pass you by..

Now about the Meringandan Pub and the other world..

Here we have the usual pub serving the usual meal, but with a difference… Their meals are HUGE, I mean really HUGE.. A very nice pub with very affordable good meals that it is always busy (300+ seats), to the point that after 5pm you may have to park your car half a km away, just to experience these meals..

Another point to remember, is that this pub does have some great local customer and if you are lucky, you may get to experience some local hard night games played on the floor of the pub…

This is the typical pub cousine, where the meals are simply good, the atmosphere is great, and the prices are right.. Well they could be right, if the plate size were standard, but they are not! Far from it. For example, and don’t ask me how I know, you can order a chicken parmigiana or the extra large one.

Problem is that the chicken parmigiana served at the Meringandan pub is made of a very large breast, way above the normal size of a Jersey Giant, and if you do the mistake, like I did, of ordering the extra large one, that only does cost an extra $4 if memory serve me well, you actually get 2 huge chicken breast or possibly 1.2kg of meat in your plate.. That’s not a large, that’s double!!! I could have easily feed 4 people and have left over with what I was served for $34, making it after all, a very affordable meal. You also can get a 500g rump steak for $30, or $6 per 100g compare to $10 per 100g at the steakhouse48..

Nobody will argue about the fact that the Meringandan pub does offer the best value for money meal in the area, and they are not bad either… I mean, they are not the greatest, for sure, but quantity and price are just perfect for those large family of happy fork people that do want to leave a pub with a full tummy and still some money left in their wallet… Remember, booking is essential here, but not because they have limited seats, if you catch my drift..

And this is the best part of this story: Either one you pick, you won’t lose..

Later..