I don’t usually review places multiple times, but after a delicious birthday dinner at Smith & Daughters I thought it was only fair that I shared the love around! Plus, it was the first time I had been to Smith & Daughters for a full dinner so there’s lots of new food to discuss! (Also, you can find Part I & Part II by following the links if you like!)
Dinner was with my folks and B and we shared everything so we got to sample quite a few dishes off the menu which is always my favourite way to eat! I also started with one of their famous cocktails – the Frosty Fruit ($17) – orange & pineapple juice, passionfruit pulp, lime juice, St Germain Elderflower, Gin & fresh mint. It was rather delicious, that’s for sure!
A lot of the menu is quite rich and fried so we knew we better add a salad to the mix, and this Brazilian Slaw ($17) was definitely a good choice. A delicious combo of apple, carrot, corn, cabbage, olives, oyster mushrooms & parsley with a lime dressing and crispy tortilla strips. It was zesty, crunchy and nice and salty. Perfect!
I can never say no to potatoes so the Patatas Con Romesco Ahumado ($14) were an obvious choice. Crushed and fried chat potatoes, topped with a smokey romesco pepper sauce and chimchurri – how could you possibly not love that! I’m really loving smokey food at the moment so the sauce was right up my alley, and the potatoes were perfectly cooked. These were a huge hit with all four of us!
Our next three dishes came served together on a platter – so let’s start from the back left shall we! These are the Paella Fritters ($5 each) with green peas, sofrito & saffron, rolled into a ball and served with garlic aioli. Everyone really loved these as well, they were super crunchy on the outside and amazingly creamy on the inside – offset perfectly by the aioli. I could have eaten quite a few of these!
Next up were the Colombian Chilli & Fresh Corn Fritters (3 for $6) served with a coriander & lime pesto. I particularly loved the pesto on these, it was nice and tart which was particularly great given how fried everything else was! The fresh corn in these was sweet and juicy and the overall result was definitely a delicious one! They are pretty little though, so we probably should have ordered more!
Our final savoury dish was the Taquitos (3 for $15) – crispy, spicy black bean & cheese filled taquitos topped with pickled cabbage, fresh guacamole and an onion, coriander & jalapeno salsa. The tortillas were light and crispy and the filling was amazingly cheesy given there wasn’t actually any cheese! I particularly liked the salsa and pickled cabbage on top, not to mention the guacamole! They all combined to make a pretty perfect dish!
Despite being rather full at this point we decided dessert was in order (it was my birthday after all!), but we stuck with the sharing option to avoid having to quite literally roll home! First up, the warm Spanish Doughnuts (5 for $12) – filled with quince and dusted in spiced sugar. These were a huge hit with all of us, the quince filling was sweet but not sickeningly so, and the warm, doughy buns were spot on as well. If we hadn’t had been so full there would have been quite the battle over the 5th doughnut!
Last up, a serve of the Tarta de Chocolate Azteca ($15) – a layered tart of salted chocolate & almond coconut crust sandwiched with chilli caramel, and served with fresh avocado ice cream.
The ice cream was creamy and refreshing and not overly sweet, so it went perfectly with the slightly bitter & salty tart. It was delicious and very rich, so I’m incredibly glad we decided to share it! Each layer had a different texture so it made for a really interesting (and tasty!) way to end our meal!
And after all that we were most definitely full up!
All in all it was a fantastic meal, with even my non-vegetarian parents raving about the food. I really liked that they happily change the number of serves of the dishes to match the number of diners so no-one had to miss out (or make us order double serves of everything!). I would definitely recommend including a salad in your selection to balance things out, but other than that you really can’t go wrong.
Veggie mama
April 11, 2015 at 10:19 am (10 years ago)They put a candle in my avocado ice cream for my birthday! I love them so.
Veggie mama recently posted…Broad Bean, Lemon, and Chilli Fettuccine
I Spy Plum Pie (admin)
April 18, 2015 at 10:00 am (10 years ago)Naww how cute! Can’t wait til the deli is open as well!
merilyn
April 12, 2015 at 9:42 am (10 years ago)yum! that place looks great liz!
I’ve been eating more vegetarian food of late! enjoy that red deck chair! love m:)X
I Spy Plum Pie (admin)
April 18, 2015 at 10:01 am (10 years ago)It’s so good Merilyn, you’ll have to try them out one day! And the chair is excellent! xx
Elizabeth
May 2, 2015 at 2:06 pm (10 years ago)This sounds like a place I will have to check when I’m next in Melbourne.
Elizabeth recently posted…Greek salad – revisited
I Spy Plum Pie (admin)
May 3, 2015 at 6:52 pm (10 years ago)It should definitely be on everyone’s to-eat list!