I’ve lived in Beach Haven for a few years now and have been meaning to go to Verbena Bar & Bistro for a while now, pretty much every time I drive past I think to myself “must try that place sometime”, anyway, on Friday night I finally got round to it and am now wishing I’d gone sooner. I popped up there to treat my Mum & Dad after they looked after my dogs for a few weeks whilst I was away, plus after getting back from Canberra on Friday evening the last thing you want to do is cook for visitors, no matter how lovely they are.
From the outside it doesn’t look like much, however, this is not the case, walk round the back of the bar and there’s a fantastic dining area and garden.
I was expecting something nice and perhaps typical bar/bistro food, but was very pleasantly surprised. The menu is nice and uncluttered, nothing worse than having a million choices – I’m much happier with a venue who have limited options but cook and present each of those amazingly well. Here’s the 2012 menu: verbena_menu.
Between us we had a few beers, an onion and steak tart, fish and chips (restaurant stylee), eye fillet steak, apple crumble with hokey pokey ice cream and a dessert tasting dish that was out of this world. The steak was one of the best I’ve had in a long time and the green beans were perfectly cooked, so hard to get that balance between way too crunchy and soggy, but these were perfect al dente. Dad totally loved his fish and chips, he said the batter was gorgeous, crispy with no grease. Mum had the onion tartlett from the entree section of the menu (leaving room for pud), she polished it off and then helped me with my steak and was of the same opinion as me, the steak was awesome. The total bill came to $108, which for three people eating 2 courses is pretty good, especially considering the fantastic quality of the food.
Try this place out, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I definitely was.
Here are some photos courtesy of tazzydemon.com.
