The Hughenden Cafe Restaurant
14 Queen St
Paddington
Using a voucher for dinner, accommodation and breakfast we arrived at The Hughenden in Paddington and were immediately impressed with this quaint charming place.
Dinner was two courses but we were always going to stretch this to three - why not!
The first entree chosen was the trio of dips - comprising beetroot mousse, baba ganoush and tzatziki served with toasted Turkish bread. They were all nice with a good mix of colours and textures and were generous servings. The bread was warm, soft and melted in the mouth.
Entree two was the salt and lemon pepper squid with lemon aioli. It was a smallish serving but was cooked perfectly - would have loved a bit more aioli though.
Main course number one was risotto del mare - fresh seafood with a touch of truffle oil. It was a good sized serving with plenty of seafood in it and a light tangy taste.
Our neighbouring table ordered the roast lamb shank pot pie with potato and vegetable ragout and it was a work of art (and almost seemed a shame to eat it). I almost regretted not ordering it!
Main number two was the market fresh fish - billed as the chef's selection. Whilst we were told this was Tasmanian salmon the fish that arrived was kingfish - but it was a good sized serving and nicely prepared and presented.
A bottle of house wine was also included in the meal deal - and it turned out to be quite nice.
Finally it was dessert time - and the first choice was a no-brainer as the daily special was chocolate mud cake with vanilla bean ice-cream. It was a good sized serving and the cake was rich and gooey with lovely creamy ice-cream.
the second dessert was the French lemon tart, again with vanilla bean ice-cream. The flavours were nice without being amazing. The ice-cream was tasty but the serving size was quite small (however another table had a much bigger serving - so they obviously vary).
The Hughenden is very nice - the food is tasty and the quality is good. Its a pleasant place to have a nice meal.
