St Katherine's

26 Cotham Road, Kew 3101
Date visited: 11th September 2012

I've wanted to visit St Katherine's and Hellenic Republic, two other restaurants in the Made Establishment ever since our great experience at Maha.  I wondered why St Katherine's didn't receive more 'likes' on Urbanspoon in comparison to Maha and Hellenic Republic, but it didn't matter much to me, since everyone has their different tastes and is entitled to their own opinion.

Now, I always prefer doing lunch reviews over dinner because night time = dark = crappy photos, and since Hellenic Republic is closed most days at lunchtime, we decided to visit St Katherine's.

The interior of St Katherine's is simple, airy and casual - most of all, it appeared very family friendly.  It was a weekday so it wasn't too busy which was good - I wasn't sure if it was going to be packed so I had made a booking the day before.

Creative use of empty cans

As soon as we were seated, MerlinFan hissed to me conspicuously, "Did you see George?!"  

Who, what, where???  

Turns out George Calombaris was sitting there on one of the tables, dining with a group of people =D  We walked right past him as we we shown to our tables!  Unfortunately, we were seated behind a big column, so all of us had to not-so-surreptitiously crane our necks and give a try-not-to-be-rude-but-still-super-obnoxious peer at him from behind the pillar LOL.

Ahem ahem, back to the food.  At St Katherine's most of the food is meant for sharing - you can choose to have their 2 course 'Xpress' lunch for $19.50pp (weekdays only) which our knowledgeable waitress told us was going to have fish and roasts of the day, which would be chicken and lamb.  Otherwise you could have the 3 course "When mum feeds me" lunch for $40pp (weekdays only), or order from the A La Carte Menu.

We were tempted by the Xpress lunch (seeing it brought out to neighbouring tables), but MerlinFan and I wanted to try the KFC (St Katherine's fried chicken) so we decided to order from the A La Carte Menu.

We chose the half bucket of KFC, which consisted of six pieces of chicken.  Food came out quickly.

KFC, BBQ sauce, Japanese mayo (half bucket) $13.50

We all took a bite of our KFC expecting to be blown away... but we all agreed that the KFC was a too mild in the seasoning department.  Although it smelt amazing brought to the table and was indeed juicy and tender, we felt it needed more salt and that extra punch of flavour.  It was good with the BBQ sauce and Japanese mayo, but sorry, I prefer the Colonel's.

Close up XD

I was incredulous when MerlinFan wanted the chips and tarama... you came all this way and you want chips?  I was interested in the pides but MerlinFan wasn't keen... Mum and I wanted to try the flat bread and dips but we couldn't decide what dip to get so in the end we were like, fine, let's do the easiest and get the chips!  We didn't regret it though, the chips were great, especially dunked in the tarama.  Love the tarama!!!

Chips and tarama $9.50

We also had the Sticky Pork Ribs.  The pork ribs were tender and fall off the bone.  They were sweet, tangy and peppery - interesting at first taste and then the taste began to grow on me.  Funnily enough, we just had pork ribs at TGIF and Mum commented she liked the ribs there better.  LOL.

Sticky pork ribs, pomegranate molasses, sesame $24

A waitress swung by as we were finishing up and asked if we had enough food.  Definitely, I thought... we were saving some space for dessert!

Mum and I just had to have our coffee fix.  Mum had the Greek coffee (sweet) and I had my Arabic coffee (medium). 

Arabic coffee(left), Greek coffee (right) $4.50 each

Our coffees came in adorable matching tiny doll-sized teacups and saucers with a cube of cake on the side.  Mum thought they were brownies but I argued that they were very moist date cakes.  Not quite sure who was right, though (let's face it, neither of us would be able to pass a Masterchef taste test) - either way they were yummy.  (Oh BTW I think online some bloggers/ reviewers said they were walnut cakes LOL)

We chose two desserts to share between the three of us.  

I would have to say that dessert was definitely the highlight of our meal today.  First, we had to try the Peanut Butter Parfait.

Peanut butter parfait, chocolate sorbet, baklava crumbs, orange blossom foam $14.90

I loved the creamy, rich chocolate sorbet and the smooth parfait, and the caramel smear was just divine!  The orange blossom foam I wasn't quite sure about.  To me, it just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the dessert.  It had a flowery, familiar fragrance that I couldn't pinpoint what it was for the longest time, until MerlinFan said it reminded her of jasmine tea.  I really do not like the scent of jasmine tea at all.  That's just my taste, the next person may love it.  Personally, I'd be happy to eat the dessert with just the chocolate sorbet, caramel and the parfait!

Cross section of the peanut butter parfait

Next was the dessert MerlinFan insisted on getting as she's a huge Turkish Delight fan.  It was the Abud Pud, which the waiter told us was basically like a calzone =)

Abud Pud nutella, Turkish Delight timpana, pomegranate, mint, hazelnut salad, rose water ice cream $14.90

MerlinFan really liked this dessert - her exact words were "what's there not to like?"

The rosewater ice cream was really silky and beautifully fragrant, and went really well with the tangy bursts of pomegranate and chunks of Turkish Delight.  The nutella calzone was served warm - MerlinFan liked the chewiness of the pastry, however I found it a bit too tough.

I said before I was surprised at St Katherine's low Urbanspoon rating, however I suppose after coming here myself I have to say I'm on the fence on this one.  There were hits and misses and the food was not quite as memorable as it was at Maha.  Perhaps our experience would have been different if we had chosen from the set 2 or 3 course meals.  Service however was impeccable with attentive, friendly staff and food arriving promptly.

Needless to say, Hellenic Republic is still next on my wishlist of restaurants to try, and MerlinFan keeps hinting that she wants to go back to have the 12 hour roasted lamb at Maha again...





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