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Saturday, March 19, 2011

The Haus - Hahndorf South Australia

We had dinner out on Thursday, so I thought I'd give you my unsolicited and unpaid for opinion. We had been to the Hospital to see our new grandson. On our way home we went to our favorite restaurant.
"The Haus" is one of Hahndorfs newer restaurants. The owners gutted the building that, for a long time, was Muggletons and built a beautiful bar/cafe/restaurant.
Decor is what I call modern/simple/upmarket, there is a openfire look gas fire, comfortable seating indoor and out, interesting painted stencils on the brick walls and lots of timber. Importantly it is not noisy, you can have a conversation with your table mates and not feel like you are part of the other tables. There are a couple of indoor seating areas including high tables and chairs around the wall which is our favoured place to sit and an outdoor area for those who like to polute their fresh air with a cigarette. Parking is plentiful out the back and we have always found a parking spot there or close by on the street.

The menu is described as Modern Country. There are in fact 4 menus, breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks. You can get food there from breakfast to their 'late night grazing plate' or a variety of pizzas any time of the day.

They have a cake display case that could use a bit more oompf in my humble opinion. There are desserts on the specials menu and while I can speak with the voice of experience on how much work it is too have a restaurant, I still think the cake display case is fairly typical of cake offerings everywhere and could be made a bit more individual and exciting perhaps through a daily or weekly special cake or pastry. Still saying that I can always find something in there that tempts my taste buds.

We started with the Haus Garlic Pizza bread always excellent with its crisp base, very nice balance of garlic and cheese and dusting of salt.
For our mains The Husband and I pertook of the Salmon special.



Dukkah crusted Atlantic Salmon served with spinach and oven roasted baby tomatoes with a pesto dressing and a cheek of lime that was perfect with the salmon.





We teamed that with a bowl of Haus fries and Aioli. I had a glass of Vertigo Reisling. For dessert we shared a generous piece of Fresh Fruit Sponge. I had an excellent latte with it and The Husband stuck with his usual water.

We usually go out for lunch and then have eggs on toast for tea so although this was our 4th visit to the Haus it was our first dinner. Every meal we have had there has been excellent and this one was no exception.
So my opinion
Food 9/10
Service 8/10
Coffee 10/10
Menu and specials well if you can't find something on there you like then you must be on a really strict diet, vegans, vegitarians and gluten frees all catered for. You can get a grazing plate all day but there is no vegetarian option on that and, as I said, the cake display could use some work but not much and that is just the opinion of someone who likes a lot of variety. But overall I would still give it a 8/10.
Wine/Drinks list - The coffee is excellent, the decaf actually tastes like coffee not weak and washy as I've had elsewhere. There are 80 wines on the list and a good variety of style, taste and price. I'd like to see a few more offered by the glass in the sweeter end of the wine spectrum and The Husband who only drinks water would like to see an Australian still and sparkling water along with the Italian ones on the menu but that is purely personal opinion and those available are excellent.
The Haus has a variety of special nights and live entertainment on Sundays, they have gone out of their way to cater for locals along with tourists and in my opinion have succeeded on that front. We do not hesitate to recommend them to others and will continue to do that.
The Haus has not paid or asked for my opinion. We are members of their HausMates club which is open to anyone.

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