Dinner at The Witch’s Cauldron -The Sweet
Pattycakes loves sweets, and we encouraged her to order whichever dessert took her fancy. She ordered the banana and passionfruit crepes. They came with a plump strawberry garnish and a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream. I had a mouthful – it was beautiful! Really REALLY sweet and passionfruity-bananary.
Jac ordered the trio of sorbet. The pink was strawberry, the orange was orange (duh) and the white was lemon. They were all very nice – the strawberry smelled amazingly strongly of strawberries and was quite tart in flavour. The orange was probably my least favourite -it was nice too, but reminded me a little of vitamin C pills (in flavour, not texture! All three sorbets were very smooth). The lemon was so sour! I had to take some of the edge off by having some of the double cream and a piece of the tuille basket.
I didn’t order dessert. I had a cup of English Breakfast tea with soy milk.
I don’t know what sort of chocaholics they thought we were, but when my tea was brought out it was accompanied by this dish of complimentary chocolates. There were eight on the dish, the flavours were (I went through and read their wrappers): strawberry, raspberry, mango, ginger (2 of), peppermint, coffee and apricot. Whatever Jac and her mum didn’t eat in the restaurant ended up in Jac’s handbag.
We loved our food, but I was a little disappointed with the service. The waiters seemed very distracted. When we ordered our drinks for example, the waitress didn’t look like she was paying full attention (you know when someone has that unmistakeable look like they are a hundred miles away?) and after we’d ordered the drinks, she turned to Jac and said, “Sorry, what was that you wanted – a Crown?” (You will remember, hopefully, Jac ordered a cranberry juice). Then when our drinks arrived, I had a suspicion (call me cynical) about the not-listening and asked if my drink was a Diet Coke – she blushed and said “Oh I’m sorry, I’ll get you a Diet Coke”.
I also wasn’t sure who was supposed to be looking after our section – we got asked by three different waitresses if we were ready to order. That wasn’t a problem as such, but it got a little annoying. Perhaps it wasn’t very busy, and they weren’t being strict about sections. In such a case, however, the waiters need to communicate with each other and pay attention to what the others are doing, so that they know not to ask a table if they want to order a minute after they’ve already been asked by someone else!
When the food came out the food runner asked us who had the oysters, who had the prawn cocktail etc. In other words, they did not appear to be using numbered covers to indicate on dockets who was having what. I was a little surprised at that. It wasn’t a big deal, but just made the service seem a little less professional. The same waitress who had brought me a Coke instead of Diet Coke brought my pot of tea for one and a jug of soy milk on a metal tray. Unfortunately, she did not bring a tea cup with the tray and did not return with one. I had to grab her attention and ask for a tea cup when she came back to clear the table next to us. Again, not a major drama, easily sorted, but it was just yet another little thing that gave the overall impression of distracted service.
Having said all that, we will still return to The Witch’s Cauldron. The food is very good, and we’d like to try their breakfast sometime (how’s french toast with maple syrup and fresh strawberries sound? Or macadamia and buttermilk pancakes? Or a full cooked breakfast with sausages, bacon, egg, grilled tomato, spinach and grilled mushrooms served with toast? :-P). The service on previous occasions was fine – hopefully this time was a one-off. But I will say that if on future visits the service is still as scatty I won’t be as forgiving. The important thing on this occasion was that Pattycakes enjoyed her evening and her dinner.
The Witch’s Cauldron is located at 89 Rokeby Road in Subiaco. Their menus and opening hours are available at their website.
On the drive home it was lucky that I wasn’t feeling burpy, after all that garlic I’d consumed! But Jac was, and we were treated to the aroma of strawberries all the way! Hahahahaa.