Pop Restaurant doesn't quite go off with a bang!

http://www.poprestaurant.com.au/
Group Function upstairs
Lunch, Sunday 3 June 2012

My choir was recently shouted to a finger food lunch at this restaurant as a 'thank you' for its efforts over the course of the year.

The function was held in a spacious upstairs room, which has an oriental flavour with red lanterns hanging from the ceiling and dark wood panelling. There are padded benches around two walls of the room, and comfy dark brown club lounges and chairs in the remainder of the room with red also being a theme with the loose cushions. There was some light jazz playing in the background when we arrived, but this was turned off in the interests of conversation.

Arrangements had been made to supply wine, beer and soft drink to the attendees, and having a strict "don't drink and drive" policy I stuck to the orange juice, so this review relates to the finger food.

The food was brought around on white porcelain trays by two young waiters - a personable Irishman and a less communicative Frenchman. Distribution was a bit patchy, and as I was sitting with a group in the furthest corner of the room we did miss out to some extent.

1. Thin toasted 'French' bread with a slice of thinly cut rare beef and a caper on top.

2. What was described as "tortillas": a stack of very bland compressed tortilla and potato with a foodpick through the centre and a small piece of red capsicum on top. Not very popular.

3. Grilled chicken on skewers with a tasty chilli and coriander dipping sauce. These were very nice.

4. Deep fried zucchini and goats cheese nuggets. I felt that the flavour of these didn't quite work in terms of the two components complementing each other. The zucchini tended to overpower the other more subtle flavour.

5. Deep fried breadcrumb-coated baby red capsicum stuffed with goats cheese. These were nice and also very popular.

6. Baby meatballs served in a pot with tomato ragout and accompanying pieces of lightly toasted sour dough bread. The meatballs were a little bland and really rather tricky to eat with the toast (being the challenge of successfully attaching a round ball to a flat object for long enough to place it in your mouth!).

7. Long spiky and thin fillets of fish deep fried in a fluffy golden batter and a white aioli or spicy Moroccan dipping sauce. The fish was quite delicious, and this one was also very popular.

Some people managed to get tea, coffee or hot chocolate, but not all of us received the offer, which was a bit disappointing.

Although I like the occasional serve of fish and chips, I am not otherwise a great fan of deep-fried food, and felt that the choices offered did not have enough variety in terms of light and fresh food. There was a lot of protein (meat, chicken, fish, cheese) without much foil by way of vegetables and fruit. It was also a pity that the way that the chicken and fish was presented meant that people could only take a very small amount of the dipping sauce in order to avoid cross-contamination.

Everyone did have a good afternoon in terms of socialising, and by and large found something to enjoy amongst the food on offer, but it was a pity that the service was not more evenly distributed.

It was clear that the food was freshly prepared, which was a plus, and one thing I cannot say is whether the menu choices were determined by the organisers or the chef of the day.

Apart from the failure of the 'tortillas' to excite and the logistical challenges of consuming the meatballs, the preparation and quality of the food was of an acceptable standard, as was the venue.

One can only conclude that it is possible to run a successful function in this setting, but it would be worth devoting some time and effort into ensuring that the menu is a bit more varied and capable of being enjoyed (and easily eaten) by all.