The Excelsior at Brompton

Pub fare needs to balance quality and value.

adelaide excelsior

Pub fare needs to balance quality and value.

We're a medium-rare household but one likes thick, juicy fillet steak, one goes for tasty porterhouse, another asks for T-bone, and one just prefers lamb. To keep everyone happy, sometimes it's best to go out.

Pubs can be relied on to deliver a good-value, tender steak well, usually. The Stirling Hotel does it well, so does the Belair; the Edinburgh is reliable and the Cremorne is best when you're in the mood for young-crowd-noisy. The Stag, with its meat-lovers' menu, is one of the best bets but city parking can be a hassle when looking for a quick meal.

About a year ago, the owners of The Stag took over The Excelsior, a burgers and schnitters pub tucked into the back streets of Brompton.

Recently it made the switch to a Stag-sister steak menu.

New Excelsior promotions jauntily claiming "the best steak in the West" are probably true in this precinct, where value dining for familiar pub-goers is imperative, but if the new menu is to draw a broader crowd, some finessing in the kitchen is in order.

To begin, "Yep, that's fine, love," upon booking is a tip that we're going casual. Fair enough. The tone is matched by its no-fuss, black and tan decor with the slight clanger of swirly design on a functional carpet, in a room dominated by a long, light-veneer bar in sight of the pokies area to one side, and with a register for food orders at the dining-room end.

The view behind the register into the kitchen is unfortunate because by the time we order its floor is messy and some sauce is splattered up the wall.

Too busy for clean-up of the small section on show, despite an average weeknight crowd?

But giant plates passing by signal we're in for a hearty feed, as does the menu loaded with information about varying cuts, some in MSA categories (explained as a worthy industry measure of eating quality for different beef muscles). You choose the cut, weight and style of beef, plus one of eight sauces.

From "Slightly Serious Starters", we take buffalo wings, chorizo and prawns and, from the sides, onion rings.

It's not the best start. First, we wait and wait as other tables are served. Our bubbly waitress apologises, generously atoning with a complimentary bottle of wine. Mistakes do happen, and her gesture is a nice touch.

Unfortunately, the forgotten course is not worth waiting for.

Unseasoned battered onion rings are dripping oil, the wings are plain, and "buffalo" sauce is nowhere in sight, only an oddly flavoured basic sweet mayo-like side with a minor tone of blue cheese, maybe?

The chorizo and prawns (not local) come with a promise of garlic, chilli and coriander but are steeped in an average sweet chilli sauce with the strange partner of pita bread "to dunk" into more sweet sauce.

The combo doesn't work.

On to the "serious" course and things improve. The 500g MSA Coorong Angus Beef T-bone steak with decent chips and salad, while not particularly thick-cut, is just right, nice and pink by the bone, juicy and flavoursome.

Fortunately, its mushroom gravy is in a pot on the side because it doesn't match up to the quality of the steak.

The star of the night on value and flavour is the Texas beef ribs, a 1kg whopper plate of two perfectly cooked Coorong Angus Beef ribs. The meltingly soft meat peels away easily from big flat bones. It's nicely butchered so a layer of fat at the edge is easy to discard but lends flavour. It's worth buying a bottle of the housemade barbecue sauce to take home, but it's a shame these ribs are slathered with too much of it.

A 300g MSA Australian Angus Beef porterhouse is disappointing, certainly not the steak we expected. The meat is cut a bit thin, just pink but dry and flavourless well short of its MSA promise.

Spear Creek lamb shanks, slow roasted "for hours & hours & hours" says the menu, are suitably tender, falling off the bone and a giant serve of two meaty bones on a potato mash. Again, saucing fails. The topping tastes tomato pastey as if it hasn't been cooked off at an early stage in the pan.

It's getting late for midweek kitchen staff and there's some doubt if anyone can prepare dessert. We have our way, but the apple crumble fruit has almost certainly been microwaved, so burning hot it grazes tongues. Lucky, it wasn't for a child. The bread'n'butter pudding is better and its dollop of ice cream cools our tongues.

This dining room, hidden in suburbia, is admirably trying hard to ramp up the pub-food options in the district.

While there are some issues with inconsistent cooking, and the quality of sauces needs attention, Excelsior meals will be appreciated as exceptionally good value, with giant plates of meat for $21 to $28, and no need for sides. Despite one main-course blip, I'd still recommend you stick to the serious steaks (with mustard rather than the sauces).

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HOW IT RATED - THE EXCELSIOR

Food 11/20

Staff 6/10

Drink 2/5

X-factor 2/5

Value 9/10

Total score: 30/50

Address: 110 Coglin St, Brompton; ph 8346 2521

Food: Steak pub

Drink: Fully licensed; BYO corkage $15

Hours: Lunch: noon-2.30pm seven days; Dinner: 5.30pm-9pm seven days

Head chef: Bryan Stanton

Wheelchair access and facilities: Yes

Parking: Carpark adjacent

Prices: Entree: $4.50-$13.70; Mains: $18.10-$28 ($45 for monster burger, $69 for 2kg Riverine rump); Sides: $2-$4.50; Desserts: $4.50-$6.50 ($18 for monster sundae)

Snapshot: pub with "Serious" steak menu for good-value dining. T-shirt reward for those who manage to finish a monster 2kg steak or five-patty burger