Somerset Cottage
Cuisine: Contemporary New Zealand Address: 30 Bethlehem Road,
Bethlehem, Tauranga
Phone: 07 576 6889
Drinks: Licensed and BYO wine
Reservations: Recommended
Now we're into 2021 and an email arrived to say they're open again, I realise I forgot to mention our last visit to Somerset of 2020. They usually only do lunch on Friday but there was an extra lunch service on the Wednesday before Christmas so since Jan and I were both on holiday we headed in for a quick bite before bracing for the upcoming festivities. I know I've written about them before - that's the thing when you live close by. I promise I'll get to some new places from next week on!
The lunch menu is actually the same as at dinner - half weekly, half unchanging, vegan options - but since it was a fine day we got to sit outside on the rather lovely back porch and look across the gully at the scenery. We tried not to just order the same things we had last time. Luckily the weekly menu offered several new options.
We'd taken along a bottle of 2014 Stonecroft Old Vines Gewurztraminer to drink since Somerset is one of the few restaurants around that allow you to BYO wine. I should mention that they do also have what I reckon is about the best wine list in the Bay, filled with unusual interesting drops all personally picked by owner Anne (and intentionally reasonably priced).The wine was solid and intense, showing a little bit of age, rich and luscious, not too sweet and brimming with floral perfumed notes. Damn fine!
On to food. Jan just wanted a main (yes, it was the same one she had last time...) and her usual salad. I fancied two entrees, and I got to eat Jan's veges which automatically come with the main course. Then we shared dessert.
- Crispy cauliflower coated with a sticky gochujang sauce $20
- Beef cheek arancini, red wine glaze $20
- Crispy battered Bostock chicken, Korean style glaze $39
- Salad of cos leaves with grano padano and classic vinaigrette $9
- Korean doughnuts, salted caramel and chocolate sauce $9 ea
And it looks like we had a Korean meal from that list! Actually, it seems Somerset are on a small Korean journey since there are three Korean-influenced dishes on the weekly menu. We just happened to have all of them. We're still blown away at the crispness of the coatings and the way the sauce seems to soak into it without making anything soggy.
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| Arancini |
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| Cauliflower |
The cauliflower and chicken actually have a totally different coating, the cauliflower more like breadcrumbs and the chicken resembling tempura. Meanwhile, the arancini was excellent, the meat inside unctuous, the sauce deep and dark and with the added bonus of mushrooms.
The only part of the meal I had reservations about were the vegetables (we forgot to photograph them) which were broccoli, courgette and more and were served cold with a mixture sprinkled over the top - cous cous, almonds and more. It's the cold thing I'm not sure of: gimme hot vegetables or a cold salad not the other way round. (I do struggle with even the concept of a hot salad - but then I'm a bear with a very small brain...)
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| Chicken |
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| Salad |
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| Doughnuts |
As to the doughnuts they were excellent too with a hint of the cronut to them. I should probably mention that they did look alarmingly like Mr Hankey The Christmas Poo from South Park (Jan did her best to disguise that in the photo!) but they tasted fantastic and pretty much as fantastically unhealthy as a cronut. Since we only had one each it was easy to forgive ourselves for what tasted like an extreme indulgence.
Yum. Lovely lunch. It felt like a complete escape from the world for a couple of hours. Some people perceive Somerset as more expensive that other restaurants though I think it's pretty much on par with Clarence, Harbourside, The White House and others, and the BYO deal makes it very attractive even with the corkage charge. I notice on-line this morning that the weekly menu has changed again - looking forward to trying more new dishes...
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