For family (Easter) Sunday lunch this week, we gathered at House at Dempsey. It's the spa/bar/restaurant that was converted from old army barracks. To echo it's history, some of the dishes on the menu are served in mess tins.
Because the weather was cool enough, we dressed Chubbs in our favourite outfit of his. Levis bloomers and a RJ-rugger-esque (to my chagrin) hooded shirt.
He sat in his special seat and alternated between playing quietly with his toy (a 19 year-old rattle that belonged to his Sam-Sook) and looking through the window at the pond and drizzle outside.
He lasted there until we finished our main courses. Then he proceeded to play with water glasses on Grandpa's lap.
Fuzzy ordered their "sliders" i.e. mini burgers with truffled fries and sweet potato fries, and I had the skinny pizza topped with anchovies, rocket, boccachini, pesto, yellow cherry tomatoes and parmesan. We had the metre-long sausage to share, and ended with three desserts; warm chocolate toffee cake, strawberry shortcake and flourless chocolate and almond cake.
The burgers were your regular beef patty, bacon and bleu cheese affair, perked up with fancy fries. The pizza crust was akin to a cheese cracker that was impossible to use cutlery on, and was messy to eat. In retrospect, not a wise choice considering my fingers were dirty and I had to handle Chubbs. But overall, it was a light, tasty lunch that will go very well with beer. The desserts scored major points by being satisfying yet not cloyingly sweet.
We like the concept of House, and I especially appreciate the different old chairs and tables that they use, the lush greenery surrounding the restaurant and the relaxing feel it lends. A clear winner as a Sunday brunch spot to catch up with family and friends, although the rather steep prices won't allow us to be there every week :/
