We went to the New Zealander in Alameda Thursday night. They have a short menu with a couple of sandwiches, burgers and meat entrees, but the main attraction – and what the waitress recommended – were the pies. I got a steak and cheese one and DH got the minted lamb one. They were both pretty good, the meats were tender and flavorful and the pastry was nice. Our main complaint was the size. They were too big as appetizers and too small for a main entree. You can get them with a soup or salad for $2 more, but we’re not really soup/salad people so it didn’t work well for us. Maybe next time we’ll just get 3 pies to share between the two of us.
We weren’t that impressed with the desserts. I liked the texture of the bread & butter pudding but it didn’t have much taste by itself and the sauce was too strong/bitter for my taste. I’d have liked both the pudding & sauce to be sweeter. DH had the French apple tart, which was an almost crustless bunch of cooked apples which he ruled as “interesting”. The desserts were large, so by the end of the meal we were full.
DH wants to go back and try other pies. Even though it’s a brew pub, it’s child friendly so we’ll probably go there again with the kids.
A full review will be posted on my website as soon as Mike edits it.
