Really? You mean I got to go to another cafe/restaurant that is only one week old? What are the odds?
Tin Hill Social at Horse City just opened last Friday and doesn’t seem to have a website yet. It took over the space from Round House, and has done a lovely job sprucing up the area. The place used to look rather run down, but it’s more polished now, though they’ve taken care not to make it too polished so that it’s still welcoming to anyone in shorts and t-shirts. I suppose it needs to retain that casual vibe because of the yoga, fitness, sports, dance and music schools there. Practically everyone at Horse City is casually dressed. There were many groups of parents waiting for their kids to finish their classes and ladies who had just finished their yoga session.
Tin Hill Social has several spaces you can choose to settle yourself down at. There’s the outdoor area, a verandah, indoor area, outdoor bar, and an indoor bar.
I met the lady who bakes all the cakes and desserts there, and she shared that they do not use any colouring or additives in their recipes. If the kids are going to eat sweet things, at least make it as wholesome a sweet thing as possible. On that note, we started with a lemon meringue tart. Asher really liked it and thought it was just lemony enough. I thought it could be a little more tangy because I like my lemon tarts and key lime pies to have more kick. The tart pastry was alright. Most people should find it good, though personally I’ve always liked my tarts to have really hard shells rather then the more crumbly kind. The meringue topping was good though, I liked that it was not too airy. Some meringue toppings are overly fluffy and makes me feel like I’m eating nothing at all!
We then worked out way to brunch with the Tin Hill Social Eggs Benedict served with pulled pork. I liked it! The eggs were appropriately runny, the pulled pork though slightly on the salty side was balance by the eggs and the crusty bread. Good flavours overall.
But the dish that stole the show was the Classic Greek Salad. If this is the classic version, everyone else please follow suit! How decadent this dish was! It came with a slab of feta. Jon and I couldn’t believe our eyes at first. This version puts all the other Greek salads with smatterings of crumbed feta to shame. This is a Greek salad. C’mon. It wasn’t just the audacious feta that made us sit up, it was the freshness of the vegetables in the salad, and the generous portion of kalamata olives – which I love. Again, this is usually thrown in sparingly. Here, it was an equal partner with the cucumbers, capsicums, and cherry tomatoes. The twist of freshly grated pepper really brought it all together nicely. Jon has declared this his favourite salad!
The boys had a linguini carbonara pasta which was pretty good, though like most carbonaras it can get a bit jelak (too rich) after a while. Theirs is a creamier version, which is better than erring on the watery side. I also liked that they used chunks of smoked pancetta rather than just slivers of ham.
It’s a good place to hang out if you are waiting for your kids. And I’m pretty sure we’ll be ordering that Greek salad again.
Unlikely Lady of Leisure 