Cafe Cortado, Marlborough, New Zealand
Cafe Cortado takes the dubious honour of serving our most awful meal in Marlborough. Our dinner was downright dreadful, and suffice to say, we didn't finish any of dishes.
We'd relied on the crowd-o-meter as a positive indication of the restaurant's offerings, but wow was that a letdown (aside: just because a restaurant has long snaking lines doesn't mean that there's good food to be had...it could be a case of silly monkey see, silly monkey do).
Oh well, at least we got front-seat view of the stunning New Zealand sunset over the Picton waterfront.
The Garlic Prawns (NZ$11) appeared to have been drowned in an alkali-treatment so while it was bouncy in texture, any flavour it originally possessed was completely stripped away.
The Salmon Florentine (NZ$29) using local King salmon turned out the texture of poached fish than pan-fried as purportedly stated on the menu. The skin on the salmon was limp like a wet fish, and not crisp like paper. Expectation-reality difference aside, this scraped by muster, and ditto for the roast potatoes, and spinach. But it all went to crap with that cloying lumpy bechamel shrimp sauce.
The Crispy Buttermilk Chicken (NZ$11) with free-range chicken tenders coated in a spiced buttermilk crust juxtaposed against a passionfruit marmalade, was the best dish, which, tbh, wasn't saying much.
The Prawn & Scallop Risotto (NZ$31) with local scallops, prawns, parmesan, and saffron was insipid and overcooked so badly it'd gone mushy.
The kicker was finding a piece of short stubby hair weaved into the rice.
The waterfront bistro, which faces the Picton waterfront on the right (not shown)
Cafe Cortado
Picton
Marlborough
New Zealand
We'd relied on the crowd-o-meter as a positive indication of the restaurant's offerings, but wow was that a letdown (aside: just because a restaurant has long snaking lines doesn't mean that there's good food to be had...it could be a case of silly monkey see, silly monkey do).
Oh well, at least we got front-seat view of the stunning New Zealand sunset over the Picton waterfront.
The Garlic Prawns (NZ$11) appeared to have been drowned in an alkali-treatment so while it was bouncy in texture, any flavour it originally possessed was completely stripped away.
The Salmon Florentine (NZ$29) using local King salmon turned out the texture of poached fish than pan-fried as purportedly stated on the menu. The skin on the salmon was limp like a wet fish, and not crisp like paper. Expectation-reality difference aside, this scraped by muster, and ditto for the roast potatoes, and spinach. But it all went to crap with that cloying lumpy bechamel shrimp sauce.
The Crispy Buttermilk Chicken (NZ$11) with free-range chicken tenders coated in a spiced buttermilk crust juxtaposed against a passionfruit marmalade, was the best dish, which, tbh, wasn't saying much.
The Prawn & Scallop Risotto (NZ$31) with local scallops, prawns, parmesan, and saffron was insipid and overcooked so badly it'd gone mushy.
The kicker was finding a piece of short stubby hair weaved into the rice.
The waterfront bistro, which faces the Picton waterfront on the right (not shown)
Cafe Cortado
Picton
Marlborough
New Zealand
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