The Lovely Deputy recently moved office to the other side of town. It’s where I used to work. He tells me EVERYONE loves working in the West End. There are SO many new places to eat and drink.
The Smoked Chicken Nachos
One of the locals is the Westend Pumphouse and it’s a major contributor to the revitalisation of Hobart’s West End.
You might have read our previous blog about the Pumphouse.
The Pulled Pork Croquettes
Over time they’ve been evolving their menu. Right now they have some slightly expensive tapas to accompany your Hobart-priced cocktails during the evening.
Note: you can drink a standard cocktail for less than $18-20 in other jurisdictions but generally not in Hobart.
The marshmallow cocktail
One Girl was desperate to try the tapas. So the Two Girls, Sugarplum Fairy and her boy Maxey went for Friday lunch.
This Girl and the Lovely Deputy had already coughed up $15 per tapas plate the night before so when I was faced with a new look lunch menu at the slightly better value of $18 per meal, I thought it was a better option. The Other Girl was a bit disappointed. The availability of Pumphouse chips, not a listed menu item, made for a quick recovery.
The Big Boy
This is what we ate:
Quaesar salad, which is the Pumphouse’s take on the classic with a twist: quail and little eggs, twice cooked. I’m not usually one for looking at anchovy bodies discarded on top of a Caesar salad, fortunately these were torn in pieces and discretely discarded throughout the salad. The half a quail served forlorn on top of the salad was a bit of a letdown and it looked cheap.
White Fish Tempura
White Fish Tempura, with spinach, tomato and puffed quinoa salad, which came with three pieces of fish.
Big Boy Burger, which was served on a large focaccia with lettuce, tomato, bacon and aioli with onion rings on the side.
Maxey
Maxey shared chips with us. Pumphouse chips are very good; crispy and cooked to perfection.
I have no idea what cocktail I had but the ingredients included chamomile, elderflower and vodka. It was like drinking a marshmallow, not so sweet, but much more refreshing.
The night before Lovely and I had their smoked chicken nachos and pulled pork croquette, seeded mustard and apple relish for snacks. The croquettes were very good.
Pumphouse is a Chameleon. It blends in to meet your daily eating and drinking needs. Weekday mornings it’s the local coffee takeaway, weekend breakfast is family time, lunch is the business hour and in the early evening it transforms to bar and restaurant.
The way chips should be cooked
If you’ve been past on a Friday night you’ll see the Pumphouse is pumped. It might be a giant shed but it is a very popular place to meet with plenty of capacity, laid out in precincts, with lots of energy and some great staff.
Half a quail
It’s definitely a place to be seen and it’s great to have an alternative to Salamanca.
The lunch menu can be recommended, and if you’re game to order it, let us know if someone gets a whole quail.
