The Craftsman Bar Brasserie, Cannington
Went out with hubby and a friend who wanted to eat some steak, so we decided to visit the Craftsman in Westfield Carousel. Funnily enough, we've been to Carousel many times before but this was actually our first time going to the Craftsman.
From the outside, the venue was very large. The Craftsman has a beautiful exterior but due to the lack of lighting it was quite dark at the front especially during the night time. This is probably why we never really noticed/considered going inside in the past compared to other food premises that we could see clearly such as Grill'd and Hans Cafe.
Tasting Plate - huge portion!
Fortunately the inside was a complete contrast to what we perceived from the outside. We liked how they have decent spacing between tables and how easy it is to move the tables around if you come in a big group. The décor inside was good with warm lighting, plants and funky lights in a shape of bottle caps. The décor really complimented the vibe, which felt casual and even a little upmarket at the same time.
We chose the tasting platter as our entrees and it was a real highlight. I think it could easily cater for 4 people sharing if it's considered an entrée or if you're just after some food to snack on. The platter was very well presented. It had pan fried prawns in garlic sauce, Asian style chicken wings with soy honey sauce, chorizo, olives, marinated fetta, salt & pepper squid, Turkish breads and dips. Everything on the platter was very tasty and satisfying.
$18 Steak Special on Tuesday!
For mains we ordered two rump specials ($18 every Tue night) and salmon fillet, which was the special of the day. One steak was ordered in medium rare while the other one as medium. Unfortunately the medium rare came as medium and the medium came as well done. Wasn't such a big deal for us but can imagine some people would mind this sort of thing. Overall steaks were juicy, tasty and came with a decent amount of chips and salad as sides. We were informed that the sides of chips can be changed to other available sides which is a good option for diners.
Smoked salmon Rigatoni
The smoked salmon rigatoni was part of the weekly special and we really liked the dish. The salmon was cooked with crispy skin, tasty and came with a fancy presentation. We also ordered extra sides, one crunchy onion rings and one wedges.
For desserts, we opted for the trio of homemade desserts which consisted of mini apple crumble cinnamon stewed apples, mini double chocolate pudding with chocolate ganache and mini sticky date pudding. The apple crumble was still a bit cold so we informed our friendly waitress of the night, Raynar, and she warmed it up perfectly for us.
“Prices were reasonable and portions were good, so we’re definitely looking forward to try other dishes next time we’re in the area.”
It tasted so much better afterwards. We really enjoyed the trio dessert especially since it only costs $9.90 for what we considered a very generous serving! Another one that we had were peppermint tea and a tall glass of ice cream sundae.
To sum it all up, we had a great time at the Craftsman. It was very easy to talk among ourselves especially since the restaurant and pub areas were separated into two sections. We had a good time with what the Craftsman offered us from entrée to dessert and they also had quite an extensive menu for drinks.