The Merrywell, Crown Casino

Last night, it was girls night. My laughs-alot (mostly at herself)-sister-in-law is in town at the moment and organised for a few of us girls to go out for dinner at The Merrywell. This was my first visit to The Merrywell and I was looking forward to trying out the food. You cannot book at The Merrywell, so when we arrived we put our name down and waited for a call to say our table was available. I am not a fan of the idea of not being able to book at restaurants, although obviously I do understand why they do it (so they can turn tables over quicker!). About an hour after we put our name down we were seated. I had already had a little glean over the menu (I am one of those people who loves to read the menu beforehand) and my sister-in-law had too (a girl after my own heart) so was pretty much already decided. At The Merrywell you have to order at the counter. I hadn’t really thought about this factor until sister-in-law mentioned she did not like it and I had to agree, it is much nicer when dining out to be waited on, particularly when the prices are at the pricer end.

I ordered the Grilled Tuna Salad ($24) and a side salad of quinoa ($8). I was a little bit unsure of what to expect having heard that this is your good old dude food. I am not much of a fan of fried or greasy foods and this is my expectation of dude food. However my socks were pleasantly blown off. The Grilled Tuna Salad was one of the BEST (I may even go as far as to say THE BEST) dishes I have had all year (big statement I know and I generally am not a fan of big statements like this). It came off the share menu, but I decided it would be perfect for my main. There was three pieces of grilled tuna and the tuna was seared and perfectly rare in the middle. The dish was served with roasted capsicum aioli, garden vegetables and devilled egg. The roasted capsicum aioli was served on top of the tuna and perfectly complimented the dish. I loved the garden vegetables which included beans, boiled potato, and tomato which were tossed with capers, kalamata olives and parsley. However, my favourite part of this dish was the devilled egg. I haven’t had a devilled egg for a long, long time, and this one had the egg yolk whipped which added to the presentation. My quinoa salad however was somewhat disappointing; the quinoa tasted slightly overcooked and the addition of the cranberries made the quinoa go a purplish colour that was not all that appetising. There were also apricots and some nuts tossed through but I would have liked more nuts in it – it appeared they had thrown them in from a distance.

Grilled Tuna Salad

Quinoa Side Salad

Two of the girls ordered the Wagyu Meatball with Fettuccine Alfredo ($28). The pasta looked handmade and the meatball was huge.

Wagyu Meatball with Fettuccine Alfredo

The Grandma Grecco’s Chicken Parma served with Spaghetti and Napoli sauce ($29) was another winner.

Grandma Grecco’s Chicken Parma

And lastly, the side dish of the Mexican Corn on the Cob ($8) was well received.

Mexican Corn on the Cob

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to The Merrywell and am already dreaming about that Grilled Tuna Salad. What was particularly noteworthy about this establishment, was the service. I expected we were in for quite the wait after placing our orders due to the sheer volume of people there, however, before we knew it our meals arrived. We were also not rushed to leave either despite there obviously being a wait list for the tables, which I also liked (however probably disliked whilst I was myself waiting…haha).