SatayBar, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

On, that I-can’t-believe-I’m-back-at-work-and-I-should’ve-taken-more-days-off day, 2 January, Big Fil, Snooze and I needed to perk up our spirits by getting out of the office and having lunch.

Heading out in the sunshine, we had, in hindsight, an overly optimistic plan of eating at The Grain Store.  It was overly optimistic because, as we were in the torpor of being back at work too early, we all forgot that most cafes/restaurants were still closed in the first week of January.  It didn’t help matters that we didn’t know where exactly TGS was located and the fact that I was getting progressively narky as my blood sugar plummeted while we wandered around looking for the cafe.

When we found it and realised it was closed, we then tried to go somewhere else (I forget where), but only to later realise that it, too, was also closed.  Getting really narky, I insisted that we just eat at the next place we see.  And that happened to be SatayBar.  SatayBar is this tiny shop that does satay.  It’s basically an open kitchen, with a few stools on the inside and some tables on the outside.  There’s not space to move about in there.  

You can get the satays on their own, or in a meal.  We all went for the meal.  I think Big Fil and I chose the same thing – chicken, lamb and prawn satays. For three satays, you can pick three sides and we got rice, achar salad, krupuk (vegie crackers) for $11.40.  However, I was rather hoping they had the garden salad, but that had sold out.

First bite and I was quite disappointed.  The lamb tasted really muttony and was chewy.  The peanut sauce had a gloopy consistency and I didn’t really care for it.  The only positive about the sauce was the fact that it had a reasonable amount of peanuts in it.  The prawns were tiny and were most likely frozen ones.  The chicken was equally bland.  I wasn’t impressed with the sides either.  The rice was claggy (although there was lots of it), the achar (pickled veg – in this case, carrot, turnip (I think) and celery was ho-hum) and the krupuk was bit of a carb-overload.

Snooze got the two satays with two sides deal for $9.40.  As Big Fil and Snooze had previously eaten here before (back in Feb 2011), I asked them whether the satays have changed.  They both seemed to think the quality was about the same. 

Verdict

Food – 5.5

Ambiance - 6.5

Service – 6.5

Price - 6.5

Overall 

While the satays are on the small side, they are generous with the sides – especially with the rice. I only ate enough of the satays to take the edge off my hunger - I threw the rest away as it was that unappetizing for me.  While Big Fil and Snooze seemed to like the satays enough, I'm just not a fan of them.

Service was friendly but bit slow - but I'll chalk this up to the staff just starting to get back into the swing of things. 

Address

SatayBar

Custom House Lane 

Melbourne 3000

Telephone: 9629 1466