The Butler's Pantry, Rowville by Bureaucrat

Rowville is a bit of a 'meh' suburb for me.  There is nothing there that appeals to me and for the people that I know that live out there, it seems to be a world away.  However, The Butler's Pantry is located out there.  There's a dining offer for it in the Entertainment Book (which we're encouraging our dear readers to purchase a 2017-18 membership in order to fundraise for on behalf of Second Bite) and I've been seeing lots of pretty photos of The Butler's Pantry's Instagram account.  With those two reasons, we set off towards Rowville in search for good grub.


Yuuuuum!  


As we got there about 30 minutes before breakfast service was over, we decided to order dessert first and linger over our chai before ordering lunch.  I love a good mousse cake and decided to go for the chocolate mousse cake with meringue and mango sorbet.  What came out was not a mousse cake.  It wasn't cake at all.  It was a warm brownie.  This was a big let down and, at the time, I hoped that this wasn't an omen of things to come for our lunch.  The positives about the dessert was that the brownie was nice and a bit fudgey in the middle, and the biscuity crumbs that was the base for the sorbet was particularly nice.  However, it wasn't a mousse cake.  It also didn't pair well with the meringue or sorbet.  It was like I was served three different desserts but on the same plate.  And at almost $15 for this dish, I didn't feel it was particularly good value.


Chai

Fortunately, the mains were impressive and very, very tasty.  Big in size and flavour, the Lawyer and I were licking the plates clean!


The Lawyer's soft shell crab spaghetti was delicious and he was a very happy chap about it!  Two big crabs that had plenty of meat (for a soft shell crab).  It was moreishly seasoned and crispy.  There was lots of spaghetti and quite a good amount of calamari tossed through it too.  What I also liked was that it had all them deliciously crunchy and salty bits that get encrusted on the pan in the spaghetti.  Loved the fresh pop of juice from the sweet cherry tomatoes.  And the sauce packed a bit of a chilli kick too!


I was equally enamoured with my lamb meatballs and potato gnocchi.  I inhaled about half of this down before slowing down.  Loved the well seasoned meatballs, the fluffy gnocchi and, my goodness, the sauce, I loved the sauce.  Deep in flavour and so unctuous - I almost wished it came with some bread so I could mop up the sauce (but that would have made it a very, very, very big meal.  I didn't eat dinner until 8pm that night because I was that full from lunch.  The dish was made even better with the gooey mozzerella, extra virgin olive oil and gremolata-ish topping.

Verdict

We loved it.

Mid value.

Overall

A very delicious find here in Rowville.  Definitely stick to the main dishes - we loved our lunch and from what we saw of the breakfast menu items, they are also equally big and delicious looking.

Service is friendly and with a smile.

Find it at

The Butler's Pantry
1090 Wellington Road
Rowville VIC 3178
Phone: (03) 9755 8553