Lamonts Bishops House

Lamonts Bishops House is an absolutely stunning venue, surrounded by rolling green lawns, the historic old building is hidden in part by 100 year old trees not far from St George Terrace. Quite the hidden gem really. I was fortunate enough to head along to a function there the week before it had officially opened. I was particularly impressed with the canapés…. Particularly the aracini – so delicious I still remembered them.

Fast forward to now and I was particularly pleased when my new work announced that the Christmas party was to be held back at Bishops House! Delightful!

We were to be seated in tables on the lawns, with the girls trotting around bare foot because the grass itself is heritage listed… it took away slightly from being dolled up to have no shoes on, but hey what can you do?

We arrived from the office by bus and as we entered were offered an array of beverages from Lamonts own wine to beers and soft drinks.

Then the canapés began. The first one I sampled was a dainty mushroom tart – flakey pastry with a sort of cheesey mushroom filling. Quite tasty… would have to keep my eye out for more of those.

The crumbed fish also seemed a popular offering. Not so much to me, who will admit that my fish aversion is waning, but I still don’t rush after it on most occasions.

I was more than a little excited when I saw some familiar looking aracini making the rounds and pounced on them as soon as they were served – just as delicious as I had remembered. Crunchy on the outside with a wonderful cheese rice centre, with the perfect amount of lemon zest to infuse the flavour throughout.

Probably the only canapé that didn’t do much for me was the cucumber and hazelnut hommus (on the plate at the back in the photo below). Was just a little bit blah compared to the others. Stranglet enough I’d also had that one at that function many moons ago, but they served it on a slice of cucumber instead of the artistic swirl they did on this visit. I think the slice sort of worked better…. Might not have looked as impressive but the crunch added a nice contrast to the smoothness of the hommus.

So everyone’s appetite had at least been dented as we snacked on these tasty treats.

Soon we were ushered to our seats and had our choice of three entrees, two mains and three desserts. I’d perused the menu prior to arriving…. As I’m sometimes known to do. So soon as the waitor came around it was a let’s lock it in thanks Eddie scenario.

I began with the Grilled asparagus with crab rillette, salad of heirloom cherry tomatoes. The asparagus had been well prepared, still wonderfully crunchy and well matched with the sweetness of the tomatos, and the crab itself was fine, however it did have a slightly stronger seafood flavour that I was hoping for, but still not too bad.

Then for mains I opted for the Black Angus Sirloin, Potato Gratin, Blistered Cherry Tomatoes and Green Peppercorn Butter.  I really enjoyed the potato gratin, so neatly presented with its perfect thin slices of potato. The steak was only ok, not exactly the star of the mains that I’d hoped but the green peppercorn butter definitely did help – what a tasty addition! And the green salad on the side had a nice freshness to it.

To round out the meal for dessert I ordered the Rocky road mousse with fresh berries and toasted marshmallow. And talk about ending a three course meal on a high – delicious!! Rich, creamy chocolate mousse with the added indulgence of the toasted marshmallow, well balance with the freshness of the berries. Big winner this dessert!

So in all there were highs and lows with my meal, but I will note that this was function dining at Lamonts and they managed to serve our larger group quickly and efficiently, and service throughout had been friendly and attentive. As far as function venues go it is pretty special, especially in the warmer months when you can take advantage of sitting outside on the lawn uner the beautiful trees. Not bad Lamonts… not bad.