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| - I am constantly amazed at the number of fantastic eateries in and around the Marlbourough area.
Today, needing to take a break from slaving over the computer all day, and getting tired of mall food fare, I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood with the vague notion of grabbing lunch somewhere.
Vista Landing has many wonderful eateries, although they tend to change every few years. For example, when I was in elementary school, Burger Inn had a location in this place, as did the infamous (but now long gone) Tiger Billiards, and later on, Taketomi Village actually was a Japanese restaurant that served very delicious cuisine. As I was walking down the strip, a new restaurant caught my eye: The ROCK.
Living here in this area most of my life, I had never heard of this place before, and for the life of me, I can't remember what used to be there.
Checking out the menu outside the door, and noticing that a review by local food critic John Gilchrist was also posted, I decided to give it a try.
Immediately as I entered, I was greeted by the chef and owner Swandri, where I learned that this establishment had only been in operation for four months. He asked me how I heard about the place, and while I longed to say that I heard about it on Yelp, realistically, I just stumbled upon it in my daily adventures.
I had gotten there in the late afternoon; too early for the dinner menu (which seems to be their specialty, although as I was the only patron in the place at the moment, I'm pretty sure I could have ordered whatever), I decided to pick something from the lunch menu, although they also have breakfast and brunch options as well.
I ended up having the New Zealand Lamb Burger with House Salad and a cola.
Now, I love lamb, and this burger was excellent. Grilled to perfection right in front of my eyes (the grill is in the main restaurant area), the savory smells definitely whetted my appetite and left me wanting for more.
As such, I decided to go for dessert. On special and not on the regular dessert menu, I went with the White Chocolate and Green Tea Mousse. Topped with four maraschino cherries, this thing was rich, but so tasty. While the entire dessert was coloured green, you could definitely taste the white chocolate with just a hint of the green tea. That said, even though the tea taste was subtle, I'm definitely a caffeine virgin, and I was feeling it shortly after I left. It was delicious though, and the portion was huge; it made me wish I had gone with a friend to share.
All-in-all, my bill came up to around $22 or $23, which was more than reasonable for the portions I got (without dessert, it probably would have come to less than $15 for sure) and the quality of the food beats most places downtown or in the beltline for sure.
I definitely plan to come back to sample the dinner menu, and places like The ROCK make me feel proud that I live in a neighborhood with so much diversity in food choices, with quality that can rival any of the gourmet places in town, any day of the week with prices that don't hurt the pocket book. Very impressed.
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