Four of us dined on a Sunday night in early Jan. We were enticed by the offer of a free bottle of wine for tables of four or more, so first up was our freebie, a bottle of “Shy Pig” Sauvignon Blanc. A quick check on Google reveals that you can pick up this cheap plonk for around $7 a bottle online, if you can find it. I’m no wine connoisseur, but this stuff tasted like vinegar and gave me a headache afterwards. It doesn’t even feature on their drinks menu. A better option, to save yourself a few bucks, is to use your Ent Book card for a 25% discount up to a generous $40.
The food style is mainly Italian, with a small, but adequate menu, with entrees, pizzas, pastas and a couple of dessert choices. We ordered a selection of entrees including arancini, haloumi, burrata and beet, and a single pizza and shared it all. The most popular dish of the night, were the arancini balls: five large round balls with a crispy coating and a soft, creamy mushroom risotto filling. So nice, that we ordered a second one. The haloumi was firm and tasty, but the other two entree dishes were disappointing. The beet was pretty tiny, and the burrata, a cheesy mixture, with eggplant, tomatoes and pine nuts was rather tasteless, and came with two pieces of burnt toast. The “gonzo 2.0” pizza was decent enough, with a chewy base, topped with cheese, eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms, sun-dried tomato and basil.
The pricing structure seemed a bit odd. $10 for a generous serve of arancini, $18 for the burrata and the haloumi, which were smaller, and $14 for the beet dish, which was smaller still. The pizza wasn’t huge for $25. Overall, the food was a bit of a mixed bag, but all had fresh, high quality ingredients and were nicely presented to the table on stylish crockery.
The ambience is cool, relaxed and casual, with three separate sections: Two dining areas downstairs, and a bar upstairs. The front part downstairs, facing the street, was quite noisy with loud music playing, but the other, at the back, where we sat, was quieter, despite a healthy turnout, with most tables occupied. We didn’t have too much trouble conversing, although it must be said that this is potentially a noisy space, with it’s uncarpeted wooden floors, and little in the way of sound absorbers. One or two rowdy tables could ruin an evening here. We were lucky, as all the other diners around us were quiet and well behaved.
The decor and layout are fairly minimalist, but tasteful with aforementioned wooden floors, wooden furniture and very low hanging lamps (watch your head) and black and white historical pics on the back wall.
But it’s in the service department where these guys really excel. On arrival, we were warmly welcomed by a delightful, friendly Spanish waitress, and shown to our booked table, a nice one in the back room, with comfy lounge type couches against the wall. Our orders were smartly taken, and the dishes came out super quickly, in the correct order: That’s just the way I like it. There were three waiters on duty, the Spanish lady, and two gents. They were all friendly, helpful and attentive, and for this reason alone, we will probably return.
There is a single unisex toilet downstairs and more modern ones upstairs, with separate male and female cubicles. They’re all clean and well provisioned, but the upstairs ones are very dark.
We paid $95, for the five shared entrees and the single pizza, with the bottle of plonk, thrown in for free. Next time I’ll use my Ent Book card and get 25% off, because to be honest, this place is a tad expensive for the small helpings you get.
But despite my own misgivings, C.H. seems quite popular with the locals, so booking ahead is advised and you can do this quickly and easily on their website via the Quandoo booking app.
Corner House, as its name suggests is at the corner of Bondi Road and Denham Street, opp the Royal Hotel, at the spot where the “Old Castille” pizza joint used to be for many years. Parking can be a bit of a challenge, but we were lucky to find a two-hour spot (yes, restrictions apply even on Sundays up till 10pm, so thanks to Wav Council for making our lives so easy!) on the opp corner of Bondi Road.
Overall, we had a pleasant evening here and it all went smoothly. The free wine offer was a dud, but the food was decent enough. The ambience was laid back and relaxed and the service was outstanding. Probably worth another shot at it.
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