A DIY Banquet at Stacks Taverna, Darling Harbour

January 28, 2014

Sometime late last year a work friend and I walked down to Darling Harbour after work. We had a Red Balloon voucher my friend had been given to use, and thought when better than a warm summer night after work?

The voucher, which Friend had won as a prize, was for dinner for two at Stacks Taverna. Not just any old dinner but a DIY banquet that involved A LOT of food and cooking our own steak and seafood.

The feast that awaited us included:

-a cocktail jug
-steak
-salmon
-prawns
-baby octopus
-potatoes
-corn on the cob
-hot chips
-greek salad

Luckily, as we (ahem, I) usually are, we were starving.

We were seated and then a very friendly waiter came over to introduce himself and explain how the evening would work. It was very easy. We got to choose any cocktail jug from the menu, then they’d bring over the food we needed to cook on the giant grill in the middle of the restaurant.

First up. Cocktails.

The cocktail we chose was “Pimms Punch”. It was fruity, fresh and so delicious. It was also dangerously easy to drink.

Not long after, our grill platter was brought over. This included the prawns, baby octopus, steak, salmon, corn and potatoes, all of which we were to grill ourselves.

We took it over to the giant grill in the middle of the restaurant and got straight into it.

It was a lot of fun standing over the grill, cocktails in hand, trying to work out exactly how long everything needed to cook for. I’m not going to lie. We were both slightly inexperienced when it came to cooking seafood over a large grill. Fortunately, staff was on hand to help out and in the end we did a good job. No food poisoning, undercooked or overcooked food for us.

When we were done we carried it all back to our table and the rest of our meal (Greek salad and hot chips) was brought over.

This is what our table looked like:

We had barely any room to move, but that view makes me incredibly happy.

Everything was just delicious. Cooking it ourselves made it even more rewarding and the whole experience was a lot of fun.

It wasn’t included in the Red Balloon voucher, but we couldn’t go past dessert so we ordered a dessert to share off the menu.

We chose “Chocolate Indulgence” – a chocolate trio of chocolate mousse, warm chocolate brownie and chocolate sorbet. You know there’s a lot of chocolate when you have to say it five times in one sentence.

This dessert was also delicious and picking a favourite of the three is pretty much impossible.

If you’re looking for something fun and different to do for dinner, or to give as a gift, this was a great meal. You can buy the voucher here. (I’m in no way affiliated with Red Balloon, or Stacks – just sharing the experience.)

Would I go again? There’s plenty left to try on the menu…

 

 

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