Saturday, March 24, 2007

I love Big Johns...

...the restaurant that is. I've been meaning to go to Big John's ever since I've heard of them. Which has been a good 4-5 years, but I've never made the effort to go all the way to San Souci. Considering all the stuff that has been happening with Moishii, we didn't get much of a chance to catch up last week (Ok, drunken bashes do not count), so we decided to make a night of it and head on over to Big John's.


They serve Moet et Chandon!

Take away pizza menu



We knew that Big John's serve massive amounts of food, but I didn't really believe they were THAT massive. Plus, the traffic getting there was atrocious. By the time we were served, I was about to eat a whole cow. And I almost did!

Garlic french sticks

You can't have a catch up without alcohol - Lambrusco

King Prawn Caesar salad

It wasn't a "Chicken night" so we had asked them to change the chicken to King Prawns. The prawns were so.....prawny! And they were bursting in your mouth!

A photo to show how big the serves REALLY are

Spaghetti Marinara

The pasta was HUGE! Like HOOOOOOGE!! Luckily, with all the shells that came with it, it wasn't too painful to finish. But I didn't touch the 1/2 crab it came with. That's because I was busy with the bugs, mussels, scallops, squid and massive tiger prawns hidden amongst the pasta.

Veal Scallopine

Oh, my gosh. You see that deep fried aracini ball in the top left of the plate? That was a tennis ball sized ball. There was about 5-6 slices of veal, and I reckon thats about 1/2kg of vegetables on that plate!!

Bugs!!

This also came with a ball of aracini, but no 1/2kg of veggies thank goodness.

Champagne Prawns

OK, this came with the 1/2kg of veggies AND the ball. Good thing that prawns aren't that filling....but then considering how much food they serve, everything is filling!! We practically had to roll out of there!

I actually really enjoyed Big John's. When I was trying to find their website (They don't have one) I ended up looking through the reviews at eatability. And they got shocking reviews. Why did I still go? Because I always take those reviews with a grain of salt. They complain about the long lines, the horrible food and the horrible service. The problem with 90% of those complaints is that people are going there on a Friday or Saturday night, when they're WELL KNOWN to be packed until bursting at the seams. Very simple solution, DON'T GO ON WEEKENDS!! We went on a weeknight and there was no wait and it wasn't crowded. I can understand why people would complain if they rocked up on a weekend.

Yes the place can get very very packed. 75% of the seats were taken on a Wednesday night! Imagine a weekend when the place is completely packed, the pizza oven going full boil and lack of air conditioning. Yes, Big John's has a lot to improve on. A bigger shop, air conditioning, maybe learning to take Credit Card/EFTPOS, and I would imagine on the weekend, better service and more organisation. BUT, Big John's isn't about that. The food is NOT authentic Italian, but the food is good. The quality of service isn't that great, but the quantity served is GIGANTIC! When restaurants are busy, quality slips, but I think everyone should give Big John's a go. Go on a week day, experience their food and service when there isn't a mob of hungry people waiting outside demanding blood.

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