Meating Room Cafe/Grill/Bar hits the spot. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
When your local serves top-notch coffee well past dinner, when the burgers make your tastebuds dance, when the chef cares just as much about the non-meat dishes looking and tasting fantastic, and when the crew are passionate about smoking meat on traditional American wood-fired smokers, then the sunshine of life’s best is shining down on you, and you must live in Weston!
Meating Room is the Weston local that hits the spot no matter who walks through their door.
Hamish Walker says that he and co-owners Robii Khalil and Phil Sacksady met through his original role as a coffee rep. In fact, the opportunity to purchase the location that is now Meating Room came about through Hamish’s coffee rep connections. More proof that coffee brings good things!
As much care goes into the vegetarian offerings as the meat dishes. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
Hamish explains where Meating Room fits in the food scene.
“We call ourselves a cafe/bar/grill, and we try to be family-friendly. A family can come down, and mum can have avocado and toast with coffee, the kids can have burgers and shakes, and dad can have an early schooner. We also have a focus on our smoked meat.”
Three menu items—the pulled pork burger, the Philly cheese steak, and the Reuben — sit in a box smack dab in the middle of the menu. These classic meals have been elevated to supreme deliciousness by pit-smoking the meat.
I am drawn to the Philly Cheesesteak, with two of my favourite things in the world colliding.
A twice-smoked Philly cheesesteak sausage is served on a tortilla with pico de gallo, fresh chilli lime, and coriander sauce. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
But when Hamish says that he has a newly crafted dish, a Philly cheesesteak sausage taco, I need to know more.
“One of our bestsellers is the Philly cheesesteak that we smoke, so we put all those components into one great sausage,” Hamish says. “It is the Aussie taco: a twice-smoked Philly cheesesteak sausage served on a tortilla with pico de gallo and a fresh chilli lime and coriander sauce.”
Done deal! We settle on The Aussie taco, straight out of the smoker, a smashed double cheeseburger and the roast pumpkin.
Two oversized smashed patties drape over the plump bun, which is topped with melty American cheese, house-made aioli, pickles and onions. Seeing three onion rings peek out from the burger brings me great joy. This burger is scrumptious, the kind you imagine eating somewhere along Route 66. The accompanying fries bring crunch and yummy chicken salt flavour in spades.
The pumpkin sits on a bed of cashew cream, topped with herb salad, smoked almonds, parsnip crisps and swathes of miso tahini. Caramelised all over, the skin is tender enough to cut with my fork. The pumpkin melts away in my mouth, and the tang of the tahini, wafer-thin crisps, and the earthy pepper hit of herbs ensure the dish tastes as magnificent as it looks.
The Aussie taco arrives, the sausage dwarfing the soft tortilla it sits on, topped with deep green chimichurri-like sauce and jewel-bright Pico de gallo. My first two bites include a bit of everything, the tang of the salsa and the piquant heat of the sauce cutting through the bursts of molten cheese and juices from the sausage. Then I scrape the sausage free from its adornments to get an unadulterated mouthful. And, oh my word, this is hands down the best-smoked sausage my taste buds have ever danced with. House-made sausages often are over-firm and have a squeaky texture when you bite into them. This one is soft, juicy and run-through with cheese. We enjoy every bite.
A portrait of Meating Room owners: Hamish Walker, Robii Khalil, and Phil Sacksady. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
“There is a lot on here throughout the week,” Hamish says.
“On Tuesday nights we do our Tuesday trivia, Wednesdays we serve up $16 pizzas all day, Thursday nights we do cheap schnitzels, on Fridays we have happy hour, and if you buy a drink during happy hour, you get a free entry into our very popular meat raffle! On Sunday, we hold another meat raffle.”
On the first Saturday of each month, the guys fire up the pit smokers and you can indulge in a selection of smoked meat, including brisket, pulled pork and more house-made sausages.
Meating Room is open six days week, from 4 pm on Tuesday, from midday on Wednesday to Friday, and from 11 am on Saturday and Sunday. Follow Meating Room on Facebook and Instagram.
Loading ...
