Billabong

Billabong Australian Restaurant & Bar
D-121 Osborne St Winnipeg
Phone: (204) 452-1019
Monday - Saturday 11:30am - 2:00am
Sunday 4:00pm - 2:00am

January, 2010

Buried among the shops, boutiques and restaurants in the heart of the Osborne Village, you can easily miss Billabong if you don’t pay attention. The unassuming door sits beside Wasabi on the west side of Osborne Street. As you enter the outer doors, you can choose to visit the dining room to the left or the bar to the right. The restaurant looks a little cold, lifeless and sterile—we choose the bar, which brims with warmth and cosiness. The soft, funky music completes the dimly lit atmosphere. Although it’s quiet today, you expect loud hustle-bustle on busier nights.

Billabong features a cocktail and martini menu, but surprisingly no wine list. It oddly turns out that some of the menus have a built-in wine list and some don’t. Be sure to ask for one if yours lacks. As expected, Australian wines dominate the list, but a smattering of non-Aussie wines made their way onto the list (if for some reason you eschew Australian wines). Expectedly, the wines with the cutesy animal labels jump populously in the menu but some genuine gems also hide in their midst, if you want something special. The list also offers a decent selection of wines by the glass.

The last time I visited Billabong, I found that the menu didn’t offer much that you wouldn’t see from any Canadian or American menu—just because you call it steak or shrimp on the barbie doesn’t change the fact that it’s just grilled steak or shrimp. Today’s menu features a lot more of what I expect from an Aussie menu. The appetisers include a sampling of dim sum (in a nice showing of fusion) consisting of barramundi, shark and alligator. Other appetisers include crab cakes and grilled shrimps; we opt for the kangaroo tacos. These tacos contain thinly sliced kangaroo strips in lettuce, covered with a red chilli and mango dressing. The sweetness of the mango provides a beautiful complement to the vinegary chilli dressing, although a little more zip in the dressing would add more excitement to the dish. Unfortunately, the tiny slices of kangaroo barely provide a clue to the true nature of the meat. If you pick out a morsel of the kangaroo and work out your taste buds, you might distinguish a touch of grassiness that’s inherent to kanga meat. Overall, this is a well-made appetiser but please, let’s have more than one gram of kangaroo in your kangaroo tacos.

As I mentioned earlier, Billabong used to attach an Australian title to a North American dish and call it Australian. The Uluru ribeye (Uluru is the Aboriginal name for the Ayers Rock formation in central Australia) is nothing more than a peppercorn-crusted ribeye steak with crumb-crusted wedges of potato and various greens. The ultra-crunchy potato wedges have lovely texture but lack any profound flavour; pre-seasoning the wedges and seasoning the dredge would charge these lifeless wedges. Today’s greens come with baby bok choy in a garlicky dressing. The ribeye tastes tender and juicy—just as it should when it’s grilled to perfection. The steak comes folded over to give the appearance of thickness; a slightly more generous portion/cut would be a nice touch. For an extra $4, you can add “surf” to your “turf,” and another dimension to the meal. The seafood medley consists of prawns, mussels, a scallop and a couple of squid rings, all tossed in light cream sauce. The plump prawns and the lonely scallop were done to perfection but the mussels tasted a little overdone. The sauce was almost non-existent and added little to the side dish. Overall, for $27, this is a good main for the value, but let’s be honest, there isn’t much Australian about it.

The Australian Shank (of lamb) brainsed in an Australian “port” and black cherry reduction hits a little closer to genuine Australian ingredients. The delicious reduction blends perfectly with the fall-off-the-bone meat of the lamb. A sprig of rosemary adorns the dish, and my only recommendation here is to incorporate a little of the rosemary into the sauce. Otherwise, this lamb shank hits the bull’s eye. The creamy mashed potatoes taste rich and decadent, and the same greens of the day finishes off the plate.

The dessert menu is very limited but it does offer some intriguing items, including Pavlova, Sticky Date Pudding, Bananas Foster and Chocolate Lamington. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the substantial meal leaves little room for sweets today.

All said, the competently and carefully made food provides a delightful outing. The friendly and able serving staff, along with the cosy surroundings, contribute to a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

***½ /5


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