Spoons.  Not just a catch cry for the superhero ‘The Tick’ but also a riverside restaurant to be found in sunny Swan Hill.

My wife and I have been eating at Spoons a few times a year since we moved to the area back in 2011.  What I’ve always liked about the restaurant is the majority of what is on the menu are meals that you would never cook yourself or have little idea how to. I remember years ago when there eating slow-cooked pork belly  on a bed of popped barley and warm grapes!  While not the cheapest restaurant in town, you usually get value for money and rarely walk out of the place disappointed.

Today for my meat review I will be looking at their latest offering: Pulled BBQ Wagyu on soft pretzel bun with slaw and fries.

Yep, it’s just a fancy beef burger.  But a damn fine fancy beef burger!  The meat was indeed very tender and unlike some restaurants (I’m looking at you Cactus Jam) they did not rely on the meats succulence alone to sell the meal.  This had a mild BBQ flavoring which was very pleasant; it may surprise many that I’m not a big fan of BBQ sauce on the whole – I find it too strong and it overpowers the flavor of the meat.  This BBQ flavoring served to enhance the meat rather than overpower it, something you don’t find too often.  Whilst the slaw seemed more like something you would find at a backyard barby, in this burger it served as a crisp counterpoint to the pulled Wagyu.

The meal came with a little cage of fries, designed to look like a deep fryer basket which was cool.  What was disappointing was that they came out stone cold.  However when I brought this to the attention of a waitress she whisked it away and in quite literally under a minute I had a new cage of fries before me, lovely and warm and overflowing.  This is impressive from Spoons, their speed has really picked up over the past 12 months; my main gripe about them used to be you would on average wait over an hour for your food but that seems to thankfully be a thing of the past.

My wife had the Spoons prawn and avocado salad with mustard and dill dressing.

It was quite nice and what I liked was that the prawns had been de-tailed.  I find it really annoying when a restaurant leaves the tails on when there is sauce everywhere, making you get your hands sticky and filthy just to eat your meal (something I have known another Swan Hill restaurant – Quo Vadis – to do more than once).  Washed down with a couple of glasses of sparkling wine and both meals were delightful to have for a Valentine’s Day lunch.

So overall I heartily recommend the Pulled BBQ Wagyu burger and indeed Spoons in general.  It may be the most pricey place to eat in town but it is not ruinously expensive and you always feel like you get value for money.  Try the Mallee Tasting Platter while you are there – Manangatang rabbit terrine, kangaroo chipolatas, Spoons picked pear and Chillingollah pheasant farm paté.  I’ve known the guy that owns the pheasant farm for years and he is a gun at grinding up a bird!  This combined with the rabbit and kangaroo equates to an entrée you are unlikely to get anywhere else.

Have you eaten at Spoons yourself?  Will you eat there after reading this review?  Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!