How could you explain yourself better?

We picked up a few brochures from the information stand at Ballarat's Eureka Stockade building and amongst them was one for The Glasshouse Restaurant & Lounge Bar, which included their menu.

Things change, so I called the restaurant to see if the smoked lamb rack on a potato hash with a haricot bean cassoulet and the confit of duck legs with red wine poached pear and date chutney were still on the menu. They confirmed they were, so a booking was made.

Here's a tip for restaurateurs - make sure that whoever answers the phone is thoroughly familiar with the menu; it doesn't pay to have customers disappointed before even ordering.

When we arrived we were shown to our table and perused the menu, those two dishes were nowhere to be seen. The poor waitress was left in the firing line as I explained that we had booked our table on the basis of those two dishes. Crestfallen, we decided to soldier on and ordered off the menu. There was an intriguing dish of kangaroo fillet served on mountain pepper mash, along with some bush tucker chutney.

I hesitated, worried the earlier mix-up might indicate that the kitchen might not cook exactly to order, a proposition that could render the delicate kangaroo fillet overcooked and inedible due to the leanness of this meat. It proved to be a well founded concern. The rib-eye steak that was ordered medium-rare, came to the table one short step from well-done, was tough and left largely uneaten.

It was difficult to reconcile the overcooking of the steak with the perfection of the vegetables - the broccolini and asparagus were cooked by someone with good feel - still crunchy but cooked through, whilst retaining vivid colour and the garlic flavoured mash was light, fluffy and with just the right amount of garlic goodness. My wife also loved her duck breast with a gently aromatic cinnamon sauce, but the damage had well and truly been done by this stage and we left for alternative dessert pastures.