Lago at The Lakes 18th January 2008

Alex's choice. Neil 4*, Alex 4*, Gerry 4*, Rod 4*, Louanne 3 1/2*

Overall Rating: 3.9 stars

Total Cost per person: $70.00

Ratings scale: Excellent; Very Good; Good; Not so Good; Poor; Abysmal

This restaurant has a reputation for fine dining in fine surroundings. The Lakes is a residential and holiday apartment resort complex surrounded by beautiful gardens, not far from the Cairns Botanical Gardens and Centenary Lakes. We were delighted to discover that the Matre d' was our old friend David from the early Doninis days. However he informed us it was his second last night as he was returning to Darwin.

Ambiance - Rating: Excellent. Beautiful timber floors and timber windows overlooking the resort complex and roads. View not as I imagined it would be, as the glassed in verandah are overlooked a row of apartments. No table cloths, but linen serviettes and etched glassware and quality crockery and cutlery gave an upmarket feel.
Music - Rating: Good. Piped background music, subtle and low key middle of the road.
Menu - Rating: Very Good. Choice small but well written. A reasonably priced set three course menu with a choice of two items each course ($39.00) a degustation menu at $75.00 per head was considered too expensive.
Entree: Risotto, Asparagus/Mushrooms, Sashimi, and breads rated Very Good and the Scallop/Prawn Ravoli rated Excellent.
Main course: the 2 Racks of Lamb, Chicken Confit on chick pea mash rated only Not so Good, the Barramundi Very Good and the Scallop & Prawn Ravioli - Excellent. The lamb and chicken were deemed bland and tasteless.
Sweets: The brulees and coffee torte rated Very Good. Two coffees were ordered and were brought to the table with an apology that they were not as good as they could be - the machine was playing up. They were returned and replaced by coffee of a similar standard ??
Drinks: Drink selection was upmarket and a quality wine list, priced slightly above standard. Wines at the lower end of the price scale were chosen. The red was served far too hot and had to be taken away and cooled. One wonders why a restaurant of this calibre does not have a wine fridge or, or at least store table ready wines in air conditioning.
Drinks Service - Rating: Good. The waiter knew his wines and was apologetic at the temperature of the wine. Complimentary liqueurs were offered at the end of the meal.
Food Service - Rating: Good. The gap in between entree and mains was not long enough. Waiter extremely professional and knowledgeable, but female wait staff who served the plates were obviously not trained.
Summary: Overall, a pleasant evening, and most of the deficiencies were corrected. Not a restaurant where one would expect the waitress to juggle too many plates and serve across people - but she did! One downside: being a tourist apartment complex and out of town, many of the diners were residents with small children. even though seated in a different area, tired, crying two year olds after 10 pm are painfull for everyone. We were actually surprised to discover that the per head cost was only just over $70.00