My close friends in Sydney treated me a nice birthday dinner at Hurricane’s Grill, Bondi Beach. My initial expectations were high due to various comments given by my friends regarding this restaurant. It turned out that the food and service was, overall, excellent. I had the “Ribs and Steak” which consists of a half-rack of grilled pork ribs and a 200gr steak. I also ordered creamy mushroom sauce, which was very rich and creamy, I think everyone liked it. I had been warned about the generous portions served at Hurricane’s, but I can usually eat a lot. I was given a choice of pork or lamb, but I was not in the mood for lamb. I was a little bit disappointed with the steak though, it was nice, but together with the ribs it’s like comparing driving a 1995 Toyota Corolla (which was a good car when I had it) and driving my friend Fernando’s Toyota MR2 Spyder. I wish I had ordered the Portuguese chicken instead of the steak, the chicken was full of flavour and tender. The ribs was the best ribs I’ve ever had, better than Tony Roma’s. We also ordered ceasar salad and onion rings which were not bad, but not really that special in my opinion. I had a Crown Lager to wash off the delicious pork ribs. The price tag is a little bit too expensive for a student like myself, but at a “mere” AU$35 for a huge and delicious portion of ribs and steak and a quality beer, it is a bargain for most working Australians. Plus, there’s a beautiful beach right across the road.

An interesting thing I found when I was looking for the restaurant’s website to put in this post is that Hurricane’s Grill is an EPSON Australia customer. One of the top results in Google led me to a PDF document in EPSON Australia’s website describing the system that the restaurant had commissioned from EPSON Australia to be used for POS, kitchen order and receipt printing. The restaurant waiters also use handheld devices to take orders from the patrons, which I presume are linked via a wireless network to the kitchen’s ordering system. The restaurant’s main objective for having the system was to minimise the time from taking orders to serving the orders to the tables. I have seen this kind of system being used in a Wagamama restaurant when I was in London around July 2003, so it’s not a new concept to me. But it’s still an intriguing idea for a business opportunity. :D

Hurricane's Grill
130 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach
Sydney NSW 2026 Australia
Website: http://hurricanesgrill.com/
Reservations: +61 2 9130 7101