Renay and I were recently invited to dine at Samson’s Paddock, a bar & restaurant in Mosman Park, and we visited for lunch last Saturday afternoon.
Located on a site that has been used as a watering hole for locals since 1831, the current Samson’s Paddock has been in operation since 2014 and serves lunch and dinner six days a week.
The decor is simple and quite rustic, although it’s by no means uncomfortable. There’s a (very) long table with stools in the bar area as well as couches, restaurant tables and outside area.
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of fire-side dining, especially at this time of year, although those candles are looking a bit worse for wear…
Down to business, and our first stop was the drinks menu, which includes a wide selection of craft beers, wine and spirits.
While Renay chose a rosé, I tried this “Fog City” cloudy cider, a pear & apple combo with a healthy 5.9% alcohol content. I was happy that it was lightly carbonated, and found it to be very smooth – this may find a place in my home fridge in the warmer months….
The “internationally influenced” menu features a selection of sharing and main-sized meals – you can see the whole menu on the Samson’s Paddock website here. We decided to choose some dishes from the “shared” menu.
Our first choice was unanimous – roasted chat potatoes with parmesan & truffle oil ($10) and we weren’t disappointed. Soft, crunchy and very hard to stop eating.
A dish I couldn’t resist was the chill Thai street sausage ($14) which was a high-quality sausage with just enough of a chilli kick to justify the title, but nothing over the top.
Other shared options include field mushrooms with Stilton, hazelnuts & thyme ($14), duck leg confit with kasundi, ginger & cabbage ($23) and wagyu rib fingers with kimchi ($17). A selection of “cold cuts” and cheeses are also available, and many of the dishes are gluten free.
Arancini are often a stodgy disappointment, however these mushroom, spinach, feta & truffle arancini ($13) were soft and flavoursome with a good rice-to-filling ratio.
Our final choice was a little more substantial, fettucine with wild boar ragout ($20). The boar was melt-in-the-mouth soft, and the dish was rich and tasty without being anywhere near as heavy as we expected it to be. This would work as a meal for one, but also fitted in well as part of our shared-plate menu.
Main dishes include chicken breast with beluga lentils ($32), lamb backstrap with lamb belly, gratin & crispy shallots ($34) and tiger prawn, snapper, muscles, saffron & tomato fregolone ($34). Another dish I was tempted to try was the 400g sirloin tasting board ($60) which features four different types of beef (veal, grain fed, grass fed & wagyu), each with a unique flavour and texture.
Despite being rather full, we couldn’t resist tackling the dessert menu and I chose the sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce ($10). The pudding was – thankfully – very light, although the standout was the beautifully rich sauce.
Renay chose the “pear tarte” with vanilla ice cream, which we were expecting to be a tarte tatin but it was, well, a tart. While we found it a little unusual to have pear in this form, this dessert was most enjoyable, with crisp pastry, smooth custard underneath and delicious vanilla ice cream.
The other dessert options were a three chocolate brownie with blueberry sauce & vanilla ice cream ($12) and baked Oreo cheesecake with raspberry ice cream ($10).
We really enjoyed our lunch at Samson’s Paddock – the service was friendly, food was excellent and the setting relaxed and comfortable. We’re not ones for sitting around in a restaurant after we’ve eaten, although we both felt that this was the kind of place we could stay without feeling crowded, or pressured to move on.
The menu is well priced for the quality and serving sizes, and the option to mix and match shared and main course dishes means there’s something to please everyone. I can easily imagine a quick lunch becoming a much longer afternoon, starting in the restaurant and then moving onto a comfy couch in front of the fire.
Whatever you choose to do, you won’t be hungry or thirsty. Recommended.
Disclaimer: we dined as guests of the restaurant, and all food and drink shown was provided with compliments.
Samson’s Paddock
3 Glyde Street, Mosman Park WA 6012(08) 6355 5602
Opening Hours
Tue-Sun: 12pm to late
That Thai sausage looks delicious, thanks for sharing!