Review: The Good Home, Birkenhead

Fish pie, an Angus beef and bacon cheese burger and a Good schnitz schnitzel at The Good Home. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Address: 83 Birkenhead Ave, Birkenhead
Phone: (09) 480 0066
Rating out of 10: Food: 6, Service: 6, Value: 7, Ambience: 7

As far back as 2011, Britain's Good Food Guide banned the use of the word "gastropub", suggesting it was a meaningless term used to justify charging inflated prices for ordinary food. But the promotion of such venues continues its remorseless rise and, after all, drinking places providing food are surely preferred over the old swilling bars.

The 2015 British Michelin Guide has been reported as showing that traditional restaurants are losing ground to gastropubs and here, a revamped Birkenhead establishment has had no hesitation in claiming: "We're a modern, suburban gastropub."

But the description is indeed elastic, ranging from establishments that deliver original innovative cuisine to those where the aim seems to present little that would upset customers resistant to beyond the tried and true. Good Home's large menu falls largely into the latter category. There are eight varieties of burger, citing influences from Bombay to Greece; there are pizzas and the large plates include such favourites as rosemary roast chicken with stuffing, mash and gravy; and the ever-popular steak, egg and chips.

Certainly the formula seems to be meeting its market, for our visit on a midweek evening the place was packed and we only just scored a table. But this popularity seems to be presenting its own problems. We were warned that we would have to wait 45 minutes for main courses but that we could get small plates to hold us. This seemed reasonable but the system broke down somewhere and we had to wait that long for the starters.

Now, it's not a bad test of any eating place to see how they handle situations when the wheels fall off, as they do occasionally in even the best-run places. Here, the fact that we were stranded foodless was eventually spotted, there were apologies and complimentary drinks offered. This would have been more impressive if the bill hadn't then included a couple of drinks that weren't ours. But the effort to hold back the mains until we had finished our small plates encountered another failure of communication and the starters had to be hastily despatched while the staff stood waiting to find a place for the large plates.

The food itself was variable. The bacon-wrapped scallops were fine and an old friend I bumped into was complimentary about them, too. The crumbed haloumi was satisfactory and the pork belly bites with apple were a decent accompaniment for a drink. But the lamb koftas with tzatziki were tough, dry and lacking any subtlety of spicing.

Of the mains, my smoked fish pie was a good example of homestyle cooking, tasty and generous in size. The same was true of the large plate version of pork belly, lavishly accompanied by roast onion mash and vegetables. The pork schnitzel with bacon, tomato parmigiana and mozzarella was exactly what was expected but the Bombay chicken burger was dry and the accompaniments, featuring a tandoori yoghurt sauce and a tamarind and banana chutney were just a mess.

The confusion over the delivery of our meals left us unprepared to tackle a dessert, where the selection was distinctly traditional; ranging from a hokey pokey icecream sundae to cheesecake with whipped cream or trifle with jelly and custard.

The imagination here comes with the attractive fit-out, which reflects a domestic theme with bookshelves, armchairs and plants. There is a large courtyard and the food is delivered from a fake caravan counter. The big space is cleverly broken up into smaller areas while the acoustics are forgiving if you want to hear your companions.

The Good Home has obviously established itself as a place for people to meet over a glass and a plate but it's definitely more pub than gastro.

Our meal: $250 for four small plates and four large plates, two beers, one bottle and one glass of wine.

Our wine: A modest but adequate wine list and a full range of Lion Breweries products. The Little Creatures IPA went down well with pub food and the Trinity Hill chardonnay was a perfectly acceptable drop.

Verdict: Unlikely to excite but the buzz shows there's always a welcome for a place to relax with a drink and familiar food.