Cheap and Cheerful 3
Rollin, rollin, rollin.
Keep them doggies rollin.
Rollin, rollin, rollin.
RAWHIDE!
Where: Rawhide, Waterfront in those shed things by Frank Kitts Park
What: Gourmet Hotdogs
How much: $5-6
Sindy and I had walked past this place a few times on our way home from work and we decided that it did indeed meet our criteria for the CNC crusade due to the seating.
Rawhide is the latest in a run of food/juice places that have occupied the sheds. Tom’s documented a few including this one. Rawhide does gourmet steak sandwiches and gourmet hotdogs with nothing over $10. So over summer it seems like the perfect place to stop in on your way home along the waterfront, then maybe grab a coffee and gelato at Kaffe Eis, around the corner, afterwards? Lovely.
So we bowled up at 5pm (or there-abouts) on a blustery but sunny afternoon. There were a group of kids sitting and talking about Frank Zappa with an old fella at one table and one spare table in the lee of the wind. While we were perusing the board, the “chef†came out and started to pack away the spare table. We looked a little perplexed and asked if they were closing.
"Well that depends on what you want" she replied.
"Well what can you make?" I asked
"Well that depends on what you want" she replied.
This was getting us nowhere.
Sindy went with a Snarler: a basic sausage with onions and tomato relish in a sour-dough roll for $5.
I went with the Bratwurst: a Bratwurst sausage with sauerkraut, mustard, "hot and spicy" bbq sauce in a sour-dough roll for $6 (I replaced the sauerkraut with onions). I had originally picked the venison, but they were out.
Our waitress/chef still packed away the table, so we sat on the low concrete wall by the water. To be fair though, when our dogs were ready she did bring them over.
The best part about the dogs was the smell, the rest was very, very ho-hum. Neither dog came in a sour-dough bun. And neither dog was a sausage, at least as we kiwis know them. They were those skinless sizzler variety of sausage that doesn’t bode well for the possible meat content. Given the large number of gourmet sausages available from the local supermarkets I was expecting something better.
My dog seemed to be lacking in flavour too. The bbq sauce was neither hot nor spicy (I would’ve described it as watery) and the mustard non-existent. The onions sat limply on the bratwurst and looked embarrassed.
Sindy’s dog was just a dog and didn’t live up to its blackboard description either. Admittedly it was just five bucks, which doesn’t buy much anywhere in this town, but Sindy reckons you can do so much more with a sausage.
I was heavily disappointed in Rawhide. Maybe their sandwiches are better, but I’m not here to speculate.
Hadyn’s score: 4 (below average food and below average atmosphere for a good location)
Sindy’s score: 6 (it’s at the lowest end price-wise so gets points for that, plus points for location and novelty, plus I really want this type of place to do well – they just have to up their game else I’m going to the warehouse for $1 fundraising sausages).
Update:
As the sun was shining today I went back there for lunch, thinking maybe those sandwiches ARE better. The answer is, no they are not. I also discovered that the Bratwurst sausage is apparently "NZ supreme award winning" and is supposed to come with garlic aoli (which it didn't). Score stays the same.
3 and I'm in a good mood.
Yet another massive disappointment in what is supposed to be a hotdog, a sausage on a bun. Why, oh gods, why can't Kiwi's get this right? There is so much they do get right. How can a nation that does Italian coffee so well, do American Hotdogs so badly? Why must the gods of tubesteaks curse us so? Why wasn't British cooking banned in the treaty? Are there no Germans? Hang your heads in shame... ...our time is not yet. Will, someday a small nation rise in the South Pacific and serve a dog, a dog done right, a dog-gone hot-dog of Kiwi-pride!
I wouldn't have minded if it was more like the snags you get outside the warehouse (as Sindy said) especially considering all the gourmet butchers we have around now.
But there used to be a great hotdog cart in Tauranga. Real American Dogs! I loved 'em.
I really enjoyed the venison sausage I had there once, but then I wasn't comparing it to an American hotdog or kiwi snarler, neither of which particularly appeal to me. But the problem with the place is inconsistency and general disorganisation: sometimes no onions, sometimes no Eftpos, often not open at all for no discernible reason. They've been capable of damn tasty food in the past, but if what you got is representative of their current offerings, then it sounds pretty dismal.
right there with you.
i would have rated it even lower on account of general crapness.
mostly onion, too much sauce, too much money.
stink.