Springs Restaurant

last minute birthday dinner...staff made guest of honour feel like royalty....chef discreetly sugested he could do a desert platter for 6 to graze on..made our last minute booking seem like something meticulously planned for months..great food with lots of plate swapping accompanied by oohs and aahs..highly reccomended and thanks to all

First rate in the foyer
Reviewed on: 2003-03-21
Reviewer's rating: 3

Some restaurants present diners with a difficult decision as soon as they enter the premises. It's not a decision between right and wrong, it's between good and good. It's a decision between buffet and a la carte.

Springs Restaurant, located at The Oasis Resort Cairns, offers the perfect dilemma. Do you take the fresh seafood buffet, laden with bugs, prawns, fish, scallops and other wonderful creatures from the ocean, or do you go for a prepared meal sculptured by the chef?

A quick survey of 5 people, chosen from a broad cross-section of my workplace has revealed that 4 out of 5 people choose an a la carte meal over a buffet. Why? Because buffet dining carries an inherent risk of tastelessness, whereas la carte meals are usually a safer option. For people on a budget, security is found in the knowledge that a meal will be high in quality rather than just high in quantity. Being on a tight budget myself, I chose the a la carte option while dining at Springs.

Springs is a foyer restaurant. It feels like you're eating in a foyer - from the pastel walls, pastel ceiling, pastel tables, pastel chairs and pastel waiters, to the foyer desk a few feet away. From my table I could watch resort guests entering and exiting the elevators in varying degrees of intoxication. But hey, we can't be too picky. It's a very good place to watch interesting people from countries around the world wearing Hawaiian shirts.

The a la carte menu at Springs is compact and precise. I believe this is a sign of a good restaurant, because if the menu is too large then there is little chance all the ingredients can be fresh. Springs has around half a dozen feature meals on the menu and the wine list is also on the small side, but there are enough drops to choose from that suit all the meals. I started with the Herb Focaccia bread and I declare this, daringly, as the best bread I have ever eaten anywhere in Cairns. Warm, crispy crust, and soft middle.

My dining partner had the grilled Barramundi, nestled on pineapple salsa with chat potatoes and mango vinaigrette. She says it was delicious. I chose the chargilled eye fillet, on coriander and ginger sweet potato with saut