Over the weekend, Sean and I went to Forster for a short break. We met up with Toni, his sister, and we decided to do Hog’s Breath for dinner.
After being bombarded by promises of “slow cooked steak” and tasty ribs by ads that run in Sydney, I was quite excited to try out this chain that I haven’t really had an opportunity to try in Sydney.
Toni’s partner, Birch, ordered the Hickory Smoked Prime Rib Steak, $30.95.
With it’s inky dark treacle-y brown Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce, this was the dish that looked fantastic in person, but was extremely difficult to photograph. I’m told that this is Birch’s usual, and if he keeps coming back for it, I’m assuming that it must be of a certain standard. I can’t vouch for the steak since I haven’t tried it, but I can definitely vouch for the sauce…but more about that later.
Both Sean and Toni ordered the Byron Bay Chilli Prime Rib Steak, $31.95.
Sean ordered his steak medium-rare, which ended up like this:
Now I know that I like my steak on the rare side of medium-rare – and that might affect my judgement – but I’m pretty sure that that’s closer to just being medium. Sure, the steak was still juicy and pink, but it was a touch overdone for our liking.
The Byron Bay chilli sauce, though, now THAT was the discovery of the night.
It’s spicy for some, but what really struck me as a chilli lover is the complexity of the flavour! It had great depth, and gave much more flavour that presented itself in the aftertaste of the chilli hit. This is a chilli that made me want to find out about the Byron Bay Chilli Company and possibly get bottles of the different flavours that they have. And as a collector of condiments – the members of which include Sean’s dad and their neighbour – I think that is definitely a credit to the company. The chilli sauce, to me anyway, outshone the steak.
And since everyone else had the steak, I ordered the Smoked BBQ Ribs, $33.95.
The ribs definitely lived up to its tender reputation, but once again, the meat was outshone by the sauce. The Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce was a little bit sweet, a little bit smoky, and very addictive. While Sean and I both enjoyed the ribs immensely, I think what we liked the most was dipping those curly fries into the remainder of the sauce on the plate. In fact, the BBQ sauce mixed in with the chilli, was A-MAZING. I actually think that I’d be quite happy ordering the two sauces and a serving of curly fries.
In all, it was a really good experience. The food was more than decent, it’s got a great atmosphere, and good service. It is a touch pricey, but it’s one of those “let’s bring the family out for dinner” places. Definitely worth a try.
We ate at:
Hog’s Breath
2 Little Street Forster Nsw 2428
Forster NSW
(02) 6554 5100