Due South

Lunch with my Aunty Bett and her two hot BFFs from the retirement village. Due South is situated in a soaring industrial building over the water in Princess Royal Harbour with views across the harbour and over the town. Big windows opened to make the most of the southerly breezes.
No table service, order at the bar, which works for me as I can check it all out and take my time. Speaking of which, my cocktail took a long time to arrive and although the bar staff are gorgeous and polite, the Japanese Slipper was warmish with a rather nasty film on the surface. My Cosmo was also tepid and pale — Carrie and the girls woulda sent it back. I also noted that the cute barman failed to warm the bitters in the girls LLB — don’t we do that anymore?
Aunty Betts chicken wings at around $ 20 were great value and a serve of seven is generous. Can’t guarantee free range as they were the size of an albatross. My steamed chicken salad was a great idea but needed the balance of lemon, balsamic or better still pomegranate seeds or syrup. The salad greens were fresh and tasty, the couscous soft n tasty, chicken velvety, pistachios crunchy but the dish lacked yum. Needs cherry tomatoes for colour n tartness. The dressing was a buttery nutty green like wasabi so I was excited but it failed to add zest. A great idea that I think falls short of its intention.
Glamorous Angie’s beef burger was great. Well done chef. But she left most of the bun so maybe the bread was not awesome? Chips were like mum’s in the 1950s. Brilliant.
Molly’s pulled pork bun was inedible, salty and over spiced, without a clean pork flavour. Worse, it looked like dog vomit, minced to shreds that failed the ID test. Chef had tipped the powdered paprika and maybe coriander and the rest of the spice rack onto the pulverised pork. Poor old pig died in vain. Awful. Dear Mollie at 87 years would never complain cos it was our special day, but it was truly awful.
Due South — great venue, excellent pricing, cool great looking staff, a view to make you breathe deep and thank your good fortune — but the food is just not ok. Can be rescued. Just take more care guys. Albany is moving.
Ps: check out the Naked Bean on Middleton Road. Seriously cool and seriously good coffee. You can watch them roast it!

Due South is situated in an amazing location overlooking Princess Royal Harbour in Albany.
The newly built pub is modern and trendy and will surely be the place to be seen in Albany. There is a large long bar, plenty of restaurant seating inside & out on the deck and also a bottleshop on site which is open everyday.
First impressions were great! I was in a group of ten people & we were all impressed by the location & building.
So we all sat down to eat at our reserved table… Majority of people in my group ordered something different to try — Steak&Veg, different Salads, polenta balls, falafels, fish dishes and the classic bangers&mash. The menu had quite a variety of dishes on offer but the menu listing itself seemed a little all of the place. Needed to flow.
I had the Free Range chicken salad steamed with lemon & sage and served with cold pearl couscous, micro greens, pistachios with mint & yoghurt dressing. Highly priced at $ 22 for a salad. It was served on a large round plate & covered in watercress (the micro greens). The chicken was slightly salty but overall the salad was just ok. Could have had more flavour.
My friend had the $ 34 King George Whiting, chips & salad. He said that the fish had a really fishy taste to it like it was about to go off. Another friend had the $ 9 chickpea falafels which were overcooked & rock hard with not much yoghurt tzatziki sauce on the plate. Another had the $ 9 celeriac coleslaw as a side which seemed to consist mostly of cabbage & the mustard sauce none existent. Friends that had the $ 32 sirloin 250g steak & veg said it was nice. Just nice.
Overall the meal presentations were great but meals seemed to lack flavour. I felt let down because of the high of first impressions.
The staff were nice & friendly enough. Great to see they have employed so many locals.
I’m hoping that the issue with the flavour of the food is just a teething issue for the recently opened restaurant.

«Disappointing, avoid at all costs»
Pros: The View, nice place to get drunk
Cons: The price, the food, the atmosphere
It was with great expectation that we approached this new venture by local mogul Paul Lionetti. Having walked past the sweeping glass windows and vaulted ceiling of the boatshed-​inspired tavern many times we finally decided to see what the fuss was about.
After being seated and ordering drinks (the saving grace being the draught pints of California based brewery Sierra Nevada, a gem amongst the rough of Australian drudgery) our appetite got the best of us and turned out attention to the menu; however, this was where our disappointment started. Unfortunately the menu of Due South did not live up to its promise of ambition, consisting mostly of uninspired bistro-​pub fare. Sadly, the restaurant has missed out on a golden opportunity to showcase local seafood, especially given the setting.
Our party of three ordered between us the mozzarella pizza with duo of tomato; half dozen oysters kilpatrick; due south beef burger; last but not least the $ 32 «special» of local King George whiting.
Allow me to preface here our initial shock at the disappointing offerings that arrived at our table. The oysters kilpatrick, priced at $ 15 dollars were not just small, but laughably tiny, unusually but not unpleasantly spiced with what appeared to be paprika. The beef burger, bland and extremely dry, the «coleslaw» nothing but raw shredded cabbage sans-​dressing, perhaps could have benefited from some hickory smoked BBQ conserve and grilled onions. Thankfully, the mozzarella pizza with fresh tomato was average enough to fill a hole, although again, disappointingly bland.
Service was friendly and adequate, and quite frankly the only reason Due South received two stars.
Due South needs to take a long hard look at what it wants to be and then seriously work hard to arrive there, what could have been Albany’s answer to Clancy’s fish pub unfortunately only offers typical Albany «meat and potatoes» food. Unless you happen to be an uneducated poseur, avoid this place.
–The Southern Gourmand