tl;dr: on one hand, you are treading into one of the many taverns that are strewn across the outer parts of town that more or less have what you expect. on the other hand, the food is both inventive and wholesome. this came across as a surprise, and was wholly satisfying - the salisbury tavern is definitely worth a look.
right off to the side, hidden among the busy intersections getting to the outer part of towns, it is an entire hub that presents the classical motel experience. that includes a number of nice motel rooms with all the basic facilities, a tavern to get to for a nice meal, and in that tavern it has all the facilities you would want. this is hidden just behind the main road, in which creates an ironic seclusion. possibly unlike the local tavern, these guys have gone a bit beyond for our fellow guests in town - why wouldn't you? tasty, wholesome fare that welcome the weary traveler - you've known when you've been in that situation.
i had just finished off a great day of wrestling with the nxt wargames on the wwe network, and of course it meant i needed to follow up suit on tuesday when i would get some time to finish it off with survivor series - one of the traditions in any wrestling fans viewing, and it can provide some of the most fun for the year. this was going to be one of those times, but that is an aside. with the big four events, my modus operandi is finding some pizza and getting an order per match. one place i had in mind, but on the ubereats app i just could not get it to align in time to place that crucial order. that meant to think outside the box.
how i came across the ultimate choice was merely being adamant to get some pizza. the search results had brought up a few of the usual options - namely the pizza chains - and a few that were a bit collateral. it including one of the local taverns - an odd choice with delivery, but that choice was right there. after going back and forth a bit, waiting to see if this was the call for the night, i ended up pulling the trigger and getting a range of bites from the salisbury tavern.
until now, this had not been anywhere i gave that much thought. it was sort of off to the side while i went shopping at aldi on a weekly basis. while colour me surprised all round, since hiding merely on the cusp of toohey forest is quite a good find - sometimes you just need the food to be done well, and it is hard to be better insured at that than with a few classic dishes.
with the customer service, it is a bit hard to gauge this time around. from what i saw, the uber driver was possibly biding his time in awaiting the order. these things happen, and i like to give benefit of the doubt. at the very best, there was the tavern being busy with so many orders in house along with the driver simply being early and punctual to this task. the food was all still good quality and tasty, hence it was not anything going wrong. it was alright by me, just getting some nice food and the important thing mattered - once the food was acquired, the driver got straight to the home destination and acquired a generous tip.
one of the reasons that this pub was a tad better than most of the ones i have been to recently is they have understood trying to be more usually results in less. in other words, they got their focus and their selection and don't try to expand their specialties too far. they got their selections of bites to start a night off - along with the range of beverages which would include all sorts of beers - which includes several classics, twists on classics, pizza, and all other goodies. the grill section is small, a few steaks followed by the toppers, and some sides.
for the mains part of the menu, it is essentially the classics that come to mind when thinking of a pub meal: several varieties of the chicken parmigana, pastas, seafood options, and whatnot, not to mention a few burgers. they have their desserts as well, which are likewise a few of the tried and true favourites. even if it seemed all to be stating that the fare is nothing out of the ordinary, we are talking about the pub where people go for some familar and wholesome fare - to the contrary, this place is doing its job.
getting onto the delivery order, and without question the first cab off the rank was to include several pizzas. they were a barbecue chicken, a meatlovers, and the classic margherita. each pizza went down a treat, and were fairly simple in execution. in trying to keep it all simple, it has the usual pub-style pizza base which is closer to a thin crust. preferences will be preferences, and i always prefer the thinner crust on a pizza. this isn't anything authentically italian, though it gives a decent amount of respect to the food's origins - they only use about four or five ingredients at most, yet the amount of each one is generous. each pizza was about nine to ten inches across, making either a decent snack or something to satiate the appetite.
the first one is the barbecue chicken, which was on a barbecue sauce base, and had pieces of chicken, bacon, and red onion along with a requested extra of chorizo. they went a bit light on the cheese with this one, yet there was a whole lot of sauce. the meat on the pizza was tender, with big bits of chicken nonetheless and the chorizo went well with barbecue sauce. even if chicken pizzas are touch and go, this one managed to do well enough.
next up is a variety that is so apropos to the pub environment - a meatlovers. like the four cheese pizza, they went ahead with making a four meats pizza; those four meats were beef, bacon, ham, and chorizo. garnishing those meats was both red onion, and chives, all on top of a slightly spicy chipotle sauce. all the meats were tender, and it was a good idea to have a sauce different to barbecue when pairing it with a whole lot of meat - the contrast was right there, and it made it a little more exciting.
and with margherita, is any explanation necessary? a trio of toppings: mozzarella cheese, tomato pizza sauce (and a couple of tomato slices), and a sprinkling of fresh basil. do you need elaboration? this time there was heaps of cheese, which was delicious and stretched out over the crust. it had the subtle hints of herbs, the tomatoes were plump and juicy on top of the cheese and bread, and when that is pipping hot it is possibly one of the best pizza flavours around - one time the original still hangs around the best.
as far as the pub style pizzas go, these were surprisingly good. if you put it on a sliding scale, having the familiar takeouts on one end and then having the traditional style from an italian restaurant, these pub style pizzas would start bang in the center, any move maybe 15-20% to the italian side. they were decent quality, tasted good, and were alright for the price. with what else was in store, it just as much impressed me.
the rest of the food was all kinds of finger foods, in which each one was an inventive take on many people's favourite finger foods from the pub. try as i might, i just cannot envision a whole lot of pizza without the classical garlic bread being along side. to go with these pizzas, the bacon and cheese bread sound just too good - i knew my house mate was going to like it. essentially, it was the garlic bread with a layer of cheese and plenty of crispy bacon sprinkled on top.
in one sweep with one of the pizzas, on the app i got three of the sides as extras to beef it up. these were their cheeseburger spring rolls, some mushroom and cheese arancini balls, and a round of wagyu beef croquettes. all three of these were tasty. the cheese burger spring rolls put mince meat and cheese into the familiar chinese snack, this time it was a more robust version - a bold idea worked out well. with the arancini balls, they simply got a winning combination down pat - that is why they put more pieces in than with other items on the menu. and the beef croquettes, the meat that was used was from a slow cooked hunk of beef - how can that get any better? each one of these suitably impressed me, and set a good precedent for what can be expected.
last, but not least, i finished this hefty lot off with some beer battered onion rings. they were cooked in a japanese style tempura batter, with the batter being light as air yet still remaining solid and intact. the onions were cooked to just the right consistency to keep their shape, yet release their sweet flavour, yet still just getting to that caramliased texture - something that is ironically a tricky feat, as making an onion base is cooking 101. better yet than most onion ring orders, you needed more than one or two hands to count the rings. they were moreish, and were served with a nice sweet chilli sauce. a great pay-per-view event got complimented with a delicious range of morsels.
usually with the pub/tarvern fare, i more or less just write it off as being "it is what it is". exceptions to the rule will always rear their heads, and this time it did. there was something different about the salisbury tavern, with all the bits and pieces that i ordered. i can't quite put my finger on it, yet it was one of those times that you know well when you come across it.
while there is the temptation to give it a higher score, and that is with a good reason, i still will restrain myself somewhat. that is nothing to do with anything that i ate, nor with the service or anything. in pooling all the chips into one pile, it might overstate somewhat as i only had the snacks part and not really any of the main meals. there is good faith the steaks and such are tasty, and a sizable serving that will fill you up, as it can be told from the quality of these bites. however, i can't know that for sure and while it could be the best place in town, for what i know now it at least provides solid, tasty fare that goes down a tasty treat.