Celebrating The Tractor’s Birthday at Red Cray

Last night, we went to Red Cray to celebrate burger boy’s older bro’s birthday (aka The Tractor as he plows through his food). I have driven past a few times but didn’t know much about the menu besides the obvious red cray

We went to Red Cray straight after work all for the first time. From the name, I didn’t realise it’d be as casual as it was. There’s a bar area on entry and plastic chairs throughout. Food service was quick, the staff were attentive and looked after us well. My sis-in-law ordered my nephews fish & chips straight away and it came out before we even decided on our drinks.

Nothing like a cold beer on a warm Summer night…

So being at a seafood restaurant, it was a no brainer, burger boy and I were definitely having seafood. Most of the family shared a seafood platter between two, all but burger boy’s mum and younger bro mugsie who had the steaks.

This is burger boy and I’s Red Cray Seafood Platter ($80 – serves two)…

• The scallops were plump, juicy and the basil pesto complimented the scallops really well – my favourite seafood on the platter.
• Chips were golden and crispy.
• Tartare sauce had the right balance of tanginess and texture-wise was the consistency I like.
• The beer battered fish which I nearly substituted for more grilled filled was actually quite nice as I was worried about my face breaking out. My often breaks out when I eat anything beer battered / very deep fried, but Red Cray’s beer batter was not too oily. Face hasn’t broken out yet, so must be ok
• I don’t eat natural oysters so I was glad the waiter asked if we wanted Kilpatrick instead. These were burger boy’s favourite.
• The garlic prawns were a good size and the creamy sauce was a good match.
• The chilli mussels were also a good size but being an Italian family, we do make a mean tomato sauce (you can read my post about our day in Uncle Paul’s garage making sauce here). So we felt this was a bit thin and flavour-wise was ok, but I didn’t taste any chilli. burger boy’s Italian mamma despite not eating mussels, makes super tasty chilli mussels.
• I didn’t have any of the crumbed salt and pepper calamari, as it was tucked at the back of the platter and when I went to try some burger boy had demolished it all. He said they were cooked well and it tasted great with the tartare sauce.
• Crumbed grilled fish was nice and tender too.

This is The Tractor’s Executive Seafood Platter ($120 – serves two) which also had a full mornay crayfish…

I wasn’t going to have dessert but there’s just something about watching my 2 year old nephew eat. He gave me a craving for fish and chips before we ordered and I had to have a mango sorbet watching him eat his. Nanna had one too 😉 I forgot to take a photo as it was too good to resist!

Red Cray was really packed and had a nice casual atmosphere. I loved that it was kid friendly and the views of the river in the back room was beautiful.