Berala Hotel Bistro (J's kitchen steak house) — Restaurant in Sydney

Came here for a Saturday lunch, just before 1pm. Never been before but had been recommended by friends locally as a place to get an affordable meal.

Pretty straight forward pub grub kind of place, rock up to the counter, prices on the walls and on the counter, order, and come back once your tag goes off.

I ordered a London Mixed Grill since it sounded and looked interesting, and boy, I think its absolutely a cracker of a meal for value.

For $23.80, you get salad and chips, with a sauce (I got mushroom), plus a fried frankfurt/kransky thing, pork chop, grilled chicken, bacon, and two other bits of meat. I think one was just a straight steak, but I wasn't quite sure if the second was lamb, or also a steak.

Regardless, it was a huge plate, for a very affordable price, you probably could have got this and split it between two quite nicely.

Cooking wise, it wasn't bad, it wasn't fantastic. I wasn't asked for how anything was cooked, and the steak was cooked medium. The fried pork chop and kransky thing both had the taste of old or well used oil, so there is that to consider. Not sure if its simply because it was towards the later part of lunch service perhaps, or they were running heavily used/old oil.

That said, it was tolerable, and I've had worse meals for value for more price.

Would consider coming back and trying other...

I think if it was your first time here you would find it ok. But knowing the value for money that used to be here has made it somewhere I am no longer keen to visit.

The portion sizes have decreased of the meals, from whatever meat you choose, to even the salad being full of cheap Lettuce, 1 piece of tomato the size of a thumb nail, and the same for cucumber and little dressing.

As an example..The T-bone meal started at $12.90 then $13.90, $14.90 and now $19.80. This was always advertised as a budget meal, but when the steak is smaller and thinner, the salad is rubbish, and smaller chips the value is no longer there, many other places have better quality meat with tastier sides, at similar prices or a few dollars more now.

I am not trying dissuade anyone from eating here, a lot of people I'm sure will be satisfied, I just feel for me differential in taste and value for money is too much to make it somewhere I regularly visit now.

There are still $14.90 options such as the lamb chops ect, but the value for money is mentioned above is still the issue.

As you can see by my reviews I eat in many different places, if I find I no longer get the value, and longer enjoy the meal I once was, I vote with my feet by no...

Food was delivered over an hour after the delivery was placed. I had a pork chop meal, it was cold, bland and dry. The pork chops were so dry, like eating cardboard. The chips were soggy, cold and were not seasoned, no salt at all. They also forgot to deliver the sauce. So I was left with a pretty abysmal meal. I did give them a call to ask about the missing sauce which the staff at Js Kitchen ended up driving to me to deliver it, so that was a positive. But overall it was a terrible experience to wait over an hour to receive cold soggy dry food... and then wait another 20mins...