The Boundary Hotel, West End

Today I had lunch at the Boundary Hotel in West End.  The prospect of a counter meal with chips and gravy was appealing to me all day.  When I got to the hotel I ordered a roast lamb roll with chips and a pint of Toohey's pale ale.  Until today I had no idea that Toohey's made pale ale and was happy to try it.  It was decent, if not remarkable, but the food is the major focus of this post.  My concern about the meal that I ordered was that the roast lamb might not be of the highest quality, similar to some of the rubbish you get at certain food court carveries.  I was certain however, that the gravy would be great.  My expectations were challenged on both of these points, but I'll start with the chips. The chips were your standard pub, beer battered variety with a little bit of what looked like barbecue salt.  They still required regular salt, which would not normally be a problem, but the salt shakers at The Boundary are old beer bottles with lids attached.  While this is nice decor, these salt shakers are impractical as it is very hard to get a decent amount of salt out of them.  The roll was lightly toasted and I think it was toasted just right.  The roll was slightly crispy on the outside, but still retained its softness on the inside.  Anyway, I was delighted that the roast lamb was quality.  It certainly wasn't the greatest roast lamb ever, but it was about as good as you could expect for a relatively cheap counter meal.  The gravy was not at all what I was expecting.  It had the taste and consistency of barbecue sauce, but perhaps not quite so sweet.  This was by no means bad, but I was really hoping for the gravy that you normally associate with pub roast fare.  Had the meat been barbecue pork ribs instead of roast lamb, this gravy probably would have worked out quite well.  The other thing about this gravy is that there was a lot of it.  I had to use numerous serviettes wiping the sticky substance off my mouth and fingers.  While not quite what I was expecting, this roast lamb roll was a decent lunch.