Dingo’s serves delicious food in Aussie atmosphere

• By JUDY BERGERON
• Restaurant reviewer
• Published: Jun 19, 2009

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A little bit of Down Under has been transplanted to Coursey Boulevard.

Dingo’s has brought a taste of Australia to the building formerly housing Semolina’s. The exterior is now painted a deep red with a clapboard overhang adding to the rustic look. Inside, one finds Aussie flags flying, lots of distressed woods and eclectic art hanging throughout the open-feeling dining area. A small bar to one side is entered through a brick, arched doorway, and features beers and wines popular in Australia. With Tom Petty playing over the sound system, we found the comfortable, laid-back, relaxed ambience made us almost feel like we were on vacation.

At lunch, we skipped the appetizers but ordered sandwiches, which came with a choice of soup or salad.

The pumpkin soup, which proved less sweet than we were expecting, was quite good nonetheless. The pureed pumpkin was thickened with a vegetable stock, and tiny bits of onion added a little texture to the smooth soup. An herb mixture garnish, however, had a bitterness we didn’t care for, so we advise just spooning this off beforehand.

We also tried the house salad with another sandwich. The salad combined mixed greens and slices of tomato and red onion. The chunky bleu cheese dressing was packed with flavor.

The bacon burger ($8.50) was delicious. It had a real homemade flavor and was topped with tart, melted cheddar cheese and applewood bacon. The meat was top quality (very lean), cooked well and seasoned just right. Ciabatta bread added to the original taste of the burger. For an extra 50 cents Dingo’s will top a burger with a fried egg, and although we didn’t try it, a co-worker said he found the interesting touch quite tasty.

Pat’s panini ($7.50) stacked two thin slices of ham, a single thicker slice of turkey, red onion slices and Pepper Jack cheese between large slices of pressed panini bread. The combination of ingredients was quite flavorful, and the sandwich was easy to maneuver with its compressed presentation.

Returning for dinner, we started things off with an appetizer of potato wedges ($6.50). Dingo’s pairs the mound of nicely-roasted potatoes with two dipping options: sour cream  and a sweet chili sauce. We especially liked the sauce, which offered our taste buds an initial sweetness followed by a hint of heat.

The fish of the day was grilled tuna ($12.50). Strips of flaky, well-seasoned tuna were placed over a sweet and spicy mango salsa which mixed tomato, cilantro, purple onion and mango. The steamed green beans were also well-seasoned and enjoyable. A side salad also accompanied this dish.

Our server at lunch had recommended the fish tacos, so we sampled them at dinner. The tacos ($10) were three flour tortillas holding pieces of delicately-flavored  and tender grilled mahi mahi, red cabbage, cheddar cheese, wasabi ranch sauce and more of the mango salsa. Quite flavorful, the only drawback here was that there could have been more filling in each shell.

For dessert, we sampled the chocolate crossaint bread pudding ($5), which was fresh from the oven. The dense, moist pudding was topped with chocolate chips and scrumptious.

The wait staff was friendly on both visits. The owner, who hails from Australia and has the accent to prove it, stopped by our table at lunch, inquiring how we liked the food, his southern, very southern, hospitality evident.