5.0 Saturday night in Rockhampton and it was time to eat. Goosehorn had caught my eye lately, more for the exciting new look it had given to the George Street scene than for anything I'd heard about the food.
The owners of Goosehorn have clearly gone to extra lengths to make this a special place for Rockhamptonites to dine. Situated poolside in the bustling Metro Motel, Goosehorn occupies the old Rainbow Chameleons site, though you'd hardly recognize the place after all the dazzling renovations and new leather furniture.
The torchlight and the open air setting are perfectly suited to the typically gorgeous Rockhampton evenings, and the flatscreen televisions playing sports matches and video clips provide a nice diversion should conversation stall between $5 cocktails or sips from their wide selection of premium Aussie wines.
Our hostess, Katie, was friendly, cute and prompt. She was busy when we arrived, but she still greeted us and seated us less than a minutes after we arrived.
But what I really wanted to know about was the food. The menu looked fine - a vast selection of tapas, lowbrow burger-type fare, pastas, gourmet seafood combinations, even quail.
Our table of four ordered the barramundi, the lasagna, the ribeye filet medium rare (that was me), and the youngster on had tried the jumbo Goose burger, kicked off with a dozen oysters kilpatrick.
The oysters came out almost immediately, as though chef had read our minds when we were walking up George Street into the restaurant. They smelled great and tasted every bit as good as they smelled.
We didn't have to wait very long between the first and second course. I first caught sight of the Goose burger, and though this may be the toughest of orders to get wrong, there's also a healthy distance between a good burger and a great burger .. Let me just say that this burger made me wish I'd saved held on to my extra twelve dollars and not ordered the steak. Then the steak came, and I was a happy camper. 250 succulent grams of prime Rockhampton beef, served on a bed of sweet potato that tastes all the more sweeter for the lovely herbs and bovine juices it soaks up in process.
The lasagna was a very generous portion, and the Queensland pumpkin and spanish chorizo made for nice points of difference.
My wife ordered the barramundi, which was actually, apparently a baby barramundi stuffed with semi-dried homato, lemon, and thyme. My wife is not a fan of tomatoes and didn't realize these came as such an integral part of the dish (though in Goosehorn's defense, we realised after that the menu clearly states it), If our first Gooshorn experience could be said to have had one small blemish, though it was admittedly insignificant, and paled in comparison to the overall wonderful time we had.
Goosehorn's is definitely a fresh, stylish and worthwhile alternative on the Rockhampton dining scene, and it's escalating popularity is a testament to this. My compliments, as they say, to the chef.
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26°C 
Best of Rockhampton 
Took my wife there for her birthday and she didn't complain at all! Goosehorn, you've accomplished the impossible. I'll definitely be back (with her)