Peppermint Bay Revisited

Its been awhile since the last not so good meal at Peppermint Bay. Since then they have changed chefs at least once, undergone a bit of a rearrangement of menus and decor and generally being given a kick up the posterior.
I ventured out today with the ex (yes it was a horribly amicable break-up and we are still on talking and enjoying each others company terms) to see what we could find down the Chanel.
Of course we ended up at Peppermint Bay. It was either there or see how much debauchary was happening at a mates shack at Randalls, and my brain was not up for that after a late night thesis inspiration.
Walking in the main doors the first thing you notice is that the providores has been totally re-organised. No longer a discreete enclave, its been reduced to the back wall and the chiller cabinets - which are now behind the till, instead of the till being out the front. Alot of the "Kitsch" stuff has disappeared - the kiddies cooking gear and the bowls etc were the ones I noticed straight away. Much of the stock appears to be locally sourced, though there are still some mainland brands such as Waji.
Menu at the bar is much smaller than it used to be. Essentially a burger, a salad, a pasta and fish. There are a few others such as bread and a taste plate, as well as oysters, but essentially its standard pub grub menu. I chose the smoked trout salad with spinch, kipflers, and orange and the Ex had the Peppermint Bay burger with chips.
The salad was a good size, with a generous serving of smoked trout, lightly dressed with I think balsamic vinegar and lovely crunchy baby spinach leaves. This was offset by the inspired addition of caper berries sprinkled over everything, adding a lovely salty crunch when you bit into a piece of orange. Compared to the Fish pie I had last time this was 110% better, with a great balance of sweet, sour and salty. It was a perfect temperature, not too warm but not crunchy icy cold either.
The Peppermint Bay Burger came out with a generous serving of shoe string fries which were crisp and slightly salty - very morish and nickable. The burger itself was pronounced a success, with the balance of wet and dry being achieved admirably, and it apparently was not to lettucy. the one bite I had was very yummy, though I doubt that I could have eaten the whole thing plus the chips by myself. There was definately a sweet onion something on there, it wasnt fried onion, so may have been onion jam - but it complimented the beef in the burger really well. The burger itself was fairly roughly minced beef, which gave it a good texture in the mouth as well as some bite.
We skipped the very decadent sounding easter dessert taster which involved chocolate jelly as well as 3 or 4 other chocolate things. Mainly as we were both full. Not sure on final cost, as I didnt pay, but I know the burger was about 20 dollars and the salad 18.
Overall, MUCH MUCH MUCH improved from last time, and I will be going back again.