Amarok

Steve and I were very kindly invited to try one of The Age Good Food Month signature dishes at a Southgate restaurant.

I chose Amarok as the concept of North American, Canadian and Inuit influenced cuisine. What I didn't realise was that Amarok was part of the Ice Bar. I guess Inuit cuisine and Ice Bar have a tentative connection! When I realised this I thought that perhaps Amarok would be a bit faddy.

The restaurant was quiet when we arrived bit the decor is far from being faddy and cheesy. Beautiful wood and stone, airy and bright it's quite lovely.

We were waited on incredibly professionally by the manager that was on duty that evening. the dish we were there to try was seared tuna with a white peach and prawn salad with a sorbet dressing which was a main course. And the dish was acompanied by a beautiful glass of riesling.

We decided to enhance our experience by ordering a couple of starters to share:

• Eye fillet, truffle, sour cherry and herb tartare with fried quail's egg and fried bread
• Pan seared dusted boar with red onion salad and wild berry jus

The tartare is flavoursome and enjoyable. The sour cherry is a little lost but the truffle is there. The fried bread is an interesting triangle of hard pitta bread and I can't help but feel there could be better options to go with the tartare.

The boar is meaty and the game flavour is complemented by the sweet jus. It's not a dainty dish but I guess this style of cuisine is less about fanciful plating and more about robust heartiness!

In spite of my previous statement about presentation, the tuna was actually very attractive with colour from the fresh salad and a pale pinkness from the tuna. Taste wise it was bland with an insufficient amount of dressing. The individual items on the plate were fresh and good quality and the prawns were particularly good but the tuna was dense and unseasoned and in spite of the pinkness still over cooked so it was dry. More dressing and more seasoning required which was a shame as it looked so attractive.

The sweet potato fries were very moreish and enhanced by the aioli.

Our whole meal was pretty protein heavy but that was more our fault for ordering two meaty starters! We were well looked after, The wine cut throuhg some of that richness.

We were extremely well looked after and offered a visit to the Ice Bar which added a little bit of novelty and made our Tuesday night a little bit special!