I booked far enough in advance to secure seats at the Chef's Table which can accommodate around 6 people and provides a great view of all the activity in the kitchen. Lucky us had the end two seats so our entertainment for the evening was closer than the distance between TV and sofa at home! Even more importantly was that the bar seats are super comfortable and can hold the distance for the 11 course 'sensory menu'. Disclosure - sitting a the Chef's Table means going with the $155 per head sensory menu and accepting the supplementary item(s) at a cost and in our case it was Manjimup black truffle at an additional $35 per head - (I think I remember it at $35 per head.... but don't hold me to that!)
- Onion, garfish, sheep's milk yoghurt
After that delightful punch to the palate we move onto:
The duck ham is salty and cured to umami perfection. We love the chicken liver and pine mushroom with its nut shavings. The pork is actual a take on the infamous South Melbourne dim sim and comes on a skewer piping hot and like it's inspiration burns the roof of the mouth! |
We move from snacks to seafood:
It's a crab ice cream and it's sweet and creamy with the cucumber and desert lime adding freshness and a clean flavour note. It's a lot more delicate than the snacks we've had so far so it's a pleasant contrast to go from that to this delightful lightness. |
And then it's time to break bread; thick slices of amazing sourdough with a nutty crust.
The olive oil doesn't even register with me! I'm all about the butter...butter is better. The roe emulsion is deliciously light and can be paired with the butter unlike the onion cream cheese and butter at St Crispin where it's too rich to have both and I have to make the painful decision. And Amaru is generous enough to offer a second round of sensational sourdough. |
And now we move onto a vegetarian dish but it's no shrinking violet.
Those little pickled mushroom beauties are seriously cheek suckingly powerful in flavour - not unpleasantly so and the milky soft chawanmushi just cleanses that astringency away. |
- Dirty potato
Given the best potato I have ever had is Attica's "potato cooked in the earth it was grown" there has got to be a connection given Clinton McIver's chef history. However this potato is a potato ice cream with a potato skin shell and liberally dusted with a chocolate type powder. The ice cream is more milky than creamy and the chocolate covering is more nutty than sugary so the whole things stays light on the tummy which is important given what we have eaten and that there is more to come.
- Decomposed apple leaves, artichoke, ginger
- Meredith cheesecake
Reminiscent of Brae's parsnip and apple dessert this one has the same autumnal hues of colour. I actually prefer this flavour pairing but that might come from the fact that I don't like parsnips rather than any gourmet finesse!
The Meredith Cheescake is a beautiful rose gold tile of goat's soap adorned with a citrussy sorbet and I think some sort of honeycomb for crunch and sweetness.
And as if all that food wasn't enough...petit fours come:
I avoid the strawberry gum delight as the jelly texture of Turkish Delight is not my bag. The grass fed beef caramel is as intriguing as it sounds. Buttery creamy caramel but yes with a distinct meaty undertone that isn't unpleasant but is certainly memorably interesting. |