We have been wanting to get to the new Press Club for a long time and expectations were high. Finally the evening arrived.
The welcome was like a reunion with an old friend - warm, personal and it truly felt like catching up with someone dear and beloved after a makeover. The strongest lingering memory I have of the meal now, three and a half weeks later is that service was second to none. There was no waiting for others to be seen to first, no attempting to catch someone's eye and yet there was also none of the excessive hanging around / looming over you / chatting to one another that occurs when there's nothing for the wait staff to do. They manage that balance really well and we were so well looked after.
The room is long and narrow with boothed seating that is all plump leather. It kind of reminded me of what first class would be like on an aeroplane and I was half expecting our lounge seat to turn into flatbed and that the screens separating the booths could slide up and down!
Ceiling lights are interesting - a big puzzle of curvaceous shapes and the one above our seat was like a giant empty can of luncheon meat!
The welcome was like a reunion with an old friend - warm, personal and it truly felt like catching up with someone dear and beloved after a makeover. The strongest lingering memory I have of the meal now, three and a half weeks later is that service was second to none. There was no waiting for others to be seen to first, no attempting to catch someone's eye and yet there was also none of the excessive hanging around / looming over you / chatting to one another that occurs when there's nothing for the wait staff to do. They manage that balance really well and we were so well looked after.
The room is long and narrow with boothed seating that is all plump leather. It kind of reminded me of what first class would be like on an aeroplane and I was half expecting our lounge seat to turn into flatbed and that the screens separating the booths could slide up and down!
Ceiling lights are interesting - a big puzzle of curvaceous shapes and the one above our seat was like a giant empty can of luncheon meat!
First to arrive was a laundry line (the whirligig) type, planted in fake grass with various items hung out to dry and what looks like a walnut shell on the grass.
Other little bowlfuls arrived including some crispy chips, fried school prawns, an empanada (pastry filled pasty) and some octopus on a stick served on a thick brick.
The idea is like a mezze - picky food to eat and accompanying this assortment of goodies was a small glass of beer, some Greek sparkling wine and home made ouzo with a cucumber water ice in the shape of a cucumber.
The octopus was tender and tasty and went well the with sparkling wine. The saltiness and deep fried nature of the chips and the school prawns were great with the beer. It's quite hard to recall actually what was in the empanadas but they were eaten and appreciated!
Other little bowlfuls arrived including some crispy chips, fried school prawns, an empanada (pastry filled pasty) and some octopus on a stick served on a thick brick.
The idea is like a mezze - picky food to eat and accompanying this assortment of goodies was a small glass of beer, some Greek sparkling wine and home made ouzo with a cucumber water ice in the shape of a cucumber.
The octopus was tender and tasty and went well the with sparkling wine. The saltiness and deep fried nature of the chips and the school prawns were great with the beer. It's quite hard to recall actually what was in the empanadas but they were eaten and appreciated!
Next was the garden salad (horiatiki) with the basil seed jelly base and tomato and goats cheese. We had this before at Press Club Projects so I guess the "wow" factor was a little diminished. But the flavours were still fresh and zingy and danced on the tongue.
After the salad came a beautiful mushroom youvetsi which is the Greek pasta done like risotto. I say it was beautiful because the pine mushrooms and truffles were indeed beautiful.
After the salad came a beautiful mushroom youvetsi which is the Greek pasta done like risotto. I say it was beautiful because the pine mushrooms and truffles were indeed beautiful.
And then another dish we'd seen before - the chicken stock noodles in soup but this time the soup was a take on the traditional Greek lemon soup (avgolemono0 adorned with shavings of abalone. It was fresh and light and very enjoyable raised from its humble origins of soup with the luxury addition of salty, crunchy abalone.
My only quibble and I am being so fussy is that a lot of the crockery used at the Press Club has a rough texture and so scraping of metal cutlery against (especially when it's soup in a soup bowl) it causes that "nails on blackboard" feeling in me but it's such a personal thing that I can't hold it against the restaurant.
And another familiar dish arrived; the magnificent Kangaroo Island marron with cauliflower. Sweet marron flesh with pickled cucumber - delightful.
My only quibble and I am being so fussy is that a lot of the crockery used at the Press Club has a rough texture and so scraping of metal cutlery against (especially when it's soup in a soup bowl) it causes that "nails on blackboard" feeling in me but it's such a personal thing that I can't hold it against the restaurant.
And another familiar dish arrived; the magnificent Kangaroo Island marron with cauliflower. Sweet marron flesh with pickled cucumber - delightful.
Still on the seafood theme, came the very dramatic monochrome black sesame crusted cod (I'm struggling to remember what fish it was but I think it was cod) with squid ink. Tender, sweet, flakes of pearly fish with a sea salty tang. This delighted us because it was something we'd not seen before.
Our meat course was beef and onion - slow braised beef with different onion textures and two tubes of pasta that provided the starch accompaniment. The meat was tender, the onions delicious. Nothing to fault - not the most original of dishes and I'm pretty sure I've had other versions but like I said, cannot fault the plate of food.
Our meat course was beef and onion - slow braised beef with different onion textures and two tubes of pasta that provided the starch accompaniment. The meat was tender, the onions delicious. Nothing to fault - not the most original of dishes and I'm pretty sure I've had other versions but like I said, cannot fault the plate of food.
Pre dessert - I was really looking forward to this. The pre dessert at Press Club - blackcurrant meringue, lime gel and lychee sorbet was just amazing. It was so fresh and so tart and so zingy it was so reviving it was like smelling salts! So pre dessert had a lot to live up to.
Lemon meringue on a stick and browned at the table is pretty impressive and it was an amazing mouthful of delight. I could have had another one...and another...The soft sugary meringue came first which made me hesitate and think, oh this is too sweet to be refreshing but then the lemon curd came through and started to freeze my jaw with the sharpness, in a pleasant way of course! And yes it came up trumps.
Lemon meringue on a stick and browned at the table is pretty impressive and it was an amazing mouthful of delight. I could have had another one...and another...The soft sugary meringue came first which made me hesitate and think, oh this is too sweet to be refreshing but then the lemon curd came through and started to freeze my jaw with the sharpness, in a pleasant way of course! And yes it came up trumps.
Dessert again was theatre involving the use of liquid nitrogen to do some freezing and then a blow torch to melt the golden toffee cap over the creme brulee beneath. I can't recall the exact description of the dessert but it had cake, toffee, caramel flavours.
Our Press Club experience was enjoyable. There was a bit of theatre, some intriguing flavours and some darn good plates of food. I've got to say thought that I couldn't help having a teeny feeling of being underwhelmed after the experience. I think it was probably that this Press Club visit was very close to our Press Club Projects experience and so some of the dishes were not new to us (some minor variations but on the whole the same) and whilst tasty and so enjoyable for our tastebuds, probably didn't stun the mind as well as it could.
Interesting was the comments book that arrives with the bill and the effusive enthusiasm of the diners that commented and that contrasts with the negativity on Urbanspoon. I wonder if any of the reviewers on Urbanspoon wrote in the book.
Our Press Club experience was enjoyable. There was a bit of theatre, some intriguing flavours and some darn good plates of food. I've got to say thought that I couldn't help having a teeny feeling of being underwhelmed after the experience. I think it was probably that this Press Club visit was very close to our Press Club Projects experience and so some of the dishes were not new to us (some minor variations but on the whole the same) and whilst tasty and so enjoyable for our tastebuds, probably didn't stun the mind as well as it could.
Interesting was the comments book that arrives with the bill and the effusive enthusiasm of the diners that commented and that contrasts with the negativity on Urbanspoon. I wonder if any of the reviewers on Urbanspoon wrote in the book.
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