The Stokehouse

Saturday night date night and Steve and I ventured to St Kilda on a dark and wet evening to enjoy dinner by the sea. A few people had questioned our choice given the season and had warned me to lower expectations as part of what makes The Stokehouse work is apparently Summer and sunshine.

We arrive and are quickly shown to a lovely table with a window view and in spite of the rain and the dark velvety night sky, we can still see waves moodily hit the shore. It takes some time to get drinks ordered, menus, food ordered etc but eventually we get there and the slowness does pick up over the course of the night. I like our waitress as she's friendly and efficient whilst being reassuringly experienced at her trade and I relax in her expertise.

We started off with delicious natural oysters and a single one done Rockefeller style.  We actually preferred the natural style as the Rockefeller was overly salty. An accompanying glass of champagne set the decadent tone of the evening.

I went with an ocean trout sashimi with fish roe, apple and I think avocado. It was light and delicious and so vibrant in natural colour against the black plate. Steve went with a special which was pork cheek with crumbed morcilla on lentils and grains and he enjoyed that with gusto. Where my dish was pretty and delicate with an elegant finish, Steve's dish was on the end of the spectrum being earthy, hearty and rustic and it was great to see the kitchen strike the very heart of both.

I went with the pork belly dish that came with marron on some grains and Steve enjoyed partridge and a mini partridge pie.

I loved the meatiness of the pork and the broth it came with and then the delicate sweetness of the marron. I loved that the whole dish still felt light and it didn't make me feel like I'd over eaten.

Steve enjoyed his partridge especially the pie. Classic cooking and the pie was excellent apparently.

With all this great food we enjoyed a beautiful bottle of wine recommended by the sommelier as being pretty special - Lodestone Pinot Noir from the Mornington Peninsula. It was delicious - silky smooth with hints of cherries. Loved it!

---

Dessert choices were tough as there were so many that appealed. In the end we went with The Bombe – frozen white chocolate parfait with strawberry sorbet and  toasted meringue and the salted caramel chocolate tart with milk yoghurt sorbet.

Oh we loved both. I have to admit I expected he bombe to be more circular with spikes of piped meringue and kind of spikey hedgehog looking as opposed to a slice reminiscent of Arctic roll but it was still enjoyable.

The salted caramel concoction was really well balanced. I'm not a huge chocolate dessert lover and can find it overly cloying an sweet but this was less about the sugar and more about fragrant cocoa and lovely caramel.

I thoroughly enjoyed our meal at The Stokehouse. It was reminiscent of our great dinner we had in South Africa at The Harbour House. It's classic cooking but not boringly so and if given the opportunity I'd happily return.