The restaurant is one small room with a few tables and one amazing ceiling treatment! We got sat in the corner by the window and I had a good view of the surrounding. The decor is simple - clean light walls and linens with back accent chairs and banquets with a gorgeous water feature wall and abstract colourful art. It was very relaxed in there - servers were in no rush (without being inattentive or slow) and the guests slowly trickled in throughout our meal so you can tell that they don't try and rush you, or cram in as many reservations in a night as they can.
We decided to go all out with the 5 course menu and the Junior Sommelier Wine Pairing. They've just changed their menu, and I started off with Trout 2 Ways. I got a sashimi style soya cured trout fillet crusted with sesame seeds and served with a tofu sauce, and trout tar tar over a cucumber, radish and beat sprout salad that was served with seaweed roe. The Sommelier paired the dish with a Sake (which I've never had before). The dish was excellent. The trout was very fresh and the dish captured the essence of Japanese cuisine well. The tofu sauce didn't have much flavour (it may have been overpowered by the sesame seeds) but was interesting. The Sake was surprisingly good and was well balanced with dish.
Next came the soup of the evening, which was by far my favourite portion of the meal. It was a curried squash soup that had cilantro and coconut milk in it, and came with a great curried Papadum bread. This soup was spicy - but the good spicy that wakes up your tongue without blowing out all your taste buds! The coconut milk and cilantro lightened it up and balanced the spice perfectly.
Next came out Meze plate: Grilled haloumi cheese, walnut and red pepper stuffed eggplant with garnishes of riata, olives, pita and a slice of grilled lamb. I found the haloumi cheese too salty on it own, but was well paired with the riata and pita bread. I'm usually not a huge fan of lamb, but the small portion was well seasoned and cooked to be very tender and I quite enjoyed the little bite.
On to the main course: I order the Roasted Chicken Breast, which was served with a garlic and chive potato puree, grilled prawn, and mushroom ragout. This was served with a great white Italian wine. All the components of the dish were well prepared - I've never had such a juicy and flavourful chicken breast - but overall I wasn't blown away by the dish. I barely tasted the potato unless it was on it's own, and although I enjoyed the prawn I didn't really understand it's fit in the dish. I was getting full by this point and the food was not interesting enough for me to finish it completely. The wine was an excellent pairing to the dish though.
Finally we came to dessert. I choose the bread pudding. This came with a white chocolate ribbon, while chocolate semi-freddo, and strawberry sauce. It was paired with a delicious dessert wine that to me tasted like strawberry syrup (before I even tasted my dessert). The bread pudding was good, but I didn't overly enjoy the texture; for my palate I would have liked some crunchy component to the dish.
The service was excellent! Our server was great at refilling our glasses and moving dishes out of the way when we were finished, without rushing us, and was very friendly. The Sommelier was fun and playful with her choices and I really enjoyed the selection she set out for us.
Overall I wasn't blown away by the food. I think it may suffer the same issue for me as does the Wildflower restaurant- amazing food that does not interest my own personal taste. The wine pairing was definitely the highlight of the experience: I know little about wine, but love it, so it was really enjoyable to have a knowledgable person pick out what goes best with my meal. With it's steep price and the fact that I wasn't thrilled with the meal I don't know if I'll return any time soon. But if you like eating local (which I do) and drinking great wine (which I REALLY do) this is definitely a restaurant you need to try at least once.
These are the flowers Nick got me for our Anniversary. What a sweetie!
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