The place looks classy but out of place in a block of shops which has Dominoes 2 doors away and a supermarket around the corner. However with all glass on 3 sides of the wall, you have one of the nicer views of the city skyline, making a good place to hold a function.
The deal that night was a 7 course degustation for two with 2 glasses of moscato for AUD 89, supposedly with a value of AUD230. However I consider myself a seasoned user of group buying websites and you learn to take the values with a pinch of salt.
Service was switched between an elderly Asian man and a young waitress. Attentive but we could have done with a bit more patience when describing dishes. The man was quick and I could barely catch more than 2 words while the girl was quite soft and I couldn't hear more than a word or two.
We were served a "surprise" from the chef, I am guessing the word is meant to be amuse bouche. However not catching what it was, it got us guessing and guessing. With a texture that was like tuna / beef, it was nothing too spectacular.
Jamon Serrano with blood sausage dust and assorted mushrooms. Nothing wrong except we would have appreciated more bread for this or something sweet to balance out the saltiness.
The Chicken Breast was cooked to perfection, probably sous vide because it was so moist. Sitting on a bed of pumpkin puree, we started to see similar garnishing; the pineapple bits from the first course and the mushrooms from the second course. We loved this dish.
The garnishing repeats itself once again, the pineapple bits and the mushrooms appears in another role. There was nothing wrong with the carpaccio but nothing sparkled in the dish (including the quail egg). I would have also preferred this dish before the chicken for a better continuity.
The second and last hot dish of the night, the star of the night too; the pork belly. The sweet glaze, crispy crackling and melt in your mouth meat, oh why is the portion so small? What seemed like a weird combo, there was yoghurt with passionfruit along with a piece of sweet potato and a poached pear.
The cheese course was a small piece of soft cheese from Lyon. I could have easily finished that slice on my own but we had to share, boo.
Luckily we had a dessert each and got a pretty good rendition of the traditional indonesian layer cake paired with a scrumptious creamy butterscotch ice-cream. We loved this dish.
Was it worth AUD 89? Yes but could it have really cost me AUD 230? I don't think so. There were a number of recycled garnishes, only 2 hot dishes and small protein portions.
The plating was exciting at times but I didn't get the same impression that my fellow blogger had when they first visited the place. Turns out the head chef has already jumped ship to another restaurant but I guess not all is bad because there's plenty of potential from what we saw that night.
A pity we won't have the chance to return again.
Address and contact details:
Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Brilliant view, good food but missing the extra edge on some of the dishes to be a shining star.
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