Tetsuya’s on Kent Street probably needs little introduction – it was the restaurants that everyone said I needed to try in Australia, and regularly features in the top 10 lists of restaurants in the world. My expectations were actually not that high to be honest before I went: I was a little fatigued at all the huge degustation menus in Sydney, and I also remember the omakase in Nobu Hong Kong, which although it was good, definitely wasn’t mind blowing.
The entrance is actually a little frightening. The restaurant is tucked away in an anonymous part of Kent Street, and there is a huge gate for cars outside. But once instead, the place is beautifully designed: two dining rooms overlook a small Japanese garden, with all tables pointed to the view.
Overall, the food was outstanding – far exceeded my expectations, and Tetsuya is especially amazing at making sauces I found. Here is the run down of all 12 (!) courses – although we also sneaked in an extra oyster course.
1. Corn soup with a saffron ice cream – very nice, but did just remind me of my mum’s cream of corn soup she made me all those years ago (i was so excited about the whole thing I forgot to take photo)
2. Our extra course of oysters – these were pacific oysters with a rice vinegar and ginger dressing. I’m so glad we decided to add this course, I could have drank the dressing by itself (I was clearly still too excited at this stage, but here are the empty shells!):
3. Third dish was by for me was the highlight of the entire meal: a tian of smoked ocean trout with a frozen egg yolk, topped with Spanish caviar (it had a posh name but I don’t remember it). The combination was just amazing – it’s the same idea as smoked salmon and poached eggs, but the texture of the yolk is a little firmer, but still retained the stickiness of a soft-boiled egg. Plate-licking stuff.
4. Fourth dish was less successful: New Zealand shrimp 3 ways. The first (in the middle in the shot glass) was in seawater covered with olive oil and lemon, but as you pull the shrimp out, the olive oil just dominates the flavour. The second (on the left) was shrimp covered with pancetta – again, the pancetta just overpowered the delicate little shrimp. But the third remaining shrimp was lovely: covered with white miso and passion fruit, it actually had a small taste of mustard. However, on the whole, I wish they had just given me 3 bits of shrimp sashimi unadulterated.
5. Next up was a bit of a 70’s throwback: a baked scallop with a lemon dressing. But as I said, that Tetsuya man is a genius with sauces, again, I could have just drank the dressing by itself. Maybe he should open a little sauce café where we can go to just drink little shots of lemon dressings from him. Maybe I should pitch him the business idea :p
6. So half way through, and the biggest disappointment comes along. Tetsuya’s signature dish is a confit of ocean trout lined with kelp, served with apple, fennel, and roe, and it really isn’t very nice (I know, I’m so descriptive). For once in these degustation menus, I actually thought the portion was too big – the ocean trout isn’t really tasty enough to warrant a slice that is quite so thick – the texture is not particularly interesting, and you ultimately get quite bored of it. But it was the kelp that did it – to paraphrase Dave: “it tastes just like Bisto!” – and it does! So imagine a bit of too thick salmon sashimi, sprinkled with Bisto, with bits of apple underneath, and there you go.
7. But the next dish redeems the menu – a crab risotto with buckwheat “rice”. Huge chunks of crab, and I particularly liked the fact it had little bits of coriander on top, which really complemented the flavours. But then I’m a little obsessive about coriander, I added way too much into my green curry the other day and it did end up tasting of soap.
Just a little pause – by this stage, we were both pretty stuffed, and to be honest, a little bored. The courses really slow down after this point, and the meal really is a bit too dragged out, especially as it only takes you 5 minutes to eat each little morsel of food. Plus we were not having the matching wine menu, so not quite drunk enough to just giggle our way through. Just like I’m sure you’re already a little bored of this post already. But onwards…
8. Course 8 was pretty unmemorable: barramundi with braised baby fennel – nothing wrong with the dish, but nothing spectacular about it either. And as I said above, we were a little fatigued already at this stage, with about a 10-15 min pause between dishes.
9. The next 2 photos look very similar (sorry about my less than good Blackberry camera), but quite different. The first was duck with chicory (or endive as they call it in Australia) with some sort of reduction.
10. And the second was veal with wasabi butter served on spinach. Both were pretty good, the veal in particular was interesting with the wasabi butter, which complemented the meat very well. The meat was beautifully cooked, the sort where you don’t even need a knife. Both someone should tell the chef that little bits of chive as garnish is a little overused!
11. We knew we had 3 (!) desserts coming, and as a non-dessert fan, the thought of another 30-45 mins of dessert did just make me really tired. But the desserts were actually pretty interesting. Before the 3 main desserts was a pre-dessert of comte cheese with lentils. I forgot to take a picture at this point, but imagine a Chinese soup spoon of lentils covered in little curls of comte – the lentils were sweetened, and reminded me of red bean soup. It did kind of work with the saltiness of the cheese, but I’m also glad I only had 1 mouthful of it.
12. The prettiest of the desserts was also the most unsatisfactory: two shot glasses, one with a blood orange and beetroot sorbet, the other with Tetsuya’s take on bread and butter pudding. The sorbet was tasty enough, but the bread and butter pudding I couldn’t even finish. I dislike bread and butter pudding, mainly because of the soggy bread mixed with soggy egg, and this version just demonstrated why!!
13. The most boring dessert was also the tastiest though: just a plain apple tarte tatin with a calvados ice cream. So ok, the tarte tatin was cheating, more like bits of sweet pastry layered on top of stewed apple, but the pastry was so fine, the apple still tart, with gorgeous ice cream.
14. And finally, a chocolate terrine with a crunchy shortbread top, with crème anglais (which may have been flavoured with some sort of alcohol, I can’t remember). I was actually pretty impressed with this even though I am not a big choc eater, and the portion size was just right.
So phew! Are you as exhausted as I am? The ultimate verdict: fabulous fabulous food, but they could so remove about 4 or 5 courses to improve the experience. We went for lunch, I’m not sure whether it would feel equally as long and exhausting if we had gone for dinner instead.
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