est.
Letting the pictures do all the talking, spoiler alert dinner was absolutely amazing, treated myself and my dad to Peter Doyle's ethereal and decadent 7-course tasting menu. A night full of great, attentive service, great atmosphere, ambience and of course the food is to die for. The following morning, I had a mini withdrawal symptoms because once I had food at est. what I ate for the remainder of that day could not compare to what I ate the previous night.
A photo of me for good measure because my face rarely pops up unless I'm writing about fashion.
Tasting Menu
goats curd panna cotta, black fig, jamon, red witlof
By just looking at it you can tell that it is incredibly delicate. It was my first time hearing of a savoury based panna cotta especially when it is made out of goats curd as opposed to cream for your regular panna cotta desserts but no, I really enjoyed it. It still retained the silky smoothness that you would expect out of a panna cotta but instead of sweet you get the tanginess of the goats curd together with the saltiness of the jamon (Spanish dry-cured ham). To finish it off there's the sweetness of the black fig and the , because the jamon can be quite salty, and red witlof that adds to the red colour palette whilst simultaneously providing another textural component. All-in-all a great way to start a meal that left me excited about the rest of the meal.
NB: You'll also find that progressively throughout the night the lighting was working against me because it was getting dark and if you've eaten out for dinner before then you can probably relate to me when I say that some places are not very lit or at least lighting is poor when it comes to taking photos. And that brings me to my next point, I've already invested in a tripod for my DSLR but should I also buy one of those light attachments so I can take much better photos at night.
calamari, squid ink noodles, asparagus, ocean trout roe, lemon (served with zucchini flowers on the day)
This was one of my favourites because I love my seafood. It's a bit hard to tell from these photos but the white strands in the photo are actually calamari which were cut so that they looked strikingly similar to rice noodles. I hope this was deliberate (I'm going to give Est. the benefit of the doubt and assume so), because if you analyse it (which you can opt not to do) it's kind of a like a mind trick in that you bite into it expecting rice noodles so to say but in actuality you are eating deliciously tender calamari which has been infused with all the flavours of the accompanying sauce. I also loved the squid ink noodles and yes you can actually taste the difference between these noodles and ordinary noodles because this has this unique taste to it. I have long heard of squid ink noodles and saw them last at Salt Meat Cheese but chose not to buy them and suffice to say I regret that decision because I'm currently craving these noodles. They were of the same width as the calamari, credit to everyone in the kitchen for their professionalism in cutting the calamari with such precision. In keeping with the seafood theme there were also generous amounts of ocean trout roe and then zucchini flowers as your vegetable and other colour component.
scampi, white soy, steamed eggplant, cucumber, wakame, coriander cress
This annulet style scampi was presented so well, the flowers on top made it so delicate (I love flowers in food) looking. It was just simply one of those dishes where you just struggle to even begin eating it because you know that you will ruin the presentation as soon as you place your fork anywhere near it. But at the same time, it is so inviting that you cannot help but to taste it knowing full well what the end result will be i.e. an empty plate. I found the Asian flavours to be so appropriate, I firmly believe that Asian style cuisines for seafood are the best, there are really no comparisons. I'm not really sure here if the right term is broth or consommé because the two are after all two different culinary terms (I should really record this for next time) but it had great flavour, lovely addition of wakame or seaweed, crunch of the coriander crew (herbs work well with anything and coriander is so appropriate for an Asian inspired seafood dish). The scampi, the star of the dish was so plump, tender and most of all juicy as it should be. I really enjoyed the cucumbers, they were very refreshing and the fact that they carved the cucumber into spheres and presented them like that was very adorable and of course visual appealing.
murray cod fillet, shaved abalone, snow peas, black fungi, ginger-green shallot vinaigrette
SIGNATURE DISH ALERT
It is Peter Doyle's signature dish and that title is so befitting because it was by far the highlight of the night. This is a must order dish when you dine at Est., the murray cod fillet was cooked perfectly, just simply melt in your mouth. Like the above dish, this one is also Asian inspired with the ginger-green shallot vinaigrette and the Asian greens. I don't know why but I feel lost for words as to how to describe this so I'm just going to leave it to you guys to fill in the blanks.
rib eye of lamb, cumin seed spinach, green peas tahini, chick pea shoots, lemon
Last main and the fifth course was an 'or' option, my dad chose this one but I did have a piece of his lamb which was so tender. I really enjoyed the interplay of the Middle Eastern flavours with the chick pea shoot that is hidden underneath the lamb in the photo and the tahini.
OR
cocoa crusted venison saddle, beetroot, caramelized witlof, pickled blueberries, red leaves
I, on the other hand wanted something a bit different so I opted for the venison instead. Venison is basically deer meat, and it is much tougher than lamb so that's why I needed a sturdier knife. I think that this dish may divide a few tastebuds mainly because the flavours were very intense and were ones that you often don't come across at your ordinary restaurant or cafe. An example of this is the pickled blueberries and the cocoa crusted venison and jus. I found eating this to be such a rewarding experience because I love trying new things (I am really open to eating exotic food) and since I have never cooked venison at home, I didn't know what to expect and even if I did attempt to this meat at home I dare not say that I could ever give the meat the justice it deserves. Onto the food, the venison at first had a bitterness to it from the the cocoa coating so that made the skin a lot browner than were there no cocoa. I found the beetroot great in balancing the competing flavours with the venison, the pickled blueberries and particularly the jus.
It's hard to imagine that you would have room for two desserts after those 5 dishes but because the meals were spaced out well, yes, you do feel full but not the unpleasant bloated full and so it was easily possible to have room for dessert.
pink grapefruit sorbet, raspberries, plum, gin, lime
After such a heavy main full of red meat, the next course was a citrus based dessert which we were told would be very refreshing. It certainly was, I was so glad that they chose this because had they chosen a creamy or rich chocolate dessert I couldn't say that I could properly enjoy dessert. I don't think I have had a dessert more refreshing than this; the grapefruit sorbet was everything a sorbet should be- it was extremely light, smooth and best of all sour. The raspberries and other fruits were all sour as well but that was good because whilst each component was acidic it never tipped the scale for being too sour, similar to how you can have a sweet dessert where every component is sweet.
goats curd cheesecake, poached rhubarb, hibiscus, olive oil crumb
I chose the cheesecake because I was told that you can hardly taste the goats curd in this cheesecake. They were right, the cheesecake was so beautiful and smooth. I think that it was much easier to follow the menu and match up the ingredients to the pictures I took for the mains but the challenge proved much harder for the desserts. I don't want to lead anyone astray so I can only make assertions from here on but I'm going to assume that the ice-cream is hibiscus flavoured but nonetheless the ice-cream was my favourite part. I love ice-cream made from scratch because the flavour and creaminess is just on another altogether, yeah it was just that divine and together with the olive oil crumble I was in heaven.
OR
warm valrhona manajari chocolate tart, toasted cashew ice cream, caramelised milk
Dad chose this one, not me so I can say much but he did enjoy the richness of the chocolate tart (?) and the taste of cashew in the ice-cream.
to finish coffee, tea, tisanes and mignardises (petit fours)
Photo of me the morning after with the take home Est tasting menu, and a wonderful souvenir. Thank you to the Est. team for being so lovely and I can't wait to come back!
fsnhbnkr pronounced fashion bunker, they quite often do great deals on Cameo, Finders Keepers and Keepsake as well as other Australian labels. I am particularly impressed with Cameo's collection at the moment and they have just restocked some of this season's sold out items so be sure to browse their site.
