Eating Melbourne

OK, so this was supposed to be a review of Quay, which I’ve been itching to visit for months. Alas, couldn’t convince the partner to go for such an expensive lunch this time. (Next time, Gadget… next time…)
So, upon the recommendations of my ex-Sydneysider brother and Time Out Sydney, we wound up at the Bentley instead.

We rocked up at around 12.30pm on a Friday – I called first, expecting it to be busy given the Time Out award. “Yes, we should be able to fit you in,” they said… sure enough you could have shot a cannon through the place with no fear of hitting anyone. (We were the only table till one other pair arrived about 1.30pm, and that was it till we left around 2.30pm.  What the?? Is the GFC hitting Sydney dining more than Melbourne?)

We chose the awarded $50 “tapas” lunch menu. It was supposed to be 10 courses but I only counted seven. (Perhaps they were counting some of the components as multiple courses? I don’t think a piece of jamon counts as a course, personally. Mind you, seven courses for $50 is still decent value.)

The first course arrived promptly: Serrano jamon wrapped around two forky skewer things, and a spoonful of kingfish ceviche with pickled daikon and yuzu mayonnaise:

The jamon was great, although I guess there’s not much you could do to stuff jamon up.   The ceviche I found a bit too acidic, I thought the vinegar overpowered the fish a little. My partner liked it though.

Next up we had a smoked eel parfait, with seaweed, white soy cream and soy crisps:

A beautiful looking dish, I loved the presentation. It did however taste exactly like kabana (or cabanossi, depending on where you grew up) – not unpleasant, but very reminiscent of 80s hors d’oeuvres. Just add toothpick, cheddar cube and a pickled onion.

Next we had teeny little baby squids with squid ink rice and green chilli:

The little baby squids (how fiddly must they have been to clean?!) still had their long tentacles attached, and were very juicy, not chewy at all. Personally I didn’t love the squid ink rice and the green chilli together though. The rice was sort of oily and rich, while the chilli was very tart and brisk – usually contrast is good but in this case I found it a bit clashy, for my tastes anyway.

Next up, I think this was one of the “two course” courses – a cucumber and herb gazpacho, with a piece of chorizo wrapped in crispy potato on a blob of harissa:

Loved the gazpacho flavour, although I thought it could have used a teensy bit more salt so that it didn’t get drowned out by the flavour punch of the chorizo with harissa.

We then move on to the slow-cooked egg with pork bubble and pea soil:

Oh. My. God. I absolutely loved this. Apparently they cook the egg in a water bath for an hour and a half at 60 degrees, which gives it a completely bizarre but intriguing slow gooey texture. It looks mostly like a soft-poached egg, but when you cut into the yolk it doesn’t run all over the plate – it just oooooooozes. The “pork bubble” is a few strips of very light and bubbly pork crackling; and then there’s the bed of Kermit-green pea “soil”, which adds just enough freshness to an otherwise quite rich dish.

The final savoury course was a pressed lamb shoulder with a tagine sauce and chickpeas with dill, accompanied by chickpea chips:

This was delicious, the lamb was slow cooked to the falling-off-the-bone stage and went beautifully with the Moroccan-spiced sauce. I also loved the chickpea chips, and got to eat my partner’s as well – he didn’t like them, thought they tasted like Chiko Rolls. (They did, a little bit – but I secretly love Chiko Rolls.)

We then asked for a break to finish our wine before dessert; we had a bottle of 2006 Punch chardonnay from the Yarra Valley, which I hadn’t tried before but really enjoyed. I found it very refined and elegant. (Note to self: try more Punch wines.) I had wanted to order the Cullen chardonnay, but couldn’t bring myself to pay $144 for a wine that’s $60 at Winestar – I guess that’s Sydney wine list pricing for you though.

Dessert was a scoop of chocolate ganache, sprinkled with salt and surrounded with orange oil.

I don’t usually go much on chocolate desserts, but the orange made it very refreshing.

Service was attentive, as you’d expect when you’re the only table. The waitress however was not able to give a wine recommendation, and instead fetched the sommelier (who did arrive promptly at the table, and recommended the Punch, so thumbs up).

The Bentley advertises its menu as “tapas”. I don’t think it really is. Tapas should be a bit more snacky and share-able, and probably a bit more rustic (and a bit more Spanish, come to that). The Bentley is more like fine dining, albeit a more casual style than my recent degustation adventures (Attica and The Royal Mail). That said, it’s really very good value for what it is, even if the wine list is a bit pricey (but that’s Sydney for you).