Text 10050, 103 rader
Skriven 2007-01-05 19:55:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: disappointing 826
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But the dining room wasn't open and in fact didn't open
until nearly 7. At which point we were seated in the back
room (not a big surprise, as even having changed we were
a little on the casual side). We were the only people in
the restaurant, not counting the hostess who was there only
intermittently. The waiter hadn't made his appearance yet.

The music was rapoid, pretty loud, pretty objectionable; we
asked if it could be fixed, so they substituted some poor
imitation of Piaf, also pretty loud. I laughed hugely and
gave them a sausage, no, they gave me a sausage, no, we
asked if they could do something about the volume, which
they also did fairly cheerfully.

For starters Carol had the Chandon ZD 03, which I don't care
for but which is an okay bubbly - far more pretentious than
the Hardy's but not substantially nicer; I ordered a Hidalgo
Amontillado, and they poured the Manzanilla; on my pointing
this out the hostess (the waiter still hadn't shown up) was
embarrassed but not embarrassed enough and corrected it
without a word of apology.

The waiter came by with decent bread and butter, which I
didn't much notice. Serving Carol a piece of bread, he
knocked my glass over, so I got another glass, and the wet
spot on the tablecloth was fixed with a sheet of aluminum
foil as a barrier and a big napkin so you couldn't see the
alfoil. Also, the foil served as a reminder, to wit, if
you committed the solecism of putting your elbow on the
table, the foil would make a crinkling noise. I wonder what
is so awful about putting your elbows on the table anyhow.

After which the service became more solicitous, although
only marginally more competent.

Carol was somewhat interested in the tasting menu, but it
left me cold, especially as I could get the things I wanted
a la carte in bigger portions without having to deal with
unpleasant oddities mostly involving goat cheese. We asked
if a tasting menu could be done for one, and of course the
standard and expected answer, that the whole table must
choose the tasting menu, was received. We declined.

Carol started with yabbies in ponzu, soy, and butter,
pretty good, served with excellent scallop sashimi with
mediocre scallions and a rather weird vanilla sauce,
followed by a nice roast pigeon very rare sided with a
nondescript but extremely salty sausage and an incongruous
piece of pickled watermelon. We determined that the main
downfall of the food was the tendency to pile together
various oddments without much regard to whether or not
they went with each other.

I went with three starters, two good and one unmemorable.

A pressed quail with foie gras came as a rectangular
solid about the shape of a Twinkie but half the size,
slices of rare quail, including dark meat (and a few bits of
cartilage, which I didn't mind but most would), sandwiched
together by a tiny amount of not very inspiring foie gras.
This came with a stupidly sweet chutney, parsley salad, and
one of the best papadums I've ever encountered.

Tuna sashimi with lightly cured kingfish (with shallots),
avocado, and wasabi cream was nice as well, the fish done
just right, the avocado puree and wasabi stuff impeccable.

A crisp spiced pork cheek with pickled daikon radish, the
thing I was most looking forward to, was so unnoteworthy
that I can hardly remember even receiving it. There is a
faint recollection of it having been fairly porky but not
nearly cheeky enough. Using all my brainpower I think I
get a taste of five-spice pork and a touch of crackling,
again not nearly so nice as your ordinary Chinese dive
would serve.

The Yarraloch Pinot Noir 03 was quite nice for a Victoria
wine, rather light in body and quite nice with everything
but the yabbies (which Carol had bubbly with anyhow). I
guess the pigeon may have overmatched it a little, as the
wine was on the wimpy side (reminded me of an emasculated
version of the Plum Creek PN from near Grand Junction, CO,
that I used to be fond of).

We were not in the mood for dessert: Carol was slightly
put out by the idiocy of the staff, but I thought it worth
the price of admission.

Interestingly, the place had filled up gradually while we
had our meal, mostly with folks in their Saturday night
best, and shortly before we left we found that there was
in fact no seat unused in the entire house. I hope that
relatively few of the hundred or so patrons had their wine
dumped on their dining partner by the waiter.

It's nice to dine within hopping on one foot distance of
one's bed, but I think we could have eaten equally well or
better at a third of the price at any of a dozen places on
Fitzroy Street.

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