food, food photography, restaurant reviewsdavid leeOctober 17, 2016David Lee Chef / Sydney Private Cheffoodies, food, restaurant, chef, melbourne, melbournefood, travel, traveller

Melbourne: Rockpool Bar and grill, Rosetta, Cumulus inc

food, food photography, restaurant reviewsdavid leeOctober 17, 2016David Lee Chef / Sydney Private Cheffoodies, food, restaurant, chef, melbourne, melbournefood, travel, traveller

My last visit to Melbourne would have been at least ten years ago, pre the Sydney Chef invasion of the dining in the Crown. I remember enjoying an excellent cassoulet and beautiful Oysters at Philippe Mouchel's restaurant on the Yarra on a freezing winters evening. Great memory. The food in Melbourne, is across the board, excellent. We had amazing food at Cumulus Inc, so good we went twice, worthy of its own post. Great Italian at Guy Grossi's and stunning cocktails at the modern day speak easy, Eu die Vie. Rockpool was, however, our first stop.

Breakfast at Cumulus Inc: Mushrooms with a 65/65 egg

After an early plane from Sydney we arrived in time for lunch. Rockpool bar and grill has always been on my list of restaurants to do, was close to the hotel and had a lunch table for two, so off we went. I have many fond memories having eaten at the original Rockpool in Sydney on many occasions though out the 1990’s and 2000’s. These dishes and experiences are burnt into my memory. Yamba prawns in fragrant pho, blue eye with sea urchin butter, doughnuts and the most amazing duck confit with lobster. The service, the wine, presentation and the quality make dining at any of Neil Perry’s restaurants, then and now, such a treat.

Rockpool bar and grill is a steakhouse, albeit a very upmarket one. Having just come from Hampstead in North London with it's excellent dry aged, grass-fed beef from the this was going to be a real test. From the Hampstead butcher I tried an excellent meaty and tender sirloin and rib eye a real treat even at around $20AUD a steak. The test was on.

We began with the most amazing brown sour dough and I am presuming house made butter. This bread was a rival the supremely good brown sourdough from Hedone in London’s Chiswick. A bread which is often thought to be some of the best bread in the that city.

Champagne was asked for and expertly explained and delivered. Choosing a delicious, fragrant and all most red apple like NV Vouette et Sorbee Fidele Blanc de Noirs, Buxieres-sur-Arce, France $35. A wine of beautiful acidity and minerally notes I ended up having two glasses. A dangerous wine if it were to be left in front of me.

Some impressive freshly shucked oysters and on to entrees.

Entrees consisted of sautéed abalone, king brown mushrooms and bottarga with Maltagliati ($39) and hand cut linguine with Spanner crab and spicy prawn oil ($35) The linguine had a nod to South East Asian for it's conception. Maybe a touch too much for my personal pasta preferences, yet was still well crafted and full of flavour. The maltagiati was similar in conception but utterly delicious, a very refined version of an essentially dish of pasta off cuts. I could have eaten this all day. Silky pasta, great earthiness from the mushrooms and a real fresh saltiness from the delicate abalone and salty bottarga. Drinking the 2014 Hirtzberger Donaugarten Steinfeder Gruner Veltliner, Wachau Austria ($18) from the from the by the glass list. Fresh and lightly acidic with a good balance of vegetative, floral and citrus notes. Worked well with the Asian flavour notes in the pasta.

Mains consisted of a Corned and Charred Wagyu silverside with carrots and black garlic mustard ($49) and a 250g Cape Grim dry aged vintage 60-month old grass fed fillet ($59) from the steak menu. The steak medium rare as requested, well rested and sitting simply on the plate. Meaty, salty and with a touch of gentle chewiness (obvious from the grass feeding). It had a real depth of flavour and sung with horse radish cream and a super-hot and crusty gratin of potato and cabbage ($15). A service of steak condiments was offered yet declined as un needed.

If the fillet was good the wagyu silverside was by comparison an absolute stunner of a dish. The best corned beef I have ever had. This was not the stringy, chewy, crunchy white sauce covered and over cooked carrots version of my childhood. This was the sleek Italian sports car version I always longed for, but didn’t know at the time existed. Sorry no photograph as I was too busy eating.

We drank a 2015 Tentenublo Xerico Tempranillo Blend, Rioja Spain ($18) with the mains which was a well-balanced fruit driven Tempranillo with a bit of wood and a touch of sweetness.

An excellent double espresso and we were done.

Rockpool Bar and Grill Melbourne is a great restaurant. From the heavy door at the entrance down the long and dim corridor and past the kitchen and past the oysters shucking station the drama is built. The diner is then rent into the cavernous dining room with view onto the promenade, the Yarra and Flinders Street Station. The service staff are knowledgeable, professional yet friendly and personable. My only quam is that the tables are a little too close together and are a little large for anything intimate or personal to be discussed without the passing of notes or the next table offering an opinion. A minor bother. I can understand why this place is quite polarizing. The menu is large and quite Mod-Oz meets steak house with a collection of Rockpool’s greatest hits. The steaks are great yet presented in a rather simple “steak and a plate” fashion that may unnerve the traditional Aussie diner. Having said this, I loved it. Professional and stuffed full of flavour with a very interesting and enjoyable wine list.

As a post script I also had a quick pasta at Perry’s other restaurant Rosetta. Orecchiette with anchovy, chilli and broccoli with a glass of pecorino. Superb.