REVIEW
You'd be crazy to forgo the flavour-forward $75 prix fixe menu at this bastion of fair pricing, but be sure to add a turnip cake or two. Here, the rejigged dim sum favourite employs turnips in place of the usual daikon, creating a crisp-edged base for layered raw scallops, blinged up with inky XO sauce. At $6, it's a tutorial in making magic on a shoestring budget, and that same cleverness pervades the entire dining experience, overseen with assuredness on the floor. The "all-class, no-fuss" theme is just as evident in the historic brick-and-timber digs and short all-Aussie wine list as it is in the simple desserts: plum granita with yoghurt mousse, say, or peach polenta cake. Sides like duck-fat chips and a righteously dressed leaf salad show an eye for detail, too, standing up to the likes of house-aged duck with greengage plum and butter-soft sugarloaf cabbage with ease. An inner-city diamond.
ABOUT
Chefs Ben McShane, Matt Kuhnemann and Mitchell Tucker
Price guide $$
Bookings Recommended
Wheelchair access Yes
Open Lunch Sat-Sun; Dinner Thu-Mon
Price guide $$
Bookings Recommended
Wheelchair access Yes
Open Lunch Sat-Sun; Dinner Thu-Mon
This review was written independently for the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide. The guide's reviewers visit unannounced and pay their way. To learn more about the process, head over here.
