Foveaux (2) - Surry Hills

I haven't been out to dinner for my parents for AGES - and usually when we eat out, it's at a Chinese restaurant, so it took a lot of persuasion to make them drive all the way out to the city with me to try out innovative non-asian cuisine.

For this ground-breaking moment, I decided to take them to Foveaux, a comfortable little restaurant in Surry Hills.

Seated by a cheery, friendly waiter, we were given space to decide on our menus (much appreciated). It took a little convincing to make my parents order the degustation ($80) and this is what we were served with :

Amuse Bouche of curry, lentils and warm yoghurt soup. You could smell this from afar - slightly a bit too overbearing for my liking. Very curried up - but then the sourness of warm yoghurt kicks in... making it all slightly ugh.

curry, lentils and warm yoghurt

For the first course, there was a choice of either the tomato and olive oil sorbet or the smoked albacore tuna. My parents were a bit shocked by the sorbet. "It's cold and like icecream!" - yes, that's what sorbets are like. I guess they weren't quite expecting it as a first course. The sorbet was accompanied by diced cucumber, baby rocket, cubes of olive jelly and sheep's fetta bits. For decoration, a long paint stroke of capsicum. Awesome presentation - but tastewise... not really my type of dish (nor my parent's unfortunately).

tomato and olive oil sorbet, cucumber, baby rocket, olive jelly, sheep's fetta and capsicum paint

The smoked albacore tuna, on the other hand, was extremely yummy. Very smokey in flavour, tomato salsa on top of the tuna, avocado sauced up, whipped ponzu and decorated with sesame. The textures and the flavours worked really well together :)

cold smoked albacore tuna, whipped ponzu, tomato salsa, avocado and sesame

For course 2, there was a choice of either roasted quail or caramalised venison tongue. The quail was accompanied by a smoked eel croquette, all sitting on a bed of diced beetroot and leaves, and sprinkled through with capers. From the looks on my parent's faces, this seemed just OK.

roasted quail, smoked eel croquette, caper, beetroot and leaves

The caramalised venison tongue was an unexpected surprise. Rather thick chunked, I was amazed that the tongue was really tender and not chewy or tough. Also, being caramelised, it was subtly sweet. What I liked more, however, was the accompanying scampi. It was semi-cooked, leaving a half raw, smooth texture, and being super sweet :) On top of these was the shredded carrot. The tongue and the scampi were swimming in a strong sea urchin custard and rhubarb powder mixture.

caramalised venison tongue, scampi, sea urchin custard, carrot, and rhubarb powder

Next was the fish - either the leather jacket or the mulloway. The herbed baked leather jacket was present sub-par for Foveaux's standards. It looked like a blurb or a mess really. The leather jacket - cooked almost perfectly, was sitting on top a mess of lettuce, and there were blobs of peas and green olive puree. Maybe it was because everything was a green, it wasn't the most visually stimulating. Scattered amongst the greens were bits of braised rabbit. I have to say, I appreciated my mulloway more :)

herb baked leather jacket, braised rabbit, lettuce, peas and green olive puree

My roast palmers island mulloway was perfecto-ly cooked. Super crispy skinned. Super tender and soft and tasty. A rather strong bouillabaisse foam was sitted inside a crepe-y cylinder. White mashed polenta was artistically painted under the fish and on the side of it all, was a little salad of tomato and black olive. All up, it was really really tasty. Really really YUM :)

roast palmers island mulloway, bouillabaisse foam, white polenta, black olive and tomato

In terms of meats, there was either the lamb or the veal. My dad loved the lamb. The rump was cured and smoked to super tenderness and tastiness. To add to the lamby taste, there was the lamb liver puree in two splotches on the side. Tiny amoung of greens were under the lamb. Garlic foam and puffed spelt were spread on top of the meat to add to all the flavours.

cured and smoked lamb rump, liver puree, greens, garlic, and puffed spelt

As I don't eat lamb, I opted for the veal sirloin. This was really really tender - almost melt in your mouth (or as much as it can for a veal sirloin). What caught my attention was the mushroom puree... it smelt AMAZING~ Mushies and parsnip cubes were abundant and drenched in meat juices. Or maybe it was the upland cress and thyme jus... whatever it was, the sauce was really strong, but accompanied the meat well :)

roasted veal sirloin with mushroom puree, parsnip, upland cress and thyme jus

The pre-dessert was my favourite of the night. It was a light milk sorbet sitting on top of a salad of pineapple and topped with crunchy caramelised macadamia. YUM. Cold. Refreshing. Absolutely delicious. It was light in flavour yet it provided a slight relief from all the other flavours which were in my mouth from earlier tonight. I swear I could eat many many of these!

salad of pineapple, milk sorbet and macadamia nut praline

In terms of dessert, I was a little disappointed. There was a banana dish or a ginger dish - neither of which I was a fan of. The banana dish was comprised of banana ice cream, caramalised banana pieces, crumbed digestive biscuit, and a super thin slice of coffee and tonka bean sitting on top. The only thing I liked from this was the coffee and tonka slice - but... I'm biased. I just don't eat banana :)

banana ice cream, caramalised banana, digestive biscuit, coffee and tonka

The other option was a ginger sponge. It was extremely extremely gingery - slightly over-bearingly so. It was on a rather large bed of carrot marmalade and topped with cream cheese ice cream and an interesting slice of candied carrot. It was ... umm...healthy-looking and just strong. Almost sickeningly gingery and sickening sweet. Where's my chocolate?!?! :(

ginger sponge, carrot marmalade, cream cheese ice cream and walnut powder

Ok - so my second experience at Foveaux was slightly mixed. I'm sure my parents would agree, there were good dishes and some which seemed to slightly miss the mark. Service was rather good. And so was the ambiance ... until a super large noisy crowd started dinner at around 9ish.
Would I come back? Well... third time lucky~ I'm a sucker for the way Foveaux tries its best to be creative, mixing odd flavours and textures together to keep us in awe and amazement :)

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 30/40

Foveaux
65-67 Foveaux St
Surry Hills
NSW 2010
Tel: (02) 9211 0664

Elevate European Grill - Parramatta

Elevate European Grill

It's rare that I have time for a leisurely weekend brunch, so when I do - it's such an AWESOME feeling. This particular non-working Saturday, my friends and I found ourselves looking for brunch on Church Street in Parra. The first decent place we came across was Elevate.

We quickly ordered our coffee and food. Unfortunately, the quickness was unreciprocated. Whilst the coffee came out at a reasonable time (albiet, with latte instead of my friend's order of flat white), the food took forever and ever and ever...

My mocha was average. I can only guess that my partner's Capp was likewise. Still don't get it - something wrong with Sydney coffee. Or maybe jsut my perception of Sydney coffee. It just feels more watery and less smooth and creamy. Maybe I'm secretly destined to be a Melbournian LOL

Mocha - $3.80

Cappuccino - $3.80

My friends ordered Elevates Mediterranean breakfast ($18.90) and the Wagyu beef burger ($15) to share . The Mediterranean breakfast was massive! It comprised of a small pile of pan fried kalamata olives, some roasted capsicum, two long grilled italian sausage, an omelette as well as pan-seared haloumi cheese wrapped in bacon. This was served with two toasted slices of panne di casa bread. My friends seemed to enjoy this much and it definately looked appetising. Very much huge though.

Elevates Mediterranean breakfast - $18.90

My friends also gave the wagyu beef burger thumbs up. A thick patty of wagyu beef mince, melted cheese, mixed lettuce, tomato slices and sweet caramelised onions. This was served on a soft dinner roll with home-made dijon mustard and aioli sauce drizzled on top. Mmm... looked appetising :)

Gourmet Wagyu beef burger - $15

My partner took the opportunity to order the Spanish omelette ($12.90). This pretty much had everything I don't eat in it - eggplant, semi-dried tomato, chorizo sausage, mushrooms, and shallots. I didn't try it, but my partner polished it off so either he was hungry, or it was nice ... or both. This was served with toasted bread.

Spanish omelette - $12.90

I was tossing up between the eggs florentine and the Wagyu sausages and eggs on toast. In the end, I opted for the latter because Wagyu sausages seemed more novel ($12.90). The Wagyu sausages were made with wagyu and basil. Grilled and slightly a bit dry, but it was loaded with beef aromas. Very extreme beefiness. Eggs were made however I liked and on this particular day, scrambled was how I liked them. Scrambled creamy eggs. Mmm... deliciousness! :P

Wagyu sausages and eggs on toast - $12.90

So overall, the food here was pretty good. However, you really have to be extremely leisurely to dine here. It took roughly 45 mins before the food arived so if you're in a hurry choose elsewhere :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 29/40

Elevate European Grill
312 Church St
Parramatta
NSW 2150
tel: (02) 9633 4099

Blancmange - Petersham

Blancmange

Work is horribleness >.< Saving is over-rated. Let's just use the money we earn on yummy food. That was my train on thought anyway, after a hecticly hectic week at work. Hence, I convinced my partner to go out to eat with me. Last minute booking got us to Blancmange, a nice cozy little restaurant in Petersham. Being seated next to the window of the small restaurant overlooking a park (in the dark), it provided for a tranquil dinner. Service was good at the beginning, but after a while (around 7 - 7.30 ish) being seated with your back to the restaurant means - limited service. LOL

We got freshly baked sourdough bread when we got seated. There were three pieces but my partner beat me to the bread. The crust wasn't super crunchy and crispy but the middle bits was really soft and fresh and tasty.

sourdough bread

At Blancmange, you can order a 3 course meal for $55 but my partner decided that it's too much food for us. As such, we opted to share an entree - the twice baked caramelised onion and gruyere souffle ($18). This was a sweet, cheesy, soft, super tasty and yummy souffle served with a witlof salad with walnuts, currents, blue cheese, semi-dried tomatoes and mustard vinaigrette. There was a super herby tasty triangular wafer in the middle. This whole dish is deliciousness! Delicately matching sweetness, savouriness, bitterness and sourness. All well balanced. YUM.

twice baked caramelised onion and gruyere souffle with witlof salad - $18

For the mains, I couldn't decide on what I wanted and my partner couldn't decided from two dishes. Hence, we ordered the two he had wanted. One was the roasted fillet of angus beef ($36). This was cooked medium rare - almost to perfection. Tender, tasty, succulent angus beef. Mmmm.... this was served with super creamy super smooth potato puree and a bourguignonne garnish of caramelised onions, mushrooms and pancetta lardons (i.e. bacon bits). This onion mushroom bacon mix was sooooooooo full of flavour. The mushroom, especially, soaked up all the juices and was just an explosion of taste. Wow. This dish was awesomely deliciousness.

roasted fillet of angus beef - $36

But wait - there's more. The other main we ordered was the pan roasted salmon ($30). So the skin isn't as crispy as I would like it to be but the fish was simply cooked just right. Not just pink on the outside and darker pink on the inside, the fillet was smooth, soft and tender. Almost melting-in-mouth type. The salmon was sitting on top of grilled green and white asparagus, and a bed of crushed kipfler potatoes, confit tomatoes and caperberries and gerkins mix. It was tasty and delicious :)

pan roasted salmon - $30

For dessert, I was dying to try the dark chocolate fondant ($16). This was served with a macadamia and chocolate crisp and vanilla icecream. The fondant was goey and flowing with warm soft chocolate cakey mixture. Not too sweet and not bland. Complemented with the icecream perfectly and who can resist chocolate with macadamia nuts on it??? I loved every bite of this desset. It was heavenly awesomeness :P

dark chocolate fondant, macadamia and chocolate crisp, vanilla icecream - $16

My partner didn't want dessert. He opted for coffee instead. A "tall" black instead of a long black by mistake LOL. It came with a sponge cake with jam and desiccated coconut. Nothing too special here.

long black with sponge cake

Overall, it was a lovely dining experience. The restaurant does get a little bit loud and echoey because of the smallness of it. But it was very much cosy and comfy. The food was comforting and delicious - did well to combat my work-blues and crashing into the garage. I would definately not mind dinning here again :)

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 32/40

Blancmange
1 Station St
Petersham
NSW 2049
Tel: (02) 9568 4644

Foveaux - Surry Hills

Foveaux

I was so sick and tired of being sick and tired and stressed about uni, I made my partner book us an awesome restaurant to just eat eat eat! My partner threw open our awesome Entertainment-book and picked out Foveaux in Surry Hills.

Having a tentative booking at 8.30pm, we were made to wait in their snazzy comfy stylish dim-litted yet warm bar downstairs. There we ordered a couple of drinks. The Honey and Chamomile Fire ($15) - a concoction of honey water, chamomile tea, peychauds bitters and sparkling wine - for me, and a Fair Trade Agreement ($18) - rum, sweet vermouth, cherry brandy, angostura and orange bitters - for my partner. I thought both drinks were very quite strong. The honey in my honey chamomile drink must have gone a-hiding.

cocktails

After a short while, we were escorted to a small and cozy upstairs dining area. My partner's first reaction after opening the menu was "Wow! It's so cheap!"... *ai ya* I think we eat out too much. No - it wasn't cheap in the full description of the word. It was simply cheaper than we had expected. LOL Mains and Entrees were reasonably priced, and the six course degustation was just $75! Of course, being greedy hungry little people, we opted for the latter choice.

After the waiter set down lotza knives and forks for our feat, we were greeted by fresh, warm bread rolls. Mmmm... fresh warm bread with butter. Yum.

bread roll

The amuse bouche for the evening was a mild curry velouté - smooth, rich and aromatic with a slight chilli curry type taste probably bought on by the kaffir leaves. It also had within it tiny apple and parsnip cubes which added crunchy texture to the wonderfully smooth and creamy mixture. After this appetiser, we had high expections for the courses to come - and rightfully so.

amuse bouche - mild curry velouté with apple and parsnip cubes

It was an interesting six course degustation. There was a choice of two for 5 of 6 of the courses. As such, having two people meant that we had a total of 11 different dishes to try. On top of that, we also got an addition oyster each ($4.00). These were little pacific rock oysters swimming in chardonnay vinegar and topped with tapioca pearls and salmon roe. It was an interesting mix. The slimyness of the oyster with the adventurous "popping" of the salmon roe adding a salty flavour and the less adventurous chewy tapioca (small and large pearls) neutralising the saltiness yet adding extra texture. It was all very interesting and quite good. What I loved about this was the presentation. Sitting on top of a wooden block which is slightly chilled, held stable but rock salt, also slightly chilled ... and colourful! with the perals and the salmon roe... - it was very extremely pretty to look at :)

oysters with chardonnay vinegar, pearls and salmon roe - $4 each

Now onto our actual first course. There was the taro and goats curd sandwich, accompanied with shaved fennel a la grecque, one to each side of the taro sandwich. Each blob of shaved fellen was topped with green olive jelly radish sprouts adnd a bit of carrot. Lastly, to prettify the whole dish, there was an artistic carrot paint stroke across the plate. Just by looking at it, it seemed like a huge slab of taro sitting tall in the middle. What it actually is, is a huge slab of goats cheese and with a paper-thin slice of taro on either side - perfectly matched in shape. The fennel blobs were also soaked through with taste - quite good taste.

Taro and goats curd sandwich with shaved fennel blobs

The other choice for our first course was one of my favourites for the night. In short, it was marinated trout cubes swimming in cucumber soup and topped with trout-flavoured icecream. In reality, it was probably much much more complex than that. Why was this dish so WOW? The coldness of the icecream was so opposite to the fresh trout pieces that it was just so so complementary! Especially when eaten with crunchy popped trout skin and neo gai (that green seaweedy stuff). It was so amazing! Even the cucumber soup tasted like trout LOL.

marinated ocean trout with smoked trout ice cream and cucmber soup

Onto the second course. There was the pork belly, lovelily caramalised. Although it was a thin slice of pork, it still encompassed within it the crunchiness of the skin, ooziness of the pork fat, and tenderness of the meat. It was like... melting in my mouth! Accompanying this awesome thing slice of meat was a puddle of black pudding puree. To make the dish even more presentable was little bits of ceviche prawn, green shiso and super super crispy and tasty prawn rice cracker. When you eat the cracker with pork with black pudding all together in one bite, it was simply amazingness!!!

caramalised pork belly with black pudding puree

The other option for course number two was the sauteed spring bay scallops. Scallops were sitting ontop of slices of venison heart and crushed beetroot soaked in la goya jus. This was all decorated with a paint stroke of sesame puree. They love the paint stroke. Lucky for them, so do I :) I have to say that I dislike beetroot with a passion. Yet, this beetroot was kind of acceptable in small portions (and that is definately saying something!). But the main thing was the scallops. This must be one of the first restaurants which served perfectly cooked scallops! It was lightly sauteed on the outside and yet, sweet and raw (but not cold) on the inside. It was sooooo tasty and soooo perfectly textured and yummmy and and and... slightly indescribable.

sauteed spring bay scallops with venison heart and crushed beetroot

Third course - one option was the roast trevalla served with a cube of kohirabbi gratin which was swimming in super super super sweet carrot puree. The pretty perfectly cooked piece of trevalla had super crispy skin and was situated on top of a braised sea urchin, leek and salad burnette mix. To provide extra flavour, there was also a good dab of red wine reduction sauce.

roast trevalla

The other option was extremely good too. Baked rainbow trout with tiny bits of victorian morel mushrooms and clams. The rainbow trout was again, perfectly cooked. The only qualm I have about this is the skin. It would have made for much better texture if the skin was crispy too! Yet, it was just slimy and slithery. There was also a good portion of sugar snaps below the trout. The best thing about this dish was the sweet corn puree. It was amazing! Super sweetly corn tasting without even the slightest hint of corn pieces in it.

baked rainbow trout with sweet corn puree

The last meat course for the night had an option of lamb or rib cap. I don't eat lamb. But I ate a bit of this. Why? Because the sauce was so amazing that I couldn't even taste the icky lamb taste! Slices of roasted lamb loin was topped with asparagus pieces, crunchy wakame seaweed and pea sprouts. Surrounding this was a white miso puree and jus gras. My partner loved this dish.

roasted lamb loin with white miso puree

Although I did eat the lamb, I still preferred my braised rib cap. The rib cap had that slightly charred taste, yet was tender and bits of fat (but not too much fat) throughout providing that really rich powerful taste. The two green blobs sitting on either side of the rib cap were pastley purees. This had a strong herby green taste. But it was not the smooth creamy puree I was hoping for. There was also a little piece of chicken wing and oyster, as well as two little cubed of milk braised celeriac. I think that the sauce was just it's own jus, but it was pretty awesome anyway :P

braised rib cap

The first dessert was option-less. Hence, both my partner and I got the braised watermelon with vodka jube, fruit salad sage and sleeps yoghurt sorbet. I'm not a fan of sheeps yoghurt sorbet. The sage was actually very fruit salad tasting. And the watermelon was crunchy and watery and refreshing. I guess that overall, compared to the dishes we already sampled, this was not as awesome but it was still alright.

braised watermelon, vodka jube, fruit salad sage and sheeps yoghurt sorbet

Another dessert was the tonka bean rice pudding. This was topped with white chocolate ice cream, which was very yum. There was yet again, a paint stroke. This time, of blackberry conserve. To prettify the whole thing, walnut dust was sprinkled on top.

tonka bean rice pudding, blackberry conserve, white chocolate ice cream and walnut dust

Last but not least was the awesomely presented tobacco roasted pears. The plate was coloured by burnt grape-seed oil (it was tasteless but oh so presentable). The two thin brown slices were actually chocolate wafers. This was super crispy and tasted like burnt dark chocolate crisps. When eaten with the pecan gelato, it was heavenly! Interestingly, along with the pears and raspberries, there were also candied celery. I thought that this was a very brave and bold choice. It was interesting, but I can't really say that it was very matching.

tobacco roasted pears with pecan gelato, raspberries, candied celery and chocolate wafers

As you can probably tell, I have now exhausted my vocab of yummy adjectives. The food here was awesome! Foodwise, I would have rated it a 10 out of 10 - but, as my partner says, there's always room for improvement. I thought that Foveaux really excelled itself in the food presentation. The mixture of tastes were daring and creative yet oddly amazingly complementary. The staff were attentive... most of the time. And the price was good. I think we will be back - maybe next year when we get another 25% off the total bill from our E-book :P

Ratings:
Food - 9.5/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 9/10
Value for money - 9/10
Overall - 35.5/40

Foveaux
1/65-67 Foveaux St
Surry Hills
NSW 2010
tel: (02) 9211 0664