To eat to the ends of the world and back.
DEGUSTATION REVIEW: Aka food porn, just in case you're interested.
Lately me and t8_steve have been desperate to expand our culinary horizons and so we've been scoping for other degustations to try. Though truly we are the most amateur of food critics since I am a firmly grounded believer in the "Stuff your face until its like a chipmunk" eating philosophy.
But y'know, we made an effort.
I poured over all the magazines and landed on the highest common denominator of a degustation menu beloved by all food critics, and therefore has to be some sort of golden shrine of eating experience.
It's the ONLY French restaurant in Leichhardt, a little classy place called Bistro Ortolan where bookings are essential and the waiters are properly snooty and everything feels like it belongs in some upper class film where people always wear evening gowns and have cigars in a smoking room.
The meal would cost us $110 each which was steep, but then the amount of CONFIDENCE that all the food research gave me assured me it was going to blow my mind. As you all may well know, Alita rarely spends money unless it's really goddamn worth her while.
So last Saturday we finally got our booking and like excited chipmunks Steve and I embarked on a 3.5 hour culinary Experience. Actually it turned out more like 4.5 hours of eating, but boy, what a meal.
I have to say, straight off, it's probably up there in the BEST MEALS I'VE HAD IN MY LIFE LIST. Why doesn't it take the CROWN you say? Because in my heart of asian hearts, you need to be rolled out of a place if the food was truly great, and while Orlotan was certainly some of the most divine food I've ever had the pleasure to taste, the amount of waiting in anticipation and the spaced out nature of it leaving me content but not actually super dooper, gotta get rolled out by oompaloompas to be juiced sort of full... so it wasn't 100% WINNER but certainly a solid 95%.
That said, for a degustation, it was set at a fantastic pace, at no point were you at the brink of so full you're considering doing it Roman-style and vomitarium it out. Everything had such light flavour, they left it enough time to let it linger on your tongue and bask in it a little before the next course.
We were served almost immediately after we sat down... (t8_steve then hemmed and hummed over some wine of which both of us are pretty plebian about. Luckily all the wines on their list were great or the choices we made were delicious).
OUR FIRST COURSE:
Iced tomato essence with Pambula Rock Oyster and Melfor vinegar granita
My initial reaction to this was one of familitarity since I've had the tomato essence before at another degustation at Rise Japanese Restaurant.
And then I actually tasted it, and if that had been tomato essence, this was like ambrosia. The chill of the ice tantalizes the tongue before you can suckle on the juices of the small bites of fruit and vegetables within. Imagine an ice slushie flavoured tomato, and so light with the flavour it isn't overwhelming and suddenly biting in the crisp skin of the tomato itself and other comrades in green like that host does on Iron Chef. It was so good I drank it so fast almost like a shot and wished I lingered over it longer. Steve nibbled on his like a 18th century victorian lady. The oyster was crazy fresh, sitting on its little pedastal of ice and you ate it by spooning it out with another bit of oyster shell.
At this point me and Steve were giving each other the, "HO DAMN" looks of awe after tasting our dishes.
SECOND COURSE:
After an amiable amount of time, in which me and Steve make the other people dining there annoyed at our camera taking antics... the second course arrived.
Rare Loin of Port Lincoln blu-fin tuna 'nicoise' with wild samphire and softly cooked quail egg.
We didn't even KNOW what this course was when it first came out since we expected, well, a slab of fish and an egg.
The presentation for this dish was just beautiful. Everything was set out so it almost looks like jewellery sitting on your plate. The tuna gleamed like you hear in all those Japanese food game shows where people are all, "I HAVE NEVER HAD REAL FAT FUNA PEOPLE, AND THIS, THIS IS THE MOMENT I CAN FINALLY MMMMMmMMMMMM OISHI DESU NE." There was such an interesting assortment of vegetables on the plate, and so perfectly cut and fresh. Everything was crunchy and the flavours blended unusually, but really nicely.
I had to try a vegetable first because I couldn't bear to de-tower my little stack of tuna. Those peas were so juicy and crunchy ho damn. The extra bit I really enjoyed about this dish was the bit of sardine tuna which was on the side of the dish to add a certain salty flavour to the sweetness of the tomato.
Then I had the tuna and it just melted. in. my. mouth.
The outside is coated with a later of crisp skin, and the inside, was the texture of hard jelly with a flavour which any Japanese person would be proud to call real Sushi. You eat one piece and you cut the other bit slower because this is something you want to savour boys and girls.
The quail egg Steve left till last because he was likes quail egg best. The herbs on the outside gave it a certain kick, while the inside was gooey like a profiterole.
One of my favourite dishes of the night.
THIRD COURSE:
After many minutes of us staring at our finished tuna plates in sadness for having finished it so soon, third course came striding along.
Roasted Queenland spanner crab and mushroom consomme with its tortellini, fig salad and silken tofu.
This was very much like a high end dim sum. And I couldn't figure a way to eat it without... chopping it in half and thus, ruining it. I ate it faaarrr too quickly by solving this problem and getting it whole.
There was great rush of flavour where the crab is a cool, mayo-y taste and then the tortelinni inside is warm and satisfying like a DESERT MUSHROOM. I really liked how most of the dishes we experienced had this double flavour effect, you get one sensation and then another. The skin of the dim sum is was soft, and the fig salad I was surprised to note didn't have any sort of bitterness left, instead was somehow crunchy and soaked up the taste of the mushroom soup which is floating all around it brilliantly.
I was most amused by how the silken tofu was actually... this tiny square of tofu no more than 1cm big.
I really wish I didn't eat this dish so fast. Sigh.
FOURTH COURSE
Crepinette of pink snapper with seared Hervey Bay Scollops, foie gras butter and summer greens
Once again the fish just melted in my mouth like a delicious souffle. I was most surprised by the foie gras butter which is that green stuff, which was deep, and creamy, and tasted nothing at all like pate. The scallop had that instantly fresh taste which meant it was crispy until you really bit in and it feels like the whole thing is kind of dissolving in your mouth so eat quick before that piece is gone.
FIFTH COURSE
Roasted loin and rack of Macleay Valley white rabbit with a bouchee of Autumn vegetables
Look at Steve's happy face :)
This dish had adorable presentation since it's just about the smallest little rack of ribs you will ever see. Not even enough to pick your teeth with. Weirdly though, this was probably the weakest course, simply because it only had one flavour, it was definitely very nice, but it didn't have that extra ZING! that all the others had where you had one flavour and then another sneaks up on you and bashes you on the back of the head.
The pastry which is the 'bouche' is to die for however. I thought the rabbit would steal the show since it was so adorable coming out, but the pastry was like a million pastry chefs worked hard to put 4000 layers of micro-thin pastry and baked them together for this golden moment of crispy goodness. I had a Yakitate!Japan moment where I sparkled with my eyes after eating that. The rabbit tasted like rabbit. *shrug*
SIXTH COURSE
Twice Cooked tenderloin of Black Angus Beef with mushroom duxelles, sarladaise potatoes and bordelaise eschallots
Excuse the terrible photo. Once again I thought the meat would steal the show, and this course the beef was perfectly cooked, in that My Kitchen Rules kind of way where it's all dark on the outside but when you cut it, it's pink and juice and you're like, wow, this is like a steak diamond!!! But I was truly more impressed with the potatoes.
Because you expect just, a slab of potato right, but I seriously love how every little aspect of these dishes had some work and preparation put into them.
They were LAYERED! Tiny micro-thin slices of potato neatly stacked together and baked like a croissant. We peel at it and ate it, and it was like all the flavour of the sauces had been contained in the space between the layers.
I've never been more impressed with spud.
SEVENTH COURSE
By now, our backsides were numb and we've hit the first of the desert courses. Seriously, the only downside of this restaurant is the hard as nails wooden chairs. I mean, if you know your visitors will be there for 4 hours, would a cushion really be that out of the question?
Beauford Macerared muscatels and walnut toast.
This was the inbetweener dish which paced you between the mains and the deserts to come. And just looking at it, we were skeptical since it looked like dates, toast and cheese. But like every single other dish we were proved completely wrong about our expectations.
The Cheese is from the swedish alps, so it has this strange (mountainous?) texture which I can't quite describe, it tasted like brie with the tang of a bit of blue, but the texture was like almost melted tasty cheese.
The walnut toast was the surprising factor since it was served warm, and it was sweet and not very multigrain as you would expect. It was crazy fresh, and balanced between the tang of the cheese and the super sweetness of the muscatels. The muscatels weren't dates, they were much sweeter, almost a overly sweetened cherry which was then covered with New Zealand honey. I was really impressed at how they balanced all the flavours together.
It really made you pace yourself out and try a little bit of everything at the same time.
Steve's face says it all:
EIGHTH COURSE
Sour Plum sorbet and stonefruit salad
If you think you've had great icecream, you haven't. This sorbet was INSANE. It somehow managed to be both sour and sweet and then soothed it going down with fresh iciness all in one go. And then your mouth is left watering and you have to go back in for another bite.
The fruit was deliciously hard. And as a person who can only enjoy hard fruit, I looked around hard at the place and in my head kept wondering, "BUT HOW DID THEY KNOWWWW?!?!?" You just crunch into it, and it was great contrast to the super softness of the ice cream.
OH YEAHHHHHH.
NINTH COURSE
By which point I was full, but the dessert has been so delicious so far I was eager as a puppy for more. This course was hands down the most memorable for me in terms of taste and amazement factor. I dream of this dish.
Worship.
Goats cheese bavarois with summer berry soup and salted nougatine
I thought the white thing was cream at first, or some sort of cake or pudding. The fact it turned out to be cheese, and like no cheese I had ever tasted just blew my mind. It was mild like richotta, but the texture was the softest thing I had ever put in my mouth. This thing was the golden ambrosia of all pudding, and it matched perfectly with the ice cream on top, which was of a light berry taste, and then it all kind of dissolved as you ate into the soup, which when mixed together was this crazy delicious mash up of all the best fruits and creams and cheeses in the world sitting in perfect harmony on your taste buds.
I could eat this forever.
TENTH COURSE
Our last! We were pretty much numb from the waist down at this point. But the rest of us were high in the clouds of delicious.
Tea, Coffee and petit fours
I would've been SO disappointed if the coffee here was bad. Luckily my fears were completely unjustified. Some of the best coffee I've ever tasted, and from one who hits the bean hard, that's a high claim to make.
The petite fours involved a truffle and mini profiterole. I expected to love the truffle more. And while it was indeed a chocolate heaven of brain melting greatness. The profiterole was insane. It was like all the pastry so far in this meal, tiny tiny layers in a ball which broke apart on contact with your mouth, topped with toffee and then as soon as you bit in this wash of delicate custard fills your mouth.
I wish I had four million of these things to graze on for eternity. I felt such a huge urge to up and run downstairs and steal the entire tray of these things at that moment. I could've lived a happy life with that tray. It would've been the greatest romance the world has ever known.
But sadly that was the end of our meal.
If your mouth watered at any point in this review, I REALLY suggest you book yourself a table at Bistro Ortolan, it's really a worthwhile experience. Some of the most divine food to ever have been eaten by someone who eats a vertifiably large diversity of food.
But maybe bring one of those seat cushions with you when you do.
That's it from Alita, who wishes she can go back.
Lately me and t8_steve have been desperate to expand our culinary horizons and so we've been scoping for other degustations to try. Though truly we are the most amateur of food critics since I am a firmly grounded believer in the "Stuff your face until its like a chipmunk" eating philosophy.
But y'know, we made an effort.
I poured over all the magazines and landed on the highest common denominator of a degustation menu beloved by all food critics, and therefore has to be some sort of golden shrine of eating experience.
It's the ONLY French restaurant in Leichhardt, a little classy place called Bistro Ortolan where bookings are essential and the waiters are properly snooty and everything feels like it belongs in some upper class film where people always wear evening gowns and have cigars in a smoking room.
The meal would cost us $110 each which was steep, but then the amount of CONFIDENCE that all the food research gave me assured me it was going to blow my mind. As you all may well know, Alita rarely spends money unless it's really goddamn worth her while.
So last Saturday we finally got our booking and like excited chipmunks Steve and I embarked on a 3.5 hour culinary Experience. Actually it turned out more like 4.5 hours of eating, but boy, what a meal.
I have to say, straight off, it's probably up there in the BEST MEALS I'VE HAD IN MY LIFE LIST. Why doesn't it take the CROWN you say? Because in my heart of asian hearts, you need to be rolled out of a place if the food was truly great, and while Orlotan was certainly some of the most divine food I've ever had the pleasure to taste, the amount of waiting in anticipation and the spaced out nature of it leaving me content but not actually super dooper, gotta get rolled out by oompaloompas to be juiced sort of full... so it wasn't 100% WINNER but certainly a solid 95%.
That said, for a degustation, it was set at a fantastic pace, at no point were you at the brink of so full you're considering doing it Roman-style and vomitarium it out. Everything had such light flavour, they left it enough time to let it linger on your tongue and bask in it a little before the next course.
We were served almost immediately after we sat down... (t8_steve then hemmed and hummed over some wine of which both of us are pretty plebian about. Luckily all the wines on their list were great or the choices we made were delicious).
OUR FIRST COURSE:
Iced tomato essence with Pambula Rock Oyster and Melfor vinegar granita
My initial reaction to this was one of familitarity since I've had the tomato essence before at another degustation at Rise Japanese Restaurant.
And then I actually tasted it, and if that had been tomato essence, this was like ambrosia. The chill of the ice tantalizes the tongue before you can suckle on the juices of the small bites of fruit and vegetables within. Imagine an ice slushie flavoured tomato, and so light with the flavour it isn't overwhelming and suddenly biting in the crisp skin of the tomato itself and other comrades in green like that host does on Iron Chef. It was so good I drank it so fast almost like a shot and wished I lingered over it longer. Steve nibbled on his like a 18th century victorian lady. The oyster was crazy fresh, sitting on its little pedastal of ice and you ate it by spooning it out with another bit of oyster shell.
At this point me and Steve were giving each other the, "HO DAMN" looks of awe after tasting our dishes.
SECOND COURSE:
After an amiable amount of time, in which me and Steve make the other people dining there annoyed at our camera taking antics... the second course arrived.
Rare Loin of Port Lincoln blu-fin tuna 'nicoise' with wild samphire and softly cooked quail egg.
We didn't even KNOW what this course was when it first came out since we expected, well, a slab of fish and an egg.
The presentation for this dish was just beautiful. Everything was set out so it almost looks like jewellery sitting on your plate. The tuna gleamed like you hear in all those Japanese food game shows where people are all, "I HAVE NEVER HAD REAL FAT FUNA PEOPLE, AND THIS, THIS IS THE MOMENT I CAN FINALLY MMMMMmMMMMMM OISHI DESU NE." There was such an interesting assortment of vegetables on the plate, and so perfectly cut and fresh. Everything was crunchy and the flavours blended unusually, but really nicely.
I had to try a vegetable first because I couldn't bear to de-tower my little stack of tuna. Those peas were so juicy and crunchy ho damn. The extra bit I really enjoyed about this dish was the bit of sardine tuna which was on the side of the dish to add a certain salty flavour to the sweetness of the tomato.
Then I had the tuna and it just melted. in. my. mouth.
The outside is coated with a later of crisp skin, and the inside, was the texture of hard jelly with a flavour which any Japanese person would be proud to call real Sushi. You eat one piece and you cut the other bit slower because this is something you want to savour boys and girls.
The quail egg Steve left till last because he was likes quail egg best. The herbs on the outside gave it a certain kick, while the inside was gooey like a profiterole.
One of my favourite dishes of the night.
THIRD COURSE:
After many minutes of us staring at our finished tuna plates in sadness for having finished it so soon, third course came striding along.
Roasted Queenland spanner crab and mushroom consomme with its tortellini, fig salad and silken tofu.
This was very much like a high end dim sum. And I couldn't figure a way to eat it without... chopping it in half and thus, ruining it. I ate it faaarrr too quickly by solving this problem and getting it whole.
There was great rush of flavour where the crab is a cool, mayo-y taste and then the tortelinni inside is warm and satisfying like a DESERT MUSHROOM. I really liked how most of the dishes we experienced had this double flavour effect, you get one sensation and then another. The skin of the dim sum is was soft, and the fig salad I was surprised to note didn't have any sort of bitterness left, instead was somehow crunchy and soaked up the taste of the mushroom soup which is floating all around it brilliantly.
I was most amused by how the silken tofu was actually... this tiny square of tofu no more than 1cm big.
I really wish I didn't eat this dish so fast. Sigh.
FOURTH COURSE
Crepinette of pink snapper with seared Hervey Bay Scollops, foie gras butter and summer greens
Once again the fish just melted in my mouth like a delicious souffle. I was most surprised by the foie gras butter which is that green stuff, which was deep, and creamy, and tasted nothing at all like pate. The scallop had that instantly fresh taste which meant it was crispy until you really bit in and it feels like the whole thing is kind of dissolving in your mouth so eat quick before that piece is gone.
FIFTH COURSE
Roasted loin and rack of Macleay Valley white rabbit with a bouchee of Autumn vegetables
Look at Steve's happy face :)
This dish had adorable presentation since it's just about the smallest little rack of ribs you will ever see. Not even enough to pick your teeth with. Weirdly though, this was probably the weakest course, simply because it only had one flavour, it was definitely very nice, but it didn't have that extra ZING! that all the others had where you had one flavour and then another sneaks up on you and bashes you on the back of the head.
The pastry which is the 'bouche' is to die for however. I thought the rabbit would steal the show since it was so adorable coming out, but the pastry was like a million pastry chefs worked hard to put 4000 layers of micro-thin pastry and baked them together for this golden moment of crispy goodness. I had a Yakitate!Japan moment where I sparkled with my eyes after eating that. The rabbit tasted like rabbit. *shrug*
SIXTH COURSE
Twice Cooked tenderloin of Black Angus Beef with mushroom duxelles, sarladaise potatoes and bordelaise eschallots
Excuse the terrible photo. Once again I thought the meat would steal the show, and this course the beef was perfectly cooked, in that My Kitchen Rules kind of way where it's all dark on the outside but when you cut it, it's pink and juice and you're like, wow, this is like a steak diamond!!! But I was truly more impressed with the potatoes.
Because you expect just, a slab of potato right, but I seriously love how every little aspect of these dishes had some work and preparation put into them.
They were LAYERED! Tiny micro-thin slices of potato neatly stacked together and baked like a croissant. We peel at it and ate it, and it was like all the flavour of the sauces had been contained in the space between the layers.
I've never been more impressed with spud.
SEVENTH COURSE
By now, our backsides were numb and we've hit the first of the desert courses. Seriously, the only downside of this restaurant is the hard as nails wooden chairs. I mean, if you know your visitors will be there for 4 hours, would a cushion really be that out of the question?
Beauford Macerared muscatels and walnut toast.
This was the inbetweener dish which paced you between the mains and the deserts to come. And just looking at it, we were skeptical since it looked like dates, toast and cheese. But like every single other dish we were proved completely wrong about our expectations.
The Cheese is from the swedish alps, so it has this strange (mountainous?) texture which I can't quite describe, it tasted like brie with the tang of a bit of blue, but the texture was like almost melted tasty cheese.
The walnut toast was the surprising factor since it was served warm, and it was sweet and not very multigrain as you would expect. It was crazy fresh, and balanced between the tang of the cheese and the super sweetness of the muscatels. The muscatels weren't dates, they were much sweeter, almost a overly sweetened cherry which was then covered with New Zealand honey. I was really impressed at how they balanced all the flavours together.
It really made you pace yourself out and try a little bit of everything at the same time.
Steve's face says it all:
EIGHTH COURSE
Sour Plum sorbet and stonefruit salad
If you think you've had great icecream, you haven't. This sorbet was INSANE. It somehow managed to be both sour and sweet and then soothed it going down with fresh iciness all in one go. And then your mouth is left watering and you have to go back in for another bite.
The fruit was deliciously hard. And as a person who can only enjoy hard fruit, I looked around hard at the place and in my head kept wondering, "BUT HOW DID THEY KNOWWWW?!?!?" You just crunch into it, and it was great contrast to the super softness of the ice cream.
OH YEAHHHHHH.
NINTH COURSE
By which point I was full, but the dessert has been so delicious so far I was eager as a puppy for more. This course was hands down the most memorable for me in terms of taste and amazement factor. I dream of this dish.
Worship.
Goats cheese bavarois with summer berry soup and salted nougatine
I thought the white thing was cream at first, or some sort of cake or pudding. The fact it turned out to be cheese, and like no cheese I had ever tasted just blew my mind. It was mild like richotta, but the texture was the softest thing I had ever put in my mouth. This thing was the golden ambrosia of all pudding, and it matched perfectly with the ice cream on top, which was of a light berry taste, and then it all kind of dissolved as you ate into the soup, which when mixed together was this crazy delicious mash up of all the best fruits and creams and cheeses in the world sitting in perfect harmony on your taste buds.
I could eat this forever.
TENTH COURSE
Our last! We were pretty much numb from the waist down at this point. But the rest of us were high in the clouds of delicious.
Tea, Coffee and petit fours
I would've been SO disappointed if the coffee here was bad. Luckily my fears were completely unjustified. Some of the best coffee I've ever tasted, and from one who hits the bean hard, that's a high claim to make.
The petite fours involved a truffle and mini profiterole. I expected to love the truffle more. And while it was indeed a chocolate heaven of brain melting greatness. The profiterole was insane. It was like all the pastry so far in this meal, tiny tiny layers in a ball which broke apart on contact with your mouth, topped with toffee and then as soon as you bit in this wash of delicate custard fills your mouth.
I wish I had four million of these things to graze on for eternity. I felt such a huge urge to up and run downstairs and steal the entire tray of these things at that moment. I could've lived a happy life with that tray. It would've been the greatest romance the world has ever known.
But sadly that was the end of our meal.
If your mouth watered at any point in this review, I REALLY suggest you book yourself a table at Bistro Ortolan, it's really a worthwhile experience. Some of the most divine food to ever have been eaten by someone who eats a vertifiably large diversity of food.
But maybe bring one of those seat cushions with you when you do.
That's it from Alita, who wishes she can go back.