There has been quite a bit to read about Mirka at Tolarno, perhaps a bit too much. I always try and wait a couple of months before I visit a new restaurant, to make sure that everyone knows what’s going on (the chefs and front of house), the creases are ironed out of the dining room and usually the standard first reviews are around. Well I guess my review follows all of these, yet I had a substantially different experience than what I read I should expect.
I dined at Mirka on Wednesday evening. I was expecting a solid experience; one that reflected the pedigree of the chef/restaurateur, what I got was just fine, uninspiring and unfortunately not worth the excitement I had when I first walked in the door.
Firstly, what I loved.
An amazing welcome; we had three separate waiters all say hi and smile as we walked in. I felt like Eddie McGuire at Stokehouse. I was being looked after.
The fit-out; it looked like quite a bit of money had been spent. It was very tasteful and respectful of the soul of the dining room, the Mirka Mora paintings. Yet it was modern and fresh and thankfully they scraped off the dated paintings on the windows.
The glass wall looking into the kitchen; food voyeurs welcome, the chefs just smile and keep on working.
The nostalgic menu features; I loved the classics such as steak tartare, chateaubriand, charcutiere, antipasto, calves liver etc
What annoyed me.
The maitre‘d; who asked coldly what our reservation name was twice within five minutes and then preceded to cause strife in the each of the waiters sections as he moved around the room, ego alert!
The branding EVERYWHERE; not just on the menus and the pour mark on the glassware, but on every plate, a burgundy rim, an emblem and ‘Grossi’. Also on the bone handle knives. It was just too much and did not fit with what I felt was a sophisticated bistro. It became tacky.
Disappointing entrée and main; bland, undersalted food. My rabbit cacciatore must have been ‘stretched’ (read: chef talk for “I’m running out so I will water all the components down to make it work so I don’t have to tell the maitre’d”) in comparison to John Lethleans portion as it was lacking, all the bits he raved about, ‘the best wet polenta in Melbourne’? , mine was dull and watery. The rabbit through well cooked was mostly bones, I got the neck, a fore leg and some rib cage. There was quite a lot of mushroom, yet considering its mushroom season they were all large field mushrooms, nothing of special interest. Not what I’d expect for $34.
Mean side dish portions; I think side dishes are a good test of the kitchen’s generosity. Our cauliflower gratin for $8 was two and a half florets of cauliflower with chessey sauce and browned crumbs. Food cost of about 50c no doubt.
Awful dessert and not getting the chance to say so; we ordered the savarin to share. The lemony syrup was fine yet the doughnut itself was tasteless, even though it was drenched in the syrup. I would hate to think what it would (or would not have) tasted like without it. The ‘swiss-style custard’ was gluggy and uninteresting. My dining companion and I split the doughnut on to our supplied smaller plates, I tasted mine and decided that it was dull and started picking, until I decided not to be bothered eating it, and wondered what would happen when it came to clearing… Well, my dining companions plate was cleared when coffee was delivered and then my plate sat there alone on the table, uneaten until we asked for the bill. The bill was delivered and the waiter snatched the plate away and didn’t say a word. I would have had to scream across the dining room to have given my feedback, that it was disappointing. I was frustrated that the dessert was so badly average, and that the service staff didn’t stop to enquire as to why the dessert was uneaten. Perhaps they knew and didn’t want to hear it again. I can only assume that I was not the only diner that night that found the food dull.
The restaurant was very busy and resat quite a few tables the night that we dined. I noticed around the diningroom, quite a number of weird service encounters, it just did not feel right. Did everyone else also feel disappointed and ripped off in regards to value for money? Or was the dining room full of readers of The Age and Herald Sun that wanted to believe that they were living the bistro dream, great food and service at a reasonable price… well unfortunately knowledge can be a burden and I definitely was burdened by knowing that I was not living the dream.
I should reiterate that this was an acceptable dining experience, but it did not live up to my expectations, some areas were way off the mark, some were so homogeneously bland and unexciting, I think I may even need to go back and check that it really happened that way.
Yet…locally, I’d rather dine at these similar restaurants:
The Carlisle Wine Bar, Carlisle St, St Kilda East
Cicciolina, Acland St, St Kilda
Melbourne Wine Room, Fitzroy St, St Kilda
Jack
Four of us were in January I think, three of us loved the food! I did but cannot remember what I ate,(a bit sad) but I am far more about the dessert anyway and I always remember that, I had the bomb alaska but I am sure they called it something else, it was not "the bombe" as I had at Stokehouse which had the smoothest italian meringue ever and really lived up to it's name, sadly Mirkas was not the best, a bit gritty and really "airey" and tasteless. xxx
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