The chef forgot to season our food.
The problem for me in sharing this with you, is that I know, my experience must have been a hiccup. With a number of supportive reviews in the traditional media, there is no way that this is indicative of a meal that you could perhaps experience there tonight.
So please don't take this post as my suggestion not to go and give it a go yourself, yet I feel I have a responsibility to share my truthful food experiences with you, even when unfortunately it was not good, in fact - embarrassingly bad.
Of the six items from the menu and specials that we ordered; one was seasoned well, delicious and well cooked, two were underseasoned and three dishes had no flavour at all, due to there being no salt in the dish - a massive faux pas especially when you are eating tofu.
For the sake of clarity, I dined there two weekends ago. We selected the above 'tofu box' on the waiters recommendation, some of the house dumplings of prawn and crab, some roast pork belly, a special dish of venison carpaccio and a braised beef cheek dish with a green beans side.
The dining room was smart, lots of cute high attention to detail pieces. Someone had really thought about the space and its look. We loved the silk draped roof - perhaps less so in the severely overcrowed bar - and smiled at the beautiful plates and equipment as they were presented to us. It all seemed right and what we had expected.
The food unfortunately was extremely disappointing. The dumplings, carpaccio and tofu were the first round of shared dishes that arrived. Upon tasting these initially we were puzzled and asked our waiter for some 'salt or soy sauce' (as I was uncertain which way the kitchen would be inclined). We were delivered some thick dark soy sauce that was fine to season the flavourless tofu and mushrooms but impossible for the carpaccio and dumplings. We powered on and made the most of a difficult scenario.
The next dishes, the belly and then braised cheek and greens were not much better, the cooking technique was indisputably good, the belly was crispy skinned and fat rendered the cheek was edible with chopsticks, yet both dishes were missing that chef touch, were tasting as you go is an absolute necessity. The beans were the final straw for me, listed as 'salt and pepper' we giggled as we spoke quietly of the peppered beans, as again I asked the waiter for some salt.
In an extreme contrast to our meal, Jason Chan one of the owners and one of Australia's best baristas noticed us in the dining room from our visits to Batch, his cafe in Balaclava. He made and served PDC what he could only describe as the perfect espresso; short, clean and heady.
I have been torn about writing this piece, I'm not a restaurant whinger. I understand that 'stuff' can happen, yet the truth is that the kitchen severely dropped the ball the night I dined.
Will I go back? Sure, but perhaps I'll let a little time pass first.
