Without any planning, S. and I decided to go out to a nice meal. Friday night in Sydney. It’s not always easy to get into places that are popular.
So I had little hopes of getting into Tomislav, a restaurant that I’d wanted to try after reading a great review in the Sydney Morning Herald, and also a good report from my pal, John. The chef is Australian-born, with an Eastern European name, and making inventive Modern Australian food. When I called to make a reservation, the fellow on the phone told me that with the weekend ‘Taste of Sydney’ event on, restaurants were very quiet. We could come at any time.
So cheers. Come dine with us. This meal was spectacular.
I myself had a cocktail with Aperol while we considered the menu, and S. a tasty glass of red, I don’t remember what it was.
The drinks menu was interesting and reasonable.
More importantly, the service was stellar. Both of the people who waited on us seemed genuinely excited to be bringing us fantastic food.
First off, home-made rice crackers, with home-made sour creams and chives. They did explain how they made these, rice paper I think, brused with egg whites and then… Oh forget it. They were light and tasty. The dip was excellent. What a fun way to start the meal.
From there, the menu proposed 4 courses for $80. Since S. and I always share our food, we got double the choices! But I just had to post this photo of how they serve the butter. A perfect quenelle on a stone block. Booya!
For the first course, S. ordered Scamp Carpaccio with Sour Cream and Pumpkin Juice. It’s not so visible here. I thought it was tasty enough. And it is very pretty, no?
However, my order was Poached Hen’s Yolk with foie gras and pickled pink (watermelon) turnips. So, you take a bit of stuff that looks like bread crumbs, and it melts on your mouth from its frozen state into: foie gras. This was so tasty and inventive, I think it was my favourite dish of the night. They explained how they made this too – and boy, is it complicated!
For the second course, S.’s Roast Red Gate Farm Quail with XO sauce and sour cherries
And my choice: grilled Blackmore’s tongue with wattleseed toffee (underneath the tongue) and coconut ice cream. The rich flavour of the tongue and tender texture matched with sweet. I was entranced by this dish.
Similarly rich and tender was my 3rd course, the Ranger’s Valley Beef Short Rib with beetroot and enoki mushrooms, and while it looks like I’m getting drunker and drunker from the poor quality of the photos, it’s that the light was fading and my iphone 3GS doesn’t have a flash (so we started using S.’s flash, and the photos, as you’ll see, become much better)
S. had a dish that was off the menu, and a special that night. Duck. How can you go wrong with duck?
Nice plate, huh? Oh, and we had a side dish of their famous potato chips cooked in duck fat. Suitably crispy.
The final and 4th course was dessert. We had a caramel pudding with yoghurt sorbet… and a milk chocolate cream cake with smoked banana ice cream and hazelnuts.
Oh, and to finish off, a glass of sticky: a french dessert wine called ‘celestial tears’.
One of the most exciting meals I’ve had lately. I can’t wait to try it again!