AGT

by

Impressions from the AGT Restaurant Guide for 2018

Orana – Crab & yoghurt sorbet, codium & sea purslane

My favourite restaurant guide has been released for yet another year. When you narrow down the thousands of restaurants in Australia to a top 100, there are naturally some surprises, but in the end, every single one of those restaurants is a terrific place to have a day or night out.

Getting down to the pointy end is exciting. There are only eight restaurants in the whole of Australia that get three stars. They set themselves apart by doing the basics perfectly, and innovating in a way that is remarkable. They are not always the obvious, but equally, they are certainly not places you stumble over by accident.

Attica – Marron, Lilly Pilly and Pearl

Take Orana in Adelaide. If you were to turn up unannounced one evening and somehow get a table, you would initially be skeptical of the price tag, and then be wondering whether you are on “candid camera” as you open your mouth to allow a spoon of green ants to greet your tastebuds. What about Brae in Birregurra, near Geelong. If you were dropped off outside this homestead and farm, you might be searching for the nearest uber to take you back to civilization.

Cutler & Co – Roast chicken, house ground polenta, baby corn & miso

These are not ordinary, everyday experiences. There is a touch of discomfort. It might be the cost, the reverence, the soft gasps, or the sheer oddity of three star dining. But like most experiences, when you are out of your comfort zone, or at least on the edge of it, the memories are bigger than the moment.

Vue De Monde

When Shannon Bennett says that he wants his customers to have a comforting experience, he doesn’t mean eating meat and three veg in your tracksuit in front of the television. He means he wants the experience to be memorable for different reasons, and for his staff to do everything to make such a potentially awkward meal something to aspire to do again, and to relive in stories for the meantime.

Momofuku – beef, radish, fermented black bean

There are the unassuming places. Momofuku Seiobo looks a bit oddly placed in The Star casino and entertainment complex. The Bridge Room is almost quaint. Attica is in the suburbs. Cutler & Co sounds like a ye olde medicinal shop, placed in one of the quieter parts of Fitzroy. They were not dining destinations before the owners set up shop and created something special.

The Bridge Room – Aerated passionfruit, roasted nougatine, passionfruit ice cream, passionfruit seed powder, glass biscuit

Then there’s Quay. That is the one that stands out because it is entirely appropriate. A restaurant overlooking the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House serving food with Ferrari price tags. The achievement of Peter Gilmore keeping this restaurant at the top of its game is surely not lost when you eat at some of its neighbours.

Brae – Egg yolk, potato and jerusalem artichoke, sauce of comte and vin jaune

It is the first time I’ve been to all eight of the three star restaurants. I believe they all deserve a spot for what they have achieved, and what they are currently doing. I love the fact that really none of the top five have a view (sorry Brae, the farm is actually very serene), and I love the fact that with all of these restaurants while the basics are done very, very well; it is the food that is the reason they are so brilliant.

Well done to Australian Gourmet Traveller on a sensational list. A real statement has been made by putting Orana as number one whether the Sydney and Melbourne dominant audience likes it or not. I have never had a meal like it, and that is what separating yourself is all about.

by

Expectations

I wrote these thoughts before going to Attica but did not post them prior to dining (on purpose).

I am off to Attica tonight and as you would expect I am excited.

Like the label or not, we have a World’s Top 50 Restaurant in Melbourne, and that is something to be proud of.

What do I expect from tonight? First, I have been to Attica just once, and it was five years ago. AGT tells me that naturally the restaurant has transformed completely (more than once most probably) and does not resemble my previous experience. So what I expect is all completely new dishes and a certain change in inspirations behind the dishes.

After all, Ben Shewry was just becoming a “celebrity” at the time and has only broadened his perspectives since then with more travel, more acclaim, and more focus on his restaurant from a global audience. There have also been changes in the structure of ownership of the restaurant with Ben now the sole owner, and lately the experimental nights have been pulled, most likely to make sure every experience is consistently exceptional.

I don’t read reviews in the lead up, or even try to have a look at the menu. I like the surprise and luckily, there is almost no ingredient I do not like (as long as it is eaten for pleasure, and not other purposes – in Bourdain’s words on food that does not taste good but is culturally important “to make you strong!”) I hope for a sweet dessert thrown in to the lately balanced (read savoury) theme at fine diners.

I hope there is a protein I haven’t eaten often (or at all). I hope that his treatment of vegetable dishes elevates them in the way I know he can (with the now famous potato cooked in its own soil). I hope all of the snacks are sublime (yes, I use that word) and that they are all memorable. I hope service is perfect (not a completely unreasonable expectation in this type of establishment). I hope the coffee is okay.

I’ve already decided I won’t get the matching wines. I like to have wines by the glass that are versatile and can match a couple of courses in a row. When I finish a glass I either know what I would like next having scanned the menu, or I simply go with exactly what the sommelier suggests. Normally the surprise of how much the glass costs on the bill at the end of the night is pleasant, but I try my best not to have a budget (even though I most certainly do).

There is a gasp at looking at the per head cost of food here, but I justify it in several ways and put it in the background, essentially as part of the booking process. The other justification is it is not as much as the Fat Duck was (for friends – I didn’t go) and is not as much as most three michelin starred places in France, New York or London.

Consistently exceptional food, perfect service, and versatile elegant wines. That is how I hope I can sum up tonight’s experience. Wish me luck!

by

Impressions of the 2015 guides – The Age Good Food Guide and the Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide

I am excited. I have been excited for some time having booked at Brae close to five months ago. But now I am heading to The Age Good Food Guide restaurant of the year and on the first Saturday after it has been crowned!

Momofuku's xo, diakon, tripe

Momofuku’s xo, diakon, tripe

It’s a bit of good luck and good planning. There is a lot of ill feeling towards food guides in general, but they are all too often misunderstood. Basically, it gives the publisher a once-a-year opportunity for their publication to be more broadly and generically publicised. It is great for the restaurants who get awards and/or acclaim (hats in the GFG and stars for AGT) and it does help grow their business and the industry, but they completely understand that you need a bit of good luck on top of great execution and a special difference to get an award. It is not scientific, and it is extremely subjective. Like so many artistic awards, if you are towards the top of the tree, you are successful in your own right, and the recognition is a little bit of cream, rather than the objective.

Lake House's Moreton Bay bug ravioli, kim chi, dashi

Lake House’s Moreton Bay bug ravioli, kim chi, dashi

There are thousands of restaurants. To all of those who say guides are irrelevant, I say if you can get a hat or a star, then you are worth trying out. There is no possible way any one person can attempt to try every restaurant in a city (let alone Australia) in the space of a year, so consistency is impossible. However, if several experienced diners have been to the same restaurant, and all have enjoyed their experience and rate the restaurant close to the top of their list, then that is compelling to me. Taking that into account is more important than arguing why one restaurant in the Australian Gourmet Traveller Top 100 is higher than another; as this is not going to bear any fruit whatsoever.

Supernormal's New England lobster Roll

Supernormal’s New England lobster Roll

For any time starved person, whether it be work or family or other pursuits, using a guide is a savvy way to have more positive than negative experiences in restaurants. While guides like AGT are like my bible, it is not a blind following. There are restaurants that are going to be more suitable, more comfortable, more confronting, and more expensive, than the next. You still need to be picky, and match the destination with the company,and with the occasion. That being said, I have rarely been to two and three hatted/starred restaurants and had a mediocre experience.

Cutler & Co's heirloom tomato salad, smoked buffalo ricotta, filo pastry

Cutler & Co’s heirloom tomato salad, smoked buffalo ricotta, filo pastry

I’m pleased the GFG chose Supernormal, which I reviewed recently, as the new restaurant of the year. I love Andrew McConnell’s diversity and the child of Golden Fields is a fantastic place to dine. I’m also pleased that Attica won the AGT restaurant of the year which has been dominated by Sydney over the past decade. I can understand why Rockpool, Momofuku Seiobo (see my recent review), and Quay round out the top four and hopefully my experience at Brae this weekend will measure up to its award as AGT regional restaurant of the year, and fifth in Australia. It is fantastic to see Cutler & Co also make the top ten in seventh (see my recent review). With Attica, Flower Drum, Vue de Monde, and Brae all receiving three hats in the Victorian GFG there is mainly consistency with AGT.

Momofuku's almond, peach, thyme

Momofuku’s almond, peach, thyme

If you were to dine out at restaurants like these every day you would be quickly going broke. We need some diversity in our dining experiences and a quick look at the AGT Top 100 and the hatted restaurants in the GFG provide an excellent array of styles and cuisines. There is traditional and contemporary, expensive and reasonable, formal and informal, institutional and new. It’s exciting seeing the number of restaurants breaking new ground all around Australia and around Victoria.

The growth of the restaurant industry must present a daunting task for the various judges of these guides. The reward for the publisher comes in being able to promote to a broad audience the places that are worth some effort to try, whether it be to get a booking, to drive or fly, or simply wait in line. I applaud those who contribute to these guides, and look forward to ongoing debates about the relevance and accuracy of the guides.