Fine Dining

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Coogee Common – Coogee, WA – Friday 19 April 2024 – Lunch

Very rarely do I go out to a restaurant without knowing the first thing about it. In this case, Catherine had long ago aimed to dine here, and I went in blind but confident. If there is anyone who can be trusted to find a great meal, it is my wife.

We arrive on the non-beach side of Cockburn Road, greeted by a beautiful heritage building, along with my Mum, Sher, Sue, and Heinz, who are all well dressed for a fancy meal. I had little idea, but catching up with my family in Perth is always exciting, and they do tend to dress well!

What I now know is Coogee Common has a garden surrounding the restaurant that provides much of what is utilised by the kitchen. There is certainly a bountiful array of fresh produce, and it is beautifully appointed in the creations of the chefs. 

Seated at a large circular table with a terrific vantage point on the corner windows inside, we are beginning at 11.30am and for a moment have much of the restaurant to ourselves (but not for long). There’s plenty of room for the dishes we are about to share, and there’s plenty of time to catch up before we even think to order.

The wine list has the diversity you’d expect at a fine dining establishment, along with some delicous cocktails, and mocktails. Catherine really enjoyed her Spring Fling, and my first glass of wine, a Slate Farm Fiano from Clare Valley, shows vibrancy. My other taste is of the Montague Chardonnay from closer by in Margaret River. For me this is a lesser known producer, highlighting the intelligent building of the wine list with sensible points of difference.

It was tough to narrow down the food options, but with Catherine and Heinz’s help I eventually ordered for the table. I’d start with the highlights, but it was difficult to call out one or two dishes, as the quality across the board was outstanding. Perhaps the surprises are best to mention? The most exceptional dish in my mind was the beetroot salad. Not only superbly roasted (and pickled) by the kitchen, but fresh from the garden, the red beets in particular were some of the best you could hope for.

Almost on a par was the spice roasted carrots, which for me is often a vegetable hard to top. Earlier, gluten-free crispbread and a “garden dip”, along with prawn skewers, and pastrami, for the table, was all superb. The surprise was how delicious the jalapenos and other pickled vegetables tasted on the pastrami plate.

For the larger dishes we had a couple of fillets of snapper go around the table, and besides being perfectly cooked, the skin also remained crisp. I enjoyed the accompaniments, especially the addition of pine nuts and fennel, but Catherine did mention the skoralia (potato and garlic puree) was too strong for her. Lastly, the medium-rare steak was again showing the quality of the kitchen. Not a single mouthful was left, and we had enjoyed a lot of food. There may have been a battle to finish the seaweed and leek left on the plate, which is unique.

Throughout, service had been good, although I didn’t have a seat with a view to the floorstaff, so sometimes was searching for a wine. In comparison with other restaurants during our 12 days in Perth, and Rottnest, this was definitely far above the baseline on service.

For dessert we ended up getting a few, and none of us were disappointed, including Sydney with his chocolate ice cream. In fact, we were very pleased, with Mum even trying the vegan chocolate mousse and prickly pear sorbet and loving it, which is unusual because she rarely has dessert. As I earlier mentioned, fennel is one of my favourite ingredients, so the fennel ice cream grabbed me. Served with a white chocolate draped combination of ricotta and quince, this was a fine end to a terrific meal. Catherine’s pumpkin creme brûlée also tasted as good as it looked.

Garden to table dining is not new, but being so close to the city is novel. It’s exciting to see the risk that Coogee Common has taken, re-establishing a heritage property and planting an entire garden in 2018. Now it is paying dividends with the quality of the outcome. We’d love to be back here on our next visit to Perth.

Coogee Common
https://coogeecommon.com.au
371 Cockburn Road, Coogee
Monday to Saturday 11.30am to late
Phone: 0451 830 371
Email: info@coogeecommon.com.au

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Gage & Tollner – Brooklyn, NY, USA – Sunday 25 September 2022 – Dinner

There are meals that you can vividly remember. Even though we eat out a fair amount, there are always a handful of meals each year that occupy a precious space in the memory bank, mostly for positive reasons. The space is precious because I have a terrible memory for certain things, names and faces come to mind, and yet I can still recall subtle aspects of certain dishes, and the conversation with the sommelier, at some restaurants.

I mention memory, because that is exactly what I’m going on (plus some photos) for this review. Life has got in the way of my writing, and life is dominated by our little boy. I prioritise the best meals we have each year to feature, and this was not just a brilliant meal, but an all around convivial experience, shared with friends we only have an opportunity to see every few years.

Gage & Tollner is on the edge of Downtown and Brooklyn Heights, and has a fascinating history in the area, with a Victorian era dining room that is simply beautiful. There is a richness of atmosphere as we arrive, with the restaurant already quite full, and the bar at capacity. We are led to our wooden booth to settle in to a meal that would last over four very enjoyable hours.

Enter Caroline and Wyatt who have lived in the area for a couple of decades. They’ve organised dinner tonight, knowing the penchant we have for great restaurants, and have that sense of pride that comes with having an excellent restaurant in your neighbourhood. With a massive menu we are lucky to be guided by their earlier experiences, and there certainly is a diversity in the selections.

Our waitperson takes the extensive order of a selection of oysters, rib eye steak, prawn cocktail, devils on horseback, crispy mushrooms, grilled tuna, brussel sprouts, hashbrown, mushroom risotto, fried chicken, tatter tots, house rolls, Caesar salad, creamed spinach, and a Barolo to top it off! Cocktails to start too, of course.

Described as an oyster and steak house, but certainly much more, you expect the oysters to be high quality. The diversity in the selection is excellent, and I’ve never had such distinctive but seriously brilliant oysters before. Often in an Australian context I would be having several from the same place, but here they have not given up anything for the wider variety, with four different oysters to try. It’s a hell of a start.

Having enjoyed the prawns, devils, and other early courses, some glorious bread shared the spotlight in the form of the famous Parker House Rolls. After quite a break (helpful from a digestive perspective but perhaps a little protracted), we were on to the main events.

Starting with the rib eye, the steak and oyster game is definitely in the big league. The garlic rub is both effective and adds to the presentation. It’s perfectly cooked as you’d expect, and the potato hash is the perfect partner. The tuna is a surprise, the fish steak fillet paired with a delicious pepper and corn salad.

It is time to use the dessert compartment that we try to keep free for these types of feasts. Knowing the serving sizes have been generous this evening, we elect to all share the bomb Alaska which is growing in its fame here. Sure enough it is sensational, and the best one I’ve ever eaten, including a few goes at Stokehouse’s (Melbourne) which is a superb contender.

As it approaches midnight, we have had a wonderful meal and catch up with friends who we only see sparingly. It’s hard to imagine a better venue for such a reunion. It’s also hard to imagine Gage & Tollner not once again being known as an institution of Brooklyn dining.

Gage & Tollner
https://www.gageandtollner.com/
372 Fulton St, Brooklyn, New York
+1347-689-3677