Lunch

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Carlton Wine Room – Carlton – Sunday 13 June 2021 – Lunch

Carlton Wine Room has changed over the years. Both our visits have been terrific, but have felt like completely different restaurants. I had to look up my last time here with Catherine and it was a little over six years ago. Looking back I feel a little guilty that I said I’d be back quickly, but there was a renovation and change of management in between.

Today we are indulging in a long lunch on the Sunday of the Queen’s Birthday weekend. Gladly our fourth lockdown in Melbourne has somewhat ended, but we did have to cancel lunch in Sorrento due to the 25km restriction. We will surely get to support the French restaurant in Sorrento soon, but today their loss is Carlton Wine Room’s win.

  • Anchovy, fried bread, ricotta, pickled cucumber
  • Abrolhos Island scallop tostada, spring onion, yuzu kosho

Settling in with a champagne from a house I haven’t heard of, (but is delicious – Laherte Freres Blanc de Blancs), we started to engage in our usual collaborative negotiation of the food choices for our meal. As we agree on the whole snapper, we think about how a bit over eight years ago we had been swayed away from offering fish for our wedding as, given the choice, very few apparently choose it. With Catherine’s preference for white wines, I’m quite happy to let her take the lead, because so many of my other meals involve meat.

To start we share the anchovies, and scallops. The anchovies are served on fried bread spread with soft ricotta, and topped with a very pleasant pickled cucumber. As well as the depth of flavour, the bread has some structure and doesn’t go everywhere as we both expected it would. The tostada was similarly perfect in its construction with a delicious spring onion and yuzu kosho (Japanese seasoning) really pushing the flavour profile, but not completely overpowering the very delicate scallop.

  • Whole snapper
  • Fried potatoes with broccoli leaf salad in background

Next up we got to try the whole snapper with Cafe de Paris butter, matched with sides of fried potatoes, and broccoli leaves. Beautifully cooked fish, crispy potatoes, and some salad to soften it all, is a glorious well-known combination for good reason. Adding in the wine selections from CWR and the staff picks today, and you have a luxurious long lunch. There’s the friulano from I Clivi that matches terrifically; its slight oiliness particularly satisfying. However, I did need to try a red. The Austrian, Ceel Blaufrankish, as the other staff pick was worth trying between mains and dessert.

That dessert was a shared rum baba with creme diplomat that was revelatory. The noticeable rum shining through the sponge, with the creme adding even more decadence. While sharing was a good idea, I could have finished one myself.

We finished off our chocolate truffles, peppermint tea and espresso, and headed to King and Godfree’s rooftop for a final glass of wine. Thinking about our experience at CWR, it was certainly a great all-round offering, with the service quite natural and professional too. Having Carlton Wine Room as a neighbourhood wine bar would be brilliant, but having it a few suburbs away is still great. The fact so many seeming regulars were stopping by and happy to have a wine outside on a cold day suggests this is a popular place for good reason. We won’t take six years for our next visit I promise!

The Carlton Wine Room Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Gimlet – Melbourne, City – Friday 27 November 2020 – Lunch

Friday lunch or Saturday dinner? Surely these are the most atmospheric times to dine, but often for different reasons. Today I get to enjoy the intimate side of Friday lunch with my wife, rather than in connection with my work.

There are plenty of power lunches going on mind you. Though we are seated on a table of two above the majority of business lunches. Here we have a view of the good looking dining room that is full of architectural character in Cavendish House.

Gimlet has pedigree. The latest and greatest by Andrew McConnell, there is no doubt it has the bones to succeed. It’s down the road from Supernormal on the corner of Flinders Lane and Russell; it already has a charismatic feel; and it walks the difficult tightrope between intimacy, and a place to be seen.

Before I write about the high quality coming out of the kitchen, and also the bar, I need to point out that Gimlet is not at its peak from a service perspective. Again, it has the makings, but the execution is not quite there yet. There are some noticeable times where the floor is trying to communicate covertly, but is tripping up. A knowing of what to do, but not necessarily how to do it; a nervousness.

Not that service took anything away from our terrific lunch, playing high stakes, and placing our main bet on a half lobster, and a bottle of chardonnay from Burgundy. More of that a little later.

As we finished our Coutier champagne to celebrate being out for a Friday date, and 28 days of double doughnuts, we were presented with our first entree. We began with “seafood salad” which appealed to us, especially after learning it consisted of a Tiger prawn, pippies, and mussels. Those elements are delicious, but the peeled cherry tomatoes, heavy on flavour, are the other half of the equation, along with succulents that do a dual role of enhancing this dish, which is dressed beautifully.

Seafood salad, preserved tomatoes, coastal herbs

The gnocco fritto is superb too. Crisp pockets topped with bresaola, that already had us thinking about the next time we could drop by on the bar for a few snacks and cocktails. At this stage the charred romaine heart side came out.

It was a completely innocent mistake, but we had asked what would go well with the lobster as a side and this was the recommendation, which was a great suggestion, especially with the salty guanciale, and anchovy dressing. However, because it came out with entrees, the lobster wasn’t called away as a main and we waited for quite a while until our waitperson realised. Though, nothing in the world was wrong when the half Southern rock lobster landed on our table.

The selling point as a very expensive main to share was the saffron rice that surrounds and adds flavour to the wood roasted king of seafood. As a combination, the tomatoey saffron rice, along with the indulgent juicy lobster meat, is utterly gorgeous. Add in a 2015 Colin-Morey Bourgogne chardonnay and you have the Friday lunch dreams are made of.

Panettone, zabaglione, Christmas spices and grappa

As we reflected on our delicious savoury courses, we had some room for a shared dessert. The “Panettone, zabaglione, Christmas spices and grappa” seemed to jump off the menu as we enter the Christmas period. Once we had our first taste of the thick zabaglione and rich panettone we couldn’t stop until it was but a memory. Absolutely delicious.

Catherine’s mint tea, and my double espresso, were also good quality as you’d expect, but the extended time they took post dessert to hit the table was again a sign that there is some room to improve. It honestly didn’t matter because I’m already thinking about the next opportunity to get back to Gimlet. It was that great.

Gimlet at Cavendish House
https://gimlet.melbourne/
33 Russell Street, Melbourne
(03) 9277 9777
frontdesk@gimlet.melbourne