Est.

Dinner at Est

For some people birthdays are just another day; for some they're a depressing reminder of their own mortality and of how little they've accomplished. Personally, I love birthdays, not least because it invariably leads to my going out to a bunch of great restaurants with other people footing the bill. On this occasion I was generously treated to dinner at Est by my mate and his girlfriend, a terrific gift I was only too happy to accept and was anxiously looking forward to.

Booked in for a Friday night, I expected it to be a bit manic, however, the restaurant did not appear to be full to capacity and in fact the service, with one exception, was terrific. I say 'with one exception' because of the waiter we had for the majority of the evening. He may have been new, or perhaps related to someone within the restaurant and as such had received the job via nepotism rather than merit; whatever the case, the guy was a fumbling incompetant.

Now, at this point I just want to make it clear that I'm not the sort of person who complains about this sort of thing and I actually don't care much about service- as long as they keep my water/wine glass full and put food in front of me, I'm happy, I just thought this was funny. For instance, after taking our requests to all be served the tasting menu, he looked at us with a pained kind of expression and explained regretfully that the chocolate dessert which usually appears on the menu wasn't available and had to be replaced with something else. It sounds petty, but the way he explained it gave us all the impression that on this occasion we were shit out of luck, and that our replacement dessert may as well be a turd sandwich.

Poor guy. Anyway, our first course (no amuse bouche- what gives?) was :

Heirloom tomato granita, lemon and fennel

Not bad. I didn't love this dish, though it was refreshing. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for a savoury sno-cone at that point.

Nage of lobster claw, moreton bay bug, cucumber, peas, ginger and lime

Fantastic! Beautifully fresh seafood prepared carefully and served without any unnecessary frills, allowing the sweet, perfectly cooked shellfish to take centre stage.

Steamed Murray cod fillet, shaved abalone, snow peas, oyster mushrooms, ginger-green shallot

Another very nice dish, and not at all as busy as the name suggests. The broth accompanying the fish was fantastic, with a lovely spicy gingery warmth.

Parma prosciutto and duck foie gras rolled quail breast, chanterelles, leek, fregola, porcini

I have to admit, I was very excited about this dish, fregola and foie gras being two ingredients I find it easy to get excited about. And it was a nice dish, just not as amazing as I'd hoped- the foie gras existed in too small a quantity and as such failed to provide the kind of flavour hit it should have done.

Pan roasted lamb rib eye, portobello mushroom, confit tomatoes, zucchini flower, panisse, tapenade

I was very happy with this as a main course, nothing outrageous or unexpected, just great, well-established flavour combinations with ingredients prepared and seasoned perfectly. The panisse, in particular, was a standout, and is something i'm going to use in my own cooking.

Blueberry sorbet, milk, lemonade, tarragon and lemon

And now, onto the desserts. Unfortunately, this dish did not taste nearly as interesting as it sounded. But then, it does sound very interesting. Honestly, there was nothing particularly memorable about this one.

Passionfruit souffle, passionfruit sorbet

And now, the final dessert. If this dessert pales in comparison to the chocolate one, as our waiter had previously implied, then I suppose I'll have to go back to try that dessert, because this one was quite flawless. There seemed to be a touch of mango paired with the passionfruit, which made the whole affair very summery and enjoyable, and paired with the cream, it tasted like a more-delicious weiss bar.

We were next served our coffees and petit fours, no pictures unfortunately, which is a shame, because one of the petit fours, an olive oil jelly, was absolutely superb: it tasted so familiar and yet i couldn't place it- when I asked a waiter what it was, he said that I would 'kick myself when i found out', which only made me more intensely curious. Generously, he then brought out some more of them to help me determine the flavour. Unfortunately, my by then booze-addled brain couldn't process the information and all I could determine was that it had notes of banana, was incredibly familiar, and was an ingredient not normally used in dessert preparations. And yes, I did kick myself when I found out. It's always nice when something like a petit four, a pre-dessert or an amuse-bouche can be the one thing which stands out in a meal, it shows that the restaurant has a serious commitment to quality and delivering standout dishes at every point of the meal.

Overall, a very nice meal, made all the nicer by not having had to pay for it. Next up, Tetsuya's!