It was the yoga teacher's birthday over the weekend so I took her out for dinner Friday night. We went to The Point restaurant, perched on a small headland in an out of the way corner overlooking Albert Park lake, where the Grand Prix is held.
I've been meaning to go to The Point for quite a while. Their food in general and steaks in particular are widely lauded as being superior. The Point is one of those unusual restaurants where a superb location is actually matched by superb food. In my experience most restaurants with million dollar views have $4.99 food. It's almost as if it is sufficient to be well located - never mind the food, look at the vista!
There are exceptions to this, but I challenge you to have a think about it - the exceptions are few. Thankfully The Point is one of them. Sitting by the lake the upper level restaurant has a nice view by day, but by night it becomes something else. The dark water of the lake glistens in the moonlight, and in the reflected lights of the city over yonder, thrusting and brightly lit. It is both romantic if the occasion calls for that, and interesting. It is a journey worth making.
Even if it it were not so well situated then it would be well worth seeking out. The jury is out, but the meal I had on Friday was among the best I've had this year.
I had stuffed chicken wings, but unlike any chicken wings you've ever seen or eaten (Caramelised stuffed chicken wings, pumpkin gnocchi, emulsion of potato and black truffle). These were rich, indulgent treats, full flavoured slivers of tender chicken with delicate pumpkin gnocchi and an earthy smear of truffle sauce. As we say in the restaurant review business, yummo.
For main I had the daily special, which happened to be a wet aged rump steak from Tasmania served with a red wine jus, heritage carrots (ie purple) an onion ring and scallions. All of this was perfect. The Point is said to be the best steak restaurant in Australia, and this was good proof of it.
The steak came to me sliced into about four thick slivers, revealing pink, perfectly cooked meat that was meltingly tender. The flavour was spot on and with the accompaniments it was a near ideal meal. (Refer photo's for these meals - poor quality due to the lighting and because they were taken on my iPhone).
One thing that had been very evident from the start was the effort put into presentation. Not only did it all taste great, it looked as pretty as a picture - in fact, as if arranged by an artist. This was just as obvious in the yoga teachers seafood as it was my meals.
We shared desserts. I had a kind of deconstructed, post-modernist pineapple crumble with coconut ice-cream, the sort of thing Derrida might have whipped up had he become a chef rather than a philosopher. The other was the standard restaurant issue but delicious creme brulee, everyone's favourite after all, this one being flavoured with green tea.
The only thing to add was that we had a lovely bottle of bubbles to celebrate her birthday, and the service was uniformly excellent. Definitely worth checking out, particularly for special occasions.
The yoga teacher was in a party mood so we drove down the road a little and stopped at Lina's Wine Bar in Albert Park, which is a very Parisian bar that has been around forever and has a loyal stable of locals, very much like its French cousin. More bubbles there and more conversation as remote memories bubbled to the surface - of a woman I had drinks with there maybe 9 years ago, and another around the same time who was a publicist and spoke big like publicists do about her London celebrity friends and who was very big into sex. That's all I remembered though, very vague.
To continue the culinary theme I went out for lunch on Sunday to a newly refurbished hotel just around the corner from where I live. The Beehive Hotel was a very ordinary, very basic pub for many years, but somewhat like a moth caterpillar becoming a butterfly it has been transmogrified into Barkers, a foodie pub of the highest order. It retains much of the original decor - the lovely coloured stone floors, the high moulded ceilings, the little fireplaces - and has built into it a nice casual eating area, a more formal dining room and a little beer garden excellent come the balmy evenings of summer.
It's a project of Michael Lambie's, the chef at Taxi in the city, and the food has that touch of class. It is still got that pub flavour, but it's high end pub, simple, but with the touch of something special.
I had a simple veal schnitzel, a good sized piece of meat coated in a crispy coating of crumbs and served on a wooden chopping board with a wedge of lemon and the most delicious mustard coleslaw. Dessert was equally good. It might have been hotter than July outside (or January), but I couldn't resist the indulgence of the chocolate fondant with it's gooey, rich, chocolaty fudge oozing from its innards.
I don't know if it's a problem, but I just so love good food.
