A table of four was booked in January and the dinner was in March, the two and a half months wait was so itching; constant flicking of my diary didn't make it come any quicker! A thirteen-course degustation menu with matching wine option (it wasn't much of an option for me, yes, wine please!) by the world-renowned Tetsuya Harada, WOW!
Finally, the day has come! We arrived at the front door in our friend's Mercedes, a gentleman opened the door and told my friend about the complimentary valet parking service, how cool is that? We got out of the car and were escorted to the restaurant's reception desk. Initially, there was an issue with our booking, but we have finally sorted it out. I will be totally disappointed if we would have to come back another time. We were told to wait at the bar while our table was being organised, my friend ordered a sparkling wine, the Petaluma Croser Proprietor's Reserve 1999, her husband ordered the Tyrrell's Vat 1 Semillon 2002, my husband couldn't wait to try the special Pinot made for Tetsuya's and started with a red, the Felton Road Pinot Noir for Tetsuya's 2008 and I ordered the Delatite Dead Man's Hill Gewurztraminer 2008, thinking that it will be a slightly sweet and refreshing Gewurztraminer as a pre-dinner drink, however it was quite heavy and oaky, I wish I had chosen my friend's sparkling wine to start the night, good choice!
The waiter showed us to our table, it was right at the end of the corridor, a small room with no decorations except two abstract paintings on the wall. Five tables of 4-6 per table were arranged in the room and our table was in a dark corner. I wasn't too impressed since I expected even without a view, there would be more thoughts put into the decorations. Never mind we are here for the food and wine. Haven't seen or read the menu, we were all expecting surprises throughout the night!
We sat down and were served with warm bread and truffle butter, we had a choice between white bread and sourdough, and we all picked sourdough, of cause! It was warm and soft with a nice crust and full of sourdough favour. Yum! If a bread roll can taste so nice, what else are in line for us?
Our first dish was the chilled Japanese pumpkin soup with white miso cream, the first sip was weird, I just didn't expect to taste a cold pumpkin soup. But the flavour was nice, the miso flavour lifted the whole sensation, smooth but lively, I really liked it. Then the pacific oysters with rice vinegar and ginger was served, it was very nice and refreshing, oil drizzled on top but it didn't taste oily as it was balanced out with the acidity of the rice vinegar and ginger. This was an optional dish and I was glad that we have chosen to include it.
Our first wine came, the Tengumai 天狗舞 Junmai 純米 Bunseirokunen 文政六年 for Tetsuya's from Ishikawa, Japan. It wasn't the best sake I've tried, it didn't have the Junmai aroma or flavour. Is it light and easy to drink? I'll give it that! The sake was served with sashimi of kingfish with blackbean and orange. It was simple and fresh, the blackbean was quite subtle, not overpowering.
Next, we were served with the Twofold Riesling 2008 from Clare Valley and soft roast scampi tails with herb and citrus oil. The wine was a lighter style Riesling, dry and crisp, matched so well with the citrus oil, nice! The scampi was soft, perfectly cooked, I just wanted more!Then it was the highlight of the evening, Tetsuya's signature dish, the salad of confit ocean trout with zucchini and non-pasteurised roe. Firstly, the presentation was so pretty, the ocean trout fillet was shaped into a fish presented on the dish with a flapping tail! Secondly, the flavour was excellent, confit but not too salty, and the refreshing salad balanced the flavour so well. This dish was served with the Delatite Dead Man's Hill Gewurztraminer I ordered at the start of the night, since I didn't really enjoyed it, I asked whether I could choose something else. The waiter gave me the wine list, it was so difficult to choose. I've finally decided on the Massena Surly Muse Viognier 2007 from the Barossa Valley, and this time, I was happy with my choice. It has a beautiful Viognier fragrance, a well-balanced medium body wine with long palate. It actually matched quite well with the fish. I guess now I understood that the Gewurztraminer should be served here and not as a pre-dinner drink. Anyhow, I still preferred my Viognier!
Our next wine on the list was the Mountadam Pinot Gris 2009 from Eden Valley, a full body style Pinot Gris, with balanced acidity and sweetness. It was served with fregolone with Queensland spanner crab and bottarga, the fregolone was quite nice and not too starchy, the rest of the dish just tasted like a fancy risotto.
A Margaret River Chardonnay was next, the Higher Plane Chardonnay 2007 served with raviolo of octopus with oregano and black olives. It was a Chablis style, cool climate Chardonnay with oaky aroma, balanced mineral and stone fruit flavour. The chewy octopus in raviolo was quite interesting.
Our first red wine was the Felton Road Pinot Noir for Tetsuya's 2008. I have been waiting to try this wine due to my love for Felton Road (Felton Road post). When the waiter was pouring the wine, I asked him how was this special Tetsuya's wine different to other Felton Road wines, he said it was a Felton Road style Pinot Noir. Felton Road style Pinot?!?! The block 3 is so different to block 5, Calvert is so different to Cornish Point! Later, I found on the Felton Road website that winemaker Blair Walter created a special cuvee of Pinot Noir that suits Tetsuya's modern Japanese cooking. The Pinot was served with breast of chicken with corn and foie gras, although the chicken breast was smooth and just cooked, it was slightly under for me. The overpowering corn flavour did not serve the dish right, the whole dish was just full of corn taste and foie gras was lost. Is this a good marriage of food and wine? I don't know, but I quite enjoyed drinking the Pinot on its own, maybe I'd prefer the Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir if I had a choice!
The next wine was the Wanderer Shiraz 2008 from Yarra Valley, it was a cool climate Shiraz, medium bodied, very nice. This was served with the sirloin of wagyu with braised leeks, sansho and soy. My imagination of the dish and the taste was so different, I was expecting a peppery steak tartare-like dish or a sour ponzu wagyu dish, but the dish presented was very sweet, almost like a Korean BBQ marinated beef and the foam didn't really work for me either!When our mains were finished, we were served with the Heggies Botrytis Riesling from Eden Valley. It was a beautiful botrytis wine, with nice roasted honey aroma and not overly sweet.
Our first dessert was banana ice cream with pineapple sorbet. The banana ice cream has a strong banana flavour, like banana essence, which I didn't really like. There was not enough pineapple sorbet, only a tiny bit on the bottom, a little more acidity from the pineapple sorbet could have balanced out the flat banana ice cream. The second dessert was cannellini beans with mascarpone and soy caramel, it was not impressive, just mascarpone plus caramel! Looking over to the next table, we saw a lady was served with a different dessert from the others, it was a chocolate fondant with hazelnut and fresh cream. We asked the waiter whether we could change ours to that dessert, so the ladies had the chocolate fondant and the guys had the floating island with double anglaise of vanilla bean and praline. I was happy with my choice, I definitely preferred the chocolate fondant to the floating island. It was nice and soft with rich good quality chocolate and beautiful freshly roasted hazelnuts, the nuts were still warm when served! The floating island (Île flottante) was a light fluffy eggwhite pudding, not too bad, at least the boys liked it!
Our last wine was the Seppeltsfield Cellar No. 6 Tokay from Rutherglen. It was a beautiful Tokay to finish off the night.
The very last dish presented on our table was the petit fours, a last little surprise was brought to us in the chocolate macaroon. As we were expecting a sweet filling, it was very sour at my first bite, then the lime flavour came out, and it was actually quite nice. The friand was soft with a nice honey flavour, but my favourite was the green tea marshmallow, super soft and lovely. I ordered a flat white to go with the petit fours, the coffee was amazingly nice and creamy!
In summary, there were a few highlights and a few disappointments in my Tetsuya's experience, the sourdough was definitely one of the highlights! My husband has managed to eat four that night. To me, for such an expensive dinning experience and delicate food served, I would prefer to have a Sommelier telling us more about the wines and 'food and wine matching'. Throughout the night, the service was a bit rough, I could hear waiters running into each other. Oh, and my menu has a misprint, the Tokay was left out of the wine list. It was generally a nice food and wine experience, but will I go back? Probably not!
