What I ate today - the food thread

[markis10]

Not quite a week home and still missing Japan, back at Kibou for all you can eat in MCY

 

[QF WP]

Lunch at Madame Wu, down in the river at Eagle Street, Brisbane today:

























Delightful. Not had a bad dish here. Service is a little relaxed but being in a private room, handy that we were given time given the two speakers presenting.

 

[Oscarq]

Delicious meal at Noni Melbourne during food & wine week.

 

[Ade]

CIT Restaurant, Woden, ACT.



This is a reservation only place, that operates during semester only. All the staff in this restaurant - chefs, wait staff, maître de, bar staff are all current hospitality students at CIT.

I only came across this restaurant thru a Facebook post. I tried to secure a table for one, but there was no availability online. So I emailed the guest team requesting to be put on a waitlist. They called me in about two weeks time and said there’s one spot that has opened up and if I would like to take it. I was on travel and couldn’t answer their phone call when it happened. They left a voicemail. I rang back in about 20 mins, only to be told that the spot is no longer available and I’ll go back on the waitlist. Fast forward one more week and I got another call. This time, I was able to answer and voila, got a spot. Yayy !!

The only way to get a table here is via reservation - which only has limited covers each night. When I visited, there were all together 17 people. Someone who tried to get a table walking-in was politely declined and asked to make a reservation online. I had a chat with maître de who said that given everyone at the restaurant (including the maître de) they only take limited bookings each night - so as to not overwhelm the students. There were also teachers at each station - guiding students on how to do things. It was be very nice to watch and an amazing experience for me.

As I walked in, the maître de checked my booking, escorted me to my table and introduced my wait staff.

The wait staff took over, starting with a glass of water and a menu. There was only the set menu for dinner - either the meat menu or the vegetarian menu. I had indicated during the reservation that I will be going with the vegetarian set menu.

The meat tasting menu


The vego tasting menu.



Started with Bread with infused olive oil - liked it very much.



Amuse bouche was the deep fried avo - loved it. It was a ripe yet firm avo slice, battered and fried. Will definitely have it again. I’d recommend putting this in the Ala carte menu, if there is one.




Followed by the Beetroot, coconut labneh, pomegranate and pine nuts. Wow! What a nice way to start the sort of main course. Very creamy labneh, perfectly roasted baby beetroot, the pine nuts gave the right amount of crunch and the pomogranate gave a subtle sweetness to the dish. Loved it.



Followed by the spiced cauliflower with macadamia tahini, zucchini and cured apple.

Cured apple - 9/10. Nice acid balancing the tartness of the apple. Zucchini - 8/10. Slightly bland, still enjoyed it. Spiced cauliflower - 9/10. Assuming the cauliflower was roasted in the over just before service. Nice crunch, still retained the cauliflower flavour (not charred too much). Macadamia tahini - personally, 4/10. Too salty to my liking and too grainy/gritty.

I tried to take a little of all the individual elements of this dish - still didn’t work for me. Too salty and sometimes conflicting flavours. Overall for this dish 5/10.



Followed by the potato pave.

Pistou, enjoyed it 8/10. Confit tomatoes - really good, slightly rubbery. 8/10. Tomato puree - really good, 8/10. I didn’t get much rosemary. May be my palette isn’t as refined yet to pick subtle notes of the herb. Potato slices - 7/10. The outer slices were well cooked and crispy, but some of the inner ones, especially in the middle were a bit underdone. They had that weird starchy crunch, which was a bit like “hang on, what’s going on here”

All together the dish was good 7/10.



Finished with Tapioc Pudding 10/10. Oh. My. Gawd! Amazing dish. The pudding, well done, mildly sweet. The citrus marmalade- chefs kiss! And the pistachio (I wanna say praline) item from heaven.