Restaurant Amuse – Treat for Two
For Christmas, I came over to Perth to stay with one of my brothers for Christmas and he decided to take me to his favourite restaurant as a celebration. This was the fifth time he has been and we were greeted by the staff with “Welcome back!” which was a bit nice. My Mum used to tell me that when my brother was little it was hard to get him to eat anything other than steak and eggs, so I guess a few things have changed! Amuse has very limited menu options, but it doesn’t need to do anything else. There’s a choice between vegetarian degustation or regular degustation (although they do accommodate other dietary requirements) and with matched wines or without and that’s it. Plus it is a little pricey with the degustation being $125 per head and matched wines $70 per head extra. But it’s worth it.
Just a few of the accolades Amuse has received;
National Restaurant of the Year & National Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year (Savour Australia 2010 National Restaurant & Catering Awards), WA’s Best Restaurant (2010 Australian Hotels Association, The Top 50 Restaurant Guide 2010), Chef of the Year (The West Australian Good Food Guide 2011), Awarded Three Glass Rating (2010 & 2009 Gourmet Traveller Wine List of the Year Awards), Best Fine Dining Restaurant and Outstanding Restaurant of the Year 2010 & 2009 (Restaurant and Catering Association).
An assortment of interesting canapés which we had with a pre-dinner dirty Martini. They just use Vodka O but the secret is the olive brine from the very flavoursome olives. I could have drunk litres of the stuff.
Tomato consomme, tomato sorbet, compressed watermelon and goats cheese (Jed Wines 2009 Sauvignon Black, Argentina). So flavoursome, such an interesting texture with the compressed watermelon which I’ve not had before. [pictured left]Beetroot, goats cheese, coffee and cocoa soil (Isabel 2009 Pinot Gris, Marlborough, New Zealand) reconfirmed my belief that chocolate and beetroot go together, so I will be making that chocolate beetroot cake when I get back to Melbourne. The cocoa/coffee soil was crunchy and the teensy little beetroot were perfectly juicy to contrast. [pictured below]
Parmesan custard, cornichon, Thai cucumber and brioche/Bug, lemon aspen and red currants (Alvaro Castro 2009 Reserva Encruzado, Dao Portugal). I could eat this dish for days. If I could have the brioche slice with the parmesan and cornichon all the time I would actually be in heaven.
Tofu in tempura with seaweed seasoning, pease and asparagus/Snapper, peas and asparagus (Chalmers 2009 Fiano, Mildura). When you get a light, crisp tempura batter and on the inside is creamy, flavoursome silken tofu, it does make a vegetarian quite happy. Tofu can get boring but this was far from it, the powdered seaweed seasoned it perfectly.
I have never had anything like the Gnocchi at Amuse, paired with enoki, shitake and pumpkin and served in a broth, it was so creamy I couldn’t believe it. My brother had Pork belly, seared scallop and pineapple (Barwick Estates 2008 ‘The Collectables’ Pinot Noir, Pemberton WA).
When the waiter brought me an individual Tagine, I got pretty excited. This was apparently the main and had a bed of cous cous with eggplant, zucchini and shallots on top. The cous cous was cooked a little crunchy and salty for my taste but still had an amazing flavour and the smell was ridiculous. Lamb, shallots and eggplant for my brother. (Aldersyde 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, Perth Hills WA).
A Lychee, mango and yuzu palette cleanser came out just before something I’ve never seen in a dessert.Iit was like a fairy floss mound which the waiter poured a blood orange reduction over and caused it to melt into the bowl which had strawberries, raspberries and marscapone plus sorbet underneath. Phwoar [pictured before and after, below]. That was dessert course number one, it was followed by dessert course number two; Blueberries several ways; a blueberry jam log which rested on fennel cream with a blueberry toffee shard, blueberry soil and then the waiter brought a bowl of white chocolate which was steaming with liquid nitrogen and spooned it over the dish. Amazing. (Barwick Estates 2009 Pemberton ‘OV’ Viognier, Pemberton WA).
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