It's been the longest of times that I have wanted to dine at Tetsuya's but never got the chance till my recent trip to Sydney. Initially, I wanted to make a dinner reservation but it was fully booked, luckily enough, they had an opening for lunch which I happily snapped up! :)
Tetsuya's is no stranger to controversy; losing its third chef's hat in 2011 and unable to regain it's "glory" since. That may be the case but it didn't stop me from wanting to visit the place. According to John Lethlean's article in 2013, "risk is not on the menu", I understand why some people may think that but to an extent, I think "if the man himself has perfected what he has created, why mess with it?".
My dining experience at Tetsuya's was nothing short of amazing, the food was delicious and the service was impeccable. There are so many dishes from their degustation menu that I would gladly go back for more :)
 |
| sourdough baguette |
 |
| truffle butter |
"You are the butter to my bread and the breath to my life" - Julia Child
How can one say no to bread and butter, especially if it's truffle butter? I am not sure how many times I divided the piece of bread up but it was enough to savour the truffle butter to my satisfaction.
As Julie from "Julie and Julia" says..."every time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say, 'what's in this?' the answer is always going to be 'butter". Exactly.
 |
| oysters with a ginger and rice wine vinegar dressing |
The oysters were great but that dressing, my goodness, I would have happily bottoms up a few shots of that. The ginger and rice wine vinegar dressing was absolutely delicious, flavours were perfectly balanced.
 |
| steamed egg custard topped with avruga and truffle oil |
 |
| carpaccio of snapper with umeboshi |
 |
| marinated scampi with walnut oil and egg |
One of my favourite seafood would have to be scampi, I absolutely love the texture of it. For me, scampi tastes like a cross between lobster and prawn. Whenever I am up in Sydney, I always make sure that I drop by the Sydney Fish Market for my fill of scampi sashimi. The thanks definitely goes out to my heng dai, Tubby for popping my scampi cherry...my life has never been the same since.
*does anyone know where I can buy scampi in Melbourne?
 |
| confit of petuna ocean trout with a salad of celery, witlof, apple and upasteurised ocean trout roe |
Tetsuya's signature dish is nothing short of amazing. A very simple looking dish but to me, it was perfection on a plate. The texture of the ocean trout was just perfect, it was firm and not too fatty that you can really taste the textures of the fish. The burst of flavour that you get from the konbu was "OH WOW", everything on the plate worked well.
 |
| roasted moreton bay bug with braised mushrooms and wagyu oxtail |
 |
| roasted patridge with chestnut risotto and nettle puree |
 |
| lamb backstrap with jerusalem artichoke, broad beans and pumpkin seed yoghurt |
How good does that lamb backstrap look? It tasted even better in my mouth.
 |
| basil soup with apple granita topped with mint and yoghurt |
When the waiter placed this dessert in front of me, the first thought that entered my head was "basil soup for dessert? will this work?". Needless to say, I was proven wrong. It was definitely a surprise that the flavours worked so well together and I absolutely loved the crunchiness of the apple granita.
 |
| tetsuya's chocolate cake |
 |
| tetsuya's chocolate cake filled with vanilla mousse and hazelnut praline |
Yes, some can argue that it's just a chocolate cake but the attention to detail and the perfect chocolate coating on the outside...it's just so pretty and oh so delicious. If they were feeling generous and wanted to give me another one of these, I would happily devour it with no questions asked.
Last but not least, we finished our meals off with the petits fours :)
 |
| petits fours |
To sum up my dining experience at Tetsuya's, it was simplicity at it's best and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Comments
Post a Comment