Cutler&Co

We were lucky enough to be given some money to spend on a restaurant outing, so we decided on Cutler&Co and the degustation menu. We had an awesome fantastic time. We started with martinis and they set the tone for the rest of the evening.

This was the degustation menu.

The appertisers were two Batemens Bay oysters, octopus with aioli and paprika, olives and wafer with foie gras mousse and prune jam.

A closeup of the octopus, it was mouth meltingly tender.

The foie gras mousse.

After the appertisers, we were served the cured kingfish, avocado, pickled cucumber and bonito dressing. The kingfish is the lovely pink meat in the middle, the light green avocado was pureed until it was very, very smooth, the pickled cucumber was the dark green circle on the meat and the bonito dressing was the crunchy bits sprinkled on top if the thin slice of daikon radish. It was light, fresh and very crunchy.

The cutlery had little designs in it.

The hand picked spanner crab, corn custard, pickled ginger and nasturtium. The corn custard is hiding down on the left and was very corny. The nasturtium was very peppery and crunchy and the crab was deliciously sweet.

The building was an old metal work factory and the walls remind me of my father's old factory in Richmond. Same white paint over the red bricks and the same scars and wooden inserts.

The next course was the heirloom tomatoes, muscatel vinegar and smoked goats curd. The goats curd was amazing, it had been aerated and was like a foam that melted on your tongue leaving just the goat cheese flavour with a hint of smokiness. The tomatoes didn't really live up to the hype, they were heading towards flavourless supermarket tomatoes.

Next up was the duck. This was my favourite dish. At least until the beef came along. The cube at the lower left is the fried duck and the slice of pink in the lower middle is the smoked duck. They were accompanied by morcilla, which you can see a lump of in the middle at the back. The golden raisins had been pickled and were crunchy and vinegary and the beetroot came in little cylinders. Everything was very fresh and tasted magnificient.

The duck dish also had flakes of dehydrated beetroot juice which were light and crunchy and very beetrooty.

The first two wines that we tried with the first couple of dishes were these two, a pinot gris and a carricante.

The other two that we drank with the duck and the beef were these two, a burgundy in the front and a sangiovese at the back. The burgundy went a lot better with the duck and the sangiovese was a lot better with the beef.

And the final main course was the beef. To say that it was just a beef strip loin and a braised short rib is like saying that Colin Firth is just an actor. The beef strip was paired with a cauliflower puree that complemented it beautifully. The braised short rib had been cooked for 14 hours and was so tender and yet so beefy that it was like it was a compressed cow.

Anyone care to guess what the green puree with the braised rib was ?

The Stilton was next, served with some pear chutney and very thin rye bread.

We then had a palate cleanser of ginger granita and ice cream in a very cute sugar cone, that tasted salty sweet.

Dessert was then served, the coconut was a bit cold to start with but very flavoursome once it warmed up and the passionfruit curd was sensational.

We were then served two delicious little chocolates and finished with an espresso.

Thanks Al !!

Oh, and the green puree with the braised rib ? It was nettle, it tasted like broccoli with a slight pepperiness.