I freely admit that RockPool has never been on my culinary roadmap for a number of reasons. Like most who have seen Neil Perry's appallingly pretentious, self serving TV offerings, you would never want to visit the restaurant, lest the the snootiness would seep into the menu.
Well we can happily report that this is far from the case.
The Uber Blonde had us at Crown Metropol for a weekender and after looking at the impressive Rockpool menu, including the 109 page wine list, we booked for lunch.
The long, lowly lit tunnel-like entrance to Rockpool achieves its aim - slowly separating you from the bustling, bogan centric atrium that is the resort, into a chill, cool and inviting, open plan dining room.
And its slicker than a greased water slide - attentive staff, perfectly spaced tables and a cool bar.
Despite the fact that we had browsed the menu extensively online, when you are in house and hungry, the choices are hard and many.
In the meantime I ordered a glass of Xinomavro rose from Macedonia, which, for $16, turned out to be a stunning choice. The Uber went for a Corpse Reviver No.2 cocktail, which contained enough alcohol to interest Elon Musk as a propellant.
We finally settled on lunch - Hiramasa kingfish with lemon, black sesame and Davidson plum $30, David Blackmore’s full blood Wagyu rump cap carpaccio, native desert lime with Pyengana cheese, rocket and balsamic $39 and the warm salad of wood fire grilled Wagin quail with peach, basil and pistachio $33.
Sounds like a lot of food but not really, they were generous but still basically three large-ish entrees. And more than enough for us.
We paired it with a lovely bottle of 2018 Picollo Ernesto, Gavi from Piedmont, Italy $65.
The two cold dishes arrived first and were impressive in presentation and flavour.
Six room temperature slices of kingfish lightly dusted with the powdered black sesame and sliced davidson plum were next level in texture and flavour, enhanced by the bitter-sweet plum.
The wagyu slices played second fiddle to the superb Pyengana cheese and the desert lime but was still a first class dish.
And after a pleasant wine filled break my raison d'etre, for today anyway, arrived - the quail. Big dished and elegant the half bird was perfectly sectioned and resting on a bed of fresh peach slices, basil leaves and roasted pistachios. The slightly underdone flesh was succulent with a perfect char. The peaches and pistachio created a superb mouthfull of flavour.
Theses three dishes are testament that you do not need to order massive plates of food to appreciate what a kitchen like Rockpool's can achieve. And there was room for desert.
Rockpool is the bomb and if you eat like we do, its cheap.
Comments