Attica - Melbourne, Australia

I passed through Melbourne on business a couple of weeks ago and had the privilege of dining at Attica, which was named "Restaurant of the Year 2012" by The Age, one of the leading Melbourne newspapers and ranked #53 on last year's World's Best Restaurants.

Attica is a ModOz (modern Australian) restaurant, actually with strong New Zealand influences as Chef Ben Shewry hails from there. A colleague who knows my interest in fine dining booked the table over a month in advance of the trip. On a Friday night, we had a choice of 6:30 PM or 8:30 PM seatings. While some days of the week an a-la-carte menu is offered, on Fridays you eat what chef cooks -- one degustation menu is available, with one enhancer course. The price was AU$175 a person with tax included, no alcohol nor service. I think we each got out of there around AU$275 all in; right now the exchange rate is close to 1:1.

I have to admit, and have to my colleague who booked it, I was skeptical of the place upon reading the menu and some of the online reviews. It seemed to be trying too hard. However, from the moment we set foot in the restaurant, I immediately felt like I was in for a wonderful experience. The staff were mostly friendly, yet took the food seriously. They were happy to have my camera at the table (Nikon D50, no flash, hardly any special settings).

We were served a couple of amuse bouche courses, including "walnut soup" (very pretty) and fried mussels.





The bread service was also nice, with both a locally churned butter and emulsified olive oil served as enhancers.

From there, we added an enhancer course, called "snow crab" which is a signature dish but not on the menu, for an additional AU$20. It was the most "molecular" of the dishes, with a powdery horseradish cream sauce covering hidden treasures of spanner crab, salmon roe, and others. This was a wonderful dish and well worth the addition. The picture does not do it justice.



The progression then moved on to the regular menu, starting with a course of tomatoes and seven different varieties of basil served atop red pepper. This was really pretty and really, really delicious.



The next course featured marron - a freshwater crayfish - and leeks in a broth. The broth was indicated as including prosciutto, but we never really tasted anything other than saltiness out of it. The marron was really flavorful, and the dish overall worked nicely.



The next dish was billed as "potato cooked in the earth in which it was grown". I have to say this was one of two things about the menu that turned me off in advance of arriving. When it was served, it was quite different than any of us expected, and the creamy sauce beneath it was a wonderful combination. The potato itself? Nice, but I can't say it tasted all that special compared to the usual potato.



From there we went to a course called "Meat from the Pearl Oyster pinctada maxima". I think there was scallop and also fried pork belly in the middle of the dish. Excellent combination of flavors.



The next dish was called "Kumara, Purslane, Pyengana". Kumara is a sweet potato, purslane is a leafy vegetable which is regarded in the US as a weed, and pyengana is a cheese from New Zealand. I photographed the dish before the creamy cheese sauce was layered over. Many subtle flavors, especially from the purslane.



From here we went to the most exotic dish of the night, wild wallaby loin. Yes, wallaby. You could say the flavors jumped off the plate (har har). Picture definitely doesn't capture this one. Not gamey at all, just a delicious beefy course.



Three sweet courses remained and they were a little disappointing to me. The first was billed as "raisins, whey, hazelnut" - and the staff proudly told us the raisins were dehydrated in-house. I just didn't get this dish, and my fellow diners agreed that it was the weakest of the evening.



Then we were served "Australian native fruits". Many were berries; some were more interesting than others.



And finally, with a flourish, we were served eggs. These came with a story about a New Zealand native bird, I don't remember it. The eggs themselves were white chocolate filled with caramel. It was beautiful presentation, but white chocolate? A little bit of a let-down.



We had a couple of wines with the dinner, the first an Aussie vintage riesling (Aussie rieslings are nowhere near as sweet as the Germans) and the second was Shobbrook Didi Giallo 2010 sauvignon blanc...only 350 bottles made. This was a cloudy wine as the skins were included in fermentation. At first it was too cold, but as it warmed up it was a really nice pairing.



Overall though a couple of courses were less than spectacular, the entire evening was really wonderful. The pacing was slow, but we had plenty to talk about. Sometimes I feel a little disappointed in a restaurant where everyone is eating the same things, in that the table ahead of you will "ruin the surprise" as their dishes came out. We managed, despite being by the kitchen, to ignore most of those, and be wonderfully surprised by our own presentations.

My guess is this restaurant will move up on the "World's Best Restaurants" list later this month.

Attica
74 Glen Eira Road
Ripponlea (Melbourne suburb), Victoria, Australia
+61 3 9530 0111
http://www.attica.com.au

Heading there in October, can't wait!