Long-time readers volition hold upwards familiar with the birthday tradition that Cindy together with I direct maintain developed - the lucky birthday boyorgirl gets their pick of veg-friendly hyper-expensive fancy eating theater for a dark of degustation madness. Then you, lucky readers, get posts full of slightly dim photos of gorgeously presented tasting plates together with paragraphs of text. Everyone's happy.
For my birthday this twelvemonth nosotros yet got our ridiculously classy dinner (venue: Circa the Prince), but yous guys are going to direct maintain to become photo-less. And there's no getting unopen to who's to blame. This guy:
That's right, Australia's largest owl species. There's a powerful owl roosting inward Flagstaff Gardens at the 2nd together with I ducked over to come across my 228th Australian aeroplane species. And to direct maintain some photos. Unfortunately, inward the course of report of transferring the photos to the laptop, I left the camera's retentiveness card inward the laptop slot, leaving us carmera-less for our fanciest repast of the twelvemonth together with thus far. Sigh.
Once Cindy had recovered from her initial outrage, nosotros establish ourselves able to precisely sit down dorsum together with savor our repast - there's something liberating nigh eating without photograph requirements.
It's worth mentioning precisely how veg-friendly the folk at Circa the Prince are. We made certain to stress our requirements when booking but it turns out their veg-degustation is a measure option, available every dark together with offered to every tabular array (at to the lowest degree to the 2 nearest us on Friday). The a la carte carte du jour is a flake less impressive, but there's i veg entree together with i primary available, along with a few sides. Still, if you're going to become upmarket for a night, yous powerfulness too dive into the nine-course vegetarian degustation (we didn't intend to enquire how they'd become with vegan nutrient but I visit they'd hold upwards up to it if yous gave them a telephone telephone ahead of time).
We kicked things off with a pre-dinner cocktail each and, every bit per green I indulged inward the matching wines with the degustation - the cocktails were both pretty good, together with the matched wines actually hitting the spot. But yous don't become to Circa for the booze, yous become in that place for the outstanding two-hatted dining experience. And goodness me is it a wonderful experience. They say a pic is worth a M words but the lack of photos isn't going to Pb me to write a 10,000 essay hither - I'll continue things brief. Suffice to say - everything nosotros had was wondeful.
First up: carrot velouté, curried cauliflower. Out came some modest bowls, dotted with tiny pieces of lightly spiced cauliflower, with some sugariness (almost candied) slivers of carrot. Over the move past times was poured a wonderfully polish carrot veloute. Everything worked together perfectly - it volition hold upwards a recurring topic inward this post, but the cooking at Circa is all nigh subtle flavours blending together to brand something special. While this was called 'curried cauliflower', the curry flavours were mild together with complex, non only hot together with spicy.
Next up: Garden vegetables, goats' cheese emulsion. Circa direct maintain their ain niggling kitchen garden at Albert Park together with this dish highlighted their seasonal goodies: niggling pieces of parsnip, carrot, turnip, rocket together with some herbs, served on a scraping of goats' cheese emulsion. The cheese provided a modest outburst of tartness, but the dish was actually nigh letting the fresh, well-cooked vegies shine.
Parsnip, horseradish together with dark rice risotto. This was the star of the dark - a rich, dark risotto that had some sort of smokiness with its deep flavours. Really outstanding stuff.
Next upwards was a cleansing course: Spiced beans, herb cream together with fresh ricotta. For some argue I assumed that we'd hold upwards getting some sort of beany stew, but this was much lighter together with fresher: crispy dark-green together with white beans, served with 2 kinds of pulses that were cooked to hold upwards edible but yet firm. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 real lite herb cream together with some modest splotches of ricotta capped off the lite flavours.
In illustration nosotros weren't cleansed enough: Red Hill golden ale cleanser. This came out looking similar a modest drinking glass of ale with a generous foamy head, but in that place was something else going on too - in that place were gingery together with lemon flavours, which I'd gauge aren't establish inward Red Hill's regular golden ale.
Next upwards was our ostensible primary course: Cous cous together with pumpkin brik, ras el hanout spiced carrots together with beets. The cute niggling bricks of cous-cous together with pumpkin were wrapped inward real lite filo pastry, together with served with to a greater extent than delicious vegetables, in i lawsuit again lightly together with subtly spiced. This is on the a la carte carte du jour ($36), together with I'd highly recommend it along with the wonderful risotto ($20, every bit an entree) if you're non upwards for the marathon.
We'd made it through the savoury selectoin, together with it was fourth dimension for the intermediate cheese course: Comte gruyere, poached quince, brioche. The brioche together with quince were first-class inward combination with the gruyere. The cheese was a niggling lighter inward flavour than I'd direct maintain liked, but yet real satisfying.
Onto dessert #1: Confit pineapple, gingerbread crumb, kokosnoot chilli sorbet. This was i rectangular prism of pineapple preserved inward sugar, with a scattering of gingerbread crumbs together with the most divine kokosnoot chilli sorbet. The pineapple was quite good, but everything on this plate paled inward comparing to the sorbet - a smooth, sugariness kokosnoot sorbet with precisely a hint of chilli to sharpen the flavours.
Our concluding dish: Soft chocolate croquante, orangish together with mint. Google tells me that croquante translates every bit 'crunchy', but this was a stunningly polish niggling blob of chocolate-y goodness, served upwards with a span of niggling eggs of orangish together with mint ice-creams. They were okay, but the croquante was where it was at - rich, polish together with wonderful. I intend Cindy had amend fetch me some chocolate now, I can't continue writing this right away I've recalled this dessert.
Shit, there's no chocolate. I'll force on...
Everything winds upwards at Circa with Brydie's garden tea. This is a tea made out of whatever herbs are prepare inward Circa's kitchen garden. This calendar week it included lemon verbeena together with 3 or 4 others (I'm viii wines to the air current at this stage, together with thus the tea ingredients direct maintain escaped my memory). It was an appropriately build clean complete to the meal, which had been nine courses of clever, understated flavours, with lots of beautiful seasonal vegies together with loads of classy touches. The services was efficient, friendly together with relaxed - a niggling less formal than some of our other fine-dining experiences, which suits our agency well. It's a beautiful infinite too - suitably dim lighting, plenty of infinite together with a full general low-key agency - yous tin forget that it's attached to the much less healthy Prince band room.
Things don't come upwards inexpensive at Circa, but yous larn what yous pay for - an outstanding sense for a especial occasion. Apologies for the lack of pictures - you'll precisely direct maintain to savor the owl.
Addressed: 2 Acland St, St Kilda (cnr Fitzroy Street)
Ph: 9536 1122
Licensed
Prices: Vegie degustation $105, with wines, $200
Website: http://www.circa.com.au/
For my birthday this twelvemonth nosotros yet got our ridiculously classy dinner (venue: Circa the Prince), but yous guys are going to direct maintain to become photo-less. And there's no getting unopen to who's to blame. This guy:
That's right, Australia's largest owl species. There's a powerful owl roosting inward Flagstaff Gardens at the 2nd together with I ducked over to come across my 228th Australian aeroplane species. And to direct maintain some photos. Unfortunately, inward the course of report of transferring the photos to the laptop, I left the camera's retentiveness card inward the laptop slot, leaving us carmera-less for our fanciest repast of the twelvemonth together with thus far. Sigh.Once Cindy had recovered from her initial outrage, nosotros establish ourselves able to precisely sit down dorsum together with savor our repast - there's something liberating nigh eating without photograph requirements.
It's worth mentioning precisely how veg-friendly the folk at Circa the Prince are. We made certain to stress our requirements when booking but it turns out their veg-degustation is a measure option, available every dark together with offered to every tabular array (at to the lowest degree to the 2 nearest us on Friday). The a la carte carte du jour is a flake less impressive, but there's i veg entree together with i primary available, along with a few sides. Still, if you're going to become upmarket for a night, yous powerfulness too dive into the nine-course vegetarian degustation (we didn't intend to enquire how they'd become with vegan nutrient but I visit they'd hold upwards up to it if yous gave them a telephone telephone ahead of time).
We kicked things off with a pre-dinner cocktail each and, every bit per green I indulged inward the matching wines with the degustation - the cocktails were both pretty good, together with the matched wines actually hitting the spot. But yous don't become to Circa for the booze, yous become in that place for the outstanding two-hatted dining experience. And goodness me is it a wonderful experience. They say a pic is worth a M words but the lack of photos isn't going to Pb me to write a 10,000 essay hither - I'll continue things brief. Suffice to say - everything nosotros had was wondeful.
First up: carrot velouté, curried cauliflower. Out came some modest bowls, dotted with tiny pieces of lightly spiced cauliflower, with some sugariness (almost candied) slivers of carrot. Over the move past times was poured a wonderfully polish carrot veloute. Everything worked together perfectly - it volition hold upwards a recurring topic inward this post, but the cooking at Circa is all nigh subtle flavours blending together to brand something special. While this was called 'curried cauliflower', the curry flavours were mild together with complex, non only hot together with spicy.
Next up: Garden vegetables, goats' cheese emulsion. Circa direct maintain their ain niggling kitchen garden at Albert Park together with this dish highlighted their seasonal goodies: niggling pieces of parsnip, carrot, turnip, rocket together with some herbs, served on a scraping of goats' cheese emulsion. The cheese provided a modest outburst of tartness, but the dish was actually nigh letting the fresh, well-cooked vegies shine.
Parsnip, horseradish together with dark rice risotto. This was the star of the dark - a rich, dark risotto that had some sort of smokiness with its deep flavours. Really outstanding stuff.
Next upwards was a cleansing course: Spiced beans, herb cream together with fresh ricotta. For some argue I assumed that we'd hold upwards getting some sort of beany stew, but this was much lighter together with fresher: crispy dark-green together with white beans, served with 2 kinds of pulses that were cooked to hold upwards edible but yet firm. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 real lite herb cream together with some modest splotches of ricotta capped off the lite flavours.
In illustration nosotros weren't cleansed enough: Red Hill golden ale cleanser. This came out looking similar a modest drinking glass of ale with a generous foamy head, but in that place was something else going on too - in that place were gingery together with lemon flavours, which I'd gauge aren't establish inward Red Hill's regular golden ale.
Next upwards was our ostensible primary course: Cous cous together with pumpkin brik, ras el hanout spiced carrots together with beets. The cute niggling bricks of cous-cous together with pumpkin were wrapped inward real lite filo pastry, together with served with to a greater extent than delicious vegetables, in i lawsuit again lightly together with subtly spiced. This is on the a la carte carte du jour ($36), together with I'd highly recommend it along with the wonderful risotto ($20, every bit an entree) if you're non upwards for the marathon.
We'd made it through the savoury selectoin, together with it was fourth dimension for the intermediate cheese course: Comte gruyere, poached quince, brioche. The brioche together with quince were first-class inward combination with the gruyere. The cheese was a niggling lighter inward flavour than I'd direct maintain liked, but yet real satisfying.
Onto dessert #1: Confit pineapple, gingerbread crumb, kokosnoot chilli sorbet. This was i rectangular prism of pineapple preserved inward sugar, with a scattering of gingerbread crumbs together with the most divine kokosnoot chilli sorbet. The pineapple was quite good, but everything on this plate paled inward comparing to the sorbet - a smooth, sugariness kokosnoot sorbet with precisely a hint of chilli to sharpen the flavours.
Our concluding dish: Soft chocolate croquante, orangish together with mint. Google tells me that croquante translates every bit 'crunchy', but this was a stunningly polish niggling blob of chocolate-y goodness, served upwards with a span of niggling eggs of orangish together with mint ice-creams. They were okay, but the croquante was where it was at - rich, polish together with wonderful. I intend Cindy had amend fetch me some chocolate now, I can't continue writing this right away I've recalled this dessert.
Shit, there's no chocolate. I'll force on...
Everything winds upwards at Circa with Brydie's garden tea. This is a tea made out of whatever herbs are prepare inward Circa's kitchen garden. This calendar week it included lemon verbeena together with 3 or 4 others (I'm viii wines to the air current at this stage, together with thus the tea ingredients direct maintain escaped my memory). It was an appropriately build clean complete to the meal, which had been nine courses of clever, understated flavours, with lots of beautiful seasonal vegies together with loads of classy touches. The services was efficient, friendly together with relaxed - a niggling less formal than some of our other fine-dining experiences, which suits our agency well. It's a beautiful infinite too - suitably dim lighting, plenty of infinite together with a full general low-key agency - yous tin forget that it's attached to the much less healthy Prince band room.
Things don't come upwards inexpensive at Circa, but yous larn what yous pay for - an outstanding sense for a especial occasion. Apologies for the lack of pictures - you'll precisely direct maintain to savor the owl.
Addressed: 2 Acland St, St Kilda (cnr Fitzroy Street)
Ph: 9536 1122
Licensed
Prices: Vegie degustation $105, with wines, $200
Website: http://www.circa.com.au/
