teresa 13 March 2009 European, Sydney, Surry Hills 177212 Commentshttp://www.eatshowandtell.com/2009/03/13/foveaux_surry_hills/Foveaux+Restaurant+%2B+Bar%2C+Surry+Hills2009-03-12+14%3A00%3A56teresa  Print This Post  Email This Post

Voted Best New Restaurant of the Year in 2008, Foveaux Restaurant and Bar opened its doors in 2007, serving a european style cuisine. As you walk into this rustic-feel restaurant, you are greeted with either the decision to go up a few steps to the restaurant, or down a few steps to the fancy-schmacy looking bar downstairs. The bar reflects by the meaning of the word “Foveaux“: [Pron: fo· vo]: ultra-chic, cavernous underground cocktail bar. (as taken from their website)

Located amongst the design industry district on the lower end of Surry Hills, the interior of Foveaux Restaurant + Bar still upholds the look of the warehouse that was occupied there once back in the days. The walls have been retained to give the restaurant a rustic look. One strange thing I find with the interior is the big red fire hydrant located right above one of the tables at the front of the restaurant. The first time I dined here, we sat at that table. The experience wasn’t the same this time. I felt more relax, less cramped, atmosphere felt more serene, more like my table was meant to be there instead of just placed in an available area.
This time round, our table was situated outside the kitchen so we got to see all the hussle and bussle! Exciting!

Prior to tonight’s dinner, I had a peek at the menu available on their website I was being too keen! But what caught my eye was their tasting menu. @ $75 for 6 courses… not too bad! It was 2 nights before my trip to Japan and what better to splurge my hard saved money on than some non-Japanese food before I embarked on my journey. So tonight, 2 of us order the tasting menu and the other 2 ordered from the menu. There is also an option to have the tasting menu with matching wines (choice of either $30 or $50) but we gave that a pass and ordered a bottle of red for the table.

There were too many selections on the tasting menu, so we ordered one of each dish from each course. And because I don’t eat meat, they kindly allowed for the fish meal to be switched so that I got 2 meals of fish!

So here I begin my gastronomic feast for the night…

Complimentary Bread roll

I love when the bread is served warm and crunchy, and tonight’s roll sure ticked both those boxes.

Ceviche of kingfish, crab ice cream with a baby herb salad

(I apologise for the quality of the photo…)

On a previous visit to Foveaux, my friend had informed me that Foveaux’s speciality was their ceviche of kingfish, crab ice-cream entree. I had this on my last visit and it was DIVINE! Ice-cream + savoury sounds like a strange and weird combination but they went surprisingly well together. So this was an obvious selection.
The raw kingfish is marinated in a light lemony juice which highlighted the fish’s sweetness. The coldness of the icecream gave the fish a nice fresh taste. A great marriage of flavour and feeling.

Shaved fennel a la grecque, green olive jelly, radish sprouts, goats curd, carrot paint with a taro chip

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of goats cheese (curd as they call it here), however tonight the usual strong flavour of the cheese was toned down a bit. The taro chip was quite interesting too as it stayed crunchy and accompanied the goat’s curd very well. The green olive jelly had a nice savoury taste. I think it was the mixture of everything in this dish that detracted the usual strong flavour of goat’s curd. A very nice dish.

Oysters with chardonnay vinegar pearls and salmon roe - $4 each

On my last visit, I ordered the oyster because of the “salmon roe” and I have never forgotten that oyster. So tonight, my same dining partner ordered the oyster once again to relive the moment we both had one of the best oyster in our lives. We love it not only because of the sweet-ish flavour of the sauce but also for the salmon roe. There was literally a party in my mouth!

Salad of warm smoked duck, cured liver, shiso, pickled rhubarb with liquorice cream

The duck meat was very tender and was perfectly cooked – rare. The sweetness of the rhubarb and liquorice cream accompanying the dish was a nice mix to the smokey flavour.

Roasted tasmanian scallops, venison heart, sesame puree, crushed beetroot and la goya jus

The scallop was perfectly seared, half cooked, half raw. And the top was crunchy. The beetroot flavour was the strongest out of all in the sauce and it was a “sweet” match with the scallop. One of my favourites as everything blended so well together.

Roasted trevalla, kohlrabi gratin, carrot puree, braised sea urchin and leek, red wine reduction with salad burnette

I ♥ crunchy fish skin and this was perfectly crunchy. I liked the strong flavour of the sea urchin in the sauce. It was well marinated into the salad and it gave the fish a nice salty flavour. The red wine reduction gave this dish its sweet flavour… for some reason it was very much like a light, watery BBQ sauce flavour (can’t think of anything else to describe it!)

Braised oxtail with pancetta, celeriac, snails, parsley, bacon rice crackers and yellow capsicum puree

My dearest dining partner remembers this dish as “I remember it was really nice but I don’t remember how to describe the taste of the dish…!“. I believe chef Darrell Felstead enjoys using a vegetable puree to enhance his dishes. A very smart idea as the vegetable flavour is always a nice accompaniment to most meat/fish dishes. Also, it adds a nice colour!

Pumpkin custard with mushroom pearl barley, roasted globe artichoke, chestnut mushrooms, candied garlic and hazelnut puree - $32

Surprisingly, this was quite a heavy and filling dish. Lots of mushrooms and vegetables… a vegetarian’s favourite! It was more flavoursome than it looked!

Roasted lamb loin, white miso puree, crunchy wakame seaweed, asparagus, pea sprouts and jus gras

Watching the boys slice easily through the lamb, the meat looked very tender and soft. It was nice and juicy and the ‘jus’ + miso puree gave this dish its special touch.

Baked rainbow trout with Victorian morel mushrooms, clams, winter purslane, sugar snaps and sweet corn purée

I had this fish dish on my last visit to Foveaux. What I love about it is the sweet corn purée. It’s very sweet and corny (Yes I’m being extremely obvious but this had a nice strong corn flavour). The trout is cooked just right and each slice/portion comes right off perfectly. The sauce mixed with mushrooms and clams have a strong salty flavour which mixes well with the sweetness of the puree and the trout. Perfect union.

Pre-dessert: Braised watermelon with sorbet

Pre-dessert is known as a “palette cleanser”, used to cleanse your taste buds from the savoury flavours of the entrees/mains to ready them for the sweet taste of dessert. There was a thin slice of watermelon which gave it a light flavour, and together with the sorbet the overall experience was very “FRESH”! After indulging this sweet, I was ready for what was to come next…

Cherry beignet, caramel milk sorbet, chicory cream and almond puree

I’m not a huge fan of non-chocolate desserts nor do I like cherry, but I must say this was something else…! Beignet is french for ‘doughnut” (or donut ). The deep-fried donut was not too sweet. With every bite of each part of this dessert, the party in my mouth just continued on and on and on…

Tonka bean rice pudding, blackberry conserve, white chocolate ice cream and walnut dust

I’ve never had rice pudding before, so to me it tasted like sweet rice oats. (Note: I love oats!) The blackberry conserve added a fruity taste to the rice pudding and the white chocolate icecream added to the cool temperature of the dessert.

Estate Grown Organic Teas with petit twos $5

I love how when petit twos are served when tea is ordered. It makes the tea drinking experience just that bit better!
Tonight, the petit twos was an almond chocolate cup and toasted marshmellow. This type of marshmellow is my favourite! Its homemade, fresh and not like your average supermarket marshmellow. This is more stickier and less sweet. Extremely yummy!

The busy busy kitchen

For $75, the tasting menu was well worth it. The flavour of each dish was well matched, the variety was wide, servings plenty (not too full, not too little). The service was attentive, professional, informative, flexible and friendly – perfect 10!

My second experience to Foveaux felt much better than the first, and I can tell you… this won’t be the last!

Foveaux Restaurant and Bar

65-67 Foveaux Street,
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010
Ph: (02) 9211 0664
Fax: (02) 9211 0669
Web: http://www.foveaux.com.au