My first glimpse of Etch and its food was on Herecomesthefood. I was impressed by how pretty it looked. And the food! Oh the food… I really wanted to go, but real life got in the way and other restaurants somehow managed to jostle it further down my list. Until, that is, F found out that AMP employees get a discount at Etch and asked me if I’ve heard about it and wanted to go. Heck yeah! We spontaneously decided to book a reservation for the next day. Yay!

We booked our reservation at an uber early time of 5.30 pm, mainly because we both finished work early that week and didn’t know what to do while waiting for a more “normal” time of 6.30pm or so. It wasn’t surprising that we were the only ones present in the restaurant, but that just meant a nice, clean and uncluttered photo opportunity.

We had gone over the menu online so many times the night before though once we were seated, we still pored over the menu not being able to decide what to get.

Finally though, we worked out what we wanted and boy… did we want a lot.

Entree

Not being able to pass up on fried goodness, we ordered the crispy spiced squid. While they were unbelievably super soft, it wasn’t as crispy as I thought it would be, in fact as we got to the bottom of the dish, the squid did get a bit oilier. The sweet paprika mayonnaise was perfectly paired with the squid and I wished I could buy some to take home.

FFichiban recommended that we order the scallops and I see great minds think alike as this dish was one of the few that we thought was a must-have. I’ve seen photos of this dish, but I still was in awe of how pretty it looked when it came out. It looked almost too gorgeous to eat – almost! Hehe.

I thought everything in this dish was spot on in flavour and worked so well together: the utterly tender pork belly, the perfectly seared scallops, the sweet corn puree that was really quite sweet and smooth and the slightly bitter sherry gel.

F likened the seared scallops to our Selah-benchmark, though he wished they had a bit more sear to them for that extra crispy texture. While he adored the sweet corn puree (calling it “divine”), he wasn’t a fan of the sherry gels (though he thought they looked wonderful on the plate).

I had no idea what a cassoulet was, let alone a basque style cassoulet, but we ordered it because it sounded interesting and different. Much to our amusement, we found it to be a fancier version of baked beans and sausage.

Wikipedia tells me that cassoulet is a slow-cooked bean stew or casserole containing meat, pork skin and white haricotbeans. I think I’m going to bug F to look stuff up on Wikipedia using his 3G phone next time so we know what’s what.

I really liked this dish, it was hearty and for something rather small, it was quite filling! Finding slices of the scrumptious sausage was like finding mini treasures.

My mocktail was quite refreshing with a lot of seedless grapes added in, while F found his Long French quite to his liking.

Main

I couldn’t help but coo over how cute the burger looked! F really liked his burger, though mentioned that the patty was better from Plan B’s wagyu burger. I thought it was kind of strange because aren’t they pretty much from the same restaurant? In a way?

Anywho, we adored the chips. Utterly crispy on the outside, scrumptiously soft on the inside and they weren’t at all oily. The aioli was most excellent and I wondered if I could just buy their entire condiment range. Haha. If only.

On Jenius’ recommendation, I chose the macaroni and cheese dish. I’ve had quite a few mac and cheese (even a fried mac and cheese from TGIF!) but none were like this. The dish was wonderfully creamy and cheesy, the pasta perfectly al dente and the florets of cauliflower were well-seasoned. The cepe brought a nice bit of crunchy texture to the mac and cheese.

By the time I had finished, I was positively stuffed, not being able to leave a single morsel behind.

Oh yes, I forgot. We also had two sides that we polished off as well. We really should only have ordered one, considering how much we had already eaten and still need to eat, but F really wanted the fried potatoes and I really wanted the mash. Our gluttony seems like it knows no end. *sigh*

The fried potatoes were like chunky wedges, deliciously seasoned, but I couldn’t help but wish for more of that yummy smoky garlic mayonnaise. I was definitely a fan of the aged prosciutto.

The mash was spectacularly better than the French-style mash I’ve come to know and love. I have a new benchmark! It was so gloriously smooth and creamy, full of buttery goodness. Oh my, I totally swooned on the first taste. I couldn’t possibly fit more in, but I made room for it anyway.

F really liked his bourbon tea, whereas upon tasting a sip of it, I made a face. Ugh. I much preferred my Marco Polo iced tea mocktail. It was a lot more refreshing than the Goodie Grapes mocktail and you can’t quite see the fruits in the picture, but there were slices of orange and lemon floating about in the drink.

Dessert

I couldn’t decide what to get, being torn between the crumble and the caramel date tart, so I asked our waiter what he would recommend. Seeing what F was going to order, he recommended the crumble, as he said it would go better together.

My eyes widened when my dessert came to the table. It was with some initial reluctance that I broke the pretty arches and ate with gusto. It wasn’t overly cloyingly sweet and the crumble was so delightfully buttery.

When I had the ice cream, I wondered why it tasted a bit bitter and a bit… well… beer-y. It was then that I realised that Hoegaarden was a beer and I couldn’t believe how slow I was in recognising it. I liked the concept of beer ice cream, but I thought it didn’t go all that well with the crumble and quince, as the strong bitter-beer flavour seemed to mask the delicate flavours.

Our eyes once again widened as F’s dessert came out. This time it was more because of its sheer size than anything else. We were expecting like a ramekin-sized dessert, not this overgrown monster of a trifle.

F really liked his trifle, but found that the gin flavours right at the bottom to be a little bit too strong and overpowering.

Since we started so early, Etch was getting pretty full by this stage and a nearby table of 6 ladies eyed and whispered about our desserts while they were having their entrees. I wondered what they were going to order for dessert! Hehe.

I thought the lolly tray would be a small dainty thing and we had to laugh when we saw it come out. In another situation, we would have loved to have such a big lolly tray, but for us then we didn’t know if we could even finish it at all.

Everything on the lolly tray was wonderfully delicious, my favourite was the chocolate and peanut butter ball, which wasn’t as dense or rich as I thought it would be and the chocolate simply melted into a gorgeous goo in my mouth. F’s favourite was the brittle – it wasn’t too hard nor was it too soft and he found the honey almond paired really well with the peanut butter.

The decor is gorgeous and when I saw the Etch clock, I got so excited! I have no idea why, but F smiled and nodded at my excitment, undoubtedly just to humour me.

I have no idea how we finished our massive dinner, but finish it we did. When our waiter came around to ask whether we would like tea or coffee, we hurriedly said no – we were absolutely and uncomfortably full. I don’t think I have ever been so full in my life… even after all-you-can-eat buffets!

I came to Etch with high expectations, even when Minh told me that their entrees and desserts were far superior to their mains, and Etch matched and surpassed my expectations. The amazing food was matched with an equally amazing wait staff, all of whom were super friendly, attentive and quick. I find that some wait staff can be a bit stand-offish with their stiff demeanour, but I felt nothing but welcomed here at Etch.

Etch
62 Bridge Street
Sydney, 2000, NSW
Ph: (02) 9247-4777
Web: http://www.etchdining.com.au/

Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards!

We need your votes …. only if you think we deserve it. Head over and vote on the right hand side of this blog on the voting panel and vote for us in the first ever Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards. You need to vote in every category (eatshowandtell for food) and then press submit for the vote to count. We are up against some stiff competition, but every vote counts! While your there, vote for the other Aussie blogs too (Michael Aulia , Mr Gadget, Super Kawaii Mama, Childhood101, Lady Melbourne)