teresa 13 January 2010 Dinner, Modern Australian, Sydney, Inner East 14 Comments  Print This Post  Email This Post

Something light for dinner?

In the recent past, Danks St Depot was my favourite sunday brunch haunt (note: the creamed eggs are to-die-for) but due to my recent desire to save and just plain ole laziness, I’ve had to cut this luxury out of my life. We’ve posted about Danks St twice before: For the early dinner’s club and of course, for brunch. This place is a personal favourite of mine and after a recent Christmas dinner here, I decide to make a second return.

At $50 for 3 courses at one of Sydney’s finest slow cooking inspired restaurants, Danks St Depot encapsulates value, quality and taste in all 3 of the courses (there is also the a-la-carte option if 3 courses is too much). On my last visit, I felt lucky to be living in Sydney. A place to taste the fine & fresh produce of our country as well as dishes inspired by our laid back & carefree culture. I thought it was the perfect place to introduce my overseas guest, D, to a place not only showing off our simple yet tasty Australian cuisine, but also our culture and lifestyles.

Table setting

The Starters (@$18)

After a long day of sightseeing in humid weather, salad was the popular choice for both of us.

Tattoo from Sydney Aquarium

Panzenella Salad with red roasted bell peppers (otherwise known as capsicum), bread pieces, ox-heart tomato & basil, dressed with tomato dressing.

Funny enough, I was flipping through the Danks St Depot cook book and found this salad in there (so I’m using references to the ingredients in the recipe). My dining companion found this salad to be more an “acquired taste” type dish. The dressing had a strong salty flavour to it (perhaps from the anchovies that’s used in the dressing). The sourdough pieces was covered soaked in the tomato dressing. According to the recipe, it is explained that stale bread is used. This explains the toughness of biting through each bread piece! The salad had an anchovy-cheesey type flavour, but it must be my liking for anchovies which helped me devour each bite & lick all the sauce… (yum!).

Local Peaches and Apricots roasted with Pancetta, Chilli and Thyme served with Rocket and Parmesan chunks

This was a warm salad which allowed the sweetness of the fruits to become infused with the pancetta and rocket. The pancetta was not too salty & the hint of sweetness balanced out the flavours. The peach and apricots were nicely roasted, enough to become mushy when consumed. (Yes I ate the pancetta. Did I mention that my new years resolution was to become an “occasional” omnivore? ) D found this dish to be the most memorable dish he would have that evening. He mentions the smoky flavor of the roasted fruit plus the strong-flavored (goat’s?) cheese was a perfect match and a great way to start the dining course.

Mains (@$25)

Lamb leg with Confit Mushrooms, Dried Cherry Tomatoes and Salsa Verde

The lamb leg was a nice cut of meat cooked to exactly D’s specifications. However, he felt the lamb fillet was like a steak fillet, but just gamier. The sauce tasted so much nicer after mixing the mint & caper topping in with the lamb sauce. The tomatoes were very sweet (and surprised my foreign friend. His introduction to organic tomatoes. It brought out the real sweetness to how tomatoes should taste like.) The mushrooms were a little flavourless but its bland-ness was welcomed since the other ingredients had quite a strong taste. Although there was a positive praise for this dish, D mentions he would pass on ordering it a second time, possibly trying out other main dishes.

Asparagus risotto with Woodside goats cheese curd & extra asparagus

In the past, I haven’t been a huge fan of goats cheese due to the usual reason: too strong. However, I’ve had the goats curd from Woodside a few times recently and found it strange that the flavour was not as strong as what I envisioned goats’ cheese to taste like. It is relatively light but you can still taste the goats cheese flavours. This dish gave you the option to take a small bit of the cheese with each bite or mix it into the risotto. My style of consuming this dish was to ration the “tiny, dainty spoonfuls of goat’s cheese” for each mouthful whilst D preferred the “mix it into your oatmeal” style (D believed my style was far more inferior than his style. “Think of the time one saves with the oatmeal method”, he explains), but we did agree that the flavours matched so well. It was worth ordering on any trip to Danks St (In fact, I had the same risotto on my last Danks St dinner visit).

Dessert (@$12.50)

The waitress took to laughing a bit as D took advantage of the $3 cup/$5 bowl warm beverage up sell and ordered the long black bowl earning this “smart” shopper the equivalent to 3 cups of strong coffee in one, some funny looks from staff and most importantly, a wicked caffeine buzz.

Hot Liquid Centered Chocolate Fondant served with caramelised Strawberries and Whipped Cream

If you asked me what dessert I wanted, I would reply “anything chocolate”. If this is also your answer, you’d love this dessert. As we dug into the fondant, the warm liquidity chocolate slowly oozed out and mixed with the strawberry sauce. This lightened the sweetness of the oozing chocolate. The chocolate fondant was dark, rich and moist. I found it was one of those desserts where you pick up your spoon to eat it, and you don’t put your spoon down, until you’ve finished. Licking helped us towards the end, to savour the flavour.

Pain Perdu - Warm Bread and Butter Pudding served with Vanilla Anglaise and poached Rhubarb

I had this dessert for the early dinner’s club. It was a memorable experience. Drenching the bread and butter pudding into the vanilla anglaise soaked up extra flavours. There’s a hint of chocolate and something fruity (maybe orange rind??). My favourite was the toffee top. It gave the dessert a nice crunch, but wasn’t too sweet to overpower any other flavours. During this course, I made a comment about rhubard: “Don’t you think rhubarb tastes like celery, but its sweet?” – Does anyone else believe in this too because I certainly do! I LOVE cooked celery. The rhubarb was a little sweet to my liking. I guess it didn’t help by being drenched with the vanilla anglaise.

I love daylight savings

I’ve always had a positive experience at Danks St Depot, however during the busier times, the service is sometimes not as attentive as they should be, but the knowledge of how sweet the waitresses are, the attentiveness is not necessary.
The head chef of Dank St. Depot (Jared Ingersoll) believes in slow-cooking, and I being of the philosophy of slow-eating felt a natural draw to come and eat here. So, if you do too, perhaps check this place out for breakfast, lunch, dinner… or all 3. And @$50 for 3 courses per person, it’s a steal!

Danks Street Depot
1/2 Danks Street (Cnr Young St),
Waterloo, NSW 2017
Web: http://www.danksstreetdepot.com.au/

Breakfast & Lunch: Monday to Sunday
Dinner: Thursday to Saturday