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Restaurant Arras, Walsh Bay

With Christmas looming, the EST team thought what better way to celebrate than to get together over some delicious food. The only problem (besides trying to find a day that everyone was available) was of where.

So impressed with Arras’ offering last time Howard was there, he thought it would be great if we tried it for ourselves. Why not? After all, we all were enticed by the promise of the amazing bread and even more stupendous range of petit fours (I know I was).

We had just received our drinks and completed our selection of bread when the fire alarm sounded. Almost at the same time we faintly smelt something like burning plastic and noticed a light haze of smoke near the front door.

It’s kind of funny that our natural reaction to the alarm bells was to look around in a puzzled, if awkward, manner, trying to suss out what everyone else was doing and what we should do. While we were trying to decide, the restaurant staff were almost-calmly tried to find the source of the alarm. Eventually we moved outside with most of us bringing our alcoholic beverages or bread (naturally).

Soon after, a fire engine arrived with several firemen to figure out what triggered the alarm.

As with the restaurant staff, they didn’t find anything and put it down to a false alarm, leaving as quickly as they came.

Due to the disruption, our wait staff forgot to serve us the crackers one normally received prior to the start of the dinner. Realising what we were missing out on, Howard wasted no more time and asked about them. They reminded me a bit of papadums, but the nuts anchoring the towering crackers were spicy. I was warned off them and settled for watching them to be eaten instead.

One of the things Howard raved on about Arras was their breads. Oh boy, he wasn’t kidding about the variety they had and just how good they were! We had pumpkin, caramelised onion, malted sourdough, multi-grain rolls… it was seemingly endless! I loved how each time they came out, they were all warm, crusty and wonderfully soft inside.

F loved their bread so much that he had about 10, which took him pretty much right up to the pre-dessert – making our poor wait staff a bit twitchy.

Our amuse bouche was a pumpkin “shot” with micro herbs. It was so fresh and light, it was fairly bursting with flavour.

This next dish was wonderfully brightly flavoured by green and white asparagus, cucumber and pea puree. I loved how the delectable creamy goats cheese adds a roundness to the overall dish.

As you may very well know by now, I am obsessed with scallops and potatoes – having them both on one dish is enough to make me swoon.

Despite its bland, almost colourless, appearance, it packed a fierce flavour-punch. The potato puree was creamy and velvety smooth while after a brief resistance, the grape yielded its gentle sweetness, which in turn bolstered the sweetness in the almost wonderfully seared scallop.

I adored the presentation of this dish. The mind-boggling, infinitesimally thin strip of crisply fried salmon skin stuck like a pin in a lightly roasted tomato certainly made an impression.

It was kind of fun combining all the different components in your mouth, from the super juicy tomato to the soft and tender eel, as no matter which combination was chosen it was assuredly a most tasty one.

F thought the funny presentation was some sort of food disguised to look like a funny, lumpy plate… only to be surprised to find out that it just was a funny plate (admittedly, he has been watching too many Heston Blumenthal episodes right up to this night).

The toasted brioche slices were delightfully crunchy, sandwiching the perfectly cooked sardines (which didn’t have any overly fishy taste).

“It tastes exactly like sardines on toast,” someone noted half-jokingly. And admittedly, it did! The spiced tomato water was totally reminiscent of the tomato sauce used in the cans (albeit it was a lot brighter in flavour and had a more intense tomato flavour).

Unfortunately for me, I managed to get a slice that had quite a few scales and bones in it, which came to be a bit of a surprise really.

The duck was amazingly tender (with no gamey duck taste) and when eaten together with the sliver of cucumber, pancake cigar and rich consomme (which totally tasted like a deeper, richer hoi sin sauce), its flavours were unmistakenly of a smoked peking duck.

It was interesting to see that the duck wasn’t underneath the smoke-filled dome, but rather a waif-like pancake cigar filled with something I have forgotten though I’m sure it was slightly salty.

The lamb was fall-off-the-bone tender and perfectly seasoned; its flavour was simply gorgeous when accompanied with the lavender and honey. Meanwhile, the spinach puree was silky smooth and the caramelised onions added a different sort of sweetness to the dish.

Another talking point of this degustation was whether the cheese would actually come out on a trolley and what type of cheeses they would bring out.

It actually came out on a trolley! And we got to choose which cheeses we had! (So incredibly spoilt). The cheeses ranged from places like France, Spain and Italy.

I would have to say, these cheeses were the best I’ve had – each had their own distinct flavour and were so amazingly smooth and creamy. They were accompanied by house-made chutney and so wide and generous a range of crackers/biscuits that we didn’t manage to finish them!

Our pre-dessert was a wonderfully well-balanced collection of meringue, grapes, orange and white chocolate. It was simple, but no less delicious than a more complex dish.

This dessert was pretty much the clear favourite of the table and it does not come as a surprise. It was incredibly decadent, rich and sumptuous, as well as oozing chocolate when cut through; all of which are components that make up a perfect dessert.

Two words really comes to mind when eating this dish: freaking fantastic.

This divine souffle had a hint of savouriness that was complimented by the lightly salted popcorn. The crunchy chewiness of the popcorn was the perfect counter to the smooth and soft souffle – a combination that would have never occurred to me.

For me, this was my favourite dessert of the night.

I thought this dessert was most surprising. It wasn’t simply a fruit salad with yoghurt, it was fruit sorbet salad with smooth and creamy yoghurt and crunchy muesli. I should have realised that it wouldn’t have been a dish as simple as cut up fruit with a dollop of yoghurt!

I have a confession… I can’t remember what these two desserts were like beyond “tart and sweet”.

Honestly, they were quite delicious, but were kind of overshadowed by the other desserts.

Finally, what we’ve been waiting for the entire night: the petit fours tray – and boy, it did not disappoint. My eyes grew as big as saucers when one of our wait staff brought out the tray (with a bit of a struggle under its weight).

They had given us cute square slates as plates, but when I saw exactly how many petit fours were there (which took our waitress like five minutes to get through), I realised that our little slate would fit four at most. Crap! Making decisions in a really short time with so many choices is not my forte. Hoping for some help, I looked over at F and did a double take.

“Where the heck did you get that plate?” I exclaimed. With a sly grin, he replied: “It’s my affrogato plate.”

A short pause followed. “Damn.” Which promptly followed with a lot of envy. Although I have to admit, the five I managed to fit on my plate was more than enough and found that I was horribly full by the time I reached my last one.

Restaurant Arras is a one-hat restaurant with quite a few surprises up its sleeve. The food, its creativity, was simply amazing – topped with attentive and more than accommodating service; I can definitely see why Howard was so impressed with this restaurant and hope to be back very soon.

Restaurant Arras
24 Hickson Road
Walsh Bay, NSW, 2000
Ph: (02) 9252 6285
Web: www.restaurant-arras.com.au