Hurray, it was a special dinner (Karen’s birthday) so we
went to a special place, Rubicon in Griffith
shops. We’d been there before, as a
group and found the food exciting and a bit different. We were all there, except for Andrew who is continuing his globe trotting.
We had the five course degustation: tofu with eggplant and
nori: pork belly with chilli lime caramel and boudin noir; duck confit with
shitake terrine and pomegranate molasses; rib eye steak with sauces and
condiments and then dessert.
They started us off with a spoonful of barramundi, nicely
presented, tempting to the taste. The
eggplant and tofu we’ve had before bit perfectly done, wonderful to start with,
went well with the sparkling white.
The duck and pork were great, beautifully cooked and the
accompanying sauces went well with them.
The steak was spectacular.
Plainly cooked, presented with four sauces, a wonderful experience and a
great match for Jim’s red. Kim even liked the polenta parmesan chips that were
presented with it (she normally avoids all polenta dishes), the French fries
and even the beans with almonds.
The sorbet was extra, and a brilliant course in it’s own
right. And the desserts were all voted
superb, a glorious conclusion with the dessert wine.
Overall, it was very good value for a “fine dining”
experience. It is good that the offer a degustation
menu without alcohol (for those who don’t drink alcohol).
A few issues: it would be worth asking for a table away from
the front door during the winter months, the cold air from the constant comings
and goings were a bit off putting (especially when you have a nearby table of
young people who kept wanting to come and go, come and go).
And although we arrived about 7pm, we did not leave until
10:15pm, about 3 hours. Maybe it was
designed to be spaced out that way, but sometimes the spaces between the
courses got to be a bit stretched.
And personally, I found the overemphasis on meat was a bit
much, but this was a result of what we ordered rather than what was on the
menu, which has a number of very fine vegetarian options.
Overall, highly recommended.
