Morks, New Kingston 9 April

Present: Megan, Karen, Jim, Andrew, John, Ron, Kim

Morks is now in new Kingston, that new area next to the lake teaming with new apartment blocks.   It's a bit hard to find if you are not familiar with this area.  It's on the canal, that part nearest to the Lake.  But fear not, you will be able to find it because of the noise.  Yes, it's one of those restaurants that want to drown you out with noise, goodness knows why.  Is it because they want you to leave as soon as possible so that the table is free for the next guests?  Anyway as I approached Morks I had that sinking feeling, oh another place where I will have to shout and won't be able to hear anyone.

At least that means the place was full, which means that the food is good.

Wine:  2013 Tatara Sauvingon Blanc Marlborough

Jelka Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 McLarenVale

Food:

For the entrees, we had the scallops, prawns, salad and chicken and crab claws.  The scallops were delicate, beautiful.  The texture of the pig's ear complemented the scallops perfectly.  The prawns had a lovely lime leaf spicy flavour.  The salad was quite chilli hot.  The meat was a bit indistinguishable but the rice cakes were nice. The crab balls were okay, interesting, different but not outstanding.

Of the mains, we could detect that some were straight down the line Thai, and others were a bit more imaginative, more fusion inspired.  We had the mussaman beef, tofu and vegetables and barramundi (Thai) and  pork, duck and chicken (fusion).  All were tasty, beautifully presented, best to be shared.

The desserts were delicious and rich.

Other comments (apart from the noise) were that some of the dishes were hard to divide up; some of the servings a bit on the small side; service a bit slow but overall food was delicious.

 Topics of conversation?  Oh the usual, retirement, super pensions, money, families.

Artisan, Narrabundah Shops, 12 March

 

Present: Jim, Karen, Ron, Kim, Megan, Andrew

 

We decided to have one of our special dinners, to mark Ron’s retirement, so Artisan was it.

And of course we had the degustation, which we always seem to do because Ron likes them.

We started off with an “amuse bouche” (I think that is the current term for them), a neat little spoon with figs and nectarines, a cute, tasty little temptation.

 The first of the degustation options was oysters, which I was the only one to take up, the others turned up their noses and chose scallops.  The oysters were brilliant, the presentation was quite spectacular, and the oysters sublime.  The others found the scallops to be “wonderful”, the waygubeef and combination of flavours was brilliant.  One comment was that the scallops were not well cooked, a bit rubbery.

The ocean trout was not fabulous, the flavours were a bit odd.  It came with air dried tomato, gin compressed cucumber and quail egg.  It didn’t quite work.
Next up were the zucchini fritters, with crisp zucchini flowers, butternut pumpkin and goat cheese with nettle sauce.  Um, not really impressive, it came into the category of  “I could have done this at home”.  The pumpkin came in tiny little dots, the goat’s cheese added something but it still needed a bit more to make it more interesting.

The pork, ie pork jowl and gruyere croquettes with coriander mayonnaise and apple slaw, were  okay.  The were very light, crumbed and with the crispy apple a great juxtaposition of flavours. 

The veal was interesting, came with sake marinated mushrooms, radish and snow pea tendrils. Interesting but a bit bland.The lamb (gremolata brushed with parsnip puree, broccolini, baby carrot and jus lie) was great, tasty, cooked perfectly, we all enjoyed it.

 The desserts (donuts and chocolate something) were sublime.

 

Overall, not really sure that this was their best night.  The menu sounded great, but some of the dishes just missed out a bit, and they didn’t quite work. While it was nice, it was more suitable for a restaurant that isn’t trying to sell itself as gourmet, top of the range.