We opted for Zest, the cheaper of the two of City Tatts’ restaurants and purchased two vouchers for the four of us. This of course meant that we could enjoy roughly $50 worth of food each and had two bottles of wine to share for the table.
Zest is a simple restaurant that serves great food. It does not go over the top in interior design but the waiters were charming, service was good and the restaurant catered well to both large and small groups, having our table for four at one side of the restaurant and a table for over 12 down at the other end.
After much consideration over the menu and calculating which dishes we could ask for in order to keep within the included price, each couple decided to share a plate of bruschetta – which included two pieces of crunchy thickly sliced baguette with zingy diced tomatoes, Spanish onion and basil ($7.00).
My partner and I ordered two mains to share and our guests decided to do the same. We sampled the lemon, garlic and oregano marinated spatchcock ($29.50) and the certified Black Angus rump steak ($24.00), whilst Ashleigh and Colin ordered the pork belly ($24.50) and the salmon $25.00).
The spatchcock was crispy and juicy, served with thickly, rectangular cut potatoes and accompanied by a jus and béarnaise sauce. I much preferred this dish over the steak, which we ordered medium rare and also came with the potatoes, jus and béarnaise sauce. The steak was on the dry side and we would have preferred it to have been served with a mash or some steamed veges.
The soy braised pork belly with soba noodles, crisp shallot, mint and coriander salad shone through as the best main course. It was splendid and delightful, cooked perfectly, with an Asian infused flavour to the consommé. The only criticism possible was that it had slightly too much mint.
The oven roasted salmon, served with crushed kipfler potatoes (how much better does that sound than mash!), confit garlic, caper berries, olives and parsley was moist and well cooked but could have been improved by a sauce.
When it came to dessert, we ordered one dish on the safe side and one more adventurous dish. Ashleigh and Colin decided on the same choices, which were a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate soil and hazelnut icecream ($13.50), and a white chocolate, basil and strawberry parfait with fresh strawberries and pink peppercorn syrup ($13.50).
“It’s yum, I love it!” exclaimed Ashleigh upon trying her first spoonful of the parfait, and it was. The dish was beautifully presented, sitting on its side amongst pools of green and pink. The table was split on whether we thought the basil went well with the dish or not. We did all agree thought that there was slightly too much pepper in the syrup but as a whole, the dish worked in an interesting way.
I definitely saved my favourite for last with the chocolate fudge cake. It was moist, warm and almost melted in my mouth. I could have had multiple plates of the cake on its own, but the ice cream and chocolate soil was a nice touch.
Overall, we had a fantastic night at Zest and would recommend it as a restaurant. It wasn’t until I was almost done with my slice of chocolate heaven that I realised that though we had been guzzling down our bottles of wine, we had not been offered water throughout the entire meal! I found this a little strange.
I was happy with my voucher purchase and am eagerly looking forward to my next successful bargain dinner!
it's great when those vouchers are worth it :-)
ReplyDeleteohh i just bought the same voucher last week! going to visit soon
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