Rockpool Bar & Grill
Shop1, 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank Victoria 3006 (part of the Crown Complex)
W
www.rockpoolmelbourne.com
e reservations from their web site in form format
t +61 3 8648 1900
open Lunch Sunday to Friday 12.00 noon till 3.00 pm, Dinner
7 days 6.00 pm till 11.00 pm
FOOD Hailing from Adelaide it is impossible not to feel a little jealous at the packed restaurants of Melbourne. Glitz, ritz and a dedication to quality food is an indulgence that only a restaurant continuously packed with patrons willing to pay allows. Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne is just one of those restaurants.
Their display of air–aged grass fed beef is just the start of the dedication to produce in Perry’s restaurant. Elegant and dark, but well lit with massive river frontage windows Rockpool Melbourne has a slightly more informal feel than its sibling Rockpool Sydney. It is no less plush, just different and the focus is very definitely on the produce they use. The tone is set with the placemat menu that proudly shows a massive black Angus and it is dated with the days date, emphasizing the constantly changing nature of their menus. We particularly loved that dessert selections were announced with a smaller mat and a different bull.
Executive chef and owner Neil Perry has had a passion for produce that has remained undiminished in his 30 plus years of cooking. Both he and his long-term colleague and head chef of Melbourne Rockpool Cann Danis share an obsession with food and food culture and have never tired of learning something new. The restaurant’s focus is well summed up by the statement on their menu “The cornerstone of good cooking is to source the finest produce&$8221.
For all those idiots who think they are way too precious to put salt and pepper on their tables it has to be noted that Melbourne’s best show no such contrition.
From Salads and other things, My steak tartare with chips $20 was ordered and from Hot Starters, Slow cooked egg with bone marrow on brioche with red wine sauce $19. Purists may not enjoy ’a version’ of steak tartare how ever good it is. This one came lightly laced with very fine celeriac, and a little on the wet side with a remoulade style dressing. When writing a menu there is sometimes a struggle to find the right words to convey a precise description of a dish but choosing a classic dish and only delivering an approximation can be disappointing. Appropriately warned by the words “my steak tartare” there is nothing to complain about and it tasted very good. The table to my right had a Rib–eye on the bone 450g, 30 days $60 which was perfectly cooked rare with that black pencil line holding perfectly set rare meat. It looked fantastic, served plain with lemon the diner appeared to be enjoying the envy of their companion by teasing them with the occasional slither tossed grudgingly onto their plate. Sadly she failed to note the longing looks from the table next door.
For those who might complain about the price of the steaks it is important to understand the air aging process and the weight loss that is part of that process. Add to that the meat must be cleaned of all the dry black outer that is also part of the aging process. This has to be factored into the cost and one can be reassured that the margins to serve this superbly aged meat are probably a lot less than Perry’s accountants would wish for.
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The bone marrow brioche and egg was wonderful but the red wine sauce was somewhat bitter and could have been mellowed with a splash of veal glaze and a knob of butter. Service in all of Perry’s restaurants has always been extremely professional even when service in Australia barely existed, and it is a tradition that continues in his Melbourne restaurant. When asked which dessert the waiter advised without hesitation the Passionfruit delicious which triggered the memory of Perry’s exquisite signature passionfruit soufflé at Rockpool Sydney. An exemplarary soufflé compared to the egg white fluff being idiotically passed off as souffl&#eacute in Australia at the moment. Lemon delicious is currently rather fashionable Australia–wide and none, until dessert chef Katherine Adam’s passionfruit version have come close to my mothers; hers was simply exquisite. Perfectly textured with the two layers, one cakey and one the jelly like sauce, it had been inverted from the mould so that the jelly like bottom was uppermost and it was delicately, but persistently passionfruit flavoured. We would kill for the recipe. The pudding came swimming in a very thin vanilla sauce that could have easily been left off of the plate. Coffee was excellent.
The view is very pleasant during the day, but must be spectacular at night looking back at the city, but for us this cooking and wine list could be in a tin shed without windows as long as the food and list maintained the same wonderful standard.
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WINE This is an impressively long and seductive list, with a fabulous and interesting collection of old-world wines and the absolute eyes of the best of Australian wines.
Wines by the glass are somewhat limited and to be fair with such a wonderful wine list who can blame them for pushing the bottles. As a frequent single diner it is impossible not to wish that more Australian restaurants at the top end followed the European tradition of opening random more expensive aged bottles on a daily basis.
OWNER AND EXECUTIVE CHEF — Neil Perry
SOMMELIER — David Lawler
