Matteo's

Last night I joined Tina and Shazza for degustation delights at Matteo's in Brunswick.  I've heard mainly good things about Matteo's but what I didn't know that it's been in the game for over 15 years.  Whuh?  Really?  I gotta brush up on my restaurant review guide.

Getting back to my point of hearing 'mainly good things'.  Some people complain about the poor service given by the two hat restaurant.  I have no idea what those reviewers are talking about because our waiters were impeccable.  They were keen to neatly roll up our serviettes whenever one of us left for bathroom relief.  They explained the content of our dishes and wines.  They were also very thoughtful to ensure we drank our wines from left to right in order to best compliment the food.  Bad service?  I think not.

Tina and I decided that we wanted to go all out and have the tasting menu with the matching wines.  At 100ml per taste and having seven tastes for the night, well, it's good that Shazza was designated driver.  Maybe a more seasoned drinker could cope with 700ml of alcohol over the course of dinner, but my liver isn't quite there yet.

The name Matteo's suggests that the cuisine would be heavily Italian-Mediterranean based but nope, nothing could be further from it.  Instead, the restaurant is classified as Modern Australian which really.... wtf does that mean anyway?  It's the kind of label given to restaurants which don't quite fall into a distinct category and with such a broad definition, you could break it down into sub-categories.  Given the mish-mash of cultures in Australia, Matteo's in this case would be further sub-categorised as Modern Australian Asian.  Blah, blah, blah.... stop rattling on and show me the food already!

First course (L-R):  Carpaccio of Hiramas kingfish, prawn remoulade, shiso Japanese basil sauce. Yellowfin tuna tartare and seared bonito tataki, horseradish and beetroot sauce.  Confit petuna ocean trout rolled in toasted nori, wasabi guacamole.  (Look, I photographed the paper menu orrite?  This isn't written from memory.) 

I have to admit, it felt a bit weird to be eating sashimi with a knife and fork.  I kept thinking they would present us with some chopsticks any second now.  But good food = happy Pooey and as you see, I was pretty darn happy to be given my plate of omega3 goodness.

This was matched with a glass of sake and a gewurztraminer.  I'm not a fan of sake.  There's a reason why it's served in tiny cups.  I always think it's like drinking metho.  Anyway, this sake was definitely nicer but even still I did struggle to down my 100mls.  The gewurztraminer was also nice, but I think I was more or less using it to wash the sake out of my mouth.

Second and Third Course (L-R):  Tempura zucchini flower filled with fetta, watermelon, radish and coriander salad, tamarind vinaigrette.  Spanner crab raviolo, stir fried iceberg lettuce, warm chilli sauce, taro chips.  This was matched with a verdelho and a chardonnay.  Chinese roasted, western plains suckling pig on kimchi cabbage, black vinegar glazed beetroot, tonkatsu sauce.  Oxtail and mushroom pie, sauteed peas, leeks and thyme, horseradish and mustard sauce.  This was matched with a pinot noir and tempranillo.

Alcohol is starting to take it's toll when you decide to pose with the giant wine glass.

The zucchini flower went surprisingly well with the melted fetta.  The raviolo was nice too but the alcohol was starting to affect my memory and it was making me go cross-eyed.  I do remember enjoying the oink-oink and the hit of the horseradish on my pie.  Yes, I have to say it was all very nice but I wasn't quite in a critiquing state.  The red wine certainly went down a treat.

Next up was our dessert:

(L-R) Brendan's Golden Gaytime honeycomb crumbed, toffee and vanilla ice cream terrine.  Kaffir lime and tofu cheesecake with honeyed almond crunch, framboise macerated strawberries.  This was matched with a botrytis semillon blend. 

I was warned that dessert wasn't that impressive, but when you are kind of drunk, it probably didn't matter what was put down in front of me.  Yes, it sure did taste like a Gaytime with a shortbread popsicle stick to boot.  The kaffir lime flavour was evident and lime-y but the almond crunch was a bit tough and I nearly had to break my plate in order to break it into manageable bite size pieces.

I was initially worried that I wouldn't be full from dinner but my stomach had pleasantly plumped up from tonight's offerings.  Overall I left the restaurant in a happy state and I would come again to check out the a la carte menu.