As a special treat, this post is on a special dinner I had with 3 friends in June this year. For WM's birthday, we celebrated with a degustation dinner at the award winning restaurant, Pescatore.
The Cusine NZ restaurant of the year 2013 finalist, is situated in The George hotel on Park Terrace, and offers picturesque view of North Hagley Park. It has a modern contemporary setting, but also intimate enough for a romantic date for two. The large floor to ceiling crystal lights at the entrance of the restaurant would attract most girls' inner magpie and its love for shiny things. And perhaps a reflection of the price?
At the entrance, we were welcomed by the maitre d'. We were served fresh palate cleansing berry foam. The tricky part was to take a photo before the foam all disappeared! I managed to get one with half of the foam still there. The berry foam was delicious, and teased our taste buds for more to follow.
For dinner, Pescatore has a selection of menu to choose from. There is the Decision Menu, where you get to choose each dish individually. The Middle Menu is a 5 course degustation menu, $109 each person or $160 with wine matches. As this was a special occasion, we all went for the Evolution Menu, a 10 course degustation menu, $129 each or $204 with wine matches. We went without the wine, as none of us were particularly good drinkers, and didn't want to get drunk really quickly! Okay, we knew the wine was for tasting only, but who would want to waste perfectly good wine!
Each dish of the Evolution Menu had a special theme, as noted below.
Amuse Bouche
Our first dish was the amuse bouche. Mini fish & chips with guacamole dip, came complete with mini newspaper! The super cute dish not only looked good, it tasted great too. The guacamole dip was unexpected, but a nice touch which I really enjoyed.
Next we all got given a mini parcel each. A doggy bag already? But we have only just started! Not to worry, these were just our parcels of warm bread!
Inside each parcel was a brioche and a poppy seed and aniseed bread stick. This also came with truffle oil and whipped butter. I preferred the brioche as I'm not a fan of aniseed. But they were both nice breads, although we tried not to eat them all, to leave room for the rest of the dishes!
Perception - Ham Salad
The ham salad was one of my favourite dishes of the night. It took something ordinary and magically transformed it into a delightful experience and challenge for the senses. The salad consisted of dehydrated prosciutto, onion, beetroot, and apple, served with onion whip.
Each component was thinly sliced and dehydrated. The paper thin vegetables and prosciutto tasted great on their own and in combination, and we got to pick and mix ourselves. The natural sweetness of each vegetables came through well, and I quite liked the prosciutto paper. If only all paper taste like prosciutto.... The onion whip was a fancy version of the classic kiwi onion dip. Very nice and creamy, and great with the vegetables.
Texture - Paua & Duck Dumpling
Our next dish was served in a mini bamboo steamer. Inside each steamer was one paua and duck dumpling, with fish floss and XO sauce.
I have eaten plenty of dumplings in my life, and I wasn't so sure about paua and duck. And it also seemed out of place to eat dumplings with knives and forks instead of chopsticks! Well, the dumpling wasn't too bad, although the inside was a bit dry. There was not much juice inside the dumpling, like traditional ones. Also not quite enough sauce on the outside either. But it was an interesting idea, and good presentation.
Umami - Open Quail Sandwich
Our open quail sandwiches consisted of crispy quail, salad leaves, and shiitake sauce. The salad leaves were the most interesting part. It looked like a pile of salad leaves, but it was actually a salad leaves sponge. The sponge was a little tough. But the quail was nice, and I also liked the shiitake (mushroom) sauce.
Aromatic - Chicken Noodle Soup
The menu reads - "Oriental chicken consomme and instant noodle". What? Instant noodles at a fancy restaurant? There must be more to this, and fortunately there was. To start with, we all got given a syringe of white stuff. Not something you see everyday at a restaurant!
Then came our plates with the soup jelly.
The maitre d' then came and pour hot water into each of our dish, and asked us to gently stir through to dissolve the jelly.
Next, the fun began! We got to make our own noodles with our syringe of white stuff! As soon as the liquid hit the soup, it instantly became noodles. It's up to you how you want your noodles. So it could be one long noodle, or many little ones. We all had fun playing with our food. And the soup was delicious too! A nice soy sauce based chicken soup, great on a cold night. No artificial taste in this chicken noodle soup!
Indulge - Duck Liver Parfait
The next dish looked like it could have been dessert. But we were not there yet. This was a log of duck liver parfait, with brioche crumb, almond snow, and apple sauce. The theme was indulge, and it really was quite rich. The duck liver parfait was good, but we all had trouble finish it, as it was quite rich and creamy.
Taste - Poached Little River Beef
After several courses of "entree", here was our "main". Angus fillet with pickled mushrooms, burnt leek, and mushroom sawdust. The Angus beef fillet was perfectly cooked, with nearly melt in the mouth consistency. The noodles on the plate were actually pickled mushrooms. Interesting sides, with the pickled mushrooms and mushroom sawdust replacing the usual mushroom sauce. I'm not quite sure about this combination, but I did enjoy the beef.
Dairy - Hard Cheese
Next, we had the hard cheese dish as a lead in to dessert. My cheese knowledge is not that good, so I'm not sure what cheese it was, just remembered that it was nice. It also came with sweet bread and a sweet jelly, carrot perhaps. And on the side, raisin drops and spiced carrots. The sweet bread was a bit dry but the jelly was nice. I also liked the raisin drops. The spiced carrots had a interesting taste, somehow reminded us of disinfectant spray!
Treat - Apple Sour
Another palate cleanser before dessert. This time it was apple sour sherbet with meringue. I loved the apple sherbet, with the perfectly balanced sweet and sour taste, and a nice granita texture. Very refreshing!
Temperature - Chocolate & yes, it's Parsnip
Dessert time! This dish was full of parsnip, with parsnip milk ice cream, parsnip puree, white chocolate, and parsnip meringue. We were first presented with the plate above, but something was missing!
The theme for this course was temperature, and true to its name, the maitre d' brought out a bowl of dry ice. He then proceeded to make our meringues right in front of our eyes. And what became of the dry ice? We were treated with a special theatrical display, when he threw the dry ice onto the floor! Too bad I wasn't quick enough with the camera!
Now the dessert was complete! It was a nice chocolaty dessert, and we couldn't really tell it was parsnip. The freshly made meringue was light and pretty tasty. A nice finish to our ten course meal.
Happy Birthday!!
But wait, there's more! As it was WM's birthday, the restaurant brought out a special birthday plate with extra petit fours. A nice gesture, if only the birthday girl could have her meal for free too!
We were also served with the usual side of petit fours. These were house made mini dessert including fruit jelly, marshmallow, nougat, macaron, and mini jam doughnut. By now, we were all pretty full, and really couldn't eat much of these. I heard the doughnut was nice though.
Our degustation dinner had come to an end. We had a fun night out and had a great dining experience. Overall the food was good. Many of the dishes were heavily Asian influenced. As I have had my share of good Asian food, I was not as impressed with these. But I did enjoy the Western style dishes. The dining experience itself was impressive. We were well entertained with beautiful display of food, magical molecular gastronomy, and interactive dishes. It was as if we were in an episode of Top Chef, Masterchef, or some other cooking show. So I would recommend this for food lovers, especially for a special occasion.
Pescatore is featured in the Entertainment Book, offering one main free with one main ordered (up to $45) or $30 off the degustation menu. Open for dinner 6pm till late, Tuesday to Saturday. Private room is also available on request.
Pescatore
The George
50 Park Terrace
Christchurch
(03) 371 0257
http://www.thegeorge.com/restaurant-dining/pescatore/
Great review! I felt like I was on culinary journey with you from reading this.
ReplyDeleteI am a foodie myself in Chch, would love to chat about restaurants/food experiences. Feel free to contact me: matt16_cfc@hotmail.co.nz