Assiette

I have never ordered from degustation menu before. This is my first time. 10 course degustation at Assiette. It's for my sister's birthday, I'm lazy to think of what present to get, so just thought the 3 of us (me, sis and bro) just go out for a nice dinner. 

Started with this ordinary looking bread. As soon as I touch it, I know it's NOT ordinary. It was HOT. Probably fresh from the oven. Once the crust is break open, the inside is so soft and fluffy. Because it's still hot, as soon as I spread the butter on it, the butter just melt away. I wonder why other table got their 2nd or 3rd bread roll but we weren't offer any extra. Should've asked for another 1. 

1. Seasonal oyster with Vietnamese dressing and baby coriander. This is so good that both my bro and sis who don't like fresh oysters say that this is good. As soon as the first dish is served, immediately we found the benefit of ordering the degustation menu. While I'm happily snapping away for my blog, the other 2 can just enjoy their food. There's no need to wait for me to finish taking photos before they are allowed to eat :p I don't normally like anything with coriander. I think the smell is too strong that it covers up the smell of everything else. This baby coriander however, the smell is less intense, it's very 'light' and together with the crunchy fried onions, the dressing, they just complement the oyster so well.

 2. Seared tuna with Japanese radish salad, smoked eel, pork crackling and basil puree. While I'm still taking photos, sis already said 'the sausage is nniiiicceeee..' which is the smoked eel wrapped in a thin rice paper sort of thing. By now I'm totally impressed with the food already. Everything is so delicate and carefully placed. It's not food, it's art. 

3. Pickled beetroot with goats curd, basil jelly and pine nut vinaigrette. The taste of goat curd is not as heavy as I thought it would be. The soft creamy curd, the beetroot together with the crunchy pine nuts and the crispy strips, they just give different feel with each bite. 

4. Terrine of Macleay Valley rabbit with carrot, hazelnut salad and raisin puree. It's a lot of fun eating these 'complex' dishes. You can create so many different combination of taste with each bite. You can eat the meat with the sauce, then next bite with the raisin puree, then the hazelnut, with dishes like this you just have to take your time and eat them really slowly. Even the carrots taste different. The solid blocks were done differently to those strips. 

5. Crisp skinned snapper fillet with spanner crab and ginger congee. When I ate this, the first thing that came into my mind was if I get to eat this sort of congee (or porridge as we Malaysian like to call it) when I get sick, I don't mind getting sick at all :p Lots of crab meat in the congee, with sweet corn and ginger to get rid of the fishy seafood smell. 

6. Indian spiced pork belly with seared scallops, onion bhajis and mango chutney purée. This is 1 of our favourite of all dishes. Pork belly was very tender, nicely spiced and the scallop was big and juicy. We didn't know what onion bhajis was, basically it's a deep fried ball of shredded spiced onion sort of thing. Kinda like chips which make really good snacks with beer. 

7. Roasted cutlet of lamb with Moroccan spiced lamb shank, pistachio cous cous and apricot puree. This is the dish that really satisfied our hungry stomach. Everything else before this was like 'it's very yumm... but I want MORE!!'  This is the 1 that fill us up with the perfectly done lamb cutlet, cous cous and the big piece lamb shank. It was so good that we were so tempted to pick the lamb cutlet up with hand and suck the bone. 

8. Selected cheese with rosemary lavosh. Can't remember what cheese that was. It was 1 of the heavier tasting cheese which not exactly my type but I don't mind it. In the middle was walnut with some kind of syrup and the raisin. I was quite fascinated at the raisin that the 2 of them were connected with the twig. All raisins that I've eaten before this got no twig :p And not just mine comes like that, all 3 of our cheese plate come with a pair of raisin with twig. 

9. GrannySmith apple jelly with vanilla syrup and apple granita. This is the pre-dessert palate cleanser. It's not overly sweet and it's very very refreshing. Cold apple granita on top then apple jelly at the bottom.  This is what you would want in a big mug on a hot summer day. 

10. Lastly, Strawberry Champagne cheesecake with strawberry sorbet. This is so good that we were disappointed that we only get a small ball of sorbet. Like it was scooped using those melon baller. The intense strawberry flavour, its' like there's flavour of 10 strawberries in that 1 ball of sorbet. Cheesecake was good too! Not those thick rich cheesecake that we normally get, it's light and fluffy more like a cheese mousse. Then there's the fresh strawberries at the side with some purée. 


Price wise, $95 per person. I was (I AM still) spewing that I forgot to give my entertainment card to get the $40 discount. Annoying goldfish memory. Oh well, I'll just HAVE TO go there again before July then :p 


48 Albion St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9212 7979