Some of the delicious courses:
With a unique and innovative menu celebrating the best of native australian ingredients and local aussie suppliers, ESP #Northcote offers a degustation menu of either five or eight courses. We opted for the eight courses though we ended up getting a few extra dishes which was a nice surprise.
The room inside ESP is open planned with the kitchen taking centre stage. The best place to sit is at the kitchen bench where you will be in a prime position to watch the chefs in action as they prepare your meals. As a foodie, I love this sort of dining experience as it enables me to soak up the energy of the kitchen and talk to the chefs (when they're not busy of course).
Here is what our degustation included:
Before our entrees arrived we were treated to some snacks which included smoked wallaby on black rice crackers, a quail egg wrapped in pickled nasturtium and an oyster mignonette. The plating of the food in this trio was presented in a very creative and natural way. I liked it. The eggs in what looked like a bird's nest. The oysters on little pebbles and the smoked wallaby on a piece of bark.
One bite of the quail egg revealed a beautifully cooked soft runny centre. The nasturtium leaf encasing it reminded me of a golf ball size dolmades. The diced
wallaby sitting on top of the rice cracker had been cured and smoked. It arrived under a glass cloche which was lifted up to release a fanfare of smoke. It was pure theatre and it demanded your attention. What a great start I thought and it only got better from there.
A crab and jerusalem artichoke dish followed, which had bite size pieces of crab and pickled cubed apple dotted all over the plate with a consomme of jerusalem artichoke and koji oil. This was all topped with a crumble of jerusalem artichoke which I thought was a clever addition.
Peeking through mushrooms done three ways - fresh, pickled and pan fried was a fresh scallop resting on a soft sea urchin custard. This was decorated inside a scallop shell which in turn was sitting on top of sea shells and rolls of bark.
Again I'm loving the presentation of the food.
Two courses in and we were served some fresh bread. Onion brioche and a pretzel bread with homemade salted butter, just the thing to mop up the smoky buttery sauce of the next course of crispy skinned barramundi served with warrigal greens.
An indigenous plant similar in appearance to spinach and with a long history dating back to the time when Captain Cook first landed on our shores.
Next was shredded pumpkin decorated with sunflower and pumpkin seeds, finished with a lamb jus and a lamb powder with bursts of acidity provided by finger lime pulp.
Wagyu, green onion and lemon thyme - a beautiful piece of tender wagyu steak cooked on a japanese hibachi grill using two different types of woods to infuse extra flavour.
Accompanying this were crispy shallots, white onion puree and little discs of confit onion and a super tasty rich brown beef jus. This was my favourite of the savoury courses, it was absolutely divine.
The waiter tells me the duck that follows has been air dried for two weeks to help concentrate its flavour. The crispy skin was probably one of the best crispy skins I've had on a duck in a long time. And the combination of davidson plums and rhubarb along with a tasty sauce was a nice flavoursome mix that went down well with the duck.
Finishing our mains we were given a palate cleanser of a cold kohlrabi sorbet and refreshing cucumber soup.
The final stretch, and our pear, chestnut and crispy black truffle dessert #desserts proved interesting with chestnuts and diced pear cubes surrounded by a rice milk foam.
We were told with each spoonful, to make sure we scooped up some of the dulce de leche hidden at the bottom of the bowl. And what great advice! The flavours all worked really well together and was a mouthful of bliss.
My favourite dessert of the two however had fresh grapefruit which had been processed with liquid nitrogen. This gave the grapefruit pulp an icy texture and it looked like pink rice on the plate. Underneath it was a silky smooth grapefruit mousse and a really lovely tasting creme fraiche ice cream.
The gin and rosemary jelly was a nice little alcoholic hit to cut through all the creaminess.
And just when we thought our feast had ended, a plate of petit fours was placed in front of us. Passionfruit sorbet in a genoise sponge. It was garnished with a couple of sprigs of geraldton wax, a native plant from Western Australia. It was like eating a soft ice cream sandwich. It was a great way to end a terrific meal.
The menu at ESP #MelbourneRestaurants is modern and forward thinking and elevates australian cuisine to another level. The use of native ingredients throughout the various courses was really special and something that you don't see too often. If you've never had the luxury of sampling our local australian 'bush foods' then here is where you can try some of them.
Come with an open mind and palate and you'll love it here.
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