Post-graduation dinner @ Cutler & Co, Melbourne

The reason I had come back to Melbourne earlier than originally planned was to make my graduation ceremony. After spending 3 hours of my day sitting down and listening to (amongst other things) academics wax lyrical about the Rothschild Prayer Book, I got my certificate, smiled for the cameras and eventually made my way to nearby Cutler & Co for dinner. The fit out of the place very much reminded me of places like Cumulus Inc (owned by the same people who own Cutler) and Saint Crispin (another favourite of ours)—unassuming shopfront, minimalist and bare but nonetheless chic. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be 'trendy'.

Soon after being seated, we were offered the choice of still, sparkling or tap water. While this may seem like a stock standard question in many restaurants, it's one that raises my ire. I had noticed a recent trend in restaurants (both up- and down-market ones) away from trying to sell you wasteful bottled still water. Instead, more and more places simply offer their diners (free) tap water as you take your seat. While I don't expect every restaurant to offer me free house-made sparkling and still filtered water like Pizarro in London (review to come) does, I can't help but sideeye a bit when a restaurant tries to push bottled water onto you.

However, this little hiccup aside, the rest of the evening went well. The food, particularly two of the seafood dishes we got, was pretty spectacular.

Appetisers: anchovy pastries; and pork scratchings with kimchi
We weren't entirely sure what the anchovy pastries were going to be but I know I had anticipated something like boquerones en vinaigre made with fresh anchovies. Instead what arrived were narrow cigars of a deep fried canoli-like pastry encasing preserved anchovies with salsa verde. They weren't terrible but they were quite salty and altogether pretty uninspiring. We however enjoyed the pork scratchings immensely: glorious puffed up sheets of pork skin which fizzed and crackled as we doused them with the kimchi mayo. Delicious.

Entrées:  Hervey Bay scallop, abalone, soy milk custard & oyster broth; and smoked duck breast, salsify, prune & radicchio
Even though it sounded amazing, I opted out of getting the scallop entree as I was already choosing a seafood main. However, as soon as M's entree arrived at the table, the green-eyed monster emerged. His dish looked and tasted amazing, raw thinly sliced scallops and abalone, baby king oyster mushrooms, wakame and soy milk custard (like an eggy tofu) swimming in the most flavoursome and enticing broth you could imagine. For me this was the highlight of the meal.

When I managed to tear myself away from M's bowl I also enjoyed my duck entree. The smoked duck, although the skin was lacking crispiness, had a super smokey flavour which was right up my alley and as I've already mentioned on this blog, salsify is definitely up there with my favourite vegetables and I wish more Australian restaurants would serve it. The radicchio wasn't at all bitter and the prune provided a nice contrast to the saltiness of the duck. Overall though, I still think the dish veered a little too far towards the land of salt.

Mains: Dry aged lamb saddle, confit belly & garlic sauce; and John Dory, seaweed, grilled octopus, shiitake & eggplant
People who know me reasonably well will know that I'm not a lamb person (except when it's slow cooked) as I find the flavour far too musky. The lamb/mutton in China isn't at all like that but for some reason (some people have suggested that it's the feed the animals are given, others have said it's because the animal isn't bled properly upon slaughter) Australian lamb (unless it's slow cooked) has that overwhelming animalic, faecal note to its flavour. Anyway one bite of M's lamb was enough for me but he really enjoyed the dish and offered that it was some of the nicest lamb he'd ever had.

As much as M likes lamb, I like octopus 100x more. In fact, this dish was the reason I chose to come here instead of Ezard and why I chose to go à la carte instead of with the tasting menu (lest I wouldn't get a big enough portion of this dish). The verdict? Pretty fucking yum, as my friend T would say. The eggplant puree was smoky and smooth, the fish was sweet and nicely cooked while the octopus was tender and flavoursome. Admittedly it wasn't quite as good as the scallop entrée but still pretty amazing.

After all of that (plus the potatoes we had as a side) we were suitably stuffed and so had no room for dessert.

As good as the food here was, I can't overlook the most disappointing element of our dinner, the service. While the other service staff here seemed perfectly content and competent at their jobs, our waitress for the evening seemed intent on projecting her misery onto us. Perhaps she was just having a bad day or perhaps she really was that vexed at my daring to ask to swap out grapefruit (my mortal enemy) from a mocktail in favour of elderflower and soda (the answer was 'no'). All in all though, it wasn't enough to ruin an enjoyable evening.