» 2008 » September » 12 @ Not Quite Nigella

I was curious about Bentley Restaurant & Bar. It’s one of the latest restaurants with a bit of a buzz about it, and one of those places that only has two seatings, you can either dine at 6.30pm or 8.30pm. For me, when it used to be a bar it wasn’t anything to particularly write home about but when the restaurant came about in its current incarnation, suddenly people were.

It’s very darkly lit with a tree and foliage theme with leaves cut out of the red perspex partitions and a cut out “tree” on the side of the wall. We contemplate the menu, there’s a range of tapas as well as an a la carte entree and main section. I opt for two entrees while Gina opts for an entree to be made into a main size and Teena orders a main.

While we are waiting, the bread with olive oil, not something I usually partake of, is demolished by yours truly as it is absolutely scrumptious. And before you ask, as I would, if they gave us only two slices for the three of us, they did not, the two slices above were my share

Chickpea chips $8

We ordered the chickpea chips as we had no idea what to expect. Once we had done so, I had flashbacks to the awful polenta chips I had eaten at Icebergs but thankfully these aren’t anything like those. They’re hot and crunchy with a dried chickpea exterior resembling semolina or polenta. The Hummous is very creamy, much more creamy than Hummous usually is and they’re quite good and restorative in the chest in the way that hot chips are in the cold.

Basil Pudding with sweetcorn puree, zucchini flower and asparagus $18

My basil pudding (and the pork following) reminds me of the food that I had at Foliage in London (so resembled it that I had a look at the Bentley website to see where the chef had previously worked, not at Foliage it turns out). It’s all pretty little pieces artistically put together with a brush of sauce or a tangle of delicate leaves placed just so, where everything must be eaten together. The basil pudding cleverly resembles broccoli florets and it’s a melange of flavours where everything does mould together nicely and quite unusual at that. However I am a little disappointed that the zucchini flower, one of my favourite ingredients is simply two petals. Deep fried stuffed zucchini flowers are heaven on earth and I was looking forward to some.