The only thing more fabulous than a Champagne Bar is possibly arriving in time to enjoy it and not misreading an invitation. So begins my dilemma when I arrive at what I think is the right time of 7:30pm only to learn that the launch of Etch’s Champagne Bar has been going since 6pm. “I’m fashionably late right?” I offer up feebly knowing that fashionably late doesn’t involve arriving right the end.
But all is not lost because I still have some champagne and cocktails and following on from the cocktails is dinner at Etch. When offered a choice of cocktails including Pepper Berry Martini (sloe gin, black pepper infused vodka and summer berries), St Clement’s Bells (Aperol, Vanilla Absolut Vodka, Absolut Citron and a lemon ice block for a swizzle stick), Apple Sherbert (Absolut Vodka, green apples, star anise infused vodka and sherbert) and Perrier Jouet Champagne.
Did someone say apple cocktail? I go straight for the delicious apple cocktail which has a slight Asian flavour to it from the star anise. It’s a stunning space with a Florence Broadhurst-esque rug, custom made panels, silvery velvet chairs and Venetian glass. Becca and I are then led to our table and the waitress asks us if we’d like to choose or would we like Justin to make up some courses for us. Justin then comes over and asks us if we’d like 5 or 10 degustation sized courses. As I’ve had a weekend full of food, I go with Becca’s suggestion.
Marinated Hiramasa Kingfish, carrot escabeche, Champagne vinaigrette
I’ve had a similar dish with the Hiramasa Kingfish here and it has a really gorgeously pure flavour. Escabeche is similar to ceviche where an item is cooked in acids or vinegars. Here, in a visual mindtrick where you think you’re being served beetroot, purple carrots are pickled in a vinegar.
Local mushroom tortellini, Madeira consomme, sauteed mushrooms
Becca’s dish of choice was the consomme and it’s gloriously deep with that fabulous Madeira flavour, mushrooms and a plump tortellini filled with finely diced mushrooms.
Pan roasted Queensland scallops, cauliflower puree, bhaji, curry oil
When they set this down in front of us I immediately inhale deeply at the fragrant Indian spices. The scallops are juicy and is accompanied by a silky puree, a deep fried bhaji and is drizzled with curry oil.
Crispy spiced duck, watermelon, cucumber, black bean vinaigrette
Now only yesteday I had 6 courses of Peking Duck so the idea of having more duck alarmed me a little. And whilst I do like watermelon salad I haven’t seen it used in many other dishes apart from with feta so I was very curious to see whether it would a) work with duck and b) my body would protest at eating more duck. Thankfully the juicy, sweet watermelon cubes and asian style cucumber salad went well with the slightly dry, spicy duck.
Local mulloway, crumbed scampi, fennel puree, citrus a la Grecque
The petite piece of mulloway was cooked so that it retained a juiciness whilst being cooked through and the tiny crumbed scampi and triangles of fennel provided a nice contrast to the creamy fennel puree.
Roasted short rib of beef, spinach, glazed royal blues, horesradish
I adore short rib and this portion of it was deceivingly rich. The horseradish was light and it sat in a fine spinach puree with sauteed spinach on top and a little royal blue potato baton. It’s an exercise in richness and quality over quantity.
Lobster Omelette Thermidor
My only request was the Lobster Thermidor omelette. This was eggy and rich with a creamy thermidor sauce although I don’t really find many lobster chunks in it. It’s also deceptively rich and after the preceding courses it may have been a bit ambitious but I muster strength and finish it all. Six ducks? What ducks?
Fougerus, pickled watermelon
The Fougerus is a rich, runny Brie-like French cheese accompanied with pickled watermelon which is a tangy, sweet watermelon served on a triangle of lavosh style cracker. I always like a touch of sweetness with cheese either be it by muscatels, figs or quince paste and this gives it an added tangy dimension along with the sweetness.
Chocolate and Peanut butter Mille feuille, manuka honey marshmallow
The dessert I wanted to try because I do happen to love chocolate and peanut butter together was the mille feuille. It’s a crisp lace biscuit for the mille feuille pastry and a light peanut butter and chocolate filling. I love the lightness of it as it comes at the end of quite a few courses. The manuka honey marshmallow is a small thimble sized toasted marshamallow and it also comes with a manuka honey sorbet which is strong in the distinctive manuka honey flavour.
Caramel Date Tart, burnt butter ice cream, Earl Grey tea syrup
One of my favourite desserts last time was the Caramel Date Tart with a rich burnt butter ice cream with Earl Grey tea syrup as it hits two of my favourite things to eat: burnt butter and Earl Grey tea. The tart is sweet and eggy with a caramel flavour.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever get invitations totally mixed up? I once arrived at a midnight preview screening of Blair Witch Project one day late as the time on the ticket confused me.
NQN dined as a guest of Etch Dining.
Etch Dining
Intercontinental Hotel
62 Bridge Street, Sydney CBD, NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9247 4777
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39 Comments | Add your own
Oh, that chocolate and peanut butter dessert! You’re killing me, Lorraine! Australia better still be keen on this combination when I get back…
I’m usually fanatical about details for events, but there’s a slight chance that I got confused about certain recent dates (The Fiddler tour) and got my friend to change her plans so that we’d meet in London a few days after we’d planned… when, as it turned out, I actually was able to fly there on time…
Never late, no, but you had sloe gin cocktails!!! Does anyone know where you can buy sloe gin therse days? It seems Dan Murphy’s stopped atocking Gordon’s sloe gin a few months back and my wife and I are going through withdrawal!
Great post, great looking food too. I enjoy eating vicariously through you Lorraine!
I’ll place my order for the lobster thermidore please! Yum-yum.
I don’t remember getting an invite mixed up -then again, I probably don’t get so many invites these days
At least you were in time for the food which looks spectacular. I adore Earl Grey too
I read and reread invitations over and over to make sure I don’t get it wrong but I had a friend who arrived at a birthday party a whole week early.
How gorgeous Lorraine looking at your photos and reading your post just brings back the night all over again. Very true I had an hour and a half’s start on the champagne before you arrived x
Mm that chocolate and peanut butter Mille feuille sounds delicious!
Oops! At least you didn’t miss the lovely dinner!
Sounds like you had a great time, even if you were late! Though how you managed to find room for all that food after the Peking ducks is beyond me..
I am drooling just looking at all that beautiful food
Wow you are a lucky duck! I’ve been wanting to try Etch for the longest time. Drooling over that caramel date tart.
I. Must. Go. To. Etch. What a fabulous champagne bar! The food looks so beautiful too.
This food all looks amazing! And I am especially pleased because I am in Sydney in a month’s time for a wedding and I am staying at The Intercontinental! Wonder if I can persuade my friend to have a meal here …
Looks amazing, even to this vegetarian! Great photos too. Not sure if I’ve ever misread invitation times, but I did go to a party once not knowing that the theme was cross-dressing, and was told ‘Love your man costume!’.
Oh for god’s sake … will chefs please stop drawing on plates!! It’s done, it’s so done it’s not funny. And it’s just plain stupid. And really gets my goat!! *Gah*
That food looks specatacular…and that date tart….YUM! We nearly went there for dinner on Saturday night but in the end went elsewhere…now I wish we had gone there!
Those scallops are calling me… dish after dish of stuff that looks really amazing!
Oh, I love the decor – so pretty! Those scallops look amazing, and I love watermelon in salads, it just feels like summer!
Unfortunately I rarely get invites, but would be on time. You make everything you do so exciting. I love your photos. I cannot say that I like all of the food that you ate and do not know how you did it after your 6 duck night. Chocolate is one thing that I really enjoy, so dessert for me.
Oh, no more cocktail/champagne talk please. I have given up drinking for health reasons …lucky I can still indulge in food, and those scallops had my mouth-watering!
I hate getting times wrong. At least you got to sample the food, it all looks fantastic. I’ve only ever heard great things about Etch.
Once I arrived during the intermission of a ballet thinking that it was just the beginning…it was a seasonal performance so I had to wait until the next year to see the first half, lol! I’m glad you still got to enjoy it, everything looks fantastic Lorraine. Those scallops look nothing short of spectacular! By the way, I’m not sure if you do the award thing or not (totally understand if you don’t
), but I just wanted to let you know that I left you an award here: http://www.anediblemosaic.com/?p=2455.
Wow! Gotta try Etch! Food looks fabulous…
Oh wow that looks good – you got to try so many different yummy things
I just got back from a month in the US and will probably explode if I eat one more deadly delicious pb and chocolate combination, but it would be a good way to go!
OMG – Those scallops looked so good I nearly licked my computer screen!! lol
Yes – I am always late, but it’s not my fault. No one in my husbands family has any concept of time so as a result we are ALWAYS late and it drives me to distraction!!
Check out the Fougerus cheese…mmm, would love this in a cheese melt right now!
eh, late? Nah, just in time for the food especially that date tart. I could skip the drinks! hehe
I’m almost always spot on
Peanut butter and chocolate in a dessert together? Sounds absolutely right to me! I don’t have a problem with time and appointments, I usually turn up too early and spend lots of time cooling my heels around the corner or outside on the footpath!
It’s not an invitation but there’s a flight out of Hawaii which leaves at midnight which everyone thinks of as pm even though it’s am and many people miss it because they think it’s at 12.00 the next day. It seemed really crazy as I’d never flown out of anywhere at that hour but I figured if I was wrong, all I’d done was lose us a night of sleep instead of ruining the remainder of our travel plans! How happy was I when I was proven right! I’ve been meaning to get along to Etch and the food looks delicious!
Ooh, I love earl grey flavoured desserts! This one looks fantastic too.
I WISH I had turned up late…That extra 1.5 hours of drinking Perrier Jouet had me a bit tipsy and by the time dinner came around; this non-seafood eater was eating Kingfish, Trout and Scallops AND telling (read: YELLING at) Justin North about how good the food is that I will actually eat Seafood if it comes from one of his restaurants.
Oh lord. *dies*
Your pics and recap are great
I’ve done a couple on Etch on my bloggy too!
I always try to be on time as I hate to miss out on anything.Lol
Food looks fantastic and Etch is now on my list to try the next time we venture into the city for some fine dining. Thanks Lorraine.
Ooh, I had some of those dishes as part of Etch’s degustation a few weeks ago. It was delicious but didn’t stop me ordering the lolly tray as well…
And can you eat at the wine bar, or is dining still in the restaurant?
looks like a nice place. glad you got some champagne still. the desserts look yummy but the presentation is a bit of a car wreck to me
sometimes those streaks they do just don’t look right. i thought the entree looked like it had beetroot too when i saw it.
ah well, at least you got there, even if you were fashionably late
some very interesting combos of food but the dessert has caught my eye – peanut butter and chocolate mille feiulle!!
I like the presentation here, although that syrup on the tart dish looks somewhat ickily smeared. The Fougerus though looks just like a shell! Beautiful!
I’m pretty good with timing and if I’ve ballsed up any invitations I have also deleted the memories from my brain in embarrassment. There was a professor in my department at uni however who had to have other people present his findings at multiple conferences over the years as he couldn’t quite get his brain around the whole date/time thing after midnight when flying
“Six ducks? What ducks?” ha.
that peanut butter, chocolate, marshmallow dessert sounds AMAZING, and i now want to try a black-pepper-laced beverage. how curious!
The moment I saw the photo of the interior, I knew I was going to like this place! And then I did something sneaky..I first scrolled down all the way to drool over the desserts before I slowly read the entry again. hahaha. I guess it’s a habit!
Thanks for the drool-worthy photos and descriptions!
A great meal! The scallops sound especially good, I can just imagine the wonderful aromatic flavors! The scrumptious pb & chocolate dessert sounds similar to the one we had on our last outing, so yummy!
Yum! The food looks delicious and the place looks beautiful..
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