Hurstville strikes out with Hatch, the new restaurant at Humphreys Hotel. This modern Australian restaurant turns Hurstville on its head with caviar cornet cones, a caviar service and steaks sliced at the table. Pair that with extravagant bathrooms (yes!) and Gucci wallpaper throughout and we're definitely not in Kansas Hurstville anymore!
Humphreys Hotel is located just off Forest Road in Hurstville - look for the bouncers and a greeter ushering people into the venue. Mr NQN and I head upstairs to level one. There are two parts to the space at Humphreys Hotel. The first is a wrap around al fresco covered balcony area where you can order drinks and casual sort of plates and there's Hatch, the premium dining restaurant next to it with semi circular booths and an open kitchen. No shade but Hatch is a very un-Hurstville restaurant. Even my friend Sophia who has lived in Hurstville her whole life said that she was surprised to see that this was in Hurstville.
Hatch is managed by Public House Management Group with executive chef Scott Greve (ex-6Head) and former Sokyo sommelier Theo Nguyen who has created the wine list and cocktails. As a result things are slick and well run, the waitstaff enthusiastic and wordy explaining dish details with enthusiasm. When we select a steak they bring it out for us to inspect, not unlike live seafood at a Chinese restaurant.
I sneak off to the bathroom while waiting for our cocktails. It's giving Miami Barbie vibes with brass swan taps and pink Gucci floral wallpaper. The entire space was designed by Melissa Collison Design.
We start with cocktails and I'm having a Lychee Barbie, a candy pink confection with lychee, rose, apple, Peychaud's bitters and egg white that is light and sweet with a cloud of pink pashmak on top (you can also add a shot of vodka to this). Mr NQN has the Affair with Rose & Mary with Sagatiba Cachaça, limoncello, passionfruit purée, oolong, rosemary and lemon. They take the lid off that reveals a cloud of smoke. When you take a sip the smokiness is surprisingly pronounced but once you get past that the cocktail itself is full of sweet passion fruit flavour. It's actually a nice combination as either on their own might be too much but together it works.
We dive right into the spongy charcoal focaccia served with whipped butter and made with first press olive oil. I save my second slice for the rest of the dishes.
The pig's head is two long croquettes with pressed, slow-cooked for 24 hours pigs head meat with black pudding that is rolled, crumbed and deep fried and served with hollandaise sauce and pork jus with asparagus. While I enjoyed this dish it was very rich especially with the hollandaise and pork jus and I would have loved another ingredient to lighten it up a bit.
If you're going to splurge I recommend the caviar cornetto that is based on a cornetto ice cream. It's garlic crème fraiche, topped with Italian white sturgeon black caviar and chives. At the bottom is black garlic aioli instead of chocolate that gives the last bite a sweet, creamy intensity. Eat this slowly savouring every bite.
The king prawns arrive, three per dish of extra large U6 prawns. These are served with an XO butter and dusted with tomato powder and shellfish oil. The prawns are well cooked and have a lot of flavour to them and make sure to save some focaccia tp scarpetta or drag through the butter.
"This is like in America," I whisper to Mr NQN as they bring a trestle stand to our table. A few minutes later, a leather apron clad gentleman arrives carrying our steak while behind him trails more waitstaff bearing the side dishes and sauces. He makes a show of slicing the steak in front of us and sprinkling it with smoked salt.
The steak that we ordered was one of the specials as the larger steaks would have been too big for us. I usually order grass fed steak cooked medium rare and wagyu cooked medium but I left it up to the chef who surprisingly cooked this grass fed steak medium. While I do usually prefer it more pink, it is such a fantastic steak with a pronounced beefy flavour from the 8 weeks of dry ageing. As for Mr NQN he absolutely loves it and not a single scrap goes back to the kitchen.
One thing that we both love is that all of the steaks come sides: a palm sugar vinaigrette dressed green salad and triple cooked chips with aioli. The sauces are extra and there are four sauces to choose from and we go for the hot sauce and the port and red wine jus. The hot sauce is brilliant, it's not a thin hot sauce, it's more of a hot chilli sauce with a rich depth of flavour.
It's dessert time and we are tossing up between the Ice Cream Sambo or the souffle but we are persuaded to try the souffle (although truthfully I really find souffles a bit overrated). The souffle comes out like the leaning tower of Pisa and the waiter awkwardly suggests that we poke a hole and fill it with the warm creme anglaise. We had seen the souffle arrive perfectly proud and high (and not leaning) at many other tables and the waitstaff added the creme anglaise so I think it was just ours that wasn't perfectly executed. There's poached rhubarb at the bottom and the creme anglaise is very good although I really should have just ordered the ice cream sandwich as that was what I was craving.
But out of the two desserts the Hatched is the pick. Not only is it cute but it's absolutely delicious. The Hatched is shaped like an egg with a white chocolate coating filled with mango and passion fruit gel, white chocolate mousse and coconut ice cream. It's refreshing, well balanced and just damn adorable.
So tell me Dear Reader, how do you order your steak? Do you have an ideal steak cut that you always order?
NQN and Mr NQN were guests of Hatch Dining but all opinions remain her own.
Hatch Dining
Level 1/288 Forest Road Hurstville, NSW 2220
Wednesday and Thursday 5.30pm – 2am
Friday and Saturday 12pm – 2am
Sunday 12pm – 12am
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