Tucked beside Messina's Marrickville factory, Erin is the gelato brand's farm to table restaurant where every dish connects back to their own dairy farm. And yes, gelato makes an appearance in every course. Erin promises a dining experience unlike anything else in Sydney. Does this creative concept deliver on taste as well as novelty?
I first heard about Erin by my friend Mic. We were supposed to go but sickness and travel intervened. I ended up suggesting it for Miss America's birthday except he had to work. So with a reservation for 4 paid for with a deposit, we came here with Queen Viv and her lovely friends Matt and Carmen.
Erin is named after Messina's Erindale farm in country Victoria. The restaurant is located adjacent to Messina's production factory in Marrickville. Erin started off as a degustation menu by Messina Creative but is now an a la carte menu with a set menu option. The Head Chef is Go Amano from LuMi Dining. Adjacent to the factory is the Gelato Messina shop and the space for Erin is a rectangular room at the end of the building where they have a DJ set up with music playing on the counter. Service is really lovely from our waitress.
We start with cocktails - Messina are known for the clever flavour combinations and this extends to the cocktails too. My order is for a Bannoffee Pie cocktail made with pecan rum, white chocolate whiskey, caramel, soy sauce, banana olio and Viscoff crisp. It's good and I love the crunchy caramelised chocolate crisp topped with feuilletine but it doesn't have a strong banana flavour. We also try the only mocktail on the menu made with salted raspberry & camomile spritz that is refreshingly zesty.
They bring us some broken cones coated in capsicum caramel, parmigiano and smoked paprika to snack on while we wait for our food.
The food arrives in a timely manner and the first bite is the beef tartare with thick fingers of lightly toasted brioche topped with chopped Messina Jersey beef, jalapeno sorbet and lashings of grated parmigiano. The jalapeno sorbet gives each bite a mild amount of spice as well as a pleasing cold sensation.
A lot of people at the table enjoy the cacio e pepe cookie sandwich and it's nice but this does feel like more like a sweet towards the end. It's cheese cookies filled with parmesan gelato and caramelised honey.
Our next course is everyone's absolute favourite. It's tuna sashimi slices topped with an olive tapenade, white soy and an aji verde sorbet. Aji verde is a spicy Peruvian sauce made with coriander, jalapeno and parmesan. The flavour combination is spot on and you can tell when everyone's first bite hits perfectly by the delighted expressions on everyone's faces.
I am down for prawn toast any time and the prawn toast here is made with brioche, chopped prawns, mixed seeds and is served with a tomato sriracha sorbet. While the prawn toast is delicious by itself the flavour really opens up with the addition of the tomato Sriracha sorbet with its bold sweet spiciness. Having a bit of gelato in each course is a slight risk but I'm really liking it thus far (and I'm not even a big gelato or ice cream eater!).
Our next courses arrive together with a loaf of warm milk ciabatta bread made with Messina milk. On the side is a pot of fresh Jersey cheese with olive oil. The Jersey cheese is gorgeously rich and creamy and the salt and olive oil seasons it without taking away from that silky texture.
The lobster chawanmushi is a divine jellied, wobbly lobster bisque flan with creme fraiche gelato, finger lime kosho and pieces of tender lobster. This is wonderful paired with the bread just to soak up the flavours and to scarpetta the bowl.
The Erindale salad is made up of seasonal vegetables grown on their farm with with pistachio miso, hazelnut and fresh jersey cheese gelato in the centre with olive oil. I love creamy dressings so I really enjoyed this along with the variety of textures.
The beef pie is encased in a cacao puff pastry with a lattice top and is filled with soft Messina jersey beef bourguignonne and on the side is a scoop of ketchup gelato. Together the hot pie and the cold gelato are a textural sensation and the gelato tastes, well exactly like frozen ketchup!
The Erindale gnocchi is made using Erindale potatoes with pickled mushroom, aosa (seaweed) butter and roasted potato gelato. By the time it reaches us the roasted potato gelato has melted so that it just ends up tasting like a creamy sauce. The flavours however are fantastic and robust especially for a vegetarian dish.
It's time for dessert and there is one dessert on the menu but we watch most people get up and go to the store and select some gelato or chocolate bars. When you go with the waitress you get to skip the very long queue and she will give you tasters of any of the gelatoes that you want. We try some of the weekly specials like the Only Flans, Rum and Raisin and Jean Claude Pandan before deciding on some to have at the table. We also order a selection of 4 chocolate bars including fairy bread, pandan and coconut, Iced Vovo and Coneception which are all brought to our table.
From the chocolate bars, I really enjoy all of them but especially the pandan and coconut with the delicious kaya style filling. I also really like the crunch of the Conception and the tangy raspberry in the Iced Vovo.
As for the gelatos, alas the rum and raisin doesn't have any raisins (my favourite part!) but we also try the Only Flans with custard gelato, dulce de leche and chocolate mud cake. Queen Viv's choice of dulce de leche is divinely rich and like the ketchup gelato, tastes of rich frozen dulce de leche.
So tell me Dear Reader, which dish from the menu sounds the most tempting to you? What’s the most unusual gelato flavour you've ever tried and would you try ketchup gelato?
This meal was independently paid for.
Erin at Messina
1 Rich St, Marrickville NSW 2204 Phone: 0489 951 972
Open Thursday and Friday 5-9pm
Saturday 12:30pm-9pm
Sunday 12:30pm -4pm
Reader Comments
Loading comments...Add Comment