NOMAD Truffle Brunch Sydney Review And what to order

NOMAD Sydney is holding its annual truffle Sunday brunch and on the menu are a dozen dishes from savoury to sweet featuring freshly shaved Red Hill truffle from the Mornington Peninsula. Come along as we try each of the truffle dishes from this year's brunch. With dishes like a truffle and three cheese manoush, jamon and Manchego croquettes with truffle all starting at around $17 up to $32, this is a great way to try some of winter's best truffles.

It's a rainy Sunday when I meet my friend Karen at NOMAD in Surry Hills - perfect weather for truffles. There's only two weeks to go until NOMAD's annual truffle Sunday brunch finishes on the 26th of July and features Red Hill truffles from the Mornington Peninsula. This is the fifth year of the truffle brunch and each year they go through around 5kgs of truffles.

The air is perfumed with the savoury aroma of truffles as we sit down. Between the two of us we decide to try one of each of the truffle dishes. There's also a truffle brunch set menu for $80 per person as well as a truncated brunch menu for those that don't feel like truffle.

We start with drinks - a Honey Pot mocktail for me and a Wanderer NOMAD Pale Ale for Karen made in collaboration with Sydney Brewery. Service is lovely and thoughtful and we settle in ready for our truffle feast.

We start with the croquettes filled with Manchego bechamel and topped with ribbons of jamon and freshly shaved truffle. I enjoy how very savoury this is and the outside is crunchy and the filling creamy. They do fall apart quite easily though and perhaps would be better as 2 croquettes at half the size.

There are two breads on the menu and if you've ever visited NOMAD you'll know that they are known for their bread. The first is a truffle and three cheese manoush, folded over and blistered and burnished from the wood fired oven. Inside the fold is where the cheeses are tucked. The bread is wonderfully soft but I do need some of the parmesan from the cauli blossom below just for a touch of seasoning.

While Karen was all about the truffle and three cheese manoush, I was very much besotted by their other bread with truffle za'atar. The wood fired flatbread is similar to the manoush but served as a round with a crunchy, nutty za-atar on top as well as truffles and a side of glorious truffle butter that is aromatic with fresh truffle (it's so good I'd buy it if they sold it). I break off a piece and spread that butter over the puffy bread. Heaven. And I recommend getting one bread per person (thank me later ;)).

There's actually a third bread option and that's the triple cream truffle brie on a slice of toasted focaccia with honeycomb. While I love the flavour of the honeycomb, butter and uber luxe triple cream truffle brie, the focaccia is quite hard and crunchy. It would be sublime with a fat slice of soft, big bubble focaccia.

Under the fluffy pile of grated pecorino lies two deep fried cauli blossom stalks with a touch of truffle honey and shaved truffles on top. The cauli blossoms are nice and crunchy and go well with the honey and truffle combo.

There are two items on the truffle menu with meat and the first is a Meredith Dairy Goat and Leek Börek with truffle jus. The filo is thin and crispy and it's packed full of soft goat meat and sauteed leeks. While it's tasty, the goat meat is quite strongly flavoured so that the truffle takes a back seat to it. For this reason I prefer eggs, cheese, bread or pasta with truffles as they are more subtle.

Likewise the ham hock sando almost overpowers the truffle but the truffle sabayon and the lashings of freshly grated truffle help to balance this. I recommend spreading the sabayon on the sandwich and placing the crisps in the sandwich because otherwise the sandwich can be a bit dry and underseasoned. Once you add these things however (which is probably how they designed it) it really pops.

Our favourite main is the baked Taluca Park eggs with succulent grilled mushrooms and black lentils and shaved truffle on top. The eggs are the perfect match for truffle as they bring out the truffle's flavour. And we both order another round of bread to go with this to mop up the gooey textured eggs.

It's time for dessert and there are four truffle desserts on the menu. The first is the chocolate Mont Blanc with pieces of smoked chestnut, chestnut puree and truffle on top. It's an interesting truffle dessert but honestly I don't think it needs the truffle.

The burnt Basque cheesecake is for those that love savoury in their desserts. It is coated in golden toasted sesame seeds and truffle honey.

The quince clafoutis is baked to order and takes around 15 minutes to arrive. This baked custard comes with a pot of brandy anglaise cream and shaved truffle on top. The slices of quince are tender and perfectly sweet.

But I've saved my favourite dessert for last. The bombolone is filled with truffle honey custard and shavings of fresh truffle on top. The custard is incredibly smooth and silky and balances the flavour of truffle and honey perfectly.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you enjoy truffles? Which truffle dish do you like the look of?

NQN and Karen were guests of NOMAD but all opinions remain her own.