Circa - Melbourne

[Julian Teoh]

I had dinner at Circa on Maundy Thursday. I'll admit I don't eat out that often in Melbourne, being from "north of the border," and my last Melbourne three-hat experience at Flower Drum (2005) was underwhelming. It was good, but for a restaurant that has been hailed the best Chinese restaurant in the country by so many critics, I was expecting a little more.

Circa is a sexily dim-lit dining room located at the boutique St Kilda hotel "The Prince." Rattan cages are strategically positioned over the lights, reducing the glare to a nicely romantic level. Unfortunately, it also makes taking photos of the food rather difficult without a tripod, so you will excuse the lack of pictures.

Amuse Bouche

Demitasse of white onion cappuccino with truffle oil - a divine way to start. I'm not a truffle oil-hater by any means, and this was seriously good. The sweetness of the onions, funked up with discreet use of the oil, reminded me of some exotic seafood essence. We considered asking for one more, then thought better of it.

We drink a Hidalgo Amontillado "Napoleon", the bone-dryness whetting our appetites for what we hoped would continue to be a superlative meal.

Bread

Three options on the night, white sourdough, organic sourdough and sesame wholegrain. All three were a little cold and stodgy for my liking, but that didn't stop me from eating my fair share of it.

Entrees

Rabbit sausage, rabbit schnitzel, crispy bacon, quail egg, truffled buttermilk custard Very mild, very tender. The quail egg was perfectly soft-boiled with a runny golden yolk. Crisped bacon pieces, angled skyward like those awful hot chips on the road from the City to Tullamarine, added a much-needed salty punch. Matched nicely with the passionfruit hints of the Leeuwin Estate "Art Series" Chardonnay 2003.

Deep-fried claire de lune oysters with avruga Served in the shell, these little critters in their brown crusts and a little dollop of avruga "caviar" worked a treat. The batter was light and crisp enough to impress a Japanese tempura chef, without any suggestion of oiliness. Matched with a Yarraloch Arneis 2005, which had the zingy acidity to cut the opulence of the fried oysters.

Mains

Guinea fowl assiette, baby turnips, lentils Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Far and away the best dish of the night. Lentils were nicely al dente and resting in a lovely sweet and sour sauce. The guinea fowl was surprisingly mild for a game bird, but you won't catch me complaining.

Marron, rockfish braise, Sardinian couscous After a taste of the guinea fowl from my partner's plate, this brought me down to earth with a thud. It looked sensational - a perfectly halved marron on a mound of white fish and ginormous grains of Sardinian couscous. Our charming waitress brought over a gravy boat and poured a fragrant shellfish stock over the lot, creating what was effectively a rich man's "bouillabaisse."

It was awful. The marron was watery and the rockfish was braised beyond moistness. The fregola was watery and uninteresting (sense a common thread here?). And after the theatre of having the stock poured on as if it were some Grand Unifying Theory of Culinary Delights, the stock itself was too thin to unify anything, much less tasteless marron and overcooked fish chunks.

Pre-dessert

Layered Shot glass of vanilla pannacotta, raspberry jelly and peach sorbet

This must be the trendiest pre-dessert in town. I have seen at least three versions of it in the past couple of months in Sydney restaurants alone. That said, being common doesn't make it bad, and it was a most welcome reprieve from the disappointment of my main course. Despite the end of the peach season, the sorbet maintained a nice peachy zing, and the vanilla pannacotta was textural perfection.

Dessert

Circa Snickers

At this point, I am full. But this is a pretty good dessert to share between two. It is nothing like the Per Se Snickers bar, which looks like something wacky from outer space (OK, Mars, if you must). Circa's version has a base of peanut nougatine, a layer of caramel ice-cream, quenelles of chocolate mousse slathered with peanut caramel and sandwiched with two sheets of dark chocolate. Philippa Sibley from est est est is now entrenched here, and the sweet offerings are definitely a feather in Circa's hat.

Summary I was impressed. And so I should be, for a bill of $214.00 for two. But three hats? Personally, I cannot forgive the complete indifference of the marron main, which was an orchestra of ordinary bit players playing to different sheet music. In retrospect, I should have skipped the main and had an extra dessert, but then again, I'm sure Ministers Downer and Vaile have their regrets too.

If I were judging this to the Sydney restaurants that I have eaten at, I would rate it a comfortable one-hatter to two-hatter. Service is also excellent, but a "three-hatter," whatever that means, cannot afford a monumental lapse in concentration that we suffered in the marron dish.

To prove that I am in no way biased against Melbourne restaurants, I enjoyed a calming Easter Sunday lunch at the new Vera by the Middle Brighton train station. Having the train from Sandringham rumble past every twenty minutes or so simply added to the charm. Vera would easily rate a hat in my books.

[PCL]

Nice work Julian.

What is it with quail eggs at the moment at most 'hatted' places?

See, the lack of concentration is exactly what fazes me out every now and then. For me, if that had happened, then the whole exercise would have been dunked, splattered, marred.

But then again, I"ve heard many wonderful things about Circa and will most likely eat there soon.

[Julian Teoh]

Nice work Julian.

What is it with quail eggs at the moment at most 'hatted' places?

See, the lack of concentration is exactly what fazes me out every now and then. For me, if that had happened, then the whole exercise would have been dunked, splattered, marred.

But then again, I"ve heard many wonderful things about Circa and will most likely eat there soon.

←

Clearly, some of us are more forgiving than others

Pein, despite my criticism, which was restricted to a single dish, I would still recommend Circa highly. I am inclined to think (and sincerely hope) it was probably an off day with the marron, but if things can go that wrong, I'll be giving that dish a wide berth. It's clearly not a good meat vs bad seafood problem, as the oysters (daily special) were quality.

And the wine selection, which I presume shares a common cellar with the superlative Prince wine store, will bring a twinkle to the eye of lovers of imported wines. It is extremely hard in Sydney to find a restaurant wine list with a wide selection of prestige vintages, for example DRCs, and Dom Perignon can be purchased by the glass.

The rest of the menu, service etc were all excellent. If the marron stepped up to the level of the other dishes, it would rate a "two to three" hats in my opinion.

PS Quail eggs are cute.

[Shinboners]

Nice work Julian.

Ditto. Great review.

But then again, I"ve heard many wonderful things about Circa and will most likely eat there soon.

←

I've been saying that for the best part of the last two years. But everytime I check their menu, nothing really appeals to me.

I did enjoy McConnell's cooking at the old Diningroom 211, and I suspect that I'll probably follow him and eat at Mrs. Jones rather than go to Circa.

[cdh]

That amuse sounds like an improvement upon Marc Vetri's Onion Crepe with White Truffle Fondue. Though yours sounds tastier than the surprisingly bland instance of the original I was served at the James Beard House a couple of years ago...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=vetri...G=Google+Search

Edited to remove grinding axe.

Edited April 20, 2006 by cdh (log)

[PCL]

Frankly, I'm pretty sick and tired of the whole thing re: derivative/plagiarism blah.

If anyone really cared, then there would be some real sparks flying rather than words continuously being uploaded. It's generating its own momentum due to egos and sensitivities being 'bruised' and causes being upheld but really, enough.

Sure, it started on our shores, and we can appreciate the notoriety, but name someone who isn't guilty and I'll pop a cork in their honour.