FoodieChat

Sometimes I’m a little slow to grab the eating supplement on the Tuesday newspaper, or I forget.  But luckily, this week I remembered, and I read about the opening of Matt Moran’s new restaurant with Peter Sullivan called Chiswick, at Woollahra.  Well I have to try new things ASAP so soon as I read about it (opening two days later), I pounced onto its site and made a booking.  I was so shocked i was able to get a table on Saturday night! Ok, so I had to eat at 6:30, but that was good enough for me.  Daily I would check back on the restaurant’s website to see if there were updated photos, and each day a few more photos were released to tease – needless to say, I could not wait!!  Finally the day arrived and I had ensure I didn’t eat much of a lunch so I could try as much as I could.  I don’t venture much into the east, so I was very happy that parking was easy, and we walked up to this amazing glasshouse pavillion that was the restaurant.  I had already decided what to eat, and I was starving, so soon as we sat down, I ordered the rosemary and garlic flatbread, a steal at $4.  It came quickly – on a wooden board so that the heat wouldn’t condense to make it soggy. A good size, however a bit burnt.

I really had nothing to complain about the restaurant especially since it was only on its third trading day, so I will leave it at that!  We opted to share an entree – my sister was so lovely in that she allowed me to pick what we ate so that I could try everything I wanted to. I love her!  How sweet!!  So I picked the pulled veal ravioli.  It actually came too quickly as I was about to go to the bathroom and had to sit back down.  There were 4 tortellinis, which my sister said tasted like gow gee wrappers. I wasn’t sure but I suspected not.  It came with a vinegary dressing with freshly podded broad beans and egg white and finely diced cornichons.  It was an interesting mouthful and I loved the broad beans. At $17 it wasn’t expensive but I would have liked a bit more meat in my ravioli.

Apart from the fresh produce, some of which is from its 100sqm garden out the back, it offers family style dining with shared mains.  There were 4 choices on offer that day, a snapper, Moran family lamb, chicken baked with hay, and a fish and prawn pie.  After we found out that the fish was trevalla and snapper, we opted for the pie .  We figured at $52 it was meant to be for 2 people – $27 pp right?  When it came out, we thought hmmm maybe 3 people! The pretty scaled pattern on the pastry lid had a little porcelin bird to let out the air, which matched the baking dish.  It was huge!

The fish was a generous portion, I didn’t get much prawn, but it was the best fish I’ve ever had. It was sssooooooo fresh. We enjoyed it thoroughly, I recommend this dish!

I was always going to try the hand cut chips – but after we saw someone else order it, the decision was cemented. Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, they were $8 and served with black garlic aioli.

We also had to order some token greens – the broccolini with garlic was great, also $8.   We were struggling to finish with this feast!

But who could leave without getting dessert?  For $14, we got an eclair, which was freshly baked with a sweet crust on top, and filled with whipped cream, and accompanied by 2 poached sugar plums.

I thought the value of the dessert didn’t match up to the value of the mains and sides, but at $105 for 2 people – I thought it was great value.  Matt Moran was in the kitchen too – which is great considering he’s probably in peak Masterchef season. I wonder what Malcolm Turnbull thought of the food as he was there too  Here is the kitchen garden, you can’t any more local that this!

All in all, I was super impressed. I had already had such high expectations and they were exceeded!   A bit less burn on the rosemary bread, and a little bit more adornment on the dessert and it would have been perfect – but I certainly will be back – soon – for sure!!  Moran and Sullivan have targetted the price range to be for regular dining for locals, and I have to say that I agree, the price point makes sure that you can go often without denting your eastern suburbs mortgage too much LOL

The service was quite good for opening – the staff had to check a couple of things with the kitchen but I’m sure that won’t be necessary in time, and the ambience was great too.  Great atmosphere. All in all, a wonderful night out with my sis

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2012 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Celebrity Chefs, Sydney Dining ('burbs), Sydney dining (City). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.