Sage Dining Rooms

Part one is here. The second main was agnolotti with mushrooms, truffle, pine nuts and a creamy bone marrow sauce, and this was my favourite of the two. I loved the rich cream sauce and the pairing of truffle with forest mushrooms. The pasta was clearly house-made and had a lovely bite. Looking at the dish, I just wanted to dive right in, with all that beautiful grated parmesan on top! By this point we were getting very full – I sipped at my mocktail (strawberry and mint lemonade – uttery divine and something I will go back for) and enjoyed the Autolyse bread with butter and salt, topped with a truffle crisp (the strongest truffle flavour of the day). The first dessert was the sweet and it was at its best with a mouthful capturing all of the elements – the sweet waffle, the not-very-sweet icecream, the shaved truffle and the salty popcorn. Everything worked perfectly to create a complex, sophisticated dessert. Finally, we finished with truffled brie, served with thyme-infused leatherwood honey and a neutral, very thin crispbread. The thyme made the honey almost savoury – again, trying the dish with all the elements in one mouthful yielded the best flavour. Sage, you sure know how to make a first impression! The Sage truffle lunch is on until the end of July as part of the Canberra Truffle Festival.

Sage Dining Rooms, Batman Street, Braddon ACT                     http://www.sagerestaurant.net.au/

Sage Dining Rooms

This was my first visit to Sage, and what better occasion than the Truffle Festival? Sage is a fine dining restaurant and the service really reflected that – the staff were wonderfully attentive but not intrusive, and happily slowed down the pace of our courses when we lingered over each one. My friend and I tried all of the 6 dishes offered for the truffle lunch.  We were delighted by the perfect amuse-bouche to start – a ‘salt and vinegar’ custard with truffle. It was the lightest custard I’ve ever tried and the salted, crispy top had me salavating! First course was a cauliflower veloute (French-style soup) with hazelnuts and truffle – I could have eaten this all day long. It was thick, rich and had the perfect balance of textures. Entree two was a 63 degree hen’s egg with polenta, with fun pops of chives and corn with the oozy egg yolk. The portions were really generous, as was the amount of truffle on each dish. Main number one was chicken breast with crisped pumpernickel and a divine sauce (where I suspect the truffle was hiding). The chicken was perfectly tender, although I think this dish was less strong at showcasing the truffle than the rest. Part two of this review to follow.

Sage Dining Rooms, Batman Street, Braddon ACT                     http://www.sagerestaurant.net.au/

Golden Boy

I was reluctant to eat to Golden Boy. Botanic Bar was one of my favourite places to have cheap pizza and good sangria, and I have many fond memories of hanging out in the right-wing of the bar. When I heard it had been converted into, of all things, a Thai restaurant, my soul died a bit inside. But on my last trip to Adelaide, my friends had already planned dinner there and it was the easiest way to see them all at once. So I relented. Reluctantly, I entered the once-hallowed corridor, to discover that it had been covered in quite a nice palm-leaf wallpaper. So far so good. I was greeted warmly by staff, and shown into the renovated space, which has hand-written scrawl artistically scattered on the walls (somehow it works). We went for the Tuk Tuk banquet, and they just brought courses and courses of fresh, spicy and delicious Thai food. Particular highlights were the satay skewers with the best peanut sauce I’ve ever had, hulled-out cucumber shells full of some kind of melt-in-your-mouth beef and a papaya salad. Only disappointment was the elderflower cocktail, which was watery and tasted like detergent. So I’m pretty much a convert. Anywhere else in town upgrading?

Golden Boy, 309 North Terrace, Adelaide           http://goldenboyrestaurant.com/#

Mikla

After enjoying the views from the bar, we moved down a floor to the restaurant, where we had been told the ‘tasting menu’ (degustation) was well worth the price tag. Mikla is known for modern Turkish with an emphasis on local produce, and it showed – not only were the ingredients fresh and flavoursome, but all of the matching wines were local too. We had seven courses, with highlights including the crispy sardines adhered to olive oil bread, the salted and dried beef tenderloin, and the caramelised rice pudding with sour apple sorbet for dessert. Each course had its own distinct flavours, and we felt that the progression from entrees to main to cheese to dessert was well paced over our three hours there. In between courses we oggled the spectacular views as Istanbul put on weekend fireworks and the haunting call to prayer echoed through the city. The staff spoke excellent English and were very accommodating – they happily wrote out a list of all the wines we’d had so I could remember them. I would definitely recommend Mikla as a memorable, modern Istanbul food experience with views to die for.

Mikla, Cafe Marmara Pera, Meşrutiyet Cd No:1, 34430 Beyoğlu, Turkey http://www.miklarestaurant.com/en