As mentioned as coming soon in previous posts, I wined and dined at The Press Club last night.
Short review; food was delicious, service was average.
The restaurant itself is pretty slick; lots of dark colours, sharp modern lines, an open kitchen, and some big windows looking out towards Exhibition and Flinders Sts. The table set-up seems pretty flexible - we had 6 at our table, but other tables had anything from 2 to 8 or 10 people pretty comfortably. (Actually, now that I think about it, I did find the actual chairs/table set-up reasonably comfortable - I didn't get particularly fidgety or on edge at all, which I usually do by the end of a big meal courtesy of my long legs and a general lack of leg space in fine dining establishments). The menus are on a single large cardboard sheet, with a layout definitely influenced by newspapers.
The first signs of underwhelming service were when I received my pre-dinner drink in a short glass, rather than tall glass, despite the waitress specifically asking if I wanted a tall glass (and me saying yes), as well as a description of the menu that ended up with me being more confused rather than less (an attempt to describe the entree/main/dessert versus sharing plates). Unfortunately, this trend continued through the night... drinks forgotten or taking an awful long time, loads of time taken to clear away finished dishes, a long wait with the menus before someone took our dessert orders. Perhaps they were only teething problems - I certainly hope they work them out soon. It didn't turn me off, it just left a slightly sour memory of the night.
Anyway, on to the positive - the food. These was probably some of my favourite dishes of the year, easily up there with choice dishes from Taxi, Pearl and Becco during 2006. I was doubly impressed since, as much as I love my food, I can be a little picky when it comes to avoiding prawn/scallop/oyster types of seafood and there were some of these options on the menu, so I had to choose carefully.
I chose the salad of cumin roasted beetroot, pistachio biscuit, yoghurt cheese and honey for my entree. The beetroot had a lovely intense flavour, with each mouthful finishing with a distinct cumin flavour. The pistachio biscuit was more like a mini-pistachio sponge cake with a slightly firm/crisp outside... sweet, spongy and delicious. The yoghurt cheese rolled in herbs and the drizzle of honey complimented the rest of the dish beautifully.
For my main course, I chose the seared salmon with cauliflower cream and a moussaka cigar. Wow. Easily one of the most perfectly cooked pieces of salmon I have ever eaten, still moist and rare inside, slightly crispy and salty skin, and a lovely delicate taste. The salmon fillet was in a "puddle" of cauliflower cream - like a smooth and creamy cauliflower-flavoured sauce. Tasty, but subtle enough to compliment the salmon, not overpower it. For a different texture, a flaky pastry "cigar" with moussaka filling was on the side. The dish was topped off with a passionfruit sauce, adding a slight tang. Top marks.
Dessert was a rich, intense and divine chocolate souffle, with cinnamon ice cream and what was listed as sour cherry jam but seemed to be more chocolate (with a gold leaf sprinkle). The souffle was an impressive size, and was a decadent mix of fluffy, spongy souffle and oozing chocolate.
So, in summary, the food did not disappoint (we could even see head chef George Calombaris running things in the kitchen, complete with surprisingly shaved head), but the service was not quite up to scratch when compared to some of the slick operations at other restaurants we've dined at this year. But don't let that put you off... the food was well and truly worth a visit to the Press Club.
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3 comments:
You can learn to enjoy shellfish. I had to force myself to repeatedly try scallops and oysters and mussels (over the last 5 years). Now I can hardly believe I used to avoid them. Especially scallops! Mmmmmmm
That's a bit like a beer thing someone once told me... keep drinking it and eventually you'll enjoy it.
Why not just stick with something you like?
I don't want to sound like an ingrate but here goes...(!)
I had a lovely time on Friday night but the credit for that goes to the company on the night and not the restaurant. A-man and I have had the good fortune of dining at some lovely restaurants in the last year or so and, for me, Press Club was not one of them. It ranks bottom of the list. By a long way.
My main problem with the place is that it failed to deliver on the basics. When I go out for dinner, the most important things, for me, are to eat something and to drink something. Beyond that, I expect the environment to be comfortable and condusive to sharing a nice meal. And beyond that, I'd put factors such as the food and drink being of a good quality and appropriately priced, decent service, and the decor being something interesting or a bit special.
Press Club had the most limited and unappetising menu I've ever seen. As someone who doesn't really enjoy meat there was nothing at all on the menu that appealed. Fortunately, they had the beetroot salad that A-man mentioned (which I wouldn't rate as highly as he did - the beetroot wasn't anything special, the yoghurt balls were less tasty than others I've eaten, although the pistaccio cake was interesting and worked well). The restaurant also offered sides of Greek salad so I asked for a side of Greek salad for my main as there was nothing else that was even vaguely appealing as a second course. On my request for a side of Greek salad, our waiter informed me that they couldn't oblige with this however they could make me a larger salad and charge the price of a main (mains ranged between $33-38). I didn't look at the bill but I hate to think how much that salad cost. It was a nice enough salad - tasty olives and cheese - however the knowledge of the rip-off, greedy pricing put a bad taste in my mouth.
On the note of the restaurant being a total rip-off, two of our party were duped by our waiter into ordering flat mineral water. At $9 per head for mineral water (according to the website), I hope it was much nicer than the tap water that the rest of the table served.
Enough of the greediness of the establishment, the next comment goes to the lack of drinks. Our table ordered wine to share -there was no problem with this, we actually ended up with some wine. The wine was nice - no problem. Apart from the wine, I ordered three drinks during the course of the meal; a G&T with lemon as opposed to lime, a Champagne and a vodka with cranberry juice. The G&T came with lime rather than lemon. The other drinks didn't come at all and I had the option of following up the non-delivery of drinks with the waiter or not receiving them at all. The service was poor by any standard but considering that this was supposed to be a relatively upmarket establishment I would strongly recommend dining somewhere else if you actually want to have a drink with your food.
In regard to the environment, the dining area wasn't too noisy which was a positive and the views over Flinders street were good, especially with the Indian tram going down the street at dusk, it was a lovely sight. The chairs were hard and not particularly comfortable. The dining room had a pleasant decor.
I'm sure there's more but I have work to do. As I said, the night was fun but that had very little to do with what was offered by the restaurant. Don't go there. There are far more pleasant and interesting places in Melbourne to eat, especially if you're paying that sort of price.
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