Tetsuya's - rated #5 in the world. We beg. We whimper......actually Liz just hits it right and she phones moments after a cancellation. We're on for lunch.
Our hotel is, of course, within walking distance (Liz does plan ahead). The entry is delightfully pretentious. An electronic gate slides open a Mercedes width at our approach....we're the first foot traffic they've had in a decade! Inside, lovely art, design minimalism, a sparse room serviced by a warm, skilled and knowledgeable staff.
We start by suggesting that since the prix fixe 9 course menu contains 3 dessert courses and we don't eat sweets, perhaps we could substitute 2 savouries for 2 sweet courses. Not an eyelash is batted. We're off and running and clearly going to have a very good time.
We know nothing about Australian wine. Our Room Captain has us pegged and a bottle of suitably priced, suitably oaky chardonnay appears on the table with no foolish negotiations. Then a cavalcade of wonderful food.
An ameuse guele of Sweet Corn Soup with Basil Ice Cream. Wonderfully rich flavours, perfect texture (a nod to Ferran Adria in the counterpoint of temperatures) and Liz - the basil maven - is enchanted.
Then a tartare of Tuna on sushi rice with avocado and caviar. The tuna tartare is wonderful - subtley flavoured and at just the right temperature. While other restaurants focus justifiably on "doneness" Tetsuya's is very concerned with serving temperature. Plates are appropriately hot, warm, room temperature or chilled. Best of all is the avocado puree. As you've probably gathered we're going to replace our large indoor palm with an avocado tree! Fresh avocados are like fresh asparagus versus tinned....and when laced with caviar they are lethally good
Then three seafood tapas. Beautifully constructed edible works of art - tuna marinated in soy and mirin; smoked ocean trout with asparagus and washed onions (washed onions were a whole new culinary concept for us) and marinated NZ scampi with a succulent chicken parfait. A visual tour de force .... but we were overwhelmed with the subtlety of the chicken parfait
Then one of Tetsuya's signature dishes - confit of ocean trout with kelp crust on a bed of daikon and fennel. How do we describe this dish? If you take a filet of salmon and cook it without actually cooking it and reduce the whole thing to the consistency of butter and then coat it in savoury, crisp seaweed, you might come close. The recipe is in his cookbook - we read it at the table. We are literally eating the dish as Liz figures out how to cook it at home. Staff are amused - we're in heaven.....oh yes, there's a lovely salad served with the dish. A shock to our systems that have forgotten the concept of vegetables.
Tough to follow the previous act, but a lovely ravioli of crab on a bed of nori wrapped crab, dressed in basil and tomato vinaigrette keeps the flavour momentum rolling. Again we are enchanted with the temperatures.....just luke warm, flavours are not subdued by heat and subtleties emerge. You might pop a hot ravioli into your mouth and swallow - this one demands examination and appreciation
When we arrived our charming waitperson asked if we had any food allergies for the prix fixe menu - we advised her that since it contained no lobster or sweetbreads we were likely to die at the table. Not missing a beat she advised that the sweetbreads were available but if the lobster addiction was real - prepare to meet your maker!
The sweetbreads arrive on a platform of prawns with vinaigrette. Besgt sweetbreads we've had since Freddy Girardet closed in Crissier. Crisp outside, moist, subtle inside. Shrimp are fine but sweetbreads star
Next is a braised (barely) duck breast with orange jus on belgian endive. Every kitchen does duck breast. Some well, some badly - Tetsuya's does duck very well. We're now into a delightfully light but flavourful bottle of pinot and all is right with the world.
The next dish is a loin of NZ venison with capers and parsley. It's wonderfully prepared but as always we find that fish/fowl let a kitchen really stride. Meat is good, but inherently it comes back to the male "I coulda done this on the BBQ at home". Lovely venison, but not in the same league with the confit of ocean trout. Make no mistake, though, this is the best venison we've had in a long time
Then a revelatory dish - filet of veal with wasabi butter. Ignore everything we said above. This is wonderful! Of course wasabi goes with red meat.....it's horseradish. All Beeby roast beef dinners in future will include wasabi butter. Long discussions with staff on how to buy wasabi, culminating in commercial size bladder packs on the table - much fun, much learning. Great staff.
We finally succumb to protocol and have dessert - a floating island with praline and vanilla bean anglaise.....their descriptions - i's a wonderful cross between a custard and souffle, covered in delicious sauce, floating on delicious sauce and almost good enough to convert us back to the sweet side - not the chocolate and fruit buried inside
Overall a wonderful meal. Fun is had. Appetites are satisfed. Taste buds are provoked. Egos are stroked. Expectations are met.....it is everything fine dining should be. Inexpensive - no! Good value - yes!
We read reviews that decry Tetsuya's prices. Considering the bills for fish and chips at a roadside bar in Australia, 9 courses of delectable cuisine seems to be good value. Plus the staff has none of the snobbishness that happens in NYC or Paris on a bad day.
Definitely a restaurant that ranks up there with the French and Italian 3 stars, El Bulli, Jeans Georges, Charlie Trotter and Thomas Keller.
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