Attica

74 Glen Eira Rd
Ripponlea 3185 VIC
Phone: (03) 9530 0111
Website: www.attica.com.au

On the weekend I took my cousin Aurelie to Attica as a Graduation gift, since I'm all out of ideas on what to get her, and what I know she wants is slightly out of budget. Being from a family like mine, you seem to be born with expensive taste. A blessing and a curse at the same time.

When I had told Aurelie of my plans to take her to Attica, she gladly offered to take photos of the food with her much more professional SLR camera. So the photos in this post are brought to you by Aurelie! You can really tell the difference in the photos from that of an SLR and a typical digital camera.

My cousin recently started her own blog La Maison Nuage, I highly recommend you check it out. She's quite the writer, much more eloquent than I am in speech. She also made a post here on our visit to Attica.



We had the tasting menu which consisted of 8 dishes in total.

Chicken Appetiser
I really liked this, may I say that it was one of the stand outs of the night? (This photo is taken with my camera)

These are the condiments for the bread, pretty nifty huh. The one in a glass was slow cooked carrot, which went nicely with the bread.

Bread

I'm sorry though, but VDM and Jacques have better bread, by quite a far stretch. (My camera)

Snow Crab
To be honest I wasn't that big on this dish, don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible or anything, just wasn't up my alley. But that may be due to the fact that I'm very particular when it comes to crab, and I am also allergic to crustaceans. It was interesting none the less and had a nice texture - the horse radish powder was definitely something new.
Smoked trout broth, crackling, basil seeds, fresh smoke
And there it is, the Age Good Food Guide 2009 Dish of the Year. Need I say more? Let the eyes do some of the tasting for you.

A simple dish of potato cooked in the earth it was grown, saltbush, mojama

This dish supposedly incorporates traditional Kiwi style of cooking potatoes, the flavour was definitely different.

Kingfish, chorizo, almond, squid
At first Aurelie and I weren't too sure if the fish is supposed to be that raw, with trout and tuna we understand. But with kingfish, the fish is slightly tougher to cut through. After being assured that the fish is purposely prepared in that manner, we were able to enjoy the dish.

Beef, ginger, peanuts, beach spinach
The beef was nice, it worked well with all the individual components on the dish.

Pork Loin, morcilla, fennel pollen harvested by hand

The black sphere that you see there, was black pudding. Very delicious black pudding I must add. I liked the black pudding more than I did the pork loin, which got a little too fatty for me at the end. But the pork as a whole was very nicely cooked.

Terroir
When Claire from Melbourne Gastronome found out I was going to come to Attica, she recommended that I try this dish. Even Tomatom believes that this is the "real unsung dish of the year". I've had bad experiences eating molecular gastronomy desserts and it wasn't a good experience, but this I liked - it was familiar yet at the same time very unique and interesting. Aurelie loved it because she thought it looked cute.

Violet Crumble

Okay, if anything was to make me love molecular gastronomic desserts, this would be it. I really loved this dish. I know most people prefer the terroir, but with each bite of this dessert my eyes lit up. It was as if I was in the willy wonka factory tasting his new inventions!
When you take a bite of the chocolate dust, it first goes cold in your mouth then instantly dissolves - heavenly really. The honeycomb was perfect, as my cousin said... it had a nice "bitterness" to it (Masterchef joke). The "Violet Icecream" as the waiter referred to it as was really interesting. I'm still not 100% on what it consisted of, but after my many spoonfulls of the icecream, I concluded that it was Blueberry, Cream Cheese of some sort and Lemon. It did also had a slight tangy/fizziness to it, which I tried to explain to Aurelie as "kind of like Wizz Fizzes but not as fizzy!"

Pineapple Jubes

I know exactly what you're thinking... where the heck are the petite fours! I can tell you, I was thinking the exact same thing! But hey these were still nice.

Tea

Overall most dishes were good, the desserts and the trout were the most memorable though.

One complaint I have about Attica is the service. It's not that they don't know what they're doing, rude or anything - infact they were very polite and were willing to answer any queries that you had about the food and the restaurant. I don't know if it's just me but, but I for some reason expect to have waiters come to the table when I am looking at them, as if they were to possess some sort of sixth sense. I'm the kind who does not like to verbally call out for waiters in a fine dining environment, so I like them to be alert and look around the restaurant from time to time to see if there are any diners in need of service. I found that it was very frustrating trying to catch the attention of staff at the restaurant. It took some time before I could get them to come over.

Price:

• Tasting Menu $130 per person, with matched beverages $215 per person
• Entrees $20 to $30
• Mains $37 to $45
• Desserts $18

Overall Score - Fine Dining: 16/20

• Food: 8.5/10
• Service: 3.5/5
• Venue: 4/5

Other Useful Information

• Your Restaurants
• The Age Good Food Guide: 2 hats Score: 17/20 Vittoria Restaurant of the Year
• Blog Reviews: Double Cooked (28 May 2009)
• Blog Reviews: Melbourne Gastronome (April 24 2009)
• Blog Reviews: Cakestorm (January 30 2008)

Opening Hours
Tuesday to Saturday: 6pm till late