tikiwanderer (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tikiwanderer) wrote,@ 2008-05-09 20:30:00 |
|
Restaurant review: De los Santos, Fitzroy
James met me after the trip tonight, and said he'd booked a Spanish restaurant to go to. It had tapas, and a fair bit of it looked vegetarian. So we wandered over to Brunswick St and found de los Santos. My first look at the menu had me rapt. We picked two dishes each, and that was a hard choice but still easy - there were some clear winners that had to be tried. And in order of appearance on our table, they were:
Judias verdes - green beans. With almonds, cooked just right, given a thin sauce of garlic butter and finely and freshly ground black pepper, with a hint of garnish of fine-chopped parsley and chives. James' comment was that if his mum had cooked beans like this he'd have eaten a lot more of them. He hates beans normally, but these passed. I was in rapture. I love beans. And the dressing was just perfect, even if James was laughing at me because he swears he can see the numbers falling down in columns behind my eyes as I analyse and reverse-engineer food into its components. That was my first choice.
Vodka-cured salmon, with caviar and anise and a horseradish and dill cream. James' second choice. This didn't quite live up to the promise of its description IMO - most of the flavours seemed too muted and blended, without sufficient distinction. But it was certainly nice enough, and James appeared to relish it.
Hango al ajillo - mushrooms on grilled bread, with goats cheese. My second choice. I don't like goats cheese, but there was something about this mushroom dish that sounded right. And it was. The cheese underneath was more like a light spread, full of an aged flavour and holding balance with the mushroom juice. The mushrooms themselves: mmmmmmmmmmmm. This was a lick-your-fingers-after-eating, for sure.
Grilled eel and trout salad, made with baby fennel, white and red onion and apple, on grilled Kipfler potatoes. It's one of their seasonal specials, and right now in Melbourne is eel season. So we each took a small piece of the eel and put it in our mouths.
Oh.
Oh, oh, oh.
Both of us had our eyes closed, and I think we both even moaned. I don't often get that reaction to food, and James has it even more rarely. But it was *amazing*. Really really good. The trout it was paired with was also good, the baby fennel and apple paired beautifully without being strong (I didn't even realise what the baby fennel was at first). The salad as a whole was gorgeous, and the eel was magnificent. If you're going by del los Santos anytime in the next two weeks, go in just for that dish. Seriously.
All up, excellent food. Not super cheap, but if you're after a light meal it's good - we came out at just under $50 for the both of us with the four dishes. And we were satisfied. Not the satisfied of a suburban all-you-can-eat kind of stuffing, but the satisfaction of knowing that what you've eaten was just right. We both turned down dessert, not because we were full but because nothing could really follow on from what we'd had so far. This is the kind of experience I've been hoping to replicate with my tapas-cha nights, and now I think James gets it too :-) We both have a whole new set of ideas for what we want to cook for the next ones -grin-.
James met me after the trip tonight, and said he'd booked a Spanish restaurant to go to. It had tapas, and a fair bit of it looked vegetarian. So we wandered over to Brunswick St and found de los Santos. My first look at the menu had me rapt. We picked two dishes each, and that was a hard choice but still easy - there were some clear winners that had to be tried. And in order of appearance on our table, they were:
Judias verdes - green beans. With almonds, cooked just right, given a thin sauce of garlic butter and finely and freshly ground black pepper, with a hint of garnish of fine-chopped parsley and chives. James' comment was that if his mum had cooked beans like this he'd have eaten a lot more of them. He hates beans normally, but these passed. I was in rapture. I love beans. And the dressing was just perfect, even if James was laughing at me because he swears he can see the numbers falling down in columns behind my eyes as I analyse and reverse-engineer food into its components. That was my first choice.
Vodka-cured salmon, with caviar and anise and a horseradish and dill cream. James' second choice. This didn't quite live up to the promise of its description IMO - most of the flavours seemed too muted and blended, without sufficient distinction. But it was certainly nice enough, and James appeared to relish it.
Hango al ajillo - mushrooms on grilled bread, with goats cheese. My second choice. I don't like goats cheese, but there was something about this mushroom dish that sounded right. And it was. The cheese underneath was more like a light spread, full of an aged flavour and holding balance with the mushroom juice. The mushrooms themselves: mmmmmmmmmmmm. This was a lick-your-fingers-after-eating, for sure.
Grilled eel and trout salad, made with baby fennel, white and red onion and apple, on grilled Kipfler potatoes. It's one of their seasonal specials, and right now in Melbourne is eel season. So we each took a small piece of the eel and put it in our mouths.
Oh.
Oh, oh, oh.
Both of us had our eyes closed, and I think we both even moaned. I don't often get that reaction to food, and James has it even more rarely. But it was *amazing*. Really really good. The trout it was paired with was also good, the baby fennel and apple paired beautifully without being strong (I didn't even realise what the baby fennel was at first). The salad as a whole was gorgeous, and the eel was magnificent. If you're going by del los Santos anytime in the next two weeks, go in just for that dish. Seriously.
All up, excellent food. Not super cheap, but if you're after a light meal it's good - we came out at just under $50 for the both of us with the four dishes. And we were satisfied. Not the satisfied of a suburban all-you-can-eat kind of stuffing, but the satisfaction of knowing that what you've eaten was just right. We both turned down dessert, not because we were full but because nothing could really follow on from what we'd had so far. This is the kind of experience I've been hoping to replicate with my tapas-cha nights, and now I think James gets it too :-) We both have a whole new set of ideas for what we want to cook for the next ones -grin-.
