Tuesday, January 31, 2012

est., Sydney

est. is one of four three-hated restaurants in Sydney – the top notch of Sydney eateries.  The “hats” are awarded annually by The Sydney Morning Herald and those restaurants serve up some of the finest food in our fair city.


To be honest est. has never been somewhere that has been on my radar – too fancy and way out my budget. But when I found out they were having a dinner special for the month of January it quicly became dead centre in my food radar - $50 for two courses PLUS a cockital! Hello est.



You've gotta love complimentary bread - carbs are MY friend I tell you...lovely lovely carbs. In fact I asked for an extra roll half way through the dinner just to make sure I'm well and truly full by the end of the meal.


Our meal begins with a refreshing Sunset cocktail - a mix of Vodka, cranberry, elderflower liqueur and apple with a Kaffir lime leaf getting drunk in the concoction and adding a nice flavour to the drink.


As part of the deal we get to choose from two entrees and two mains. For photographic purposes we order everything on the menu...and because we want to try everything. The BFF choose the Italian Buffalo Mozzarella with fresh peach, Serrano jamon and Belgian endive and I opted for the Oysters with Ponzu Dressing. Both were lovely, light dishes - perfect for a summer night.


For mains I choose the Pan roasted Palmers Island Mulloway fillet, tahini yoghurt, broccolini, green peas, dukkah.  Back in "the day" my parents used to own a small house on Palmers Island and I would spend some of my school holidays there - so I guess there was a little bit of nostalgia involved in this dish for me. It didn't hurt that the fish was marvelous, with a lovely crunchy skin.  The BFF ordered the Pan roasted black angus beef fillet (grain-fed so I decided not to try any) with wasabi miso and shallot butter, pak choy which he said was FANTASTIC!


The BFFs sweet-tooth couldn't be quelled so dessert was ordered - Morello cherry souffle with pinot noir rosé sorbet ($29.00).  I helped myself to a spoonful of three and can tell you this was BEYOND delicious. The souffle was sweet and sugary and there was no taste of egg what-so-ever.  Very very VERY nice.


Postscript: Holy mother of food blogging batman, I published this post without mentioning the Petit Fours tray. Too much sugar has obviously addled my feeble little mind.  I promise it won't happen again (and good news was I was allowed to eat ALL the petit fours at The BFF was too full from his HUGE souffle).



est. is at Level 1 Establishment, 252 George Street, Sydney. Phone them on 9240 3010.

Est. on Urbanspoon

30 comments:

  1. Lovely photos! The fish is always so well done at est. I only go when there are special deals too :S

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome pics!

    I just checked the Merivale web site... No sign of the promo :(

    Alas, there's still March into Merivale!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, it finished yesterday...but March into Merivale has so many good deals.

      Delete
  3. I was just saying to Stephen if we can't get into Quay this year, then we should come here. Looks lovely, especially the souffle!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is one pricey souffle. Worth it, though, judging by your description!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's a sweet deal at est. Food looks fantastic, pics have come out so crisp are you sure you didn't have a mini portable photo studio with you? The angus beef and souffle sound especially good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha ha, thanks for that Gareth. It's just me and my little Nikon D3000 that I don't really know how to use. Most of the pictures are a bit blurry...but I'll blame that on the dim lighting.

      Delete
  6. Lordy, it all looks so delicious... and the photos are excellent. Well done Mel!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I missed out on this :(( est has been on my radar for ages..

    ReplyDelete
  8. thats a very sweet deal! i do like Est but havent been back for a while. loving the photos Mel :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great value for the $, food at est. is very very good.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the review Miss Piggy, loving your photos. Sunset deal at est. may have finished, but March Into Merivale is just around the corner yay!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Much the same for me where est. keeps being put off for a possible special occasion. Great value with this deal though!

    ReplyDelete
  12. ahhh i missed out! i love how the mozzarella with fresh peach, serrano jamon and belgian endive looked.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Been to Est a few times and it never disappoints, shame the sunset menu is over now

    ReplyDelete
  14. Re. "The BFF ordered the Pan roasted black angus beef fillet (grain-fed so I decided not to try any)".

    Grain-fed cattle is much better for the environment than free-range cattle. Cattle that eat grain have much less flatulence than cattle that eat natural vegetation. It gets worse. Methane(pharts) is much more harmful than CO2 emissions. Cattle pharts account for 40% of Methane that is emitted into the atmosphere due to man-made(farming) activities. Methane has 20 times the global warming effect of CO2. Besides Methane cattle pharts contain Nitrous Oxide which accounts for 65% of the emission into the Earth's atmosphere. Nitrous Oxide has 300 times the global warming effect of CO2. Nitrous Oxide in the atmosphere synthesises into Ammonia which accounts for 65% of acid rain.

    Then if you consider the land degradation caused by emotionally happy free-range cows frolicking in the Australian landscape compared to grain fed cattle. Not to mention the amount of crude oil that is required to produce 1Kg of beef.

    Grain fed cattle is much better for the environment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment, but in the interest of healthy debate I'm going to have to disagree with you given that I'm looking at my meat eating decisions based on animal welfare and the type of life the animals lead. All of your points are salient and I don't discount them at all, but grain-fed cattle are often raised in concrete floored fed-lots, and it's unnatural for cows to eat grain. I just don't agree with animals being miserable just so I can have a steak...so I'm pretty much cutting out meat...or trying to. And I know I know, what about seafood...I'm trying to do the best I can.

      Delete
    2. Miss Piggy, my apologies for my last ramble regarding "payback".

      I couldn't really see what was so bad about feeding grain to cattle because we do exactly the same with our diet. So I missed your point.

      I did some research, finding the following links as reference material.

      Cattle feeding
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_feeding

      Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_animal_feeding_operation

      I would conclude that you really object to "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations" and not to "grain feeding" in itself.

      Cheers!

      Delete
  15. MissPiggy so glad you went! :D (yeah good way to save money for those of us who don't own coal/media empires). I'm jealous your fish dish involved TWO pieces of fish though :O

    ReplyDelete
  16. One day all the domestic animals in the world will unite and it will be "human race payback time".

    Imagine a world where...Humans are working in small cages. Humans are being bred for animal food consumption. Human meat butcher shops exist where animals go to buy meat. Live human meat exports to other countries to feed animals in other countries. Designer clothes made from human skins for foxes. Where dogs live in luxurious houses while the human occupants live in the kennel outside. Where Human Guinea Pigs have cosmetics for dogs tested by spraying the substance into their eyes. Where humans wait in cages (like today's lobsters) inside restaurants for animal diners who might choose them for a meal. Where turkeys roast humans for Thanksgiving Day.

    Finally the creation of the R.S.P.C.H (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Humans) where all the domestic animals in the world are represented at the board of directors and make decisions about the treatment of humans.

    Humans, it's payback time.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well, now you're just paraphrasing Animal Farm.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I can only afford one three hat restaurant a year. I just missed on actually eating at 2 this year! :(

    ReplyDelete
  19. I agree with Bel: That sure is an expensive souffle!
    I'm with Miss Piggy against grain-fed cattle. Though I'm probably not as informed as Epicurious seems to be. Maybe grass-fed cows just have better PR?

    Miss Piggy, you should check out the Sustainable Seafood Guide. They used to put out a book which tells you which fish you should eat, and which are on the endangered list etc. They've now released a free app with the same info.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I have to say, est has never been on my list either but that souffle looks AMAZEBALLS. I do love Sushi-e though!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. When I moved to Australia from the states I brought my steak knives with me. My first friend said, "what do you need those for?"

    and she was right

    Your meal looks so delicious I could have licked your plates.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Considering this place is right opposite my office, I can't believe I haven't been more often. The food and service were very good last time I went.

    Here's hoping for another March into Merivale offer this year....

    ReplyDelete
  23. That crispy skin does look delish!! And OMG the petit four??? It would be rude for you not to finish them ;) lucky the bff was full haha

    ReplyDelete
  24. Comments you receive are quite entertaining. What a lovely meal. I did want to try the limited time offer at Est, but January just seemed to slip away. Great pics.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving your comment!

You Might Also Like:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Free Blog Template by June Lily