T’Gallant
1385 Mornington Flinders Rd
Main Ridge Victoria 3928
03 5989 6565

T’Gallant is one of the popular wineries in Mornington Peninsula, they have nice food and wine, no wonder bookings are essential if you wanted to dine in the La Baracca Trattoria- apparently unless you have a booking, stop letting cars in at around lunch time because there are just so many people!

For entree I had a mushroom and mozzarella puff  with tarragon and persillade dressing $16-this is not their best dish- the puffs were fried to crisp, too brown for my liking.  It doesn’t really have any mushroom or mozzarella flavour- funnily enough, this reminds me of the taro puffs I have in Yum Cha!

Gnocchi Fritti $26  is a spinach and ricotta gnocchi w. braised duck & mustard fruit.  I have never tasted a spinach and ricotta gnocchi before, but I quite like it.  The gnocchi is quite firm and has a lovely texture.  It goes really well with the braised duck which is quite tender and has a slight sticky sweetness to it.  Yummo!

Here are some of the other food I sampled: Chicken pie $31 – slow braised chicken pie with pinot gris, champignon, bacon and broccolini.  I only tried a bit of it and I honestly only remembered the pastry cos it was just so good.  The pastry is nicely cooked, beautifully flakey and buttery… yummmm

I also couldn’t resist having a bit of the Patate Arrosto $9- roasted crash-hot potatos w/crisp rosemary & lemon- mmmmmm- if only Froggy was here, she would be salivating over this dish!  We left it for at least 10 mins before digging in because we were concentrating on our mains, but when we eat it it’s still crash hot and still extremely yummy!  Pillows of crispy skinned potatoes, inside is soft, hot and infused with rosemary and salty goodness.

I was EXTREMELY full by this stage but dessert is calling.  Once again I rationalised that I have 2 tummies- a savoury one and a sweet one, so surely I would be able to fit in some dessert!  Tiramisu and I decided to share a yummie dessert, although I felt like chocolate, I knew in my heart I just can’t fit it in, with or without sharing.   So it’s good that Tiramisu decided on a tart tartin- I’ve never heard of one before until Masterchef and was extremely keen to try it   We ordered a Quince and honey Tart Tartin w/ cinnamon icecream $12- Mmmmm…great choice- when we cut into our Tart Tartin made a crispy noise, and then we saw a river of golden honey drizzling down the plate.  It was THE highlight of the meal- the tart was not too sweet, the pastry was perfect and the quince balances the richness of the tart.  Very Very nice- I would love to try and make tart tartin one day- Mmmmmmm

Overall the service is fantastic, the food was great, the only bad thing is that the food is slightly expensive- but to finish on a high note it’s well worth it.  8.5/10