Palette
QV, Melbourne
Well, those who don’t want to waste time reading this column, here’s the verdict for Palette- I won’t bother going back there next time.
Why? Well, it started out alright- we got a cozy little table in the centre of the room so we can see the action, we have our menu given to us quite promptly and the specials introduced. I wonder if you find it more and more common that a waiter would ask you “would you like still or sparkling water?”- I found that quite irritating- how about just give us some free tap water, or is that not a choice anymore? Thankfully this waitress asked us whether we want “Bottled or tap water”.
I ordered a fried
zuchini flower wrapped in minty ricotta- it was too oily and the oil tasted a bit old. Alan ordered oysters and apparently he can taste that it has been frozen beforehand. For a restaurant who advertised itself as serving “a menu of Italian dishes familiar to
Melbournians with
emphasis on fresh and local produce” it surely wasn’t doing a very good job. Maybe we need a visit from a certain Mr. G Ramsay to fire some expletives.
Our mains arrived and Alan ordered today’s special, which is a chilli and spinach risotto with soft shell crab ($20)- it came out looking quite cute, but for me and Alan, soft shelled crab and risotto just don’t mix. There’s too much cheesiness in the risotto and less of a chilli kick also.
I ordered a special too, which is the squid ink spaghettoni with vongole (clams)($20). On the surface, it looks as if there are lots of clams, but here’s the stats- 60% were only moderately fresh, 10% not fresh, 10% really fresh and 10% have nothing in it. The squid ink pasta was nice but not very al dente and it doesn’t have those ink stuff that would blacken you teeth (which looks horrible on your teeth but taste so much nicer!)- I miss Treviso and the old il nostro posto.
We valiantly shared a dessert- warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream- and that was shocking. The chocolate cake is dripping with oil (yikes) and the vanilla ice cream is just a tad too sweet. Oh- although, the chocolate truffle was really nice- I totally forgot about it because Alan ate most of it after I said that it was fabulous- THAT was the only highlight of the night.
I don’t know why ex-chefs from Marchetti Latin, Grossi Florentino and Tolarno Hotel would put their name on the advertisement, because shame on them for producing dishes without the freshest ingredients! Maybe that’s why they are ex-chefs there!
Tags: Melbourne
This entry was posted
on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 11:47 pm and is filed under Mediterranean.
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