The Point
Aquatic Drive, Albert Park Lake
03 9682 5566

Hubby loves loves loves his steak, so on his birthday I took him to The Point after several close friend’s recommendation (only the best for my hubby!) .  The main worry in this case is to degustate or not to degustate?  Their seven course degustation menu is undoubtedly tempting, but we have our eyes set on steak, so steak it is!

Have I told you that I love free food?  This appetiser of salted cod is with compliments of the chef and it’s very savoury and moorish. And of course this and the lovely warm breadroll stop our growling bellies while we wait for our dishes to arrive.

Hubby ordered the 24 hour braised black lip abalone, St Helens oyster,peking duck consomme and aromatic herb salad $24.  The duck consomme is poured in the last min so the oyster is lightly poached.  The consomme is rich and hearty, and compliments well with the herb salad.  At first we thought the abalone is mixed with the herb salad, but no, we found silves of abalone fanned out underneath the oysters.  The abalone is very tender, but unfortunately it has absorbed all the flavours of the oyster, instead of the duck and I find the fishiness of the oyster flavour too strong for my liking.

My entree delighted and intrigued me.  Mud crab filled zucchini flower, warm smoked eel, honey lime espumas and Joselito Jamon crumbs $27 is presented in a plate with a dramatic dash of black.  For one moment I thought it was charcoal- then I realised- it’s actually squid ink.  Dishes like these makes me feel invigorated, it keeps you guessing and make things just that little bit interesting.

Everything on this dish is as fresh as you can get.  The scallop seared middle-rare, so I can just taste the hint of freshness.  Crab is full of flavour and I just wish there’s more of these.  The eel is smokey but the sweetness of honey lime foam balances the flavours out.

The steaks came- 250g Wagyu Porterhouse MS 8+ and The Point garnish $55 for Hubby, while I selected the Special of the Day, Aged eye fillet with mushrooms on the side $55.  The steaks were cooked to perfection. The Porterhouse started off with a chewy texture then gradually melts in your mouth, matches beautifully with the red wine sauce.

My medium-rare rib eye steak is extremely tender, just the way I like it.  The pureed mushroom compliments

the beefiness perfectly.  As the beef was in slices, it felt less daunting than eating a whole piece of steak.  The mushroom is beautifully cooked and there’s a few bits of treasure such as baby brussel sprouts (trust me! It’s yummy!) and chestnuts underneath.

We also ordered a few sides: King Edward Potato champ $8 and Warm salad of figs, pancetta and Yarra Valley fetta $8.  When we were unsure of which potato

to order (there’s also hand cut Russet potato w. thyme), the waiter recommended us the champ, and it was fantastic.  The potato is steamed then slightly mashed with butter and spring onion.

I must admit I haven’t had fresh figs before and didn’t know what to expect.  But this dish just surpassed all my expectations- the contrast of the soft, sweet figs with crispy pancetta and the slightly pungent taste of fetta made with goat’s milk is a refreshing side after eating so much meat.  I think I have fallen in love with figs.  It really helps that The Point uses only seasonal produce so the dishes are all at their freshest.

I love desserts, but what I love more is The Point’s PRE-dessert! Once again, with compliments from the chef, the waiter brought out two delicate looking shot glasses, each filled with mango and apple jelly and atop with lemon sorbet.  It certainly cleansed our palette in preparation for dessert!

We couldn’t decide what to have for dessert, so we chose a dessert plate $35 with everything.  Well, they said it’s with everything but sadly, they didn’t give us the Black Forest Souffle, which is actually what Hubby wanted.  Clockwise from the left:-

• Confit apple terrine- was sour and more to Hubby’s taste
• Chocolate fondant- extremely rich and slightly on the too sweet side
• Mascarpone and vanilla bean panna cotta w/ poached rhubarb and almond crumble- the pannacotta texture and taste is a bit like rice pudding for some reason, and the rhubarb tasted a bit like apricots!  Nonetheless it’s the yummiest out of the 4 desserts, not too sweet.
• Brillat Savarin and passionfruit cheese, lime creme fraiche sorbet- This dessert has a very strong, pungent cheesey flavour, probably best for cheese lovers.  Brillat Savarin is made from cow’s milk and has 75% fat- I am slightly disturbed by this and thought about how many kms I would need to run to work this off.  The lime creme fraiche sorbet is too creamy for Hubby.

Overall we think that our mains are the best, they need to work on their desserts but their pre-dessert is certainly perfect.  Environment-wise, don’t expect a tranquil lake view on autumn/winter nights- you won’t be able to see a thing.  The other thing that confuses us is that in this high class restaurant we can hear a chef shouting from the kitchen, I don’t think he’s yelling at anyone in particular, but I can hear bursts of “WAGYU PORTERHOUSE MEDIUM RARE!” We weren’t even seated anywhere closed to the kitchen! -7.5/10