Monday’s are usually my ‘do nothing’ days. I often rely on coffee to ease me into the working week and it usually ends with a very early night with an effortless light dinner. Tonight broke the routine.
I was meant to go to my Italian mamma-in-law’s place to have her signature home-made pasta meat balls but the bomb scare in the city (pic of the coppers with a bomb detonator is featured towards the end of my gallery below) blocked off all access to the trains and I had no idea how to catch a bus to The Vines and traffic was completely banked up around the city. Thankfully, I had walked out of the office with my work colleagues who kindly offered to take me home…it was too late to drive to The Vines so my colleage and I decided to have a ‘quick’ bite to eat at Mount Lawley. That quick bite somehow turned into ‘fine dining’ at The Beaufort Street Merchant!
We shared the Spanish Grazing Board which had chorizos, marinated olives, cheese fondue, garlic thyme crouts, seasoned almonds, zucchini fritters, sticky pork ($32.50) - it was absolutely scrumptious. The cheese fondue fascinated me the most as it was a ‘solid’ version (not the usual melted in the pot type cheese fondue), the sticky pork was very tasty and the chorizo was yum also. The zucchini fritters were ok but I think The Partisan is the master of zucchini fritters. I don’t eat almonds or olives so I can’t comment on them personally but my fellow foodies sharing the board with me loved them.
For mains, I had the chorizo & calamari $20, the calamari was cooked perfectly and tasted amazing but the chorizo wasn’t as good as the ones on the grazing board, seemed more salty and perhaps not cooked as long so it felt oilier. The description on the menu for my main was chorizo & calamari, garlic and chilli, potato, lemon dressing but the actual dish was served with a massive bowl of gourmet salad which was nice but I’m not a huge salad fan so I would have liked more calamari and less salad. I was deciding between the calamari and the pork loin - in hindsight I should have went with the pork. My fellow foodies ordered the Lemon Chicken which was stuffed with lemon, basil and ricotta and served with butternut squash puree and vegetable caponata $24 and the Lamb Ravioli which was served with sautéed summer vegetables $22 - both were rated highly.
Dessert was amazing (I’ve always got room for dessert), we shared the Crème Brulee $14 the texture was perfect as was the taste and the Ménage A Trios Chocolate Platter $22 which consisted of a dark chocolate brownie with a salted butter caramel brittle, milk chocolate fondant with rich chocolate sauce and lavender and white chocolate mousse with peach compote - this was the highlight of the trio, it definitely intrigued the taste buds but it was a very good intrigue.
It cost us $200 for the three of us including three wines and a cocktail (great drinks list) which I thought for the quality, portions and atmosphere (cool music & décor), it was well worth it and I’d definitely be coming back!
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