More than amused by Amuse’s Dessert Degustation

Amuse has been a restaurant that I’ve been planning to visit for a long time but haven’t had the opportunity to. burger boy isn’t huge on degustation menus as he likes the freedom of choosing his dishes (usually meat) and I on the other hand am I a fussy eater so I haven’t been in fear that I wouldn’t be able to eat half the courses.

Degustation seems to be the foodie buzz word of late so with the 2012 Eat Drink Perth festival I was keen on getting to Cheeky Sparrow and Amphora’s degustations which unfortunately sold out before I had a chance to book. So I was pretty excited to be invited by the City of Perth to Amuse’s dessert degustation which was also a sold out event. I had heard so many amazing things about Amuse and how creative/amazing the food is so it was great to be able experience Amuse for the first time with 11 courses of dessert - my favourite course

Amuse is located in East Perth in middle of suburbia, you wouldn’t know it was there unless you were specifically looking for it. It’s a character home where the rooms have been turned into dining spaces, there’s dim lighting and enough space between the tables to have your own private conversation. burger boy thought it didn’t feel look like a fine dining restaurant but that’s exactly what I loved about it. It wasn’t pretentious and I felt comfortable/welcomed on entry and throughout the evening.

Amuse had a special dessert beverage list to match with the dessert degustation that evening. We had a couple of cocktails to start then a couple of wines and beers.

I started with the choc orange cocktail…

burger boy had the Golden Cadillac…

We had an impressive start to the degustation. The first dessert was the caramel parfait in a white chocolate and wasabi shell…

Both burger boy and I go crazy for white chocolate and caramel so we were eagerly waiting for the grand arrival of this dessert and oh it was just amazing. The white chocolate was sweet & creamy and the caramel parfait was out of this world. Word of advice if this delicious dessert makes it to Amuse’s permanent menu, bite gently! I was super eager and wasn’t gentle at all, took a massive bite and an amazing burst of caramel melted in my mouth (and white choc crumbled in my fingers). burger boy on the other hand was super careful and every spec of the dessert ended up in his stomach 😉 I don’t like wasabi so was delighted that it was just a very subtle after taste.

The next desserts to come definitely tested our taste buds with the balance of flavours.

The chimay blue 2011 sorbet was served with a barley foam with a pretzel and salted cashews.

We don’t eat nuts and weren’t sure about the barley foam but it was beautifully presented as with every other dessert.

For the G&T drinkers, you’ll love the gin and tonic jelly encased in marshmallow topped with lime zest.

The marshmallow brings me back memories of cooking marshmallows by a camp fire. It tasted a bit like a meringue too (which I love) and it was a good way to enjoy a G&T (not my usual drink).

I love lychees so I was excited to see a dessert on the menu that was all about lychees.

Lychees were served up in three different ways on this plate…as a mousse which was delicious, as a gel and freeze dried. I’m not sure which element on my plate it was but there was something which create this fizzling affect in my mouth – like the popping candy that I remember getting from the deli during my primary school days. This dessert was served with a coconut pastry cream, banana puree and Gin Gin finger limes from Marvick Farm. I don’t eat bananas but enjoying everything else on my plate except maybe the popping effect 😉

The next dessert was a real test to our palates. Tomato sorbet served with vejuice and balsamic pebbles finished with Hyssop herbs. The tomato sorbet which I thought was completely odd was actually nice but the balsamic pebbles were too much for me…tastes were too strong for my liking.

It was from here on that burger boy and I were blew away by each of the desserts. They were creative interpretations of our old favourites…

Bee pollen milkshake served with a honeycomb crunchie…

The honeycomb crunchie was just delicious and I loved the little milk bottle that the bee pollen milkshake was served in. Especially the whole motion of taking a bite of the crunchie than a sip of the milkshake…til there was nothing left.

The next dessert was the most creative…

It was a hay custard with fresh blueberries and blueberry syrup on cocoa and coffee crumbs with hay smoke. When we opened the jar the hay smoke comes out…was very cool.

I tried to capture it with my camera but I don’t think you can see it very well…

We enjoyed the light soft creamy texture of the custard, sweet berries and crunch of the cocoa. The smoke effect was cool but we reckon it’d taste better without the hay but it did remind me of Heston and burger boy thought it was really creative.

I was impressed by how Amuse managed to disguise the flavours enough to persuade us to eat two foods we don’t like…beetroot and pistachio 😉

The thirty second beetroot sponge I had actually thought was a red velvet cake and I didn’t notice the subtle taste of the beetroot til half way through. Pistachio parfait had a nice crunch, crushed milk biscuit helped balance the flavours and the fresh raspberries were nice and sweet.

burger boy and I’s were pretty full at this stage but had to make room for the return of the 2007 snickers which was a chocolate and peanut butter mousse coated in caramel with a nougat ice-cream.

Oh my gosh this was just out of this world…soft amazing smooth mousse, loved the crunch of the peanut butter, everything on this plate was so tasty and the richness was offset by the nougat ice-cream. I love snickers so this dessert was one of my favs tonight.

Then came along this warm apricot soufflé - just as I thought the return of the snickers was my clear favourite, this souffle just won me over…it was just what I felt like after all the rich desserts. Carolynne poked the middle gently with a fork and poured in the vanilla anglaise for us…it tasted like a warm meringue to me…(love meringues!).

Amuse’s dessert degustation ended with coffee macarons and bailey’s filled truffle which were both really yummy – we just managed to fit this in!

burger boy’s favourite dessert was the caramel parfait, mine was the soufflé following closely by the return of the 2007 snickers and the parfait.

I was intrigued by the different dessert combinations and impressed by Amuse’s creativity. I’m a huge Heston Blumenthal fan because of his ability to challenge you to eat different foods by changing the look / taste / texture and I think that Amuse is the closest you get to Heston in Perth. If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know about my phobia with seeing the source of what I eat (i.e. don’t eat any meats/seafoods that aren’t filleted) hence why I’m so impressed by Heston and Amuse’s ability to disguise food - you would have seen Amuse manage to persuade both burger boy and I to eat beetroot (a vegetable we both don’t like very much at all).

A big thank you to the City of Perth for inviting us to Amuse’s dessert degustation and Carolynne & the Amuse team for shouting us our drinks. We had a lovely evening and very much enjoyed our first experience at Amuse, we’ll def be back to try the much raved on about food degustation.