Sage
Where: Gorman House, Ainslie Ave, Braddon
Ph: 6249 6050
Cost: approx $80 per person
Date reviewed: 29 March 2006
The other night for my birthday I was taken to Sage in Gorman House for dinner. I came out of there thinking it was one of the best meals I have ever had.
The restaurant is quite small but very cosy. On a mid-week night they had five or six tables full and two staff running the place, one of whom I thought might be fairly new. That said, he was looking after our table and the service was fabulous.
And the food! First up I had fried goat’s cheese dumplings with tomato jelly, olive tapenade and rocket. The tomato jelly dobs confused me at first until I worked out to roll the dumplings in them. The dumplings were orgasmic (seriously); they just cracked open in your mouth and the cheese melted away languidly. The scallops my partner had were ethereal and perfectly accompanied by the rocket and its dressing. The entree and main were accompanied by a white wine which I’m told was lovely (I thought it was nice too but haven’t quite got a discerning palate yet).
For the main I had torn saffron pasta with Balmain bugs, Queensland prawns and peas in a lemon and chive butter. I thought serving the pasta as torn was a nice way of letting the homemade pasta take centre place, rather than the sauce as often happens. Having gone to all the effort of making the pasta, and it definitely tasted freshly-made, why not show it off? The sauce had just enough tang to it to have a sharpness that contrasted nicely with the pasta. I found more bugs than prawns but both were excellent.
Dessert was a wedge of mango and coconut semi-freddo with a coconut wafer and passionfruit coulis. The flavours were subtle but worked well after the sharpness of the main. Plus I love a semi-freddo. My partner’s lime meringue and mandarine sorbet stack (judging by the meals we saw around us, the chef was having a tall food night) on the other hand was quite flamboyant with its flavours. On discussion we decided the lime napoleon was a cheerleader while the semi-freddo was a refined lady. However it too was glorious, as well as quite spectacular to look at. To accompany these delicious desserts we had a Morris tokay, which tasted to me very much like sultanas, and latte which I’m told was very good (I’m a coffee drinker with training wheels).
Overall I thought the food was spectacular, the service pleasant and efficient and the atmosphere delightful and I would most definitely go there again.
Loading ...
