16.07.11 – Bilson’s

This year’s birthday dinner from the (_I_)head! Ahhh-mayyyyy-zing! I was kept guessing about the restaurant up until the moment  the car was parked. The drive went a little something like this:

  • Into the city, towards Westfields… Becassè? Nope.
  • Then up along George St towards The Rocks… Rockpool? Nope.
  • Hook a right somewhere and left onto Pitt St and we’re heading north again… Ah! Bilson’s!

 A real surprise for me because David had always made it known how much he hated Bilson’s despite not having been before – a decoy, perhaps? Hmm.

Upon arrival our coats were taken and we were shown to our seats. The waitress explains that there are five menus on offer:

  • Le’Omnivore: Petit & Grand
  • Le Jardin: Petit & Grand
  • And the mother of all degustations, the Epiphany – Presque Quatre

We figured we may as well have gone all the way out (since we were there) and that was the beginning of an epic night of 15 courses and (I kid you not) 6.5 hours of dining. We arrived for a 6pm start and didn’t leave until 12.30am.

Here is a random selection of pictures from the night:

Marron, Butternut Pumpkin, Mandarin, Mizuna
So awesome! Everything in this dish just worked so well together, from the crunchy texture of the pumpkin seeds against the soft, sweet marron which was complemented by the slight tartness of the mandarin purèe that also tasted wonderful with the pumpkin.

Egg Yolk, Cauliflower, Rye, Sprouts, Fresh Herbs, Vegemite

Polenta, Zucchini, Parmesan, Hazelnut (El Bulli 2007)
Tasty parcels of polenta that just oozed in your mouth. I was curious about the caption next to this item on the menu and the waiter explained that this dish was brought to Bilson’s by Diego Muñoz who used to cook at El Bulli. Ah, yes, of course.

 Hare Jus, Honey Pear, Spiced Crème Fraiche, Truffle

Thanks (_I_)head!

Citrus Presentation
Refreshing – a great ‘pre-dessert’ before the heavy stuff! From memory; blood orange jelly, kaffir lime gel, lemon macaron, lemon sorbet, candied kumquat, marshmallow and foam… and some other thing that I can’t remember

Chocolate Box
Macarons, meringue and an assortment of chocolates that they gladly packed into a small gift box for us to take away (because we couldn’t finish them!)

derishus!

Photos of the other dishes can be found here.

Highlights not pictured but definitely worth mentioning:

  • Mushrooms, Potato, Yeast – A tangy salad of mushroom with mmm, yeast!
  • Baby Carrot, Calamari, Ink, Macadamia, Cocoa – yum, yum, yummmm. Never eaten anything like this before. Great dish! It was like the Marron, everything working so well together.

All in all, it was a fantastic degustation, up there as one of my favourites. Not just because there were so many courses, but because I either liked or love all of them. Tasting menus are a little hit and miss sometimes, because you can’t be sure that you will like all the dishes but my word, it must mean something if the ratio of good dishes is so high, especially for the meal with the most courses. Very indulgent, indeed –  I was very spoilt!