As we had an excuse for a bit of a celebration Jan and I went to Somerset the other night which is always a pleasure. We've been there many times over the years and still enjoy the atmosphere of relaxed elegance.
It's always good to go to a place where they are genuinely passionate about their local suppliers and ingredients and take trouble over every small aspect of the restaurant. From the menu to the unusually well-chosen wine list to the artwork and glassware, Somerset sets a standard for attention to detail.
The other great thing is that it is BYO as well as licensed so we took along an old bottle of Te Mata Coleraine and started with a couple of glasses from the wine list (there is much there by the glass), Jan a Quartz Reef Sparkling Rose ($18) and me a Te Whare Ra Toru ($16) which is a Gewurz / Pinot Gris / Riesling blend and was well-balanced with real complexity and weight. I've had a similar offering from Elephant Hill but that was more a light summer wine; this was serious stuff.
And, quite surprisingly, it went OK with the entree both Jan and I had, as did her bubbles. It was Cilantro goats cheese filo, with beetroot leather, orange and walnuts ($20). And it was really good, also coming with some roasted beetroot. The walnuts had been candied which gave a hit of sweetness while the acid of the orange segments cut against the rich goats cheese. The filo, presented as a “cigar”, was a very tidy bit of work. (BTW, Cilantro is the name of the goats cheese supplier, not an American reference to coriander.)
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| The orange segments are hidden underneath... |
Next were a couple more items from the “Weekly” menu. Because of the popularity of certain dishes, Somerset has half its menu which remains in perpetuity with only slight tweaks and another half that constantly changes. There is also a vegan menu.
For our mains we should really both have had a steak to go with the wine but decided to abandon any attempts at matching and just try another couple of new things. Jan had Crispy battered Bostock chicken, Korean style glaze ($39). The chicken did indeed have a fantastically crisp batter which stayed that way despite soaking up an intensely spicy but not too hot sauce. Jan was well happy.
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| VERY crispy! |
I had a second entree, Bostock chicken livers, vanilla parsnip puree, potato galette and apple ($22), and it was delicious, posh comfort food, the puree rich and a great contrast to the crunchy galette. Jan's main came with vegetables (carrots, broccoli, more) which I ate and we got a side salad ($9) for her as she likes.
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| I dug in a bit before Jan took a pic - it looked better! |
That was followed by sharing a sinfully wonderful dessert called a Banana, caramel custard and marshmellow tart ($18). That was followed by a lot of us going “ooooooh”. It involved sweet banana / caramel / toffee flavours all wrapped in a torched soft Italian meringue. Bloody hell it was good. I want one right now!
Looks fantastic we must go as we haven’t been since Covid lock down and sometimes you forget to visit the old favourites - love the look of the vegetarian entree I usually get the double baked soufflé but I’ll be trying the goat cheese filo when we visit 😁😋
ReplyDeleteThere is a also cauliflower entree in a Korean sauce which is sensational if you're looking for vegetarian treats!
DeleteYou had me at Coleraine. Great to see that place still amazes.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should say that. I didn't mention what it was like because the one slightly disappointing aspect of the meal was the Coleraine. It was the 1997 and I found it very plain. It seemed to have lost the fruit vibrancy but hadn't replaced it with anything. No creaminess, no luscious smoothness, no interesting aromatics... Yeah, I just found it plain.
DeleteNot a patch on that fantastic '98 we drank last year when you were visiting!
Firstly I like your I like your style of reviews but we weren't that impressed with Somerset. For starters we had oysters, at $4 a pop you would expect decent sized oysters, no oyster forks were offered and when we asked for some we were met with a blank expression from the waitress. On top of that the oysters were not shucked properly so we had to extract them ourselves using the knife & forks supplied. Not good enough from a restaurant that claims "fine dining".
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and thanks for commenting - sorry to hear you had a bad experience at Somerset - do you have any particular favourite places to eat?
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