Rockpool

I have been to Rockpool once before. Sort of. I had been in the brief time when Neil Perry seemed to suffer a mid-life crisis due to not getting 3 hats. He decided to throw his restaurant and hats to the fishes and so briefly arose from the murky waters- Rockpool Fish. This was an excellent experience and I remember having a fish poached in Garam Masala. One of the tastiest fish meals I have ever had. Might even be right up there in the top 20-30 dishes ever.

But, the long fixed course menu with it's non 3 hatted status had held us (Hayden and I) back. No more I said, particularly as ratings systems seemed to be persistently wrong and favoured non-innovativeness in our opinion, we had to try. Someone had to do  it. Neil Perry has a ponytail -he looked creative and well...so did the menu!  So, we marched to the Rocks, but so no pool. (Yes, yes, the bad jokes will continue). By complete chance we had come in a week which was celebrating Rockpool's 21st birthday and were offered a free Sparkling wine. A nice surprise.

Besides the slightly austere service, the food was simply brilliant. I have to rate Rockpool above many better rated Sydney restaurants. I could almost dare to say that the food was as good as Quay (variable experience once amazing- better than Rockpool by a mile- and once probably not as good. New review soon). and probably marginally better than Est. (very consistent). The use of Asian flavours in subtle ways dominated the menu.

Some of the dishes included:

1. Fragrant crab broth with hand picked queensland mud crab, dashi custard, tapioca and wild bamboo pith. Subtle, well executed dish with excellent textures and a little bit of zing. Decent opener. 7/10
2. Western australian marron with three bean salad and almond cream. Subtle but amazing dish in which the beans were the star as much as the marron. Sweetness of the beans matched well with the juicy marron. Playing with various combinations was fun and added interesting textural elements. 8/10
3. Green lip abalone, red braised thirlmere goose, chicken crisps and fine noodles with xo dressing. Chef managed to balance off the subtleness of the abalone slices with the xo oil. Really liked what the crunchiness of the crisps at the top added texturally to the softness of the goose and abalone. 7.5-8/10
4. Macleay valley rabbit and sweetbread pie with frisée salad, cinnamon and “laphroaig” whisky sauce. Wow! If dish sounded amazing, it was! Slightly gamey & sweet meat of the rabbit articulated well to the sweetbread which articulated well to the sweetness in the whiskey while adding some smokiness (which went with the rabbit too) and acid to pull the dish through. More texture could have been good 8-8.5/10
5. Stir fried southern calamari, smoked “schulz” bacon, chilli, coriander and squid ink noodles. Didn't know what to expect. But with squid ink noodles, could you go wrong?! Flavours & textures just popping out at you. No more to say. 8.5-9/10
6. Chinese roast pigeon with prawn stuffed eggplant and black vinegar sauce.  Succulent pigeon with the sweetness beautifully lifted by the prawn & eggplant combo (which in itself added good texture). The zing of the vinegar brought the dish out of it's sweet but delicious death back to life. 8.5/10
7. Date tart (original since 1984). Gorgerous! 7.5-8/10

The rabbit (#4), Calamari (#5) and Pigeon (#6)