Perth Food Review

Last night, four of us reached the front door of The Red Cabbage in South Perth with high expectations. We were seated without delay, and our waiter was attentive enough to check our coats, and hand us our menus. The menu looked well structured, starting with an Oysters section, followed by first course, meat, game & fish, then a tiny section at the bottom for sides. Turn over the next two pages and you have your cheese selections and deserts.
We started with a nice bottle of white all the way from France, Chateau de Sancerre '06 if I recall correctly. Halfway in between our meal we were done with this bottle and ordered a Pinot Grigio '06, from Bollini's I think it was (Trentino, Italy). The wine list was fairly extensive, a collection of local and international wines (France, Italy, NZ, Spain); looks well thought out. Anyway enough with the wine, and onto the food.

Before the dishes came out we were given an amuse bouche of a celeriac consumme, packful of flavour! It was a wonderful way to kick off the night.

OYSTERS
We ordered 6 natural, 3 spanish chorizo and 3 japanese tempura oysters. This particular course brought up a very interesting discussion for the rest of the night (and also one I very much care to venture in the discussion forum). The oysters were fresh... Don't get me wrong and they tasted great, but out of the 12 oysters on the plate that was served to us, there were 3 tiny little surprises. Alive and thriving on the oyster shells, were worms, one for each of the three oysters. Long, thin, slimy,and very much alive and kicking. We thought it was disgusting. So did one of the waitresses who took the plate away from our table when we pointed out the oysters co-inhabitant. We actually spotted one first, which they gladly changed for us. Then another, which they changed as well and the third one was found on the outer rocky surface of one whose contents I emptied. Needless to say at this point I was appalled. One of the waitresses came out, and in a very condescending manner explained to us that the worms being there only showed how fresh the oysters were. At that point I was thinking, "Lady, I don't have a problem with the oyster's freshness, it's the little worm around it that I find off-putting..!" All I want to say here is, being a fine dining restaurant, is it too much to ask for that the oyster shells are clean and wormless..?????


FIRST COURSES
- Scallops, shark bay crab and linguine.
- Poached marron, fried duck cake with orange and fennel. Walnut salad
- Seared veal loin carpaccio, orange and basil. Served on it was a ravioli of crab and chorizo.
- Pork belly, braised in a chinese stock. Served with tiger prawns and an asian influenced salad.
The scallops and linguine were excellent and cooked perfectly. I did not have much to say on this as I didn't manage to taste it. It was apparently very good.
The marron dish, now this one I thought was really good. I mean, marron can only be as good as when its cooked/poached well; which it was in this case. The duck cake I thought really stole the show, it had sort of a burger meat consistency with strong, punchy flavours, well seasoned and I think I tasted a little chilli in there as well. For some reason I did not think the marron worked well with the duck cake, but it could just be me. Everything else on the dish worked well.
The carpaccio was my starter. It was really good, beautiful soft, sweet meat. A light searing of the meat provided for a great presentation of the dish, the thinly sliced meat laid out in a circular pattern on the dish. A mixture of orange marinated yellow and red peppers sat under a ravioli parcel of crab and chorizo.
The pork belly was my brother's choice. Braised till soft, the flavour of the meat with the sauce was subtle and yet not lacking. Did not manage to taste much of the salad.

At this point we were served with palate cleansers - a rockmelon granita, with a very slight hint of chilli.

MAINS
- Beef Wellington served with roast parsnip puree, artichokes and veal jus.
- Ocean catch du jour (Fish of the day - Fresh ocean trout) with mussle bolognaise and tempura-ed slipper lobster.
- Wagyu shin suet pudding, duck fried potato, seared scallops served on a pea puree.
I'll star with the beef wellington, which two from our party ordered, and I wish I did. This dish was perfect. I thought at least, my brother didn't really like it. The beef was lean and cooked just nice and pink, although I couldn't tell if it was rump or sirloin, or something else. The parsnip puree, probably from the roasting, was absolutely wonderful. It was sweet and mellow, and I may have tasted a hint of ginger in it... I loved it. This has to be one of the best dishes of the night.
The fish of the day was fresh ocean trout. The fish, inside was perfectly cooked, the texture was beautiful and the skin was crisp, crunchy and pungent.
Onto the suet pudding. This was quite interesting as I've never had the opportunity to have suet pudding before. Encased in it was soft, sweet wagyu shin. I think our waiter mentioned something about braising for 4 hours. It was all laid on a sweet pea puree and incircled with potatos fried in duck fat (I think) and seared scallops.

All in all I thought it was a good meal. The oyster incident aside, the first course and the mains were really, really good. Our waiter was very attentive and knowledgeable. We also got a discount because of the worm incident, so I can't really be too harsh. On the atmosphere, everything was great except when we arrived to find that the tablecloths were covered with a sheet of paper for all the tables - very cost effective indeed, but certainly put a chip into the fine dining concept. If not for the oysters though, I would've given the food a 9/10 score.

Would I be back...?? Yes, in about 5 or 6 months.. And I'll be keeping an eye out for anything moving when the oyster plate arrives.

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