Etch, Sydney

Before the year (2011) ended I finally caught up with my dear uni friends after many many attempts of trying to meet up; months and months it took. The day we scheduled to meet up was soon after one of the girls’ birthdays, so she took the liberty to pick a place and voila – Etch was her choice.

I’ve heard lots about the restuarant, read some blogs about it and I even recommended it to my cousin without having been yet so I was excited that it was my turn to go.

It’s a Wednesday evening and we are the first customers for the night, hence the empty seats. I love the decor of the place. It was quirky yet had a touch of elegance to it. For those who love that bird cage look, this was the place to be.

Flathead, Serrano ham, parsnip puree, potato fondant, jus gras $35

One orders the flathead because she was intrigued by the ‘jus gras’. It was so cute how she thought it was pronounced as just grass. Haha it totally made my day. I knew it was a sauce of some sort, but I didn’t know what it was exactly. We asked the waiter and he said it was the natural cooking juices from cooking the protein.

Burnt spinach lasagne, local asparagus, slow cooked egg, parmesan $33

One orders the vegetarian lasagne and we all weren’t expecting the dish to come out plated like this. It looked lovely and rustic! I didn’t get to taste this but she said it tasted really good. She saved the slow cooked egg until last. It wasn’t as runny as she thought it was going to be but it still tasted great. It’s always a winner when there’s hand made pasta involved.

Crispy lamb belly, slow roasted rump, broad beans, artichoke and mint $36

One orders to the lamb because it just sounded so good on the menu. When this dish was placed down, we were all fascinated by what looked like a very big baton. It was of course the cripsy lamb belly. I didn’t get to try this one either but from the looks of my friend, the plate looked like it was licked clean. In saying that, I guess it must have been good =P

Baked snapper, squid and scallop, cauliflower bhaji, curry emulsion $36

I ordered the snapper with scallops. I saw a photo of this on tumblr somewhere (arghh if I find the link I will post it. I can’t find it right now) and I really wanted to try it. I do remember reading on the menu when at the restaurant that there was a ‘foam’. I only remember this because one of the girls was so intrigued to try out foam as another girl had had foam a couple days before. Confusing, I know (sorry)! I think the curry emulsion was the foam which acted as a sauce for the dish. I think I may have set my expectations too high but it was still a pleasure to eat. The flavour combinations worked well and the scallops were cooked to perfection!

Passion Fruit Parfait with a Lavender Macaron $16

Dessert time! The reason the girls and I opted for the a la carte menu was so that we could try four different desserts. No, I’m not kidding. I thought this was a genius idea! This item isn’t on the website’s menu so from what I can remember it was a passionfruit parfait with a lavender macaron and soil (no idea what it’s made from). I had no idea what a parfait was. I thought it may have been cake or something so to my suprise, this log of what looks like ice cream came out. It tasted lovely and very similar to ice cream but I found it a lot more lighter.

Strawberry and vanilla trifle, black pepper jelly $16

Next we have the trifle with black pepper jelly. That’s something I’ve not heard of on dessert before – pepper. With the scoop I had, the pepper was very subtle and actually worked with the trifle. You could taste it at the end on your palette and was somewhat refreshing. My friend however thought that the pepper was a little bit too over powering.

Caramel date tart, burnt butter ice cream, Earl Grey tea syrup $16

This is the infamous caramel date tart that Etch is well known for. It was too pretty to eat. Even the presentation of the syrup at the bottom of the place was just beautiful. The tart itself  was just devine. And I thought the burnt butter ice cream was deeeeeeeeeeelicious! But what we all absolutely loved was the earl grey tea syrup. Wow, that thing just worked wonders in the mouth. It was so flavoursome and just brought out everything on the plate. One of the girls was scraping every little bit that she could. This dessert was definitely a hit :)

 Etch Lolly Tray $16

I couldn’t help but order the Etch Lolly Tray. Today (from L-R) we have home made dark chocolate aero, lavender sherbet, honeycomb and a berry sorbet cake pop. The aero was a little too rich for me, I actually struggled to finish that. The lavender sherbet did exactly what a sherbet is supposed to do, fill the mouth up with fizz. The honeycomb was surely crunchy and I think all the girls heard me chew. The berry sorbet cake pop was my favourite! Oh how I wish I took a photo of the insides for you all but it was soooooooooo good. I was so happy that there were two of them.

Overall, it was a lovely dinner and I’m glad to have ticked off this restaurant off my to go list. The experience was that much more special because of the girls I was with.

Etch
62 Bridge Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: + 61 2 9247 4777

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