Lunch today was at Peppermint Bay. And what can I say?
Having raved to Sir Grumpy about the food and ambience there on Gobblers blog the other day, I think my bias in favour of this pinnacle in fine dining must surely come through!
So - there you have it - upfront I am confessing to extreme bias. Now on with the food talk.
Reading Gobblers most recent post of today where he spoke about the one hat rating of various people about Hobart restaurants, I have to say there are some on his list of one hat wonders that I would definitely not rate up there. But that's where the subjectiveness comes in, as I've said quite a few times before. It really doesn't matter what anyone else in the world says or thinks about a place 'cos when push comes to shove, it's all individual choice and opinion.
So, if a million people told me that Marque IV was a great restaurant, but I have a crap time there, obviously I'm going to think and say it's crap.
As it happens, both Marque IV and Peppermint Bay are, in my opinion, fantastic and top of the one hat list for me.
Today I had natural oysters followed by the Miso roasted fish fillet (trevalla, I believe) with rice noodle salad and tamari caramel ($21.90).
It was as I expected - heavenly. I wanted light-ish and sweet-ish for lunch and that's what I got with my fish dish.
The lunch menu in the bar covered every contingency and the meals I saw going out to other tables looked great. I hate seeing meals going out to other tables and thinking "Why didn't I order that too?". Saw a really interesting looking one going past my table at one stage that looked like some kind of bento box. Meant to ask staff what it was but forgot.
The staff are well trained, responsive and friendly which is good because the diverse clientele there would demand that.
I love that restaurant for its light, its glass, the feeling of green-ness and nature, the closeness of the water which has a calming effect and the fact that it is far enough away to make you feel you are on holiday even though you've only travelled 1/2 an hour from Hobart.
Steve, as ever, rocks. I salute his expertise, his devotion and passion to his product, his sense of humour and his thorough professionalism. He is a king amongst men.
Yeh - call me a suck - but I only call it as I see and believe it to be.
Friday 23 March 2007
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5 comments:
I hear you Rita
Sir Grumpy is on his way.
You'd better hurry on down there soon, Sir Grumpy, if you want to sample the total Steve/Peppermint Bay package.
Chinese whispers have reached me about Steve's possible departure.
I've also heard those same whispers. They also tell me that they intend to dump their restaurant!
Rita, it seems that Steve gets quite a bit of flak, why so?
Anon - I have never worked with Steve (and I believe you get to know a lot about a person when you work alongside them) but I think it might be (from odd snippets I have picked up on over the years) the fact that his driving passion (for food, his product, his "food beliefs" etc) is very single-minded, and this might tend to make him dismissive of people who he thinks might not come up to (his version of) scratch.
I think he has alientated some. He isn't afraid of putting forward his ideas or opinions - which I admire & envy in a way.
As I said, I haven't worked with him, and don't even know him very well. These are just impressions and odd snippets put together.
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