Restaurant 373

Had my first ever meal at 373 last night after hearing many very positive reports about it.

I loved the food and the flavours. I loved the wine list. I hated the uncomfortable wooden chairs. I'm not sure what I felt about the service.

The ambience/service was great initially (we were the first booking of the night) but as the place filled up, it got noisier and seemed to loose a bit of that "starched linen/upper class restaurant" feeling I'd originally picked up on. Maybe it was just that the wait staff had more to do but they seemed to loose the focus of making us feel ultra-special in that rarified atmosphere as they had initially done.

It seemed a bit of an in-between place. I felt it was not quite up there with my favourite Marque IV but, in a North Hobart way, is close.

I'm not sure what clientele they're aiming at - probably monied yuppies/dinks (at the risk of offending many).

I think I would opt in favour of Marque IV next time I considered going out for a meal like that, just because for the few extras I value (comfy seats, consistent service) when I want to eat out at a top notch place, I know I would definitely find them at M IV. (Don't laugh at the comfy seat "thing" - if you're paying top dollar you should be bloody comfortable while you're doing it!)

I ate 2 entrees - the Trio of Molluscs, which was breathtakingly stunning, and the Pork Belly, which I challenged myself with (not being porks greatest fan) and found I really enjoyed.

They also had some of those welcome extras, like bread rolls ( a choice of either plain white or beetroot) which came accompanied by butter and a salmon "spread", and a small "tasting" platter of their grissini sticks, marinated olives and garlic popcorn - all of which were stunning. When I first saw the popcorn, I thought to myself, "What kind of wankers are these people?". I rapidly withdrew that private thought & silently apologised to the god of cynicism. We were also served a tiny bowl each of a soup that was spicy and coloured a bright orange-red with a small dollop of blue vein in the middle to garnish. There were only about 4 soupspoons of the soup and I can't remember what kind of soup it was, but it was yummy too.

Once again - my disclaimer - this is just MY opinion of what I experienced myself on the night.
I really enjoyed the evening and would thoroughly recommend the place to anyone wanting that very special meal in North Hobart.