Restaurant Tasman, Hotel Grand Chancellor

Having been 'out of it' for the past seven months, and despite attempts to regain my former physical and mental self, normal standards have slipped slightly, and I have found myself more than once praying for the return of the one who used to be Rita!

Well - as of last week, she HAS returned!

Food and beverages are at long last entering this body, and staying there. Much needed sustenance has been fed into my much wasted body (went from a Size 16 to a Size 10 over this period), so it was with much excitement that I ventured out last night for my first post-heart-failure foray back into the world of restaurant reviewing, with a vengeance!

Bec and Aimie accompanied me, to ensure I didn't get over-excited, and also to verify my opinions!
You may well ask, why the hell did she pick HGC as a dining destination - which was the reaction of three friends, when I mentioned it to them, and which I assume would be the reaction of most people in Hobart! Well, I receive, weekly, many emails from restaurant and cafe owners requesting I come and review their restaurants, and this was one of them. My interest was aroused, and I hadn't eaten at HGC socially (and voluntarily) for many years so I decided to check them out.

I have never, in all my Rita life, announced at the outset that I was there to write a review about them, but this time, maybe due to the medication, I did! This turned out to be an extremely wise thing to have done, because as we perused the menu initially, we found ourselves in a 'selection quandry', as you often do when you eat out. So when our personable waitress Tia returned (having obviously used her initiative and discussed this with chef) offering us the option of a degustation, we pounced on this suggestion - and LOVED it. The dego option was not on the menu anywhere, but Tia told us she offers it to guests whenever she feels it might be utilised, so I was overjoyed it wasn't just a special for us.

We ended up having an excellent cross section of most dishes on the menu - which pleased my piggy pair of companions, especially as they opted for the matched wine option as well!

Aimie has a seafood allergy, so she had different options to Bec and I, which gave me even more opportunity to sample the menu., as she generously offered us tastes of all her courses too.

At the end of the evening we workshopped each plate, giving it an average rating out of 10, and found that all our separate opinions were pretty well in synch, and with the variation of maybe a half mark here and there, we were pretty congruent in our evaluations.

So.......what we ate:

Course 1 

house baked foccacia with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic, and wild olives (5/10 - bit too salty)
smoked salmon pate, with crostini, creme fraiche and chives (7/10 - beautiful, but needed more crostini or bread for the amount of pate)

Course 2

sashimi grade tuna with avocado and wasabi mayo, saffron pickled ginger and light soy (8/10)tasman taste plate from land which contained pork terrine with piccalilly, duck sausage and pear chutney, and the most gorgeous coffee cured wagyu I have ever tasted (the wagyu rated 8/10 on its own, but overall the plate only earned six and a half out of ten, as some of the flavours seemed a bit confused)

Course 3 

crayfish canneloni with roast king prawn, steamed baby leeks, chives and citrus burnt butter (9/10 - this was voted top dish of the night)

roast pumpkin ravioli, with peas, rocket, brussel sprouts and sage butter (8/10 for its beautiful combination of fine flavours)

Course 4

line caught oven roasted hapuka with chorizo and scallops, and brussel sprouts (7/10 - fish was moist, flavoursome and well cooked)

slow cooked lamb with a solid square of mint jelly and rosemary jus (six and a half out of ten - Amie not so keen on this one, but Bec and I raved about it)

Course 5

two beef portions on the one plate: a beef cheek on beetroot puree, plus a cape grim scotch fillet on a spinach puree, with speck, potato gratin, baby leeks and mushroom slices (this was a huge serving for a dego, and I was stonkered by this stage, so sampled a small amount of meat but honestly could not do justice to such a generous serving. The girls finally settled on 6/10, as they too admitted to being overwhelmed at this stage too! Amie was disenchanted by the beef cheeks, and to be honest they weren't as tender as many I have had in the past)

Course 6

grilled rannoch farm quail with persian spices and a salad of shaved zucchini, mint currants and pine nuts (8/10 - a dish of lovely fine flavours, especially the spices on the quail)

Course 7

was a small selection of shared desserts which included a scoop of salted caramel and peanut ice cream, HGC's version of cheesecake, a choc truffle, a choc ball filled with a heavenly runny filling which could have been salted caramel (which I accidentally ate all of, so the girls didn't get to sample that one! Sorry girls!), a choc/nut spider and a white choc triangle (this one we voted as the most unimpressive dish of the night, so it only earned five and a half out of ten.

To sum up:

• Service was excellent, thanks to Tia and all staff
• Wine was a bit mismatched but mostly good
• The food overall we rated as 7/10

It is a shame that locals wouldn't immediately think of Restaurant Tasman as a dining out venue, as I feel that with the addition of a few more locally-occupied tables each night, it could become one of our options for fine dining.

Might I humbly suggest that if you have a special event to celebrate, you consider HGC as a very viable option, and a welcome addition to the spectrum of excellently produced local food.

The dego price was extremely reasonable at $120 per person with the matched wines, and between $75-80 with no wine. Our total bill was $330.50. Excellent value for a wonderful meal.