February 25, 2012

Est – March into Merivale, Sydney CBD

March into Merivale is a great opportunity to sample the Merivale restaurants without having to break your budget. I imagine that Est is one of the most popular choices during the March into Merivale promotion since it is a three hat restaurant.

A year ago, I went to Est during their Fast Festival Feast promotion and it was great. So I was more than happy to go to Est again this time around.

March into Merivale is on from 16 February – 5 April 2012, lunch (12pm – 8pm) or dinner (6pm – 8pm), Monday to Fridays. You can see the menus online, most of the restaurants offer one course and a glass of wine for $33.

When we made our booking at Est, we were told that we would have to vacate the table at 8pm. This was fine for us, it would be more than enough time to enjoy our main and glass of wine. However when they called to confirm the booking, we were told that we would have to leave the table at 7.30pm. I was slightly concerned because this left us with just an hour but I figured that they would bring out the food out quickly.

Much to my relief, there was nothing to worry about because the service was impeccable and our meal was not rushed at all. In fact, we ended up lingering until 8.15pm before we asked for the bill.

If you have not been to Est before, it is located on the first floor of the building where Establishment is. The lift opens into a hushed restaurant with elegant decor. Tall columns are dotted throughout the space, giving it a slightly Grecian feel.

We were given our March into Merivale menus and I was surprised to see that you could choose between having two courses for $55 or one course for $33, plus a glass of wine. The online menu only showed the one course option.

We both decided to indulge in the two courses and chose the same entree.

Salad of spanner crab, heart of palm, avocado, pink grapefruit, mint and lemon

The salad was tiny and devoured in a few bites but I enjoyed the clean flavour of grapefruit and lemon. I like any dish where crab has been hand picked for me out of the shell! For those who are curious, the other option for entree was fresh italian buffalo mozzarella with fresh peach, “iberico de bellota” jamon, golden endive.

For the main, you had a choice of pork, veal or mulloway.

Ginger glazed pork neck, compressed cucumber, pickled Chinese cabbage

I tasted the pork neck and it was delicious!!! The ginger glaze was subtle and the pork came apart easily. It also had a very, very slight charred flavour which I loved.

Prosciutto wrapped fillet of veal, polenta panisse, tomato, tomato, black olive, caper salsa

When I ordered the veal for my main, the waiter informed me that it comes out very pink. I assured him that this was no problem but I wondered whether there would be blood running over my plate. Turned out that the warning was for nought – although it was pink, there was not any ‘blood’ flavour and indeed, the veal melted in my mouth, it was that soft.

I am not usually a fan of polenta but the two polenta chips were so yummy! For all appearances, they looked like two firm potato chips and had the same crunchy coating but the soft polenta inside made all the difference.

There is still a lot of time to check out the March into Merivale promotion. Readers – have you been to any yet? Which one do you recommend trying?