Urbane - for a special treat

http://www.urbanerestaurant.com/

Where to go for that really special occasion?  Its a question I get asked a lot and one that I have a number of suggestions for.  In this instance the special occasion was a 15th wedding anniversary....... and it was mine!

Of the many great restaurants around Brisbane, there is one that stands out.  That restaurant is Urbane.  SC and I have been a few times, but its not a venue that we frequent as regularly as others, but each time is special.  Urbane is currently listed at number 25 on the Gourmet Traveller's list of top 100 restaurants, only one below Brisbane's top rated restaurant; Esquire.  It also has two prestigious Chefs Hats from the Brisbane Times Good Food Guide.

Over the years, Urbane has had a number of world class chefs in the kitchen.  The first time we went, Ryan Squires (now at Esquire) was the head chef and more recently Kym Machin (now of Spring) was the head chef; both of which have won young chef of the year in various awards.  I had kept a close eye on who would be the next chef through the doors and was quite excited when Argentine-born Alejandro Cancino secured the role.  Alejandro has worked at some of the best restaurants in the world, including Mugaritz in Spain (currently #3 in the world) and Noma in Denmark (#1 for a few years now)

On to the food.  Urbane has now moved onto a degustation only restaurant, a steadily increasing trend around Brisbane.  There are three options;  4 courses for $90; 7 courses for $120 and 11 courses for $160.  We opted for the 11 courses.

Before we even started the degustation, we were surprise with not one, but four amuse-bouches.  I wont go into too much detail about all 4 save for a description, but the photos speak volumes about their quality.  1st sweet corn soup with sweet corn popcorn (which was like an ice cream that did not melt); 2nd abalone in panko crumbs with oyster emulsion + abalone crisps with a tarragon dip; 3rd duck tongue with duck consomme (in test tubes); 4th muscle on a rye crisp with saffron cream and an egg yolk emulsion.  All were fantastic with SC loving the abalone and personally I loved the muscle and saffron.....  loved it big-time!

From top left clockwise;  Abalone in Panko crumbs; Duck
tongue and consume; abalone crisps; muscle with saffron;
Sweet corn soup with frozen popcorn (interesting texture) 

Right, because this is a long degustation, I will try to be fairly succinct with my descriptions, although that may be difficult.  Each of the dishes have very simple names, but there was complexity in every plate.

The first plate was Tomato, walnuts, diakon and herbs.  There were many surprises with this dish, firstly there was no sign of tomato, at least in the traditional sense.  We started to test and taste the components on the plate and soon came to the realisation that the strong tomato flavour came from a tomato jelly, which was translucent and nearly invisible underneath the diakon, walnuts and herbs.  There was also dehydrated tomato in a white powder, which mixed really well with the jelly and other ingredients.  We knew we were going to be in for a wild ride after the first dish!

Next up was Beetroot with quandong and chevre, which was presented beautifully on the plate.  The beetroot was prepared in a number of different ways, including jellies, chips and roasted beetroot balls.  Also on the plate was chevre which was a really interesting cheese and quandong, which is a native Australian fruit turned into a puree right down the middle of the plate.  This was a delicious and sweet course with great textures, the quandong and beetroot worked wonderfully together.  Beetroot can be overly sweet at times, but not tonight at Urbane.  I am not normally a fan of vegetarian food, but the first two courses were a study on how vegetarian meals can be presented. 

After a great start with a couple of lighter delights, along came the first of the meat dishes. Octopus, green apple, avocado and rye.  I love octopus and was really happy to see the artful presentation and styling of course three.  Each of the individual components tasted great, but this was special when combining all of the components into a mouthful.  The octopus was cooked well, which given the varying degrees of thickness was no mean feat.  There was a lovely soupy liquid underneath the octopus that must have been made from apple, I really wanted to lick the plate clean once the main ingredients were devoured.

So far, all of the courses had been delivered on cool looking dark sone plates, but the next course of Pacific Oyster with lamb sweetbreads, brussels sprout and cauliflower was a change up.  The ingredients were spred out individually on a massive plate, with the lightly cooked oyster as the centrepiece.  I normally like my oysters fresh out  of a shell and must admit that the lightly cooked oyster did not really appeal, it almost sent me back to the days prior to loving oysters.  However, the lamb sweetbreads were simply delicious and the cauliflower puree with the other components worked really well together.  Bags of flavour here and its really amazing how much a couple of brussels sprout leaves can pack such a wallop.

Next served was a new dish to the Urbane menu.  Pork Ribs, honey, flowers and chamomile saw a return of those cool stone plates, this time on a massive scale.  Of all the plates of food, this was the one that lacked the punchy flavours of the rest.  Don't get me wrong, technically it was perfect but when you think of pork ribs, you think big bold intense flavours and really sticky sauce.  This was subtle and benign in flavour.  After chatting to the wait staff after this course about this, they were really interested in our thoughts on how it could be improved and I got the feeling that the chef would be keen to hear how to improve.  My suggestions were to enhance the taste and texture with a thick sticky sauce and bolder flavours.

Just over the halfway point in our degustation journey now and SC was starting to feel a little full.  At this time I was thinking 'bonus', if SC left any food at all I was going to polish it up! The next piece of art on a plate was Murray Cod with sugar snap, watercress and horseradish.  When tasting each of the elements on the plate, the watercress puree was very tart, but when mixed with the horseradish and sugar snap became really well balanced.  The cod was cooked to perfection and was very sweet, so with all of the sweetness on the plate the watercress was a welcome addition.  Again, this had bags of flavour and was totally scrumptious.

When you have a simple dish of Jerusalem Artichoke with organic chicken wing, you would think that the chicken would be the star of the dish.  The chicken was tender through the centre and crispy on the outside, with the chicken skin toasted and adorning the top of the pile, however it was the jerusalem artichoke that completed the dish.  I never used to be a fan, but just lately its been a staple on some of the degustations around town and I have grown to like it.  As with all of the courses tonight, each element on the plate was well cooked and tasted great, but combining all together was like a gathering of great friends, it just worked.

One of Alejandro's signature dishes, pumpkin gnocchi  which is normally on the menu had made way for the pork ribs for tonights meal.  When chatting to the fabulous wait staff about the meal to date (and dropping in that it was our anniversary), they kindly offered to bring out a taste for us.  If there is one vegetable that I really dislike it's pumpkin, so I was really anxious about this.  I really didn't want to leave a heap of the gnocchi behind after it had been so generously offered to us.  We only asked for a small tast to share but they actually delivered what seemed to be a full extra course for us.  The dish itself is Pumpkin Gnocchi with parmesan and rosemary, with the parmesan being a viscous liquid and also a foam.  I really can understand why this is an Urbane favorite, it was stunning.  The slight pumpkin made into soft gnocchi, along with the punchy parmesan was amazing.  While I don't think this will change my mind on pumpkin the vegetable, I will forever be sold on the pumpkin gnocchi.

The gnocchi gave us both a second wind, so were really pleased when we saw the next dish.  It's no surprise to those of you who are regular readers of my blog, but I love love love duck.  The Duck  with mandarin, jasmine and witlof was a star.  A take on the traditional french duck a l'orange, the smear of mandarin puree and duck jus matched brilliantly with the duck, which was perfectly pink with sublimely crispy skin.  I really could have eaten a few more of this course easily.  It's hard to say if this was the dish I loved most tonight because they were all superb, but I certainly will remember this course for some time.

Finally it was time for desserts.  Unfortunately, I was so excited about the first dessert that I had eaten half of it before realised that I had not taken a photo.  As a consequence there is a photo that does not quite look right, so I will apologise for that!

The dessert photos do not do the desserts justice.  

First up was Honeycomb with Goats Cheese, Passionfruit and Sea Salt.  This was really interesting with goats cheese ice cream and ice cream passionfruit that was sliced thin as shaped like the inside of a passionfruit.  This dessert was quite savory and designed to be so, with the only sweetness coming from small chunks of honeycomb.  It worked though and was so delicate that it started to melt as soon as we started eating it

Second desert was Local Pink Lady Apple with lemongrass and ginger, which relied on the natural sweetness of the pink lady to cut through the lemongrass and ginger.  There was a real danger of the ginger overpowering the apple, which was not realised.  A very simple and beautifully balanced dessert, again not overly sweet but delicious.

The last dessert was pure indulgence.  With such a simple name on the menu, Macadamia, chocolate and coffee.  This was designed to be confusing to the eye and palate, with chocolate 'soil' and sponge together with what looked to be macadamia nuts, but were in fact icy balls of coffee ice cream which exploded in the mouth.  The macadamia flavour came from a interesting looking pile of creamy frozen milk.  I say that this was indulgent and was really a 'full stop' on a magnificent degustation meal.

Going to Urbane is not a typical dinner and you need to be prepared to have the senses challenged along with your palate.  The meal itself took just shy of four hours, which gave us plenty of time to get to know the wait staff pretty well.  We were really appreciative of the friendly nature and conversation that the wait staff provided on the night, they described the meal beautifully and you could tell that they really enjoyed being part of the Urbane family and loved working with Alejandro.

When I compare this to other degustations I have enjoyed around the country and overseas, it really does rate with the best.  In some respects, I don't think Brisbane restaurants get the recognition nationally that they deserve, this meal was certainly more enjoyable and packed in more flavour than my recent trip to Attica in Melbourne.  With restaurants like Urbane leading the way, along with Esquire, surely it won't be long before the Brisbane dining scene gets the recognition it deserves?!

@FoodMeUpScotty