Esquire - part genius, part mad hatter

http://www.esquire.net.au/

What would you do if I told you about a man with a vision?  A vision to bring the absolute best of European style and cutting edge gastronomy to Brisbane?  If you are like me, you would pay attention and keep a close eye on what he did next.

Ryan Squires is part genius and part mad hatter, he has to be for the food that come from his mind and kitchen is hard to describe but very easy to fall in love with.  Ryan Squires is a Brisbane boy who has spent time in some of the best restaurants in history, with stints at El Bulli and Noma, both of which have spent time anchored at the top of the S.Pellegrino Worlds Top 50 Restaurants, along with time in Thomas Kellers top restaurants French Laundry and Per Se.  Locally, Ryan was the head Chef at Urbane and Buffalo Club, both of which were recipients of Two Hats while Ryan was in charge.  Achieving two hats at two different restaurants is no mean feat, but Ryan has achieved one step further by acquiring Three Hats, indeed the only restaurant in Queensland with the coveted triple hats.  Lastly, but not least, Esquire is the top ranked restaurant in Brisbane in the Gourmet Traveller top 100 restaurants, coming in at number 25 in the country.

Ryan is ably supported by his 'partner in crime' in the kitchen Ben Devlin, who also spent two years honing his skills at Noma in Denmark and also shares many of the same philosophies about the food at Esquire.

SC and I have followed the Ryan Squires journey for some time and it would be fair to say he is our favorite chef in Queensland.  We were saddened when Ryan left Buffalo Club but also excited when we discovered that he was creating his own space, more so when we learned that the space was just across the street from our apartment building!

Esquire is one of a handful of degustation only restaurants that are in Brisbane, which has been the trend of high end fine dining restaurants in the rest of the world for some time.  As usual, there were two options on the menu tonight, the short journey ($120) or the long journey ($160) and it only took us a few seconds to decide to take the long.  Strap yourself in, this will take a while.

To kick off the long journey we started with some amuse bouche, which the first waiter of the evening provided the translation from french 'amusement for the mouth', which was certainly appropriate for the four amuse bouches that were delivered to the table.  The first was was Kim Chi, Air Dried Beef & Kettle Chips.  Such simple description, such complex flavours.  The Kim Chi was a dehydrated leaf with some amazing texture and a slightly bitter taste to it.  The beef was also dehydrated and had a slightly salty taste with a lovely meaty flavour that came through quite strong.  There were two large kettle chips, one salt & vinegar and the other barbecue.  These were no ordinary chips, with a lovely crisp texture and beautifully subtle flavours.  You would love to have a bag of these available from the stores.   

Kim Chi - Air Dried Beef - Kettle Chips

Next was Truffle and Itchi Bai, which was presented on a rustic looking log roll.  The dish was anything but rustic, being a complicated and intensely flavoured dish.  Itchi  Bai is a cheese from the Pyrenees made from eye and goats milk, which was combined with lovely truffle, sandwiched in between some rye crisps.  This was stunning, simply put.  You could pick out each of the flavours in each bite and there was a beautifully creamy texture along with the crunchy rye.

Third amuse bouche was an interesting tasting dish with some flavour combinations that you don't see every day, Beef Tendon and Peanut.  Beef tendon is not normally a cut of meat that you would expect in a fine dining restaurant, but this is the way that Ryan Squires rolls.  You certainly would not expect the tendon to be encased in a peanut crunch and there is no way that this should work.  But it does!  The tendon was a surprisingly subtle flavour with a soft texture that married perfectly with the crunchy peanuts and when eating it reminded me of the crunch peanut butter out of a jar when I was a small child.

Beef Tendon & Peanut

Last of the starters before the degustation proper began was my favorite amuse bouche of the night.  The Blue Swimmer Crab and Coffee was a masterpiece in subtle and strong flavours working together in harmony.  There was a lovely macadamia nut milk underneath the crab and coffee, which gave an additional texture and flavour.  There is a danger with crab that the taste can get lost, especially when paired with something like coffee, but the coffee was intriguingly subdued in flavour and allowed the crab to shine.  There was a generous helping of crab with a number of large pieces that were soft and juicy and reminiscent of the sea, this could quite easily have passed for an entree sized dish.

Blue Swimmer Crab & Coffee

It was time for the degustation to start and the first course of 12 hour Old Ocean King Prawn was delivered.  There is no exaggeration here with the waiter explaining that these prawns were indeed still swimming in the ocean a short 12 hours prior.  There was one massive prawn on the plate which had been cooked over the restaurants charcoal grill to perfection, then covered in a lovely salty type substance (pretty sure it was not salt) to give it a bit of a bite.  We were dared to eat the whole prawn, head and all and after a half hearted attempt to do so decided that the juicy sweet prawn meat would be a better memory than the crunchy prawn head.  There was an oil underneath the prawn that added some depth of flavour to the prawn, but I could not quite put my finger on what it was.  What ever it was, it was delicious too.

12 hour old King Prawn

Next to reach our table was Scallop - Orecchiette and Bisque.  This is where the molecular gastronomy started, with the bisque being dehydrated and covering the scallops and orecchiette instead of being a liquid underneath.  Once the dehydrated bisque mixed in with the sous vide scallops and the moisture from the orecchiette, the profile of the dish completely changed, like magic, in front of our eyes.  To say this was a complex plate of food is an understatement, with the subtly flavoured scallops and pasta instantly acquiring a deep rich salty flavour from the now transformed bisque, amazing.

Scallops & Bisque

One of the things I like most about Esquire is the fact that quite often the chef's will bring out the food and explain the dish to you.  This is a trait from Noma in Denmark and I think its a fantastic way for the person who makes and believes in the food to share with the diners.  Ryan brought over the Murray Cod and Mustard and explained why this was his favorite dish.  Ryan explained that the Murray Cod was his favourite fish at the moment and the Murray Cod served in the restaurant is farmed out of Chinchilla in Queensland.  Its his fave at the moment because it reminded him of a book that he read when young that explained that the Murray Cod is one of the very few native Australian fishes, which unfortunately was nearly fished to extinction.  It's now thriving due to the sustainable nature of the farming methods used. The cod itself was cooked over the charcoal grill to perfection and had an amazing fresh taste to it, which contrasted really well to the crispy charcoal flavoured skin.  The green mustard did not look like your average mustard and had a sharp tart taste to it that balanced out the flakey sweetness of the Cod.  Not only did this dish taste wonderful, it was beautiful to look at too.

Ryans Favorite Murray Cod

Next to the table was Lamb Belly - Cavalo Nero and Eggplant, which to the naked eye looked much like pork belly, with a much darker colouring.  This was another dish that Ryan came over to explain.  The lamb was sou vide slowly and then glazed in its own juices and was soft and tender, with a lovely caramelised coating which was devine.  The cavolo nero sauce had an several large drops anchovy oil mixed through it, which was hard to see with the naked eye, but provided an amazing salty hit that exploded in my mouth each time I found one.  I would normally class eggplant as the most boring of vegetables, but once you found that hit of anchovy, it transformed the boring eggplant into a taste powerhouse.

Lamb Belly - Anchovy oil was amazing

Onto the 'cheese course', which is normally my least favourite of a degustation and served up was Tomme de Chevre - Almond and Apple.  There were two distinct textures in the cheese, a viscous liquid cheese and a 'snow fall' of grated cheese over the top.  Amongst all of this cheese was shredded almond and buried deep within the pile was stewed apple.  For me this was a case of the cheese being a tad too strong on its own but was quite delicious when the the stewed apple was included in each mouthful.  Unfortunately there was not enough apple and towards the end of this dish, I had had my fill of cheese.

Tomme de Chevre - Almond and Apple

On every Esquire menu that I have seen and tasted since its opening, there has always been a variant of the next dish, which would come as close as any to a signature dish here.  The Deckle of Beef - Parsley and Yoghurt is a masterpiece, both visually and gastronomically.  For those of you that are not familiar with this particular cut of beef, the deckle is an underused part of the rib, right at the cap of the muscle, which has a lovely marbling of fat through it.  It is a particularly strong flavour and you must be careful to not overcook it.  The deckle put in front of us tonight was perfectly cooked, with a rich caramelised outer and lovely and rare in the inner.  Accompanying the beef was parsley puree, which looked stunning on the plate, along with garlic and soothing yoghurt.  The beef was incredibly tender and when combined with the garlic, parsley puree and yoghurt was a treat for the senses.  A stunning dish and I wish there was more of it on the plate.

Deckle of Beef

We were now onto the start of the desserts and first up was Popcorn, but not like anything you have seen or tasted before.  It's actually a popcorn flavoured parfait with popcorn dust over the top, attached to a stick so you can pick it up to eat.  I have had this here a number of times, but this was the first time it was delivered this way and added a little bit more fun to the occasion.  It's a really interesting texture, like a cold ice-cream, but does not melt, and tastes amazingly like freshly popped popcorn.  There was a tarragon leaf with the popcorn that added a lovely contrasting peppery taste to the sweet parfait. 

Popcorn

Chocolate - Berries and Hazelnut came out next and once again looked beautiful on the plate.  This was described to us as being 66% pure cocoa, with dehydrated berries and a hazelnut sauce.  The high cocoa content delivered a rich and dark chocolate experience that was extremely intense, we are not used to such depth of flavour in our chocolate, which normally has a much lower cocoa content.  The berries added much needed texture and contrast to the rich cocoa flavour.  While this was a relatively small amount of chocolate, it more than made up for it with a powerful hit of cocoa.  Also coming out with the cocoa was a serve of Coconut and Cocoa Rocks, which simply put are what look to be dirt rocks on a plate, but are in fact a coconut and cocoa bomb that explodes into your mouth.  This is another mainstay on the Esquire menu and is a simple yet effective treat for the senses.  

Chocolate rocks - 66% chocolate berries hazelnut 

After the double hit of chocolate, I was looking for some relief and it was delivered in spades once the Campari - Orange, Curds & Whey was put in front of us.  Not only a visually beautiful dish, this one was a perfect foil for the cocoa, with a soothing curds & whey ice-cream mixed in with dehydrated orange and orange jelly.  The curds & whey ice-cream is a wonderful flavour and was enhanced by the zingy taste and texture of the dehydrated orange, which hydrated pretty quickly in the mouth.  There were 'moon rocks' surrounding the dessert that added another layer of taste and complexity to the dish.  This was yummy.

Curds & Whey

By the time the last of the dessert dishes was delivered we had been seated for close to four hours and as great as the meal had been, we were looking forward to finishing up.  The Mango - Tea and Cashew was typically Ryan Squires, with lots of depth of flavour, texture and a few surprises.  The cashew nuts were crunchy, the mango was soft and juicy and the tea flavour subtle but ever present.  Individually the elements here did not work well, but combined this ended up being a lovely dessert and a great way to finish off the evening.  SC thought this was a great way to round of the evening, being the mango fan that she is.

Mango & Cashew

It was time to collect the bill and reflect on the food journey that we had been on.  Its impossible not to compare the Esquire experience to our visits to other degustation only restaurants, both here and overseas, as well as previous visits to Esquire.  Was this the best Esquire meal I have had?.... No, but that is not a big deal as some of the best meals I have ever had have been here.  Was it better than my last visit to Urbane?.... Yes, but only just. 

Esquire is without doubt one of the best restaurants in the country and now has the accolades to prove it.  As a long time Esquire patron I have noticed that with the recognition that it so richly deserves, so has the price risen.  I remember the days when 14 courses at Esquire was only $115 dollars and I was waxing lyrical about the value.  Now days, the price more reflects it status as one of the best, in some ways its a shame because it makes it a little less accessible for others.  At least there is now Esq next door to cater for more sensibly minded individuals who don't want to spring around $400 for two for dinner.

The Business Cards at the end of the night are chocolate!

There is little doubt that we will be back to Esquire and I would think sooner rather than later, for some reason I just can't get the crazy mix of tastes and textures out of my mind.  Esquire is a work of genius and no price is to much for the experience

@FoodMeUpScotty