Week 2 - Verge

This week was Pete's choice and so he decided we would try Verge. The restaurant is described as a mecca of modern European cuisine that sees traditional techniques entwined with definite Japanese influences. It is at 1 Flinders Lane in Melbourne, so we caught the tram up Collins, right to Spring St, and then walked the short distance . Once again we were early, so we walked around that area, and saw there were quite a few other restaurants that are also listed in our book. When it got close to 6pm, we went inside Verge and sat down at a table in the bar and after telling the waiter we were waiting to have dinner, he brought some water over for us. A few minutes later, Ainsley, from the restaurant came down and showed us upstairs to our table. We were the only people there at this time, and we realise that because we make the bookings for 6, which is convenient for us as it is straight after work, that it is very early for other people, and have found that as we are leaving after dinner, that that is the time most people actually come to eat.
After we sat and Ainsley gave us the menus and wine list, we decided to try the tasting menu. This meant we get 5 courses of different foods to sample. They also call this the degustation menu, which means sample. We had to pick our courses from the menu, we also both had to have the same thing so we thought we'd pick 2 each and then we'd agree on the dessert course. So, I picked Kingfish Tiradito,crisp school prawns,fennel and coriander caviar. My second choice was rolled rabbit loin, braised leg quinoa,pickled apple,chestnuts,crisp carrot. Pete chose Lamb rump, pressed shoulder,parsnip,onion, roasted rice consomme. His second choice was Roast Dory, vegetable escabeche ,liquid black olive,basil powder. For dessert we agreed on Pistacchio and white chocolate parfait, citrus noodle,rhubarb,sesame meringue. The waitress said we made excellent choices, and once again we decided to leave the wine selection to her and so we had 2 glasses each. One red (chianti) and one white (traminer)
Firstly rolls were brought to the table, one white and one wholemeal and also some butter (unsalted) with a small container with salt (why not just make it salted butter!)
Our first course came out quite quickly and if someone could have taken a photo of our faces they would have been priceless, as the plate were huge and then there was this tiny little plated up creation in the middle. I do mean tiny, but it was very delicious, but definately only a sample. In fact, we enjoyed every course, except for the lamb as it was only cooked medium rare, so it was a bit undercooked for us and there was a bit of fat which made that our least favorite course. I dont remember having rabbit before, but I really enjoyed that course and the two fish courses were really nice.
The time between the courses was quite long, which was surprising as we basically could finish them in one mouthful. I think it took the chef longer to make the plates look 'pretty' then it did for us to eat them. Now, we had arrived at 6pm, and just before 8 we had to ask Ainslie if we could have our dessert fairly quickly as we had to make our train. She did get it out to us fast, and this was delicious, although once again very tiny. We paid the bill and almost flew out the door.
We missed the 8.25 train and the next one wasn't till 9.55, meaning we wouldn't get home till nearly 11pm.
We had so much time to kill obviously, so we ended up walking all the way down to Southern Cross station which took around 30 minutes.

Total cost including wine was $206

Overall, we enjoyed tasting the different foods, although we were disappointed with the size of the meals, as we were definately not full when we left there. Not somewhere I would go back to again, but the waitress was extremely friendly and very helpful and the courses were all explained to us in detail as they were brought out. I have to say though, it took them longer to describe what the course consisted of then it took us to eat them.