Asian fusion is always an interesting cuisine with chefs combining the best of the behemoth that is Asian cooking. Acclaimed and well awarded chef Andrew McConnell offers his take on Asian fusion in the form of Supernormal. After a brief experiment as a pop up canteen in Fitzroy, Supernormal had found a permanent home on the ever growing Flinders Lane.
Greeted by a glowing neon sign on it’s all glass front window, Supernormal opens up into a large open dining space. There is a mix of booth seating and individual tables. The open kitchen has bar-style seating and runs along one wall.
Visiting on a Saturday night without a reservation, there were doubts on getting a table straight away but, like many places, there’s always a seat or two on the bar. I find this to be a more intimate dining experience as the bar will usually overlook the kitchen, giving insight into the hard work that goes into preparing dishes.
The food menu is organised into a number of categories – appetisers, raw dishes, dumplings and bao, share plates, large whole meat plates and desserts. There’s is also a banquet option available which includes a selection of dishes from all the categories and provides a easy way out for who can’t decide from the plethora of options.
I ordered the banquet in this particular visit. Oddly, the menu didn’t list what it was comprised of, but the surprise factor added to the experience (side note, it is listed on their website).
The first dish was cucumber and wakame pickle topped with sesame seeds, a creative melding of two of the appetisers from the à la carte menu. A nice starting dish with a subtle tang.
This was followed by sea bream with white soy and ginger. A similar flavour profile to the appetiser but with a bit more strength and the added texture brought by the tender sea bream.
Next was the white cut chicken with cold noodles, sesame, peanuts and chilli oil. This was a cold dish and one of my favourites from the evening. The moist chicken and cold noodles contrasted by spicy chilli oil, it was an exciting flavour combination.
The next dish was one of the Supernormal specialities, the New England lobster roll. Juicy lobster meat on a nicely toasted brioche bun, full of flavour.
Moving back to the theme of spicy dishes, the next one was prawn and chicken dumplings with chilli and vinegar sauce. The dumplings had a nice touch of being slightly juicy but the chilli nearly overpowered the flavours of the prawn and chicken.
The final savoury dish was the slow cooked Szechuan lamb with a spring onion pancake, coriander paste and a side of steamed rice and iceberg lettuce with ginger vinaigrette and mint. It’s hard to beat slow cooked lamb with soft, tender fall-right-apart texture that melts in your mouth. With an added dominant but not-too-overpowering spice kick. The crispy spring onion pancake, rice and salad provided a nice complimentary relief.
Dessert was another speciality, peanut butter parfait. Topped with salted caramel and crushed peanuts and soft chocolate, it had the perfect balance of creamy but textured parfait combined with the ever so slightly rich, soft, dark chocolate. An outstanding dish worthy of just a visit for it alone.
This wonderful dining experience was completed by a glass of a stunning 1989 D’Oliveiras Madeira from Portugal. The $37 glass aside, it’s a must try for any fortified lover.
Supernormal lives up to its expectation and proved its well deserving Best New Restaurant award from the 2014/2015 Good Food Guide.