Tucked away slightly off the Eagle St Pier riverfront, highly rated Esquire’s modern yet minimalist design immediately gives off the vibe of an exciting dining experience to come.
The restaurant is actually split into two halves, the degustation-only Esquire and the casual dining Esq, which also offers lunch. I opted for the degustation dinner, wanting to sample the tastes of the north.
Headed by Ryan Squires and Ben Devlin, the highly creative menu offers a unique and sometimes downright unusual twists on some modern dishes – the pastrami-style wagyu and coconut cake served with beetroot are particularly notable in this regard.
After being greeted and seated, by who I later found out was the restaurant manager and previously the sommelier, the first round of snacks was brought out. These consisted of a crispy dehydrated cabbage leaf with a kimchi glazing, a paper thin slice of beef jerky, a juicy baby cucumber slice, a endive leaf (from the lettuce family) and sprigs of salsify (a root vegetable) coated in a BBQ flavoured powder. Barely even one course in and I’ve already had two things I’ve never heard of before, this will be an exciting dinner. The kimchi leaf and jerky are taken from one of the signature dishes available at Esq and offer a unique flavour combination, with the kimchi leaf almost resembling salt and vinegar crisps and the jerky displaying the quality marbling of the meat.
Next served was a mini bread degustation as it was put. This was a round slice of warm pumpernickel, quaintly wrapped in paper, served with prune jam, goats curd and a stick of puffed malt bread, finished with sweetened carrot juice. I’ve never had pumpernickel bread before but its slightly sweet but heavy texture is an interesting profile. The flavours from the juice complimented the bread nicely.
The first of the courses was a slice of calotte wagyu steak in yuzu and horseradish sauce. Calotte, also spelt culotte, is a cut of meat from the top sirloin cap. Combined with the sauce, the steak literally just melted in your mouth with a nice citrus tang.
Up next was a piece of white asparagus, another thing I’ve never heard of, dipped in peanut butter, vanilla and sweet corn. The peanuts butter and sweet corn is an interesting combination but it worked. White asparagus was also an interesting choice and seemed to taste like normal asparagus but lighter and slightly sweeter.
The next dish was easily a winner in the presentation department, a colourful mix of peas, chicken fat, smoked garlic flowers, esquire ham in a tokay wine broth. The wine broth added a light and subtle body to the rest of the flavours, combining in what could nearly be described as an interpretation of a reduced creamy pea and ham soup.
Following this wonderful creation was the next in a series of unusual sounding but stunning dishes. Wagyu beef, pastrami-style, topped with cherry tomato ketchup and pickles. Pastrami of a quality meat adds rich flavours but still leaves some of the succulent melting texture. Complimented by the tomato and pickles, this is a quality dish.
The end of the meat dishes was marked by an palate cleansing snack of dried flat Meyer lemon folded over a dollop of Bush honey, presented on some of a large stone.
The next dish was rich and mature flavour combination of cheddar cheese, whey, kale and kalamansi lime juice. Although I was not following the matching wines for the rest of dinner, I opted for the match for this particular dish – the Campbells Rutherglen Topaque. I’m a huge fan of muscats and fortifieds as dessert and after meal wines but have never tried them with cheese. What a stunning match this was, almost nearly worth suggesting the reader to go out and get a block of cheddar and a bottle of muscat right now and trying it.
After a brief snack of crispy dried radicchio topped with sour cream and porcini shavings, it was onto a series of not one but three desserts.
First up was a dish of lemon myrtle, horseradish and white chocolate, displayed like as if snow had fallen on the plate. Horseradish is an ingredient that is growing on me and seems to be a trend of sorts, quite a few restaurants and cafes I’ve visited recently have made use of it, adding a gentle subtle bite to dishes.
The next dessert was another creative one, slightly dried blueberries on a scoop of goats curd ice cream with a sprinkling of mountain pepper leaves. It’s hard to fully describe the flavours of goats curd ice cream apart from saying its creamy yet slightly sour or tart frozen goodness is begging to be tried. The pepper leaves added an extra light spice to the combination.
Completing this intense eleven course dining extravaganza was probably the most peculiar dish yet. A coconut sponge cake, served in the shell of a coconut, with beetroot and hay cream. Yes, you read correctly. Beetroot. And it strangely worked.
Esquire definitely lives up to its ratings and is well on par with top Melbourne restaurants.