Address: 55-57 Gertrude St
Fitzroy 3065 VIC
(03) 9419 4888
Food: ModOz
Average price: Entree: $19-$26, Mains: $34-$48, Dessert: $17-$22, Degustation menu: 8 courses, $130, Matching degustation wine flight $100
Complimentary: Bread with butter.
Chocolate fudge with black sea salt.
I loved these, the smoky salt was a great contrast against the sticky, sweet chocolate.
We ordered:
Entrée: heirloom tomatoes, house-made ricotta, brik pastry, white balsamic - $20
Simple, but when the produce is good it speaks for itself. The medley of tomatoes went gorgeously with the ricotta, basil and balsamic. A lovely, light dish.
Cured kingfish, wasabi - $25
All three who ordered this loved it. They also mentioned that the wasabi was mild.
Main: Roast suckling pig boudin noir plum and kohlrabi - $46
Mr.M throughly enjoyed this dish but felt that there wasn't enough sauce to accompany the meat.
Potato gnocchi roasted with taleggio and cauliflower salad -$35
I found the salad too vinegary for me so I chose to leave it. The gnocchi was wonderfully cooked but I felt the dish needed something to cut through the richness of it in order to balance it out.
Roast lamb saddle, eggplant, purslane and spiced carrots -$43
C liked this, but found the meat outweighed the sides and she found the last couple of bites were only of the lamb. She also preferred the pork to this dish.
Dessert: Violet ice cream, chocolate ganache, sour cherry and clove meringue -$18
Mr.M was extremely happy with his choice. The violet ice cream was gorgeously perfumed and went well with the rich ganache, sour cherries and clove meringues.
Chocolate ice cream sandwich, vanilla parfait and salted caramel -$18
This was a delicious, albeit quite sweet, dessert. I have to start by mentioning that C proclaimed this her "favourite dessert EVER". The parfait was beautifully flavoured and wonderfully soft. The chocolate biscuit gave the dish a touch of texture, but it was the salted caramel that was my favourite, and in all honesty I wish there had been MORE, because it also helped to temper the sweetness a little, but it ran out too soon.
Cost: 338 for four entrees, four mains & four desserts.
Service: Good. Food came out at a decent rate and our water was topped up without having to ask.
Atmosphere: Chic with an industrial edge. Whilst some of us liked the muted neutrals decor, including the unusual lights, others did not. I must admit that the mismatched glassware and crockery was a bit strange. The seats, including the booths, are well spaced apart so the noise level doesn't become an issue. We were told to leave by 8:30 despite the restaurant being half empty by 8:45...
Parking: Decent amount of street parking, but can get hard to find a park during busiest times.
Website: www.cutlerandco.com.au/
Hours: Tue-Sun 6pm-11pm
Fri noon-3pm
Would I return: Yes - Mr.M loved all his dishes and said it was his best night out to date this year.
Wow... I keep hearing about that chocolate sandwich! Makes me wonder why they didn't include this in their degustation which I had... *sigh*!
ReplyDeletemmmmmm, i should come here for a proper dinner at some point, instead of just coming back for more dessert haha
ReplyDeleteI like your comment about the gnocchi:
ReplyDelete"I found the salad too vinegary for me so I chose to leave it. The gnocchi was wonderfully cooked but I felt the dish needed something to cut through the richness of it in order to balance it out."
That is exactly the problem with amateur reviewers, they don't understand food and they think their prejudices are normal. Next time ask the staff, or think about it and try adding the "too vinegary" salad to the gnocchi that "needed something to cut through the richness."
Also, restaurants only want you to leave if they have other customers to replace you. If they let you stay until the restaurant was full and the next customers were waiting in the bar those customers would have to wait. This would only mean worse service for them. A restaurant organized enough to have you out in time to prepare your table for the next sitting should be lauded. I've tried to book at Cutler a number of times and they are always busy, if you don't see it it means they are doing some really right.
"That is exactly the problem with amateur reviewers, they don't understand food and they think their prejudices are normal."
ReplyDeleteSo tell me, dear friend, what educational institution or training camp must I attend to help my tastebuds reach 'professional' status? What can I do to become better at 'tasting' food and achieve a palate akin to your own?
I tried the salad with the gnocchi and it was still unpleasant to the tongue I have in my mouth. Not all of us born into this world share exactly the same tastes. Whislt I am sure there are many out there who find food such as Century Egg or fermented carrot juice a delicious delight, you yourself may find your particular tastebuds do not revel in those flavours as much as theirs, yet somehow I doubt that you would be as harsh in your disdain of their opinion of taste as much as you were about my opinion regarding the cauliflower salad.
In regards to the allocated dining time, it is something I have seen mentioned by many different diners on many different sites. I would understand the time restriction if in fact there were other diners to take our places but as I said before, when we left, 70% of the tables were completely empty and there were no diners queuing up at the door, which others have also noted. The fact that we were reminded twice to leave by 8:30 during our meal despite there being so many empty seats was what annoyed me. Once again to clarify, this was just MY personal feeling about the matter.
"So tell me, dear friend, what educational institution or training camp must I attend to help my tastebuds reach 'professional' status? What can I do to become better at 'tasting' food and achieve a palate akin to your own?"
ReplyDeleteThe introduction to "The Man Who Ate Everything" is instructive, and the book is great. The idea is to judge something by the intention and objective of the restaurant. Perhaps this criticism was out of place for a blog if it is only intended to express your opinion.
If you were reminded while you were eating I can understand your annoyance. Good waiters should be guiding you to options that you can get through in the time allocated. Although this may mean telling you that you do not have time for dessert, or that you will need to order and eat quickly if you really want to have it.
I used to work in restaurants and I would have suggested a move to the bar to have dessert at a leisurely pace, if you didn't want to be rushed and time was running out.
Regarding the empty seats there may be more to the story. It would seem unusual that a restaurant that literally had 70% of its seats empty would ask anyone to leave. It is well-known in restaurants that most early bookings want to stay past their allocated time. And if there were no other bookings most restaurants would prefer to keep you there.
If you stay you make a restaurant look busier, which most places want, and they may be able to sell you more things. So I would assume that if there were so many empty seats that this means that there were many more bookings soon to arrive.
From your review it appears that there were four of you. Most restaurants have allocated "four-tops." If they had only bookings for tables of four still to come they may have wanted to move you along because they only have a limited amount of four-tops. So there may have been "two-tops" empty but unsuitable for the bookings that they were expecting.
You say that "I would understand the time restriction if in fact there were other diners to take our places but as I said before, when we left, 70% of the tables were completely empty and there were no diners queuing up at the door, which others have also noted."
The problem with that argument is that you are either asking others to come early so that they can, by their presence, justify your needing to leave, or that they wait past their booked time, for the same reason. I can't tell from your review whether those empty tables would have been filled.
But there seems to be two possible solutions: to wait at the bar and check if your table was filled; or, to make bookings that are unrestricted or later, and after someone else. If you want a booking without an "out-by time" you may have to book a long way ahead in a popular restaurant, so this could be difficult. If you book a later table you may turn up on time and find that an earlier booking isn't leaving at the time they were supposed to, and that might change your opinion of leaving when there are empty tables.
Thank you for allowing my earlier post, and for responding to it with a more civil tone that it had.
Thanks for the well-worded reply.
ReplyDeleteI can appreciate your suggestion regarding keeping in mind what the restaurant is attempting to convey with their food, but as you said I am by no means a professional reviewer and if anything, this blog is merely a personal reminder of experiences I have had and food that I have enjoyed. I began it to remind myself of places I would want to revisit or dishes I would want to go back to. It is merely a means of jogging my memory, or for friends and family to know my opinion about a place without having to ask me.
As for the tables, what you said makes sense. It was more the reminders to leave that frustrated me. We ended up chatting outside the restaurant for another half hour with the couple we dined with, which is why we noticed that no one else came in during 8:30-9pm. Perhaps they just enforce the scheduled dining times regardless of whether they are heavily booked for that particular evening.