Taxi

29th May 2011

Am really on a roll with this being the 6th Restaurant ticked off this month and 4 in the last 11 days. Having had plans to organise a Sunday lunch at Cutler & Co thwarted by lack of interest, i instead choose to head to Taxi for lunch. Despite the worst entrance of any restaurant, the Taxi dining room located above Transport in Federation square offered a cool light filled glass exterior with a cool arty interior and beautiful views of Melbourne river and CBD.

Upon arriving i was shown to my seat facing the river towards Southbank and offered an encyclopedic wine menu and offered the services of the sommelier to help explain and match wines to the food. Despite this offer, i decided i felt like drinking beer instead.

Having heard poor reviews of the service i was intrigued by this aspect as much as the food. The service started well with a waiter who offered a menu and gave me a chance to peruse before updating me on the specials of the day. Good explanation of the specials and an attention to detail meant that i didn't understand where the complaints about a lack of quality in the service came from.

For starter i choose the sticky Pork with roasted scallops and hot chili dressing which came out very promptly after it was ordered. The pork was excellent but the scallops were truly amazing with a crisp batter over the succulent soft scallop flesh. And for once when it said hot chili you got that and it added to the flavour. Combined with a cooling salad with mint and cucumber, it was an excellent start to lunch. 

Main course offered up a Crispy Szechwan duck served on a tile and arranged beautifully. The duck skin was very crispy and felt slightly caramelised but the meat inside was still tender but did not fall away from the bone as some other duck dishes have. However it was no less flavoursome and it was matched with a caramelised five spice sauce and a mint and carrot salad and segments of imperial mandarins. Normally i wouldn't like large segments of fruit on a dish but the flavours of the caramel sauce, mandarins and the duck were great so there was little complaint.

To finish things off i choose the Valrhona chocolate desert plate. I was deciding between this and the Hazelnut parfait with milk chocolate ganache & frangelico but after having explained that the chocolate plate consisted of a mini chocolate souffle, profiterole and chocolate tart i was sold on all three.

However there was a delay in the desert coming out as i was the first person of the day to order the desert plate and the souffle had to be made from scratch. As a compensation for the delay i was offered a passion fruit and coconut sorbet. Served on a oriental soup spoon it offered some refinement to presentation. Despite the coconut being overpowered by the passion fruit, the passion fruit flavour was strong and delicious but the sorbet was light and refreshing. Excellent dish and would have made a quality dessert on its own. But as a compensation it was a nice touch that meant i was again unsure about those poor service rumors. 

It was further put to the test by the host arriving with a complimentary glass of Pedro Ximenez that he said would work well with the chocolate tasting plate. And it did despite the fact that Pedro Ximenez is not my favourite. Quality service and a knowledge of the tastes of dishes and matching them is what you want in a hat restaurant.
The chocolate platter came out soon after i had finished the sorbet and was also served on tile plate with the three desserts arranged in a row on a banana leaf. Quality presentation and a sense of grandeur. The first thing was to check the quality of cooking by piercing the souffle with a fork. Maintaining its position in the little copper pot i decided to really test it and leave it to the end. I then moved on to the chocolate tart. The base was slightly dry but combined with the rich chocolate tart, dark chocolate ganache and a single piece of honeycomb it was a good if not spectacular start to the dish.

Then on to the Profiteroles with a hard dark chocolate top sprinkled with chopped pistachios and filled with a coffee and chocolate cream. The pastry was excellent and the filling delicious and the quality of the chocolate on top was first rate. Excellent!

I then tackled the Souffle. Light fluffy and a quality chocolate flavour it was the masterpiece of the desert plate with both quality presentation, flavour and technique mixed in to create a wonderful dish.

Despite it not being overly cheap ($110 for three course and 2 pints of beer), the quality of the food and the service i received made for an excellent lunch and well worthy of the Hat (if not worth more). I thoroughly enjoyed the whole presentation with excellent views of Melbourne, quality dining room, presentation and most importantly quality food with only a couple of blemishes.

(Note: There is a $45 lunch set menu that i choose to forgo as the choices i wanted were not on the menu.)