Donovan's

17th June 2011

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! Number 21 has arrived and it featured the most beautiful chicken main course. For my brother's 24th bday he choose much to my delight to go to 2 Hat Donovan's for dinner. Therefore 5 of us trekked down to St. Kilda on a cold Melbourne night. Located right on the beach in St. Kilda it had a beach themed interior and felt like a persons holiday house rather than a restaurant. Warm and cozy with a fire located in the middle it was a delightful dining room.

We were offered a reasonably extensive wine and drinks list with some non standard beers including the Chimay beer from Belgium that i choose. We also choose a very nice bottle of wine and many drinks and laughs ensued.

For starter i decided to go for the warm salad of duck breast with vegetables and goat's curd. Thin slices of pink duck breast and whole mini vegetables adorned a plate accompanied the goat's curd. Quality flavours and even better presentation, it both looked and tasted like a dish of high quality.

Main course followed with a reasonable break but not so long that you wondered where your food was and given that the restaurant was completely full it was a good effort. I went for the old fashioned chicken and mushroom pie. Whilst this sounds fairly basic in concept nothing about it really was. Arriving with a plate of vegetables, the dish was held in a serving bowl covered in a crisp pastry lid, the pastry lid was removed placed on the plate with the filling carefully spooned into the lid. It smelled delicious and tasted amazing. A rich cream based sauce, perfectly cooked chicken and strong mushroom flavours and a pastry lid that remained crispy even after the filling was ladled in. Simple rustic food but food of the highest quality and skill. My favourite main course so far!!

I followed this with desert and had to have the Donovan's signature desert of Chocolate and Hazelnut bombe Alaska. Strong and rich chocolate and hazelnut ice cream covered in light and fluffy and slightly firm and cooked meringue. Accompanied by a rich dark chocolate sauce, it was a rich and filling but delectable desert. It was said that it was for 2 but after entree and main course, the three of us were only able to finish due to my love of chocolate and inability to leave any desert on a plate at the end of the meal.

Ambiance, theatre of the dining room and quality of food made this a memorable and 2 hat worthy restaurant that made a lasting impression and was talked about between the 5 of us over the course of the weekend. (Even if it was just our mum rehashing her terrible 'Pheasant' puns.)