Esposito

30th September 2011

A dinner at Esposito on a Friday night provided an opportunity to catch up and have a man date with Dean and also to tick off number 41 from my list. After arriving early in from a cold, wet and windy Melbourne night, we were greeted and told that there were clearing our table and to take at an empty table near the door until it became available. The dining room was plain with white walls and cozy simple fit out with some contemporary art hanging from the walls and very fine tableware and cutlery.

After being offered a glass of wine, before moving to the next table and the waiters even bought across my books and wine. The service was good and pleasant and helpful but at some times slightly over the top and too eager to clear drinks during the meal.

Before starter we were offered a small appetiser of duck liver parfait with a red wine glaze. Good texture and smooth parfait with a nice red wine glaze that had good flavours on their own but weren't amazing together.

For starter i went with the calamari cannelloni with salmon roe and a squid ink sorbet. Soft cannelloni filled with a calamari filling with good flavour. The squid ink sorbet was interesting but didn't add a massive amount to the overall dish.

The main course was a well cooked piece of salmon with a crisp skin matched with a couple of perfectly cooked prawns, pumpkin puree, caramelised walnuts and carrot pieces with mandarin jus. Good quality produce, well cooked matched with some extra above the ordinary touches it was a very good dish and the caramelised walnuts were excellent and matched well with the salmon, The prawns were perfectly cooked but weren't really necessary with the rest of the dish.

To finish off the meal, we both chose the dark chocolate and hazelnut torte which was very rich and delicious and was complimented by a caramel and coffee ice cream served on a bed of crushed meringue. Great flavours and tastes and worked very well.

The overall meal and food was simple food cooked well with a few extra touches that lifted some of the dishes but added little to others. We both agreed that the food was good but didn't provide much innovation and the service whilst being very attentive became somewhat overbearing at times. However the fish was quality and it was well worth going out for, provided decent value and was worthy of it's hat but didn't reach the heights of other restaurants and will likely see it placed in the middle of the pack.