Amaru - Armadale

So we went to Amaru recently after seeing the Clinton McIver's appearance on Masterchef. His food philosophy sounded really interested and we were keen to see how good it was after reading rave reviews.

Chef's Table!

We sat opposite the bar

We made a booking for 3 at the chef's table where we got to overlook the kitchen and get served by the chefs. We got the sensory menu ($155) and as a requirement of having a seat at the chef's table, we indulged in having an addition of black truffle to 2 dishes for an additional ($35).

Onion / Garfish / Sheep’s Milk Yoghurt

Close-up!

To start, we got a few snacks. We started the meal with pickled onion, cured garfish and smoked sheep's milk yoghurt on a chip. It tasted like french onion dip with a slightly fishy aftertaste. I liked it!

Crispy Fermented Carrot / Lightly Smoked Duck Ham

Close-up!

Next, lightly smoked duck ham on crispy fermented carrot. It was lovely and a great crunch. Q particularly loved this dish. 

Chicken Liver / Dried Pine Mushroom

So cute!

These dainty pine mushroom tarts were filled with chicken liver parfait, pear and walnuts. Another flavoursome bite that were sweeter than expected (in a good way).

Pork / Cabbage / Black Garlic /Natural Yeast

Pork on a stick

To finish off our snacks, we had pork jowl dumplings coated in a sourdough batter. They looked unassuming but were just simply yummy.

Mud Crab / Rock Oyster / Desert Lime / Cucumber / Iced Crab

Close-up!

Our first 'course' of the meal was shredded mud crab, mud crab ice cream, apple granita, some sort of berry and something crispy. This was such a interesting dish, like c'mon crab ice cream! When eaten altogether, it worked fantastically.

Bread and pumpkin butter

Cute cutlery for bread

YASSS bread and butter time, which is always my fav part of the meal. Instead of the usual silky smooth butter, we had pumpkin butter. It was slightly grainy and reminded us of peanut butter which ain't my thang. It wasn't as satisfying, but didn't stop us from getting 2 servers tho.

Pickled Mussels / Mineral-Baked Celeriac / Mussel Juice / Nasturtium Oil

Close-up!

Next, we had Portarlington mussels on macadamia puree, topped with mineral-based celeriac surrounded by mussel juice broth and nasturtium oil. The broth by itself was slightly bitter but when paired with the pickled mushrooms, HNGGGGGG. The sweetness of the mussels was so pleasantly surprising. Once again, a spoonful of all the components was delightful.

Smoked Prawn / Caramelised Yoghurt / Yeast Oil

Close-up!

SPOILER ALERT: This was my favourite dish of the night! The prawn tail was slightly seared and sprinkled with dried native plum. Hiding underneath was sheep's curd and fingerlime pearls and a crunchy prawn head sat atop of it. This dish left all my tastebuds singing!!!

Otway Shiitake / Green Onion Oil / Chawanmushi (without broth)

 

Otway Shiitake / Green Onion Oil / Chawanmushi (with broth)

Another shot!

The next dish was Otway shiitake in a shiitake broth and powder. It was accompanied with chawanmushi (Japanese egg custard), green onion oil and shaved truffle. This celebrated the simple flavours of shiitake mushroom and the truffle added to the earthiness of the dish.

Dry Aged Kangaroo / Raw Liquorice / Pickled Quince / Begonia Leaves

Close-up!

Our last savoury dish was BBQ kangaroo, raw liquorice, radicchio, caramel and onion sauce with shaved truffle. The kangaroo was really yummy and paired well with the radicchio. The sauce was a tad too sweet. I'm not the biggest fan of sweet and savoury as I like it to be quite discrete, but this wasn't a bad dish by any means.

Dirty Potato

The first dessert we had was the Dirty Potato. It was potato ice cream in the fried potato skin, coated in a wattleseed crumb, sitting atop a chocolate meringue soil. This was interesting to say the least. Not too sweet and a dessert I didn't expect.

Apple Leaves / Jerusalem Artichoke / Beer Caramel

Close-up!

The next dessert was tinyyyyyyyyy. The ginger ice cream was surrounded by apple leaves, Jerusalem artichoke shards, dried apples and beer caramel. I don't like ginger but this was manageable. The dried apples were delish. Vivian is more adverse to ginger than me and and upon hearing a passing comment from her, our maitre d' asked if she would like the kitchen to make her a non-ginger version. It was so nice of them!

Meredith Cheesecake

The last dessert was the Meredith Cheesecake. It was beautifully sculptured from goat's cheese and had a mandarin sorbet, honeycrumb and some gels. Quynh gave this a great go and finished most of it, despite her infamous dislike of cheese. A spoonful of all the components was v nice.

Strawberry Gum Delight

Close-up shot!

Digestive Biscuit and Grass Fed Beef Caramel

Close-up!

To finish we had a digestive biscuit, turkish delight and wagyu caramel. They were nice snacks to end the meal. That wagyu caramel thoooo, it was just so richhhh, could not deal.

Lovely decor

AMARUAMARU

Was it worth sitting at Chef's Table? Yes and no. While it was cool that we were served by the chefs personally, some were soft spoken and we had to strain to hear them.  However, the maitre d' Heewon was a pleasure to speak to. We chatted towards the end of the night about our fine dining ventures, travel and late night Korean eateries and he enthralled us about his early Vue de Monde days. The service at this place was top notch. The ambience was great as well, where the light was blessedly bright enough for me to take my photos. The high stools were surprisingly comfy. The price was not cheap at $190 per head but it was worth it. The truffle could have been left off the place as it didn't add thatttttt much. The presentation was lovely and I definitely enjoyed the savoury courses over the dessert ones. We really enjoyed this place. It had interesting concepts but most importantly punchy flavours. We were definitely full by the end of it and really satisfied. 






Taste: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Value for Money: 8/10
Presentation: 9/10