Octie Appetie: Tetsuya's

Tetsuya's is not just another fine dining in the expensive fancy restaurant but more like enjoying the top-quality and sophisticated work of culinary masterpiece. All of their dishes were highly presented to perfection and visually appealing. In my opinion, they keep their dishes simple yet delicate and subtle in away with clean taste and super duper fresh produces. The thing I love from them beside the deadly yummy food was their outstanding service. Friendly and accommodating.. that's for sure and surprisingly they seems like always know the right timing and be there whenever you need them without make you feel that you have been watching. Truly world-class dining restaurant!!!

The first show of the night was already made the special place in my heart. Seriously guys, who would've thought that just a simple butter could turn out to be our hot topic until the entire meal!!!! This butter was really special and delightful as it got the expensive truffle mixed in it. At first, we thought that wouldn't it abit too much for the full pot of just a BUTTER!!!! It took my love of butter only from the first moment it landed on my tongue. That's instant!!!! Yeah... Maybe you guys would think that I'm a little bit crazy with just a regular butter but trust me you will know what I'm talking about when you dig into it. The butter texture was so light and the truffles added the flavour to the ordinary butter. We finished it all with just each bread of us. When we asked for another bread and the waiter saw that our pot of butter was totally cleaned up, he was smiling and offered us with another full pot of truffle butter. Bit embarrassed, really!!!!

Complimentary Sourdough Bread

They have 2 different kinds of warm complimentary breads, normal sourdough and Italian whitebread. For me, Italian Whitebread is abit too crusty and hard on the outside, so I still prefer my sourdough much better.

Potato soup in a fine dining restaurant, how could that be!!!! That's the first impression of mine when I heard the first menu would be. You know what!! I withdrew my words back, this is simply a magical soup. Honestly, I can have the whole big bowl of this. Potato Soup with Coddled Quail Egg & Avruga is a simple dish yet elegant with a quail egg hidden underneath and topped with avruga caviar that enhance the taste of this light creamy soup.

Pacific Oysters with Rice Vinegar & Ginger . This is an optional dish. But who wanna miss a thing from Tetsuya's. When the waiter offered us with this dish, we straight away nodding our head and went like: Yup.. We take them!!! It cost $9 for the two of them which undeniably became my favourite dish of the night. The tangy ginger-y dressing was just a perfect complimented for the extremely fresh and juicy oysters.

Next dish is Savoury Custard with Sea Urchin. The Egg custard was sensational and silky smooth with a tiny bit of sea urchin on top and a tiny dotted of wasabi. Luckily, it was abit of sea urchin as I don't like the taste and smell of it but only myself personally though, on the other hand my hubby loves them so I passed it on to him. Both are a happy chappy now!!!!

How could those custard can be so smooooth and no airy bubbles at all, riddle me that??? I tried so many ways to cook a perfect egg custard but still far far from that perfection.

Sashimi of Kingfish with Blackbean & Orange. This dish is a well marriage between the ultra fresh raw Kingfish that has been infused with soy, mirin and a hint of blackbean and orange sauce plus the chopped spring onions, chilli and coriander on top brought them to the next level. All ingredients work very well in harmony to create this special dish.

Now, here comes the renowned dish of Tetsuya's. Confit Petuna Ocean Trout with Shaved Fennel & Unpasteurised Ocean Trout Caviar is the dish where clearly shown their idea about elegant simplicity into the plate and skillfully presented. The flesh is remarkably fresh and the spices on top was freaking tasty even it was a little too salty for my preference but doesn't matter really!!!!!! And the crunchiness from fennel just nicely balanced the texture of the dish. Really perfect combination for both taste and texture. Actually, the spices reminding me of the seasoning from the popular Indonesian instant noodle called Mi Goreng, if anyone ever tried it before!! Don't get me wrong, it was a good thing though.. I always tip tiny bit of those Mi Goreng seasoning when I'm making one. Tetsuya's signature dish ... What a truly magnificent dish...

It probably would be the least favourable dish for the night. The beancurd itself was smooth and quite tasty but I couldn't deliberately taste any foie grass in there. Steamed Queensland Spanner Crab with Bean Curd, Foie Gras & Junsai was not that bad but nothing spectacular as well. It's just an 'ok' dish, but still we did finish it all.

After eating all the light and fresh seafood dishes now it's time for the meat and poultry dishes. Starting with Braised Veal Shank with Broad Beans & Smoked Bone Marrow. OMG!!! This veal was merely melts in my mouth and you don't need any knife to cut them, only using your forks and they just fell apart.. It's that tender!!! I still found it is hard to believe what I just had was a veal.

Another brilliant dish for tonight, Breast of Quail with Paleta Iberico& Garlic Puree is the dish where the flavours from each elements really balance and not overpowering each others. The crispness from the brown rice puffs complimented the succulent and juicy quail breast and those Iberico just gave a saltiness touch on the dish. Nicely done.

Cape Grim Beef Fillet with Wasabi & Braised Mustard Seeds was a superb closing for the savoury dish this evening. The meat itself is perfectly cooked, unbelievably tender and soft, and the wasabi and mustard puree on the side have been an excellent compliments to the dish but I found that those mustard seeds were unnecessary to be there as it always got stuck in between my teeth.

Let's get ready for the desserts. Bit sad though cos it means is getting close to the end of my dream-come-true dining that I've been waiting for more than half year. All the savoury dishes were really awesome, some had been wowed me. Do you think the dessert would leave the unforgettable memory for me?? We better find out!!!!

My friends told me earlier that the dinner would take at least 4 hours, hence we had booked the restaurant at 8pm, so I was kinda worried that I will fall asleep in the middle of dining.. By the time the dessert started to come out, it was nearly midnight, but we were still exciting like a toddler just got a new toy. At the end, we actually wanna stay abit longer, however hesitation came from nowhere has struck me as everyone start leaving the restaurant.

Hay Infused Ice Cream with Sorrel Granita. Our first dessert was so refreshing and cool, the bitterness from hay flavoured Ice cream balanced off the sweetness from the granita. Strange taste, is like eating a grass flavoured ice cream but they still were heavenly paired together.

Bread & Butter Pudding here, wasn't just the mediocre bread pudding.. They got that milk-y and sweet custard like normal bread pudding but that brulee was sooo delightful and the sounds of that crackling surface.... Oh boy!!!! Sorry that I forgot to take a photo of the inside look. Loves that wonderful flavour and texture of the pudding.

Chocolate Pavé with Cream Cheese Ice Cream & Cinnamon Twigs. I'm soooo jealous of my hubby, he got this dish but I got the birthday chocolate fondant instead. Had a chance to pinched only a spoonful of it and when I look again after taking a few shots of my cake, they're just vanished. It was that gooood, I can see from the way he rushed into it. The pave was smooth and so heavenly intense and rich, for the ice cream is lack of cream cheese flavour as I didn't even notice until I read the menu that it was a cream cheese flavour.

Chocolate Fondant with Hazelnut & Praline was my last dish for the night. Bit disappointed in away, I mean... appreciate of their effort to celebrate my birthday and of course I always loves chocolate fondant. But dining in Tetsuya's, I didn't expect to get this pretty ordinary cake that I actually could get in somewhere else. Tough, I was impressed with those gooey chocolate just oozed out from the middle. Anyway, still enjoyable and very dib but that soft and luscious chocolate pave still lingering on my head....

Tea time with some petit fours of Chestnut and Expresso macaroons.. They look very alike even the waiters got confused distingush them at first.

Expresso and Chestnut Macaroons Petite Four

One of my ultimate fine dining experience at all time. The food were really enjoyable and delicious even some of the dishes may not have the 'wow' factor but none of them actually let me down. The chef is clearly shown what he wants to tell through their dishes, I can taste the flavour of each single element but nothing overpowering each other. Eleven-course dishes for $210, compared to what you'll experience and remember is absolutely worthed to try at least once in a life time. Definitely, I would love to return again but it will hurt my wallet so badly. Hmmm... but never say never, someday when we are wealthy enuf. Hahahaha....

For those who wanna drive to the restaurant, they provide a personalised valet parking at the cost of $20.

Oopss.. Forget to mention that we had a great chance to meet with the master "Tetsuya Wakuda" himself while he was visiting the other dinners right next to our table. What a fluke!!!! He just looks exactly the same from what I've seen in TV, calm and humble. What a wonderful night and most memorable dining for me. Pheww... Ticked off my bucked list!!! Next.....

Octie Appetie guys.....