Rock Restaurant

TamaraC

The Rock 28th July 2007

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This is the second of the two great spots reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald by Simon Thomsen that I loved. The restaurants, not Simon Thomsen : )

Now this one is an out-of-towner, located in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley wine region of NSW (conveniently located only 2 hours from Sydney). It's a great region, and you're spoiled for choice for dining in the Valley, so I turned to Guru Simon for advice. The other option was a place I won't mention because you have to pronounce it the French way and then you sound as pretentious as it looks. That's why we didn't choose it. Everyone can pronounce ‘The Rock'.

This restaurant is part of the Poole's Rock winery, which produces the well-known white Cockfighter's Ghost. As one wine-tasting funny boy told me, you have to be careful how you pronounce it once you've had a few glasses, because you can easily swap the ‘ghost' elsewhere in the name of the wine and end up in trouble ; ) We played it safe and ordered NZ wines!

To start with though, me and DC had a leisurely pre-dinner drink in the funky bar area which featured cushions so cool I wished I'd brought a bigger bag…

Once we were seated at our table with the rest of our party, it was revealed that my very kind friends had pre-ordered a bottle of Moet et Chandon Rose Imperial in honour of my birthday, so the six of us toasted, sipped and enjoyed this wonderful luxury, while we perused the menu.

It was one of those menus that featured all the hot-button ingredients, so choosing was tricky. Everything was available in tasting, entrée or main sizes, so that guests can choose a tasting menu, a traditional three courser, or something in between. We all opted for three tastings and a dessert.

I started with scallop tortellini with king brown mushrooms, pancetta and Riesling cream. Delicate, but I couldn't pick up the pancetta flavour and thought the texture of the tortellini was a little dried-out under the Riesling cream.

Second came duck breast, stuffed with apple, raisin and hazelnut, on a generous bed of Tasmanian truffles, with licquorice sauce. The combination of duck, truffle and liquorice were what tempted me, and while the truffles were deliciously woody and flavoursome, I couldn't taste any liquorice, and the duck was on the tough side. My fellow diners who also had the duck in their selections reported that their's were succulent, however they seemed to have far more stuffing and far less truffle than mine featured.

My last tasting was of the grilled Wagyu rump, on artichoke puree with a fine leaf salad atop. I am in the philistine category when it comes to steak - I don't like mine to have any of the blood still running, so this was a little full-on for me. Also, a little sinewy.

This left dessert, for which I chose a prune and cognac soufflé, delightfully presented in a copper ramekin with pouring cream alongside. Who doesn't like a nice piece of serving ware?! Breathing in while having mouthful of this eggy soufflé in your mouth was a heady experience as the full force of the cognac came through! Elegant petit fours completed a delicious meal, marred for me only by the texture of my choices. We had chosen our wines well, with a Seresin 2006 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and another wonderful NZ Pinot Noir (whose name escapes me now) utterly drinkable, and an evening of great company with great friends!

And as a PS I have to say that the service was among the best I've had anywhere recently. Knowledgeable, with useful suggestions, touch of humour, no attitude, thoughtful and warm, everyone we came across was professional and attentive.

nicolavanlaar

Funky restaurant and cafe in the Hunter Valley! 8th July 2007

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Six of us dined last night at Rock restaurant, in the Pooles Rock Vineyard, in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley, for our friend Tamara's birthday.

After reading glowing reviews in Vogue Entertaining & Travel and SMH online, we thought, let's give staid Robert's at Pepper's a miss this time and try somewhere new. Boy were we glad we did! :)

The restaurant at night is called Rock and the cafe during the day is called Firestick. There is also a nice bar area to the side with comfy armchairs. Rock looks like a modern corrugated iron warehouse from the outside. Inside it is one big open-plan modern structure with the back wall all glass overlooking the vineyard. The bathrooms are interesting with square toilet "bowls" to match the square hand basin and running bathroom theme.

The beauty of Rock (apart from not doing two dinner sittings) is that each scrumptious menu offering can be taken as a Tasting, Entree or Main size. So you order what you feel like, when you feel like it and dependant on how hungry you are at the time and no-one rushes you out the door.

The charming and professional Maitre'd Adam, will advise and guide you through the choices. The wait staff use individual touch-screens. For example, we were served bread and complimentary blue eye cod choux pastry puffs to start. Then we asked to see the dessert list, so we could gauge our hunger.

We ordered 3 tasting plates each and two bowls each for the table, of the steamed broccolini with almonds and roasted garlic and rosemary potatoes, which were an extremely reasonable $7 each.

We had gorgeous New Zealand white and red wines and a cheeky Moet rose for initial birthday bubbles. Then we ordered a dessert each, which came in two size choices and finished off with a divine French sticky. We were also served coffee delice meringue and orange curd muffin petit fours at the end of the meal. I'm afraid I can't review the coffee here, as we were all abit tipsy for coffee by this stage, but they did serve Mariage Freres teas I noticed!

If you are sensible enough to make the drive here, the stand-out winners to order, in my opinion are;
* Duck breast stuffed with truffle (lots of it from W.A.!), apple, raisin and hazelnut on buttered zucchini and liquorice sauce.
* Venison with king mushroom noodles beetroot fondant and snow pea and zebra tomato salad.
* The grilled Wagyu rump (Aussie Blackmore's), roasted jerusalem artichoke puree and fine herb salad was tasty enough, but we all found the beef a little bit too chewy and disappointing, despite being cooked Medium-Rare.
* The quince tart tartin with a quenelle of Marco Polo M.F. tea-infused Sabayon was to die for! You need to allow 20-25 minutes for this dessert (and the prune and VERY cognac souffle) to be cooked.

Overall excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! Small oversights included; one 's' on the dessert menu, no Sydney Rock oysters available and no decoration to Tamara's dessert plate or singing or birthday fanfare...

www.rockrestaurant.com.au