For Mothers' Day this year, we celebrated with a Sunday lunch at Embrasse. You may remember that we visited Embrasse last year and loved their incredible eight-course degustation, so I was very much looking forward to bringing my parents! Mothers' Day this year happened to coincide with my dad's birthday, so it was a double celebration!
Embrasse offers a four-course lunch on Sundays, served family style, from the centre of the table. At $62 per person, it represents excellent value. I'm particularly impressed that they didn't increase the price for Mothers' Day - it seems that practically all other restaurants, florists and high teas do it!
Yarra Valley Shiraz - $19 for 500ml |
Butter |
Sourdough |
It happened to be a freezing day, with lots of rain and wind, so we were very happy to see that the first course was a big pot of warming pumpkin soup.
French pumpkin soup with creme fraiche |
Croutons |
Chicken lentil terrine with French breakfast radishes, lettuce, parsley |
I enjoyed the thick slices of toasted brioche that came with the terrine, and my dad especially loved the Piccalilli, comprising cauliflower, cucumber and onions that had been lightly pickled and still retained their crunch. (It actually reminded me a bit of achar, one of my favourite Malaysian dishes.)
Piccalilli and toasted brioche |
And now, the mains. What Sunday lunch would be complete without a roast? The roast in question was a slow-roast wagyu rump cap, served with peas, purple carrots, sweet potato, green beans and onions.
Slow-roast wagyu rump cap with peas and heirloom carrots |
I'd never had such dark purple carrots before, and I wasn't hugely enamoured of them - it felt like it was more about the novelty factor than the taste. I did think it was quite cool that we ended up with purple tongues though!
Sweet potatoes, beans, roasted onions |
Frangipane tart with apple jelly, rhubarb, quince puree |
Creme chantilly, rhubarb puree |
I love frangipane, I love pastry, so this was dessert heaven for me. The toppings looked a little alien-like and futuristic, hehe, but provided a wonderful bright and fruity contrast to the sweet cakey almond base. The only potentially negative aspect I could mention is that the slices were gigantic - we could only manage about half a slice each, and it felt like such a waste of a lovely dessert!
Overall though, we loved the Sunday lunch - it's such high-quality food at excellent value, in a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere. I'd highly recommend it for a lovely afternoon!
5 comments
Looks like there's jelly sitting on top of the fragipane. hehehehe
ReplyDeleteEverything looks delicious :D so hard to decide!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! At our mother's day lunch at Lark Hill Winery, we started with an amuse bouche of pumpkin soup, then my mum had terrine, my charcuterie plate had pickles... and that's where the similarities end. But that's enough to get me excited. Mother's Day twinsies!
ReplyDeleteOne day I will get here! Looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteOooh I so want to go to Embrasse for their Sunday lunch. It looks really good.
ReplyDelete