Restaurant Amuse

With Mothers Day coming up again I was at a loss as to what to get my mother. She has all sorts of things already, and with Mothers Day, Xmas and her Birthday I am starting to lack on my creative gift ideas front.
So I thought, why not take her out to a lovely restaurant for dinner, just me and her.

For this I selected Restaurant Amuse. It is a known quantity. I know the food will be good, I know the drinks will be wide and varied and I know all the staff are attentive and informed.
I did not take any notes, so my memory of what some of the dishes actually contain are a bit hazy. It was only last night, but I got tucked into Apricot Bellinis and an assortment of beers followed up with PX*.

"Snacks" - Onion Rings, Avocado Puree, Lime marinated Ceviche, Labneh, Lavosh, Profiterole stuffed with pumpkin and pine nuts, and proscuitto wrapped housemade ?bread sticks

First Course - Crab, Finger lime and Sea Lettuce. Lovely, light, well balanced.

Second Course - Beetroot, Feta, Meringue and Cress on a Coffee and cocoa soil. Topped with a red wine vinegar granita.

Third Course - Ruby Snapper, Rottnest Scallop and Samphire - on pureed peas, apple and cauliflower with wakame powder. I loathe Samphire and I think the Wakame was overkill for this dish. It did taste of the sea, unfortunately it was the sea if you go swimming and get a mouthful.

Fourth Course - Pork Belly, Seasoned Squid and cucumber salad on an emulsion (can't remember what sort). Was lovely. Melt in your mouth pork belly, light and airy and very crunchy crackling, lovely spicy squid. Cucumber salad was refreshing and vaguely Japanese.

Fifth Course - Mushroom, Hollandaise and Egg Yolk. I really enjoyed this dish. There is something so yummy about runny eggs :) The mushrooms were a bit sweet for me, but went well with the whole dish. Croutons were a bit greasy, but perfect with the egg.

Sixth Course - Was supposed to be Lamb. I don't do Lamb. I said I would have the vegetarian Tagine in its place, but Carolynne (Chefs wife and co-owner) said they would do a chicken for me. Am glad I listened. It was delicious. Basically same as the lamb dish in components, but with moist tender chicken. It was a little puck of Chicken rolled in Onion Ash and served with some creamy ?cheese and eggplant sauce with broccolini tips and garlic chive.

Palate Cleanser - Hibiscus (Roselle) ?gelato in lemonade and bitters.

First Dessert - Fairy Floss covered guava gelato on a passionfruit something and then a mandarin reduction was poured over it melting the fairy floss. I had mine poured on the side so I would still have my fairy floss. Nom.

Second Dessert - Pistacchio Ice Cream (nitrogened so was creamy smooth and broken up ... kind of looks like popcorn in this picture, but looked more like Feta in the flesh), Some sort of Raspberry creamy dessert (pink puff in picture), a freese dried raspberry and a wedge of cocoa powdered chocolate creamy something or other that wqas extremely rich. Yes, I was tipsy by this point.

Petit Four - Lychee jelly (salted), Chocolate Truffle (I can honestlky say that I make better Chocolate Truffles), and little marshmallows (nom). Our table also seemed to be the only one that was sent out a bowl of fairy floss. Maybe because I told the hottie Euro Chef that served the Fairy Floss dessert how much I loved fairy floss? Lovely thought and I greatly appreciated it ... even if I had to double my diabetes medication that night, LOL.

 Anyway, my Mother appeared to have a good time and it was nice to sit down with her and have no distractions from her phone, or constant visitors or from my children!

*What I actually drank - apart from the Apricot Bellinis, was 
Weihenstephaner Pilsner - A traditional pilsner, with smooth bitter hops and a refreshingly crisp finish. Weihenstephaner is the brewery that is home to my favourite drop - the Heffe Weiss.
Samuel Adams Boston Lager - Full of floral, spicy hops. It has a malty sweetness which is balance by the hoppy bitterness. Yummy and one of my new favourite beers!
The Pedro Ximénez that I had was not actually written on the winelist on their website. I might have to give them a call and find out what it was. Beautiful, thick, syrupy and not sickenly sweet.