Est

In celebration of my birthday, my family and I went for a dinner at Est, one of the few three-hatted restaurants in Sydney. I suppose Est is one of those places you just need to try for yourself, and with March into Merivale starting this week it seemed like a good time to do that! I like that, unlike Good Food Month, MIM allows you to also go for dinner and the deals are all great value too. I don't work in the kind of job that allows me to take an extended lunch break so this definitely works well.

Anyway, onto the food. We chose to have the three-course for $65 option which is extremely good value given it's three-hat status and that dessert alone is $27 usually. Of course you're restricted on choice, but I was happy with the options available (two choices for each course, three for mains) and amongst the family we made sure we tried one of everything. Plus there was complimentary bread and the meal includes a glass of Chandon wine or sparkling (which was great for me - I only drink sparkling and most places don't include it in these kinds of deals).

Anyway, here are some pics (apologies for the low quality, it was really dark in there and I hate using flash at restaurants!)

Entree: Angel hair pasta with Pancetta - lovely and delicate

Entree: Salt Cod beignets

Mains: Soy glazed  beef

Mains: Quail Breast

Dessert: Chocolate mousse with fig

Dessert: Strawberry bavarois

Messy shot half-eaten to see the raspberry crumble 



My verdict - it was a really enjoyable night, service was of course top notch and the food was delicious, though not extraordinarily unique. But given it's a set menu, it's hard to expect so much variety and creativity so I was definitely not disappointed. Dessert was a stand-out, which always helps in making it a good meal. Desserts always make or break a meal - it always disappoints me when top restaurants treat dessert as an after thought. For one, it's the last thing you remember, and two, it seems that a lot of restaurants get simple desserts wrong or try to overcomplicate things!