It was my birthday last week and I decided to treat myself by convincing L to book us in for dinner at The Euro. We pretty much never go out in the city for dinner and after driving around a few blocks looking for a park, we passed a few interesting looking restaurants and so I’ve decided we need to expand our horizons and try a few of these city options in future.
The Euro is situated right next door to its more expensive sister restaurant Urbane. So we treated ourselves to dinner, but we didn’t TREAT ourselves to dinner! Dinner at Urbane probably requires a more special occasion than my birthday!
Thats certainly not to say The Euro is the ugly stepsister to Urbanes Cinderella. The Euro has a quite impressive menu and a stylish interior. Inside, its a long narrow restaurant with dining areas at the front and rear, separated by a bar area. The ceiling has interesting fluoro red and yellow coloured light fixtures which looked really cool. Unfortunately because of the dark lighting throughout the restaurant and of course me feeling self conscious with the camera as usual, I didn’t take any photos of the interior. All the photos that follow in this post are really dark, sorry!
We were presented with a choice of complimentary bread to begin with, either rye or wholemeal, with olive oil to dip.
For entree, L ordered the wagyu carpaccio, with slow cooked organic pullet egg, truffled potato and parmesan ($24.50) whilst I ordered the marinated chargrilled quail with pickled pear, salted grape and verjuice dressing, watercress, fennel and citrus salad ($25.50).
L’s entree was interesting to say the least, the mash on top of the egg was extremely light and fluffy (almost foamy) and disguised the egg underneath. Both were a contrast to the salty delicious wagyu underneath.
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| wagyu carpaccio with pullet egg and truffled mash |
My quail was delicious and the sweetness of the pears and grapes went really well to cut through the strong flavour of the fennel in the salad.
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| grilled marinated quail with pickled pear, salted grape and salad |
For mains, L ordered the crisp skin fillet of Huon salmon, primavera vegetables, giant cous cous, scallop and herb tortellini and fragrant broth ($39.0). L was deciding between this and a duck dish, however ended up with the salmon purely because he liked the sound of ‘giant cous cous’! The flavours were subtle, especially in the delicate accompanying broth. I’m not a fan of salmon usually, but L loved it and said it was one of the most amazing things he had ever eaten.
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| salmon with giant couscous, vegetables, scallop and tortellini |
For my main, I ordered a 200g Wagyu fillet ($44.50), with accompanying peppercorn sauce. The steak came out on a wooden chopping board instead of a plate, and the sauce was placed into a very cute mini copper saucepan. The steak also came out with a parsley and fennel salad (they love their fennel at The Euro, I’ve decided!), and huge piece of oven roasted garlic which was delicious. I asked for my steak medium rare, and I have to say it came out more medium, (I always curse myself for not just being brave and ordering steak rare), so it was a slight (only slight!) disappointment. The centre of the cut of meat was delicious though and the meat was so smooth.
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| Wagyu fillet with peppercorn sance, roasted garlic, fennel and parsley salad |
With dinner, we had a bottle of Te Mata Sauvignon Blanc, from NZ, for $54, and we also ordered a side of kipfler potatoes roasted in garlic and wagyu fat ($9.50). The potatoes were okay, not that exciting, I expected them to be a bit more crispy and more seasoned than they were.
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| side of kipfler potatoes |
We were almost too full for dessert but after a short break, decided to power on.
L ALWAYS is boring and pretty much orders the crème brulee everywhere we eat. This crème brulee was not boring however, listed as an orange scented crème brulee with pineapple and shortbread ($15.50). The crème brulee component was amazing, so smooth and creamy. The accompanying bits of shortbread were a bit weird though, tasting dry and floury and we kind of just wished they weren’t on the plate. L didn’t even eat them in fact.
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| orange scented creme brulee with pineapple and shortbread |
My dessert was a chocolate and sherry trifle, with chewy pumpkin seed caramel ($15.50). When it came out I was slightly disappointed as I had expected more of an old school trifle appearance. This looked like crumbled up pieces of chocolate cake with a dollop of icecream on top. When I started eating it though, yes, parts of the dish were pieces of chocolate cake but other parts chocolate mousse in texture and taste, however you couldn’t tell them apart in appearance until you tasted them! The tiny bits of caramel were like hard brittle but were delicious. My dessert was amazing!
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| chocolate trifle |
The Euro was fantastic for a special occasion and was overall a delight. The food was interesting and of fine dining quality but with more of a relaxed atmosphere in the restaurant itself. I can’t wait to go back!
Love,
C
Excellent post. I eat at The Euro alot, far too much in fact. L has great taste as of all the things I've eaten at The Euro, the Huon Salmon dish is by far my favourite. So much so, when I first tried it, I wanted to order another one right away! Such a shame it is seasonal and no longer on the menu.
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