Rubicon

It had been years since I had been to Rubicon and after the fantastic meal I had the other week, I wondered why I stayed away for so long.There was a choice of four, five or six course degustation and we decided on six courses (surprise surprise) with a few extras. When we had the ‘Design your own degustation‘ explained to us that we could choose any six items on the menu it threw all reasoning out the window. It meant I could have 6 Wagyu steaks or Timmy could have all the desserts but the whole table had to decide on the same 6 courses, so we had to compromise.

Amuse bouche~ orange, rhubarb and walnut.Extras~

Toasted garlic, chive and parmesan ($1.50). This wasn’t as delicious and moreish as Sizzler parmesan bread (I swear they use some sort of addictive drug to make that), but it came out very fast and it was at a bargain price.Oysters with smoked bourbon sauce, bacon, shallot, pecorino ($4.00 per oyster). Not my favourite as I found the sauce overpowering the other ingredients. It had too much going on and I couldn’t even tell there was an oyster in there with all the other textures.Design your own degustation 5 courses($80.00 pp).

Yellowtail kingfish sashimi, green nam jim, lime, yuzu, coriander, coconut, cress. This dish had a perfect balance and pairing of flavours. This was definitely worth ordering.Scallops, confit chicken, bacon jam, apple, calvados. I LOVED this dish and I was surprised as a lover of scallops, for me the chicken stole the show on this one.Roasted pork belly, celeriac remoulade, crackling, apple. Classic pairings that work really well together; the pork was incredibly tender.Green beans and snow peas, tarragon and lemon dressing ($9.00). This was my attempt to eat more vegetables during the degustation but I really could have skipped it. The snow peas were just a touch over cooked and I wasn’t a huge fan of the dressing.Duck confit, ginger miso roasted mushrooms (swiss, king, oyster, enoki), braised cabbage, duck brik. I was a little disappointed with this dish as I wanted more saltiness to the duck, the mushrooms to be more flavoursome and the brik outer layer to be crisper. In hindsight, I probably would have skipped this course.Shoestring fries, smoked paprika ($9.00). I know this sounds simple, but it was delicious because it was served ridiculously hot with the right amount of seasoning. YUM! Also the perfect side to the rib eye.Chargrilled Wagyu rib eye, onion, boulangere, asparagus, horseradish, sauce bearnaise. YAY! This was really delicious and cooked perfectly. BOO! I was starting to get uncomfortably full and forced myself to finish it. I probably would have enjoyed this more, earlier on in the degustation.Cooked perfectly to my liking.Palette cleanser~ carrot and green apple sorbet. I wouldn’t have been able to tell this contained carrot except by the colour.Dessert~ they let you choose different desserts (phew!)

Caramelised apple tart, sablé, butterscotch, creme fraiche sorbet. This was definitely not what we expected as we thought the tart would be made from pastry, not sablé. The base was really hard in comparison to the apple and we found ourselves having to stab our spoons in the base just to break it. It had a beautiful butterscotch sauce but we felt it just wasn’t the same calibre as the savoury dishes we had chosen.Spiced rum and honey panna cotta, drunken fig, sauternes jelly, hazelnut, earl grey ice cream. I liked the sound of spiced rum and honey in a panna cotta but oh my! This would have been considered a fire hazard with how much rum was in it. It was so intense, we didn’t even finish half of it, albeit it was the biggest panna cotta I have seen.Even though we didn’t completely love our desserts, we had a fantastic time and I look back on my savoury courses fondly. The service was friendly and attentive and I definitely look forward to going back soon.

Venue: Rubicon

Address: 6A Barker St, Griffith ACT 2603

Phone: (02) 6295 9919

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