Becasse Restaurant

204 Clarence Street

Sydney NSW 2000

ph: 029283 3440

Mine & Richards birthday fall exactly one week apart from eachother, so we always go out for dinners together just the two of us, to celebrate. (he is the older one hehe). Every other year i think we just ate japanese somewhere.. this year, is the first year we're celebrating since starting bettys bites, and i've been looking around at other blogs and starting a list of places that i wanted to go eat at..

This was probably the most expensive on the list! (i think). Richard had booked Tetsuya a few months back.. but his nutritionist told him no shell fish, and i converted from pesketarian to lacto ovan vegetarian, so it wasn't an option anymore.. also, a friend had ruined this surprise by accidentally blurting it out one night at dinner! It was meant to be a secret kept from me.. but if Richard was going around telling everyone - it was bound to get to me somehow!

This post will be on the vegetarian degustation, the normal degustation will follow shortly..

We had a 7.30pm booking on a Thursday night. I had actually rang a few days earlier and changed it from 6.30pm, as i didnt think i'd make it up to the city in time after work (i work out west, while Richard works in North Sydney)

There was a dinner (possibly work function) happening upstairs, so instead of taking 2 hrs, it took about 3.5.. & they were quite rowdy upstairs as well..

Canape

I'm not sure what these starters were but i'll take a wild guess.. the crisp base must have been oven baked? As they weren't very oily, but were crisp all the way through. Kind of like a seasoned crouton, but bigger & rounder. Topped with some flavoured sourcream, topped with finely sliced chives.

Assorted breads

The breads had a very hard crust, & soft insides & were nicely warmed. So the butter & olive oil emulsions just melted over the bread, i loved this! They've turned something normal, bread & butter, into an amazing entree.

Whipped butter & Olive oil emulsion

Amuse bouche

This light & lush soup was so good & flavoursome. I sipped this up so quickly, each sip didn't involve the cup going back to the saucer, i just kept sipping it (really loudly mind you haha). The soup was rich, hot (but sipping temperature) & was extra creamy.

Salad of heirloom tomato
basil with golden tomato & olive oil sorbet

Different sorts of tomatoes, served with an olive oil sorbet. I loved the colors & presentation with this dish, & the olive oil flavour in the sorbet was really addictive!

composition of baby beetroots
asparagus & hazelnut

Even though the portion sizes were small, the colours & presentation made up for it very well. I also love the plating! Plating something up on a plain white plate, just wouldn't be right. Instead, this round pattern starting in the middle of the plate & working it's way right to the edges, brings the dish itself into another dimension altogether.

tarte fine provencal
baby herb salad and verbena tea vinaigrette

potage quat saisons

This soup was interesting. So many flavours, with a variety of vegetables & herbs used, yet the vegetables were still crisp and fresh.

potato gnocchi
saute of mushrooms, baby gem lettuce & confit lemon

The potato gnocchi - was beautiful! Even more so, because it was pan fried :) I loved biting into a piece, breaking through the crispy fried layer, then past into the softness .. teamed with the mushrooms & lemon, this dish was outstanding.

tortellini of smoked goats' curd
braised silverbeet, beurre noisette & toasted spice crumbs

This was another striking dish, that came together so fine. The spiced crumbs in particular, i've never had anything so flavorsome, that came in just fine little speckled crumbs. The tortellini was warm, biting into it, the saporous goats curd was velvety & rich, a fine morsel of food!

passionfruit parfait
caramel, passionfruit & citrus curd

i chose this over the rhubarb and mandarin goats' cheesecake, burnt butter icecream, lemon balm & honey crumble. The deserts were also quite small, the tanginess & creamy flavours were tending to contrast, as well were the crunchy passion fruit seeds & the melting parfait.

banana creme brulee
salted peanut brittle & milk coffee sorbet

I was told by a few people to order this desert, apparently its mindblowing! It was indeed something eccentric. When you break into the peanut brittle, you get to the banana creme brulee (which surprisingly didn't have a very strong banana flavour). The brittle was pleasingly crisp, and the sorbet was wonderfully smooth.

The food tonight was gorgeous. I was blown away by the presentation the most, and the tantalizing flavours used in each dish. I was a pity they had a function going on upstairs, but the service was superb, the waiters were polite, and minus the noise, it was an intimate experience, a lovely one shared with my baby.

My vegetarian degustation cost $120, not including wine (that would be $60 with recommended wines with each dish).

It was well worth it, and something we won't be doing for a while now.. hehe. This post is late actually, we had this dinner in July!