Cutler & Co.

It’s a sign of how lazy you get, when you think a trek from St Kilda to Gertrude St is too far a journey. As such, we hardly ever go out on that side of the river. Luckily in this case, one of us had a very nice birthday present to spend, in the shape of a gift voucher to Cutler & Co. So off we went!

Wow – what a stunning space. What I loved about it was no matter where you sat in the restaurant, you had a bunch of interesting stuff to look at. The design was very interesting and the details amazing. The bathrooms were a particular highlight – an electronic sliding door leading into them! It felt like a spaceship! Fun.



Sunday lunch at Cutler & Co is a casual affair, and reflects in their menu. Service however remained spot on and remains the highlight of my time there – service often outshone the food.

Here is what we had:

Sunday Lunch 10.10.10 (spooky)

Shared starters
Clare de Lune oyster
Chilli & fennel seed salami
French breakfast radish

The radish was yum yum yum! Wrapped in a nice fresh piece of dark rye, with a delicious butter and sprinkle of salt, this was a surprising favourite in the first round of starters. Oysters were fresh (I’m told, not being an oyster lover myself) and the salami was like… salami. Nice and everything, but struggled to get any chilli or fennel seed flavours.

Shared salads
Artichoke bariguole, broad bean & mint
Tripe & cuttlefish braise, grilled bread and aioli
Marinated beets, apple & walnut cream
Asparagus salad, fromage blanc, honey & lemon
Cracked wheat salad

What a yum assortment of goodies. And very generous portions. The asparagus was super fresh and very good, with slashes of honey sweetness set off by the creaminess of the fromage. The artichoke salad was a highlight for me – it was delicious and made me wonder if I could ever cook artichokes this well. I think not. The beets were also very good and the cracked wheat salad had splashes of lemon that made it a very nice finish to a great assortment of salads. This was the highlight of the dishes for me. Some really great and interesting stuff on offer here.

Mains
We picked one of the four mains each – how convenient!
Coconut brained harpuka, scallop & tomato
Baked gnocchi, Taleggio, fennel & pea salad
Garlic sausage, lentils & mustard fruits
Slow cooked lamb, borlotti beans & anchovy

I had the garlic sausage and it was very good. The meat had a game flavour to it, which was offset nicely by the lentil salad. A very nice dish. I also tried the fish, which seemed to me, to be a weird combination of white fish with coconut, but the lucky lady who ate the dish assured me the spices were amazing. And the gnocchi was fantastic – a tiny portion, but a really lovely dish. The only one I missed was the lamb! *sad face*

And we drank – a bottle of Chablis for the girls and a sierra Nevada pale ale and emersons pilsner for the boy

Desserts
Normandy camembert & apple chutney
Strawberry fool

I had the fool and it was pretty good – its basically a mix of double cream with strawberries and other goodies… on this day we also got blueberries, some meringue and who knows what else! But the best part was the cheese – yummmmmm cheese! Delicious!

Then we finished up with a couple of rounds of espresso martinis, which were great!

All in all, a great afternoon. Staff were super wonderful and lovely. We stayed for around 5 hours and never felt rushed or that we were being waited on to leave.

The highlights for me were the service and the décor – the place looks amazing!