Champagne arrived quickly on arrival – being able to enjoy Louis Roederer by the glass is lovely, although pricey at $24 a glass. House made sourdough bread, with beautiful unsalted butter and a salmon spread was a delicious start to the meal. The salmon was a mix similar to what we sometimes cook (although ours is a poor mans version for sure) with dill, lemon and smoked salmon. It was extremely tasty and certainly spoiled my appetite!
Three of us dined last week and we shared 4 starters, 3 mains and 3 desserts, as well as a couple of sides with our main course. We generally found the starters to be the more interesting dishes. The mains tended to be quite heavy and rich, as well as being more traditionally French than the starters, which were a bit fresher with more distinct and interesting flavours. However this is not really a ‘sharing’ kind of place. None of the dishes are plated to be shared, but in this case we wanted to each try as many things as we could off the menu. The staff were wonderful in providing extra portions, and helping us share the dishes when needed. This is what we had…
Starters
Cured New Zeland King Salmon - Sour beetroot, dill, and horseradish cream -21.00
Roasted Beetroot - Octopus salad, goat cheese and eggplant compote -21.50
Seafood Nicoise Salad - Passionfruit, olive oil & rosemary vinaigrette, avocado royale – 25.00
Zucchini Flowers Crab Fritters - Piperade, red pepper vinaigrette – 25.00
A selection of starters including the zucchini flower at the top, octopus and beetroot (with accompanying goats cheese & eggplant ball) and chickpea crouton
These were all really amazing, delicious dishes. The salmon was perfect – none of us were really big horseradish fans, but it comes as almost a mousse and was not overpowering with the salmon at all. The beetroot was also great with the creamy goats cheese working perfectly with the tartness of octopus. The crab fritters divided our table a little – two of us loved them and thought they were the highlight of the starters, although we do agree that the flavours were the least unusual… Perhaps that’s why they are such a popular dish (the waiters told us these had been getting rave reviews). Given their flavours are a bit more mainstream, maybe that’s why we found them so delicious… maybe they are just delicious!
Mains
Rockling - Shellfish ragout, bouillabaisse fumet, saffron rouille - 37.50
King Salmon - Pan cooked, gnocchi, mushroom and chardonnay jus – 38.00
Rack of Lamb - Panko, mustard and rosemary, crust, Provencale vegetable gratin – 45.00
Potato gateau 8.50
Peas French style 8.50
King Salmon
The rockling was good – the portion was enormous, which you don’t often see these days! All of us commented that we would have struggled to finish the dish if we had not been sharing. The rockling was a large fillet, cooked beautifully, with other delicious seafood pieces. Again not great for sharing, but lovely rich flavours that seemed quite traditional for a bouillabaisse. The salmon was probably the most disappointing dish of the day. The mushroom and chardonnay jus looked more like a crust than anything, although it was soft and not great – the mushroom overpowered any other flavour and alongside the salmon we found this to be too rich for our tastebuds. The lamb was a thing of beauty (even though we were getting quite full by this stage). Cooked perfectly so it was incredibly tender, it was served with winter vegetables and was a lovely, traditional dish with an occasional tang of the mustard cutting through to make things a bit more interesting.
All these were accompanied by two excellent side dishes – a creamy, melt in your mouth potato gratin and peas ‘french style’ which included generous chunks of pancetta and a creamy sauce. Artery overload! But beautiful dishes and a lovely main course.
While the meals came out a little close together (leaving us very full after our main courses!) we were easily convinced to order dessert and had real trouble deciding on dishes – everything sounded very nice! The smell of the waffles cooking was now floating around the restaurant and that helped our decision, so we had:
Chocolate Waffle - Chocolat sauce, vanilla chantilly cream 18.00
Tahiti Vanilla Crème Brulee 18.00
Lemon and glace fruits - Ice nougat, raspberry jus, berries 18.00
The waffle (despite the incredible smell) was disappointing to a few. I found it to be very yummy indeed, but a bit short on the chocolate sauce and cream. So the jury was out on which was the best – I personally cant go past a crème brulee, especially one as beautifully creamy and sweet as this was. But the majority of the table ruled in favour of the iced nougat, with summer fruits. A very refreshing dessert and a perfect way to finish the meal!
All in all, a wonderful dining experience. For most of us (who are not millionaires) this will be an occasion restaurant, as to truly enjoy all it has to offer means at least $200 a head. But the interior is interesting and comfortable, the food wonderful, service is flawless (for the most part) and so PM24 is an experience well worth trying! Get in now before the tables book out until June!
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