Attica is still one of Australia’s top restaurants, but can get even better
MELBOURNE's Attica has again been named as one of the world's best restaurants. But does it live up the to hype? Herald Sun food editor Dan Stock finds out.
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MELBOURNE'S Attica has again been named as one of the world's best restaurants. But does it live up to the hype? Here is Herald Sun food editor Dan Stock's review from last year.
KANGAROO and meat pie. Fantales and emu and smashed avo on toast.
This is Australia on a plate seen through the eyes of a Kiwi expat whose restaurant is ranked our best in the world.
Attica will be familiar, if not by experience, then by name.
The unassuming eatery on a sleepy suburban shopping strip has become, over the course of the 11 years since a young Ben Shewry arrived at its door, a source of pride to Victoria and indeed Australia, as we bask in its celebration on the world stage.
Over that time it’s gone through many incarnations, becoming more mature and focused in its vision.
And in the past year, having bought out owners David and Helen Maccora, Ben is now chief cook and bottle washer; truly master of this domain.
The autobiographical storytelling on the plate of my first meal here in 2010 has now transformed into a broader celebration of Australian icons.
The room is as darkly moody, starkly handsome as ever, with extra tables added to cope with the demand that comes with being named Australasia’s best in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for the past four years.
That demand means a keen eye on the clock and your click-finger poised on the mouse when bookings open for each month.
(It took just five minutes for tables of 2 to fill throughout June when I booked in March; a minute later and I would’ve missed out for another month.)
That demand means a multi-course extravaganza that now comes in at $250 a head.
The meal starts with an onslaught of one-bite wonders — a dozen in all.
There’s a swoon-worthy saltbush lamb meat pie, and the best mashed avo on toast, thanks to finger lime and tiny first-sprout mint leaves (grown at Ripponlea Estate, like all of the myriad herbs that make an appearance over the next three hours).
A corn custard, studded with toasted kernels is lick-the-bowl good; ribbons of smoked Berkshire pork served with a Granny Smith jam a symphony of sweet, smoke and best-in-class pig.
A wallaby blood pikelet — sounds gruesome, is glorious — topped with sour plum jam and vinegar-whipped cream comes with a memento international tourists will especially love, while fabulously camp glass chickens lay a crisp carrot taco — a cleverly curled carrot disc filled with a blitzed tarragon and fried chicken mix.
Taken as a whole, it’s a sepia-tinged picture of Australia executed in 40” HD quality.
All eaten with fingers, they are a bold, somewhat overwhelming, but faultlessly delicious salvo. And, thankfully, Ben’s mastery of the multi-course meal means we leave three hours later
sated but not stuffed.
Four savoury dishes follow that culminate in an emu’s egg, nestled in flax and filled with scrambled egg, muntries, smoked potato and wispy emu floss.
It’s as stunningly presented as it is novel to eat this angry bird.
I liked the other side of our coat of arms even more; cured kangaroo served with bunya puree hidden under a shield of purple carrots a clever interplay of textures, tiny kimchi dice steeped in local vermouth inspired. It’s a standout.
A tranche of pumpkin cooked for 12 hours served with a pumpkin distillation, seeds and cloudlike cream is a worthy replacement for the famous potato-cooked-in-earth dish that first put Attica on the map.
A walk out back to the garden for a billy tea (delicious) and arrowroot biscuit (so-so) and to pluck a tulip that becomes one of two desserts, the edible petals filled with fermented rhubarb and lemon myrtle cream.
Though on this night Shewry wasn’t in the house (he was in New York for the World’s 50 Best awards where Attica placed #33), a steady stream of young chefs took his place at the table, who come to spoon cream from the pumpkin and scoop honey from the comb and place perfectly cooked marron hot from the grill.
Likewise a half dozen waiters variously serve us, which put together makes for a somewhat disjointed experience.
And while the food is more playful, service is less cheeky, more starched, than times past.
The wine list, as is often the case with top restaurants, suffers cultural cringe, and you have to look hard to find anything under three figures.
It needs a keener focus on Australian wines to tell a complete story, to be a true celebration of everything we do well.
The finale, the caramel square “Cheftale” is an outrageously good flashback, but I wonder if the chefs’ stories on the wrapper are just a little too in the know?
Makes it all seem a bit clubbier than it was.
But then, Attica is in a pretty exclusive club. And it’s still one of Australia’s best.
But I think it can be even better.
Attica
18/20
74 Glen Eira Rd, Ripponlea
Ph:9530 0111
Open: Tues-Sat dinner
Highlight: Salted red kangaroo with bunya bunya
This review was first appeared in June 2016.
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