Aloft - The Chef's Menu

With the glad rags duly ironed and feeling a bit tiddly after our bottle of bubbly, we headed off to to Aloft via Uber. While they might pay their drivers a pittance, the service from Uber is quite amazing (at least in big cities). As long as you have an internet connection that is! Since we are traveling around Tasmania with our phones in Flight Mode, this could be an issue. Luckily, everywhere we go we have had good Wi-Fi in our accommodation plus the Tasmanian Government has free Wi-Fi available at almost any public place.

The meal at Aloft was everything we wanted it to be. Plus we sat looking into the kitchen so our chef (Max) could talk us through each dish as he presented it to us. The menu was as follows:

First up was an oyster, some Wallaby tartare on a nasturtium leaf and a lamb rib accompanied by an off-dry Riesling. I wasn't taken by the Wallaby - I have seen too many road kills of these guys to get excited about eating one. Because it was our special occasion, they also gave us a sprig of saltbush lightly coated in tempura batter and flash fried on a nasturtium green goddess paste. Quite a strange dish but very delicious.


Next was a single scallop cut as Sashimi with Kingfish Sashimi with fennel and grated horseradish and, the hit of the night, eggplant batons deep fried in tempura batter in a beautiful sweet chilli sauce. This was accompanied by a slightly weird 'orange' wine which was like a Rose but a blend of Pinot Noir, Riesling and Chardonnay. The server advised that it was quite a strange blend and not to everyone's taste - we would agree with that!

Moving on to the main courses we had Big Eye fish on a bed of goat curd with broccoli. This was matched with a white wine we had never heard of - Savagnin. A bit like a Sauvignon Blanc.

Next up was Koji Pork which was cooked sous-vide and grilled. I got so excited I forgot to take picture of the dish when it arrived so only had a bit left for the photo! With this we had a beautiful red made with Pinot Meunier which is normally only added as a small component in Champagne making. As a varietal wine, it really was just like a good Pinot Noir.

Between these courses and desert we were given a small palate cleanser which was a very light foam thing with a parfait in the bottom. It was like a very light lemon meringue pie.

Finally the desert arrived which I can't even describe since it was a bit complicated. Very delicious  though. Washed down with a glass of Blanc De Noirs bubbly (that's champagne-style made with just Pinot Noir).

Feeling very full having spent the evening chatting with our chef and the other staff members who all congratulated us on our anniversary, we headed back to the Motel in another Uber.

All-in-all a great night out.


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