Fig Ristorante - Adelaide
Opening in late 2009 on the restaurant strip that is Gouger St, with a few tweeks and a bit more time Fig will be the hottest place in Adelaide in 2010..
It's set out really well, with lots of partitions and screening so you feel like you're tucked away in your own little corner & don't have to fight to be heard over all the other tables.. Along the side wall they have little booths with sheer curtains for tables of two, very cute & romantic.. There's still bits of the previous establishment in it, I hadn't been in there in years, but one of my dining partners seemed to think some of the features were the same but they're worked in really well.. My only complaint was we had a bench seat against the wall & it was a bit too far away from the table, I was sitting on the edge of my seat all night, but I think I would have been once I'd tasted the food in anticipation of the next course anyway..
All four of us had 3 courses & they were all delicious!! I started off with the Roast duck wrapped in crisp pastry with fennel, orange and muscatle salad, a big fat cigar of crisp filo filled with tender duck that was melt in your mouth.. Everyone else had the entree special of Braised beef and egg croquettes and garlic aioli, crisp coating with tasty filling on the inside.. The waitress made a small mistake , obviously very new, and only ordered one order of the beef croquettes rather than three, the other two were produced from the kitchen in about 5 minutes though so no big drama.. A decent amount of time between entree and mains for chatting and wine drinking..
I had the Cumin salt crusted lamb rack with lamb moussaka, baby leek cigar and raspberry veal jus, it was worth it just for the moussaka, but the lamb rack was cooked perfectly with just a hint of cumin and crisp filo pastry wrapped around caramelised leek made up the cigar.. The two guys had the Grilled 300g rib eye with garlic greens and horseradish cream, Terry's order of rare came out perfectly done & Scott's medium steak came out looking more rare than medium but once again both melt in your mouth, decent sized steaks.. And the other diner had the special of the day which was Baked Atlantic salmon fillet with what was described as a noodle and something salad but came out more as a broth.. With a side of Slow roasted kipfler potato with onion jam and horseradish and the Green salad on the side were all made short work of our meals and were feeling very full..
Dessert order time, only 4 on the menu & the waiter explained that although fresh figs were on the menu they're actually very hard to get & their season only runs for a few weeks.. Never mind.. We'll take the other three and four spoons please.. Banana waffles with pecan and calvados maple syrup and cream, Frangelico creme Brule with mixed berries and Melting chocolate cake with chocolate icecream (tasted more like coffee to me) landed on our table.. I think my favourite would have had to have been the chocolate cake, not quite melting but very good, not too heavy and not to light and a chocolate taste to die for.. The banana waffles were crammed with banana and served up with lashings of maple syrup, fried banana and cream.. The creme Brule was great, creamy not too much of a frangelico taste and could have done with just a tad more sugary crunchy covering..
All in all, delicious, good, fantastic..
