The Devonshire @ Surry Hills

The last of my 21st birthday celebrations! It was a long time for all the celebrations, but they have now come to an end. The Devonshire was where it ended. The Devonshire is a modern Europen restaurant, with a dark interior design with lovely mirror fixtures along the walls. The simplicity in the design provides an elegance to the restaurant. Furthermore, The Devonshire is a 1 chef hatted restaurant. Due to one of my wonderful birthday gifts of a Sydney Entertainment book, we were able to dine for the degustation menu at a great price of $60 per person.

Bread with normal butter and honey infused butter

The honey butter was delicious, with the buttery texture, and the slight hint of sweetness from the honey. It was my first time trying honey butter, and something that would be good to get my hands on.

Salt fish brandade with caper sauce

A little package of fried mash potato. It reminded me of the KFC potato ball things. I couldn't quite taste the fish, however the caper sauce was tangy which complimented the potato well.

Chargrilled haloumi, woodside goat curd mousse, crushed peas, toasted seeds, nuts and dried olives

Their wasn't enough chargrilled haloumi, for it to be the key component of the dish. A highlight was the goat curd mousse, that was nice and fluffy. The nuts added the crunchy component. The dried olives provided the saltiness to the dish.

Crumbed short rib of beef, pickled ox tongue, enoki mushroom, red onion and fried capers

This was my least favourite of the dishes due to the conflicting tastes and textures. The flavour of the beef was lost due to the crumb. The pickled nature of the red onion and ox tongue just didn't work for me. However, I did enjoy all the enoki mushrooms and the sauces. 

Blue swimmer crab and scallop raviolo, salt & pepper calamari, parsley, lemon and ink dressing

A perfectly crooked raviolo with a delicious seafood filling. The salt and pepper calamari reminded me of crispy pig ears, no real taste, but a load of crunch. I still don't know how I feel about ink sauces/dressings. I find it plain, yet slighly salty. Not really sure on how it is supposed to be.

Pan seared Ora King Salmon, prawn & basil spring roll, macadamia, orange and chive dressing

The salmon was great, where the sweetness of the orange and chive sauce wasn't overpowering. The spring roll is definitely not what you expect a spring roll to look like. The prawn taste didn't come through, it was quite oily. 

Roast pork loin, crisp pearl barley & chorizo risotto, celeriac, sage & apple jellies

This was my favourite of all the savoury dishes. A very generous serving of pork loin, with a great balance between salt, crunch, and sweetness. It was a fantastic way to end all the savouries and prepare for the desserts!

Flavours of apple pie

A winter fruit pre dessert to cleanse the palate. It was a deconstructed apple pie with vanilla ice cream. The apples were done as whole pieces and caramelised. The light crumb added the crunch against the apples and ice cream. The piece of pastry helped break through all the flavours.

Warm chocolate fondant, shredded coconut & brownie praline, coconut milk sorbet

The best part of most dining experiences - dessert. The fondant was slightly overcooked where the centre didn't ooze out as it should. Despite that slight hiccup, it was a delicious way to end the meal. We all demolished the dessert with ease.

Bill presented in a tea cup

The overall service was great. However, their display of food was inconsistent, where everyone's dish looked very different. In terms of dishes, there were only 1-2 stand outs, and everything else was okay.

The Girls

Good food, good times!