ROCKPOOL BAR AND GRILL
Crown Complex
Southbank, Melbourne
03 8648 1900
www.rockpoolmelbourne.com.au

 

 In these days of internecine warfare it was a big risk transporting the idea, the talents, the reputation of one of Australia’s best-known chefs from Sydney to Melbourne.

But they did it. I have dined at Neil Perry’s much-vaunted, multi-million dollar culinary extravaganza called Perry’s Rockpool Bar and Grill at Crown Casino  at least a dozen times in recent months.  The food, the ambience, the wine, were all fantastic but herein lies the rub – as Shakespeare would say. I have never been there.

I dined there… but I didn’t.

I know that sounds Irish but I have never been able to get past the wine bar at the entrance. It’s called a ‘wine bar’ but it is really a mini-Perry restaurant.  It’s become one of our favourites which really says something with Mrs. Nosebag who is a vegetarian and the menus and the walls have paintings of huge beefy cows.  I do take one precaution by acting as a human screen as we pass the ageing room where you can see slabs of blackening beef with tags showing they’ve been there for two months.

The professional eaters rated it well. The Age Epicure critic, John Lethlean, gave it 16.5 out of 20 and Stephen ‘impress me’ Downes gave it 14 after some harping about the wine prices.

The Wine Bar is intimate and cosy. Our favourite spot is a booth lined with dark brown velvet that they nicknamed ‘the chocolate box’.  For starters they have, without doubt, the best crusty bread in town. Be careful. One slice is a meal.

The meals are surprisingly cheap. A huge wood fire grilled Wagyu hamburger at fifteen bucks has to be the best buy in town. A perfect looking cheese and ham omelette is $16. One night we splurged on an omelette combination that wasn’t on the menu. Fresh lobster. It was loaded with meat and sure it cost $35 but it was probably the best omelette I’ll eat in twenty years. And you’ll pay that for an indifferent slice of farmed barramundi these days.

Usually though our eating style makes it even cheaper. We browse tapas style. And the Rockpool Wine Bar has heaps to choose from. Baby octopus braised with olives and red wine and served in a heavy metal dish was $8. But wait there’s more as the Demtel man would say.  Mussels with Chilli and fennel $10,  live scallop ceviche $5,  Roquefort beetroot and walnut salad $8, a huge bowl of (can’t eat just one) hand-cut chips $5 and boiled greens with olive oil $5.

And a favourite – wood fired grilled mushrooms with red wine vinegar $5.

On occasions when a meat-eating friend has joined us we’ll actually share a Wagyu burger with gruyere cheese and zuni pickle.

After one visit I went home and Googled Iberico ham to discover it can only come from the one region from a breed of pigs with black feet. They call it ‘the world’s best’.  And, at fifty dollars a plate it would need to be.  I wouldn’t know. For the past year or so I have been quietly boycotting all pork because of the appalling conditions that breeding sows are imprisoned in this country. (You can get free range pork. Otway Pork, free range, is now sold in some supermarkets).

Mrs. Nosebag orders a favourite wine – a Skillogalee Shiraz from the Clare Valley for $60.  And they always let me take along my own bottle of Edenvale Shiraz or Sparkling Cuvee.

One night we’ll make it into the big ring but for now the sideshow we stumbled on is pretty damned good.  And even when we join the other clowns at the poker machines on the way home we still exit with a smile.

 May 7, 2007