PINK SALT
53 Cross Street
Double Bay, Sydney
02 9328 1664

One of Channel Nine’s big hopes for the new 2008 was a new prime time reality cooking show called The Chopping Block. The ratings were so bad for the first airing that it seemed destined for the chopping block itself before the season was much older.

Which shouldn’t have surprised anybody because, despite the usual network hype, it was basically a re-make of Channel Seven’s My Restaurant Rules also an expensive program which didn’t rule in the audience stakes.

Which all gives me a great segue into my now favourite Sydney restaurant Pink Salt. It started life as a contestant in Seven’s reality show. But unlike most others kept going and going.

In the past year I have visited Sydney a number of times and never missed having at least one meal there. The place and staff look friendly and inviting and they are. The warm glow starts with the soft, pink, Pashmina shawls draped on the chairs and pillows in the enclosed sidewalk eating and drinking area.

Both outside and inside the place the whiteness of the restaurant gives it a Mediterranean look and feel.

One of my table’s favourite mains is the  pan roasted Tasmanian salmon with a fresh pea risotto, basil oil and a lemongrass veloute. At $29  that’s a pretty good price by upmarket Sydney restaurant standards. Another great dish combining East and West features pan fried barramundi with a poached prawn Thai salad on bok choy and potato fondant. The whole lot sits in a moat of lobster consommé. That’s $33.  Sometimes the barramundi is pan roasted and served on a pea puree and a light mussel fumet with a smoked haddock croquette which impressed some homesick English friends.

Continuing the Oriental theme I have enjoyed the blue fin tuna tataki and tuna tartare with enoki mushrooms,  some great, crisp and spiced daikon and a white truffle dressing.

There are plenty of heavier meat dishes on the menu too if for you the carnivore isn’t over.  From a twice cooked pork belly entrée with caramelized apple and an apple brandy jus, to a grilled eye fillet, confit of duck leg and a roasted lamb loin.

Among the choices of  vegetables – dominated by pureed cauliflower, peas, celeriac – are sautéed baby spinach, pungent field mushrooms in a spiced red wine reduction jus and a dish called ‘eggplant caviar’ which I first tasted at Circa in Melbourne. It is actually minutely, time-consumingly diced aubergine and it’s worth it.

Some people probably won’t get past the huge liquor selection. A wall of bottles behind the bar. Their cocktails read impressively.

A Watermelon & Rose Petal Martini – ‘fresh curt and muddled watermelon shaken with ice, cold pure vodka, and sprayed with freshly infused rose petal water’.

A Cherry Popper – ‘ this is a vibrant concoction of fresh cherry puree, lychees and vanilla vodka balanced with a sour cherry vodka kick.’

A Piwi Martini –‘ crushed pineapple mixed with 42 Below Kiwi vodka and apple Schnapps topped up with a whiter peach puree.’

If you went off the booze for FebFast  you could have a ‘mocktail’ like a Berry Bella ‘ strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and syrup shaken with cranberry juice and lime’. Or a Pretty in Pink ‘ peach syrup and red grapefruit juice with a dash of lime and cranberry juice’.

They also have a substantial wine list with plenty to choose from between thirty and forty bucks a bottle and a cheese plate for $18 which includes, dried prunes, nut loaf, lavosh and fresh fruit.

I tell you, this place is worth its (pink) salt.