WOAP 2017: Portlander

The Portlander at the Rydges Wel­ling­ton is well-known for its beef – they are a steak res­taur­ant after all. So of course their new­ish head chef decided to do a chick­en bur­ger for Wel­ling­ton on a Plate, because it was his chance to do some­thing dif­fer­ent. I was lucky enough to be invited in to taste The Free Bird in advance, for free.

Just to be upfront, obvi­ously sit­ting chat­ting with the mar­ket­ing man­ager and Exec­ut­ive Chef Tim bring­ing you dishes is going to be a slightly dif­fer­ent exper­i­ence from going in as a reg­u­lar cus­tom­er, but I’ve always found the ser­vice at the Portlander to be lovely and friendly, so I don’t have a prob­lem with just focus­ing on the food in this review. And what food it is!

I have to admit, I was a little bummed to be giv­en a mini bur­ger, but I thought fair’s fair, I get to taste it and that’s what’s import­ant. Then I real­ised I was actu­ally gonna try more things from their Wel­ling­ton on Plate menu and was over­whelmed. The Free Bird is Quinoa and polenta-crumbed free range chick­en with baby herb chif­foande, aioli and Ruth Pretty tomato chilli jam in Bor­deaux dough­nut bun, with buf­falo agri­as. I love the bit of sweet­ness from the donut, and the kick from the chilli jam. This is a bur­ger that will dribble all over your hands, so maybe don’t wear white to eat it. Portlander is a DB bar, so they don’t pair it with a Gar­age Pro­ject beer.

The next thing Chef Tim brought out for me to try was one of their entrees – Park­vale Mush­room Trio: Open pie with can­died wal­nuts, Drunk­en Nanny goat’s curd, Prana Greens herb salad (V). I think it will be served slightly dif­fer­ently in its full size, but this was like if mush­room vol au vents of yore were actu­ally deli­cious. The standout for me was the amaz­ing Drunk Nanny goat’s curd. This is what I believe one of the very best parts about Wel­ling­ton on  a Plate is – the way good chefs and menus will high­light amaz­ing products from the region. You might not always be able to splash out at the Portlander or oth­er res­taur­ants, but you may be able to pur­chase the curd for your­self and use it in your home cook­ing. Or just eat it from the tub with a spoon. You do you.

Next up was their oth­er entree option – Free Little Pigs Pork Duo: Crispy belly, black pud­ding, car­rot silk and Eddie’s Cider Co. fei­joa reduc­tion. This is the pork crack­ling of my dreams – crisp & crunchy but yield­ing and unc­tu­ous at the same time. I was sur­prised how much I liked the black pud­ding too. I sup­pose it’s basic­ally just like any oth­er saus­age, though rich­er. I like how food trends are com­ing around to eat­ing more of an anim­al than just the most pop­u­lar cuts, though I have yet to devel­op a taste for offal. If we’re going to eat meat, (and by we, I mean “me”, mostly) it’s good to acknow­ledge that yes, it comes from an anim­al and that blood is involved. And to make the most of every inch of it. This is a very rich entree, and I prob­ably should have taken more time to eat the car­rot silk, but then I was presen­ted with ven­ison and how could I think about any­thing else?

It was around then that the res­taur­ant light­ing dimmed so my pho­tos are going to be even more not as good as some might take, but you’re here for the words, right? This was Sous-vide wild ven­ison leg with Spice Rack garam mas­ala blend, beet­root, baby turnip, tam­ar­illo. Now I’ve been to the Spice Rack to stock up on pack­et cur­ries a mil­lion times (you should get some for your emer­gency kits too!) but I’d nev­er think to put togeth­er a dish like this. Ven­ison can be tough, but the sous vide com­bined with the hard sear made it a joy to eat, and the tam­ar­illo was the per­fect part­ner, a little sweet, a little tart, a lot tasty. If you come in to eat this dish though, you’re going to have to make an awfully hard decision to choose it and not their fest­iv­al dish, the lamb…

Lamb shoulder is my abso­lute favour­ite cut of meat, so I was in heav­en eat­ing this Pal­liser Bay Sta­tion lamb rack and slow-cooked shoulder, Prana Greens pea tendrils, black gar­lic, potato purée.  I was also stoked to learn that the black gar­lic comes from Marl­bor­ough though less thrilled to know it’s sim­il­ar in price to truffles. Don’t feel any shame in pick­ing up the bone to gnaw off the last of the good­ness, they expect it. Just one thing – I am as salty as a sail­or and will often add salt to my meals at res­taur­ants, to the hor­ror of chefs I’m sure, and I found this one a little on the salty side. I sus­pect that’s there to make the lamb fat render so tastily. The potato would have been a good foil, but I was reach­ing max­im­um capa­city so I did­n’t eat much of it. I know, I’m hor­ri­fied at myself too. But I have nev­er man­aged to fit in a dessert at Portlander before.  Until now.

This was Wel­ling­ton Chocol­ate Fact­ory tastes and tex­tures: tart, jelly, paint, rocks, soil.  The idea of chocol­ate jelly weirded me out a little bit – I guess I’m just used to fruit jel­lies, but it made sense in my mouth, all smooth and jig­gly. The tart was even bet­ter, so rich it felt like a black hole from which light will nev­er exit. I reck­on this dessert would pair really well with a whisky or a strong liqueur but if all you have on hand is the deli­cious Piz­zicato Pinot Noir from Coney, well that will do just fine. But how would you choose between this dessert and the oth­er option???

This, Arobake bri­oche bread and but­ter pud­ding with green car­damom cus­tard and Zelati apple cin­na­mon gelato, is hands down the best bread & but­ter pud­ding I have ever eaten. It is per­fect eat­ing for cold weath­er, and I am still sad I could­n’t fin­ish it. The car­da­mon is really prom­in­ent in the cus­tard, the top is nice and crunchy, the gelato gives the dish the lift it needs and hon­estly, it is a great big hot hug for your insides. Watch your hands on the pan, but dig in.

Last year dur­ing Wel­ling­ton on a Plate, Portlander sold 2800 bur­gers. They’re hop­ing to do 3000 this year. Make sure you make a book­ing, because if you’re into meat, you won’t want to miss this.