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!

two mini chicken burgers

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.

mushroom tart with goat's cheese

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.

pork belly with black pudding

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?

venison and spices

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 cutlet and lamb shoulder

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.

chocolate two ways

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???

bread & butter pudding in a mini dish

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.