Dinner @ Jorg

Jorg has only been open a few weeks and initial reports from fellow Eators, Al and Elle have been positive. Tonight we're joining them for dinner to see for ourselves.

For a Friday night, the restaurant is certainly busy with just about all the tables filled. Surprisingly for such a cavernous space full of hard surfaces, we are actually able to carry on conversations at normal speaking levels. I think it must have a lot to do with the high vaulted ceiling. Other good signs are the generous proportions of the tables and the fact that they aren't all squeezed together.

On the menu there's a fairly large selection of share plates and we've started our meal by picking a good selection to graze on.

Before we get the food, we get the bread.


Still warm and served with a good spicy olive oil.

The first of our share dishes - these come out as the kitchen decides



kingfish ceviche with housemade grissini - quite a pronounced flavour of orange



piccalilli - it's a vinegary pickle, some may find it a tad too vinegary



Left:Baccala fritters with pimento salsa
Right: Chargrilled baby squid, braised ox-cheek and gremolata

Another fritter arrived after the photo so we could have one each - good flavour with an excellent salsa.

The squid dish is probably better suited as a dish for two - though on tasting you may wish to eat one by yourself. The ox-cheek was soft and succulent, deeply flavoured that only comes from slow cooking. The Squid body was simply chargrilled, keeping it fresh tasting and tender.



Black pudding with lardons, boxty bread and warm yolk - this was such a great dish, from the wonderful black pudding to the boxty bread and oozingly terrific yolk - let's have seconds.



Terrine du jour - salmon, scallop and kingfish - bit of a mix up with this, should have come out with two slices however it was quickly fixed and other plate arrived.

Onto mains:



Western plains free-range pork cutlet with bacon, mushroom and black cabbage - though not overly large, the cutlet was quite thick and had the most amazingly perfect crackling you could ask for.



Steak frites and condiments - changes daily - this was wagyu rump and was served sliced, accompanied by french fries, yorkshire puddings, a large dollop of hot english mustard and gravy.



Pan-roasted half baby chicken with leek and fiore de latte tart, tomato salad - while we loved our respective courses we were all quite impressed by this dish - the chicken was wonderfully flavoured and incredibly juicy - it's a reminder about just how good chicken can be.

We probably didn't need a side but



it is hard to resist brussel sprouts with pancetta.

For dessert:



bitter chocolate and caramelised walnut tart, milk chocolate chantilly and dolce latte ice cream



whoops, there it goes



apple and pear crumble with rhubarb ice cream - vanilla pannacotta with meringues and jelly



plate of biscuits which includes macarons, honeycomb and crostoli


While there were some issues with the timings of some of the starters I can happily say that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - the food and service more than made up for any negatives and I'm sure that once the kitchen has a few more hours behind it, it too will run like clockwork.

The details:

Jorg
203 St Georges Road
Fitzroy North

Phone: 9482 3002

Open:
Tuesday to Sunday - 11am Till Late

web
www.jorgrestaurant.com.au