My main goal on this trip was to visit Wildair because it was easier to get in without a reservation. However, since I had trouble getting my second EMP visit, I decided to visit Contra since they do have space for walk ins!

What a cool wall! It turns out the restaurant had some tables available, so I was seated there instead of at the bar.

They didn’t have a whole lot of non alcoholic options, so I asked the waiter for her opinion, and she pointed out this kombucha as being quite nice.

Up first was an amuse bouche of lobster and shiso. I love the cute crinkled paper wrapper that it comes on! That lobster mince was very finely done, and went well with the shiso flavour!

Hey look it’s a quenelle of butter! I’ve missed quenelles of butter. And look at that bread. Woah. That BREAD! It’s hard, crusty sourdough, like the kind you get back in Aus, and this was soooo good! Eating this reminded me of how much more I like this stuff than the soft fluffy buns I got at other restaurants (yes, I’m looking at you, EMP and Per Se!).

What’s interesting to note is that when I say hard crusty bread, this reminded me of the one time I got my mouth shredded by bread crust. I *think* it was at Single O, but it was so long ago I could be wrong. This didn’t quite reach that stage but it got close, which makes me wonder if this is always intentionally done or if people sometimes struggle to eat this. Personally I like this style!

Okay, finally starting the first course! I recognise the vegetables here! I’d eaten both of these when I did my first visit of the farmers market! That was pretty cool. It was a great starter!

Fresh tofu, with caviar and.. maple syrup? That’s an unusual combo! Though technically not any more unusual than say, maple bacon, right? My brain couldn’t quite process it though. Don’t get me wrong – the tofu was great, and there was a nice dollop of caviar, but the maple syrup seemed super light and I wasn’t sure how it was contributing to the flavours of the dish, if that makes any sense. Overall though, it still tasted nice, just not magically amazing.

Salsify!! One of those super rare ingredients that I don’t see very often. I’m fairly sure this isn’t the first time I’ve eaten it, but given that the occurrence happens so seldom happens, it always feels like my first time. I’m not quite sure I can identify salsify just by the flavour though, but this was fun to eat and the squid was tasty!

Yes! This trout. Wow. It was so soft and melty! In fact, I felt these guys did the trout dish better than Per Se, the flavours and textures together were more of what I liked. The flavours and presentation of this were different from that of Tetsuya’s, but the texture of the confit trout reminded me of the confit ocean trout, in a good way! This was quite the standout!

The meat knife came out. What an interesting knife, with its pastel flecked handle. There’s actually a great and embarrassing story that comes with this knife. I found it interesting, so I moved it to take a picture of it. I always take pictures with the blade pointing down. I also noticed rivet-like things on the handle, not where they usually are, so I took a photo of them too, because rivets belong on the back of the knife if they’re not already on the side, right?

And the duck dish to go with the knife. Morels!!! Morels stuffed with deliciousness (I can no longer remember what the deliciousness was)! These morels were pretty amazing, super large and plump. That duck was really nice too! I thought it was a bit tough though, as I was cutting into it. I know there’s a line of sinew through the breast so I figured it was just hard to cut because of that, plus last night’s beef dish was about the same level of difficulty to cut, so maybe that was the limit of the knife’s sharpness?

That’s when the waitstaff noticed me and said… I had the knife the wrong way. I’d been using the flat edge instead of the sharp side. What??? But the shape of the knife! On a normal dining knife, straight edge is back and curved side cuts, right?!

But if you take a look at the pictures again, the waiter was right. I’d taken a picture of the knife upside down, and looked at the “inside” edge instead of the outside edge. Woooow. How could I have gotten this so wrong haha! That was a mortifying experience, especially as I realised that the other staff who passed had actually corrected me too, earlier, after I’d put the knife down after taking photos. I hadn’t heard all of what he’d said, just something about the sharp side and flipping the knife over. Now I realised he was trying to tell me that the sharp side was the other side! Wow. Once I flipped it over, the knife cut so easily!

Woah. You know how usually when you order a cheese course, and you get a slice of cheese? I didn’t expect pretty curled ribbons! That’s a really nice way of presenting cheese! How come no one else does this? This was a sheep’s milk gouda with date paste. The flavours here were fantastic and the dates went so well with the cheese! Best cheese dish ever!

Compared to the previous dish, this dessert ain’t a looker. However, it was made of some of my favourite things! Meyer lemon! Also I love having that heap of cream on there too!

These two are funky looking blobs, but also very delicious! I’m always wary of desserts that feature chocolate because they can be a bit heavy, but this one was just right.

I can’t say if I like Contra or Wildair more because they are quite different restaurants. Contra has some amazing dishes while Wildair was actually more “perfect”, whereas I had thought that Contra would be the more technical restaurant, but they are their own restaurants and both are really enjoyable! So glad I made the visit here!