I visited a bunch of restaurants and wine bars during my hobart visit, including a fantastic dinner at Sonny where I had a lovely conversation with two other solo diners, but Fico was the only one I had booked in advance since it seemed interesting. It was fantastic!
The best thing about going to a restaurant and seeing an oyster fork, but no oysters on the menu? It means oysters are on the menu! Most of the oysters in restaurants these days are from Boomer Bay, whereas last time it was all from Flirty Bay, how interesting! Tassie oysters are so delicious!
Carrot gazpacho – it was so creamy but apparently doesn’t have any cream in it! Was it really all made from carrots? Because that’s incredible!
This funny looking plate was a super tasty fig leaf oil, balsamic vinegar and sea salt dip for some tasty bread! How is it that this tasted so good? That balsamic vinegar was fantastic!
My favourite dish of the night flavour and texture wise, tuna and heirloom tomatoes with horseradish cream and dashi. That tuna was amazing, and apparently there was a tomatillo in the tomato mix too! The horseradish cream was quite potent, not too bad though! Some nose fuzziness but not enough to disrupt my enjoyment of the dish.
Fico has European influences and a baby sister pasta bar, so it’s no surprise there’s pasta on the menu – tagliolini with calamari. I think my opinion that Lulu La Delizia makes the best pasta hasn’t changed, but this was quite nice!
Haha ok this dish was awesome. It’s listed as flathead royale, but they’ve made it so it looks like a creme caramel! The texture and flavour were so good, this was my other favourite dish! The texture of the flathead mousse was like that of a steamed egg tart or silken tofu – nice, soft and creamy, and the soy based sauce went so well with it!
Of course I said yes to adding 5g of truffle for $20 onto the duck agnolotti! I am so illiterate when it comes to Italian food that I was expecting duck on the outside rather than duck on the inside of a pasta!
Yes, venison time! Venison backstrap, venison mince en croute, and some beetroot and olive garnishes. Venison is a pest here so it’s always great to see it on the menu. That pastry was done really well!
This funky looking dessert was mandarin sorbet, milk gelato, and sabayon. They even poured the sabayon tableside so it slowly blobbed downwards. When I tasted it, all elements together tasted better than each individual part, and it looks like I’m on the same page as the staff, because that’s what the waiter said too! I love food that tastes different as a whole compared to the individual parts!
Lastly, a cute little choux! Filled with praline and grand marnier, what a great way to finish dinner!
Overall this was a very nice place, I’m so glad I booked it! The service was so professional, I hadn’t fine dined in so long that it was super refreshing! Oh yeah, the drinks – I had two drinks, a cold pressed sour cherry juice which was lovely and tart, and then also a very fragrant raspberry kombucha. Oh, the decor is excellent too, including a hacksaw on one of the walls haha!
Since I probably won’t be making posts about the other places I ate at, I wanted to mention here that Hobart has some great non alcoholic options, even at the wine bars! It’s so great to see, it means I don’t feel out of place regardless of what kind of eatery I’m at!