Fico

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!

Aloft

Aloft. Out of the three restaurants I visited, this was my favourite experience. I can't really make a direct comparison with Franklin since I didn't have a dinner sitting there though, so now, Aloft was the one I enjoyed the most as a whole.I actually had some reservations (pun intended) about eating here simply because their style was Asian, and I have a tough time liking Asian food, but it's a hatted restaurant and had great views, and they had kitchen counter seats, so why not! I didn't need a view of the water, I needed a view of the chefs. However, the kitchen was limited to the banquet menu, though I didn't mind that too much. And what a surprise the kitchen was. As we were walking to be seated, I saw a super eye catching thing: fire.I got so excited that as soon as politely possible after being seated, I stood back up and started taking pictures of it. I must have looked so excited that the chef actually told me I could walk into the kitchen and take pictures. Wow, how nice! He even adjusted the flame intensity for us too, but it got pretty hot! That was so amazing, I couldn't believe he let us in!! Already a winner in my eyes!The lighting was great so I took heaps of pictures.It's always nice to see what a restaurant's bookshelf is like. They have Pier, the first restaurant book that I'd ever encountered and got me into fine dining!

Masterstock pig's ear + prickly ash

Okay, onto the food. First up, pig's ears. Oh my goodness. My last pig ear experience (not counting China where they do it they way I like by default) was at a Perth restaurant and it really wasn't nice because it was a single hard, crisp texture. However, these were crispy and flavour packed on the outside, and still crunchy-gelatinous on the inside, just the way I like it! They were seriously addictive!

Pacific steamed oyster , kimchi + sesame

Flirty Bay oysters make an appearance once again! But still, I couldn't make out the exact pronunciation of the word, so I still had no idea if it was Flirty or Floaty. I did try asking the all knowing Google, with various pronunciations that sided to Flirty, then to Floaty, but all I got were tips on how to flirt like crazy, or Flutes on eBay :(These were very good, but I didn't like them as much as I liked them au naturale. Probably just personal preference - nothing except maybe a dash of lemon!I had to make sure to take full advantage of my position at the counter by taking as many action shots as I can! Also, being so close, we had a great conversation about the swarming seagulls in the harbour. We commented that the seagulls were swarming, then one of the chefs said that it was unusual for them to be this close - usually they'd be flocking much further out in deeper water. Who knows, maybe they found some tasty stuff nearby.

Fig leaf + turmeric wafer, BBQ pork belly

Woot! Pork belly tacos! Well, that's what I kept calling them. Royal gala apples were shaved over the top of these, which added great flavour to the pork belly, and they were using a tool that looked like how crinkle cut potato chips are made! The turmeric wafer looked delicate and prone to shattering, but they were actually quite sturdy, which was great. The pork wasn't as soft as I like, so these were just okay.

Drunken chicken wing, buttermilk + avruga caviar

But this next dish. Woah, what a turnaround! A fried chicken wing! I honestly didn't think I'd get to eat fried chicken throughout my trip, especially as I couldn't do Belle's Hot Chicken's fried chicken and waffles since I was busy on the weekend, but lo and behold, fortune favours the... insane? This wasn't just any old fried chicken, it was fried in shaoxing wine, so it was tasty fried AND tasty drunk!!! I love drunken chicken, so this was a win win, then another win because that avruga caviar was super smokey and aromatic.These were eaten with hands (as were the tacos, oysters and pig ears), and we were given the magical towels that start off dry and tablet sized, then just add water and POOF! they turn into wet towelettes!!!Oh, by the way, does this slightly remind you of Rockpool 1989's kombu butter chicken wing? Maybe that's just me haha.LOOK AT THIS ADORABLE CHUNKY KNIFE THAT I DIDN'T EVEN USE FOR THE NEXT COURSE EVEN THOUGH I WAS SO EXCITED ABOUT THE CHUNKINESSBut first, another plate up shot, because I can.

Yellow fish curry + coconut pickled fennel

Fried fish!!! Tonight's fish was black trevally, and the curry sauce was really, really mild, so much so that I actually wished there was a teeny tiny bit of spice to it, but no matter. No burning is better than burning. I didn't like the pickled fennel only because it was a little too acidic for me. I would have been happy with just the fish curry since it was light enough.

Chargrilled koji beef, miso + eggplant

I was really, really full, and then this came out! A massive (not really massive, just looked that way because of how full I was) chunk of really incredibly tasty Cape Grim beef, with eggplant and miso mayonnaise. And topped with kale. There was a lot of eggplant, and I think I had to eat my friend's portion of eggplant cause she didn't like it, so I was really, really, bursting full at this point, but that beef. was. so. good. Wow. Yep, I definitely love Cape Grim Beef. The only time David Blackmore's wagyu has been better, is in Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney's David Blackmore full blood wagyu burger. Every other time, a Cape Grim cut will do, it's that good. Absolutely loved this dish.

Our classic condensed milk ice cream, coffee + sable

And finally, dessert. My friend was happy this was an ice cream dish so she wanted one to herself. I was really full, so I didn't really care. What was hilarious is that we saw how the palm sugar curls were made - a couple of chefs took out these trays of palm sugar stuff and started scraping away at it with spoons! Madly scraping! My friend had pointed it out and as soon as I looked, I had that stupid happy face that I get when I'm really excited about seeing food being made, so much so that the chef noticed!So, when he had plated up our dessert and handed it to us, describing it, I asked, "is this meant to be shared?" at which point he said yes, so I asked if we could have one each pretty please, so he was happy to make another one. We must have looked like crazy dessert lovers! Yes, I did manage to eat all of mine. Dessert is a second stomach, after all! It was quite delicious and I loved the sweetness level of the palm sugar. Having the word sugar in it made me worry that it'd be too sweet, but it was actually really balanced with a deep, almost toffee/burnt caramel flavour. Then a hit of bitterness from the coffee syrup was really nice too.All in all, yes, Aloft was my favourite experience because the chefs were so friendly, also the view of the chefs, and because I enjoyed a good number of these dishes. If I came back, I would want the a-la carte menu so that I can order the pig's ears, natural oysters, chicken wing, but also I really wanted to try their dumplings because the dumplings looked absolutely amazing, and I'd not order the fish curry or the pork belly tacos. But as an Asian themed restaurant for someone who doesn't like Asian restaurants (Spice Temple being the exception), this place did really well.And that's my Hobart restaurant adventures done. I'm exhausted from all this writing!

Dier Makr

Dier Makr. What a funny name. I didn't even know of its existence even though it's a one hatted restaurant in Hobart.  I had my eye on so many other restaurants and had already got my reservations and lists together, when one of my baristas told me I had to go here.I usually don't actually do something unless more than one person says the same thing except on rare occasion, and this time I thought, why not. These guys have good taste so I'll try it out! And that resulted in me reshuffling Franklin from dinner to lunch to accommodate for this place.I only did a very small amount of research for this, just enough to check if it was a nice restaurant or not (I still didn't realise it was hatted), and what intrigued me the most was the menu. I like succint menus and prefer ones with the main ingredients and processes described, so this very "simple" sounding menu wasn't enough to trigger my imagination since I wasn't used to the style. But the reviews were all good, so I left it at that. Let's give it a go!This place is fairly small (20 seats?) and has really cute decor. Two things I noticed were one: those wine glasses had really nice stems. Super thin, I don't think as thin as Zaltos, but they got close. I really liked the stems! How do I know this? Because this is a hipster restaurant, so I went and ordered an orange wine. But because wine glasses are tall, and because I still don't know how to take photos, I didn't get a good shot.And two, if you choose the tap water, it comes in a fish shaped jug. But not just that, it's a glurgle jug! Basically, it gluggs a little bit before the pour, then it goes, glug glug glug if there's enough water to go back down after the pour! The way I described it probably makes no sense; it's basically a jug that makes noises as water is poured. Maybe google it.

Beet that root

First up, the beetroot dish. What cute little morsels! This was eaten with hands, and it was a slice of what appeared to be raw pickled beetroot and curd on the inside. A failsafe tasty thing!

Lettuce, oyster

Oh, this was cool. I've never seen this before. Half a lettuce with oyster and oyster cream, and crunchy bits. See, I thought maybe we would get just raw oysters and something interesting with the lettuce, but it was actually the other way around! Having the oysters lightly grilled was really nice, and they were really good oysters! My friend doesn't eat oysters so I had more piled on top of my plate, so I was happy.I actually really liked that the descriptions of each dish were listed as they are, because now I realised that I had no idea what to expect! This is a new adventure!

Beef

On the menu, it did describe the beef as raw I guess. I would have thought they'd just put beef. Maybe because raw beef freaks some people out if they don't know beforehand? It didn't matter to me, and this was really, really good. Again, really flavoursome beef. It must be the Cape Grim stuff because the cows from there are just so tasty! It was lined with sour cream and topped with sansho leaf, I think. Really good stuff!

Uh, apple

Isn't this so cute! These were tiny and adorable. Apple roses that were bound in "apple leather" (like rollups?), and apple puree inside. This didn't just taste like apple though. There were varying textures and acidity levels within these bite sized treats, so it felt like I was tasting all parts of the apple, but separately! A simple looking, but complex palate cleanser.

Really wide beans

When the waiter gave us this dish, she said that the chef described this as "peas and friends" - how cute! I seem to really love vegetable dishes now. I can't remember exactly when it all changed, but the headlines that Yellow made was probably a good starting point. Anyway, broad beans! Yay! And peas! The creaminess of that burrata too. I think it was burrata. It was super creamy, and tasted like the inside of a burrata. Oh yeah. Also, my friend was convinced that the crunchy bits were fried chicken skin, but I thought that this might be a vegetarian dish. Turns out she was right, the waiter confirmed that it was indeed chicken!

Fushies

I'll admit, I have no idea because I didn't ask what "blue eye' was. I assumed it was cod, but what if there's a different fish that also has blue eye in its name??? So I will always have to describe this as just "blue eye" as a result. Sigh. I really should do better next time. Self chiding aside, this fish was really tasty! And what made it tastier was the pil pil sauce! That stuff was really addictive! The fried celeriac on the side was nice too, but I don't really like celeriac much so I was kind of wishing it wasn't there, even though it's the tastiest celeriac I've tried.

I scream

And dessert is served. Fig leaf ice cream with peach and macadamia. That's a cool biscuity thing on top, though it hid the rest of the dish. There was a lovely fig gel surprise underneath the ice cream that I totally loved! Again, because it was described as fig leaf, I didn't expect it to be the ice cream component of the dish. I love it when I guess wrongly!It was a very quick, short and light dinner. I love that there were some really unexpected combinations (that lettuce and oyster dish was brain-bending!!!) along with classics (beetroot, beef). It was a really reasonably priced restaurant, but I felt like there maybe wasn't enough food. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't hungry after it, but I did think that I could eat a lot more, and the Vue de Monde joke of walking out and eating a burger seriously crossed my mind (but a small tasty burger, I couldn't have eaten a large tasty burger). I couldn't be exactly sure if I was hungry or not simply because the last three days in Melbourne, I'd been absolutely stuffing myself to the brim so I was worried about my metabolism being in overdrive too. Luckily, I didn't actually get hungry and I didn't wake up particularly hungrier than usual the next day, so the serving size here was fine. It was just me being panicky, especially in contrast to Tipo 00's $69 chef's menu where I actually didn't finish one of the dishes.Overall it's a great place and super causal, but, a little too hipster for me, if such a thing is possible. I'd need to come here with someone classier and more hipster than me to be able to feel at home here. The food and the people were great though, so nothing to fault there. The waiter was super friendly and when I told her why I'd chosen this restaurant, she guessed correctly which barista recommended the place! So yeah, very nice, surprising dishes, but I felt a little out of place.Also, you definitely have to look at the receipt here. Why? Because the chefs receive the order names slightly differently than what's on the board, and it's a fun read :)