Food Porn Nation

As part of January’s Sydney Festival 2012, the Festival launched in its 12th year running their annual event, Fast Festival Feasts.

Fast Festival Feasts offer either one of the following option at any of the following venues :

• a one course and wine/bottled water for $30; or
• two courses with wine AND bottled water for $55

Brioche with fresh butter and black volcano salt

We started with a loaf of piping hot brioche to share. We are not your typical fans of brioche, well… I personally find that it always sounds better than it actually tastes. Yet we both fell madly in love with it. The texture, taste and feel was a cross between a brioche and a croissant. Oh… croissants… Along with fresh a slather of butter and volcano ashen black salt, it tipped me right over the edge.

Heirloom tomato, basil sorbet, mozzarella, serrano jamon

Given the two course meal deal, we elected to have one us order the entree and the other order the dessert, so we could share all three courses amongst ourselves. We began our entree with the heirloom tomato salad and the dish had nice earthy and balance of spring flavours throughout.

Organic Farm Egg, Potato cream, truffles, iberico ham, herb salad $36

As an added extra, I decided to order the luxurious and decadent organic farm egg salad. The signature dish received critical acclaim from food bloggers and food critics alike, so much so that we recently saw the price hike from $34 to $36.

The egg mound was held and wrapped inside a lattice of potato threads that was gloriously swimming in a pool of potato cream with truffle shavings and a slice of iberico ham to the side. Joey@foodiepop describes the dish as the Roll Royce version of your breakfast favourite. I however, felt that I had ordered the Lexus sleek convertible later to find out it was actually a Toyota. I was actually rather disappointed given the expectation, as well as the new price tag attached. The egg wasn’t gooey and that’s enough to make a girl pout, and the truffle? I couldn’t even taste it. Nor could Emma. I suspect we got unlucky given the positive reviews and at $36 a pop, I felt let down.

You can be the judge of the goo-o-meter.

A not-so-gooey egg being served

Grass fed angus, spinach pudding, mushroom and chive salad

Wow! This grass fed angus medallion was incredibly plump and juicy. You can tell but just looking at it! Every radiant slice and taste of the beef was a decadent, gratifying, silky, buttery mouthful. I am salivating just thinking about it. The mushroom and chive salad was just as stunning as the cafe au lait tinged sauce, which left me justifiably using my fingers to sweep the plate clean. I personally was not too fond of the spinach pudding which had a springy spongey texture and excessive taste of spinach. Even though I marvelled at the perfectly rounded green semi-sphere I kept it to one side.

Honey crunch – clover honey parfait. ginger biscuit, honeycomb and cinnamon

I couldn’t help but ring ahead and ask for the staff to personally write a happy birthday message for Emma G. Interestingly enough, this modest call lead to everybody at Black personally wishing her happy birthday at various intervals throughout the night. She was a tad overwhelmed and humbled but it all but I was very impressed with the attention to detail in sending my little message.

We finished our night with another tasty number – Honey crunch. The clover honey parfait was crumbed and coated with ginger biscuits granules. To the side we had a honeycomb piece nuzzled on top pile of cinnamon dust and together, it was a nice balance of flavours.

In all, our meal was delicious, our night was pleasant and at that price I couldn’t complain. Staff were extremely friendly and attentive which made the night all the more special for the birthday girl. The standout dish was the grass fed angus beef and despite the hype, it was not the signature dish. But for an Australian grill specialising in grass, grain, wet and dry aged beef with a price tag ranging between $45-$95 for just the beef. You would expect nothing less from the grill. I would definitely like to come back here but maybe after pay day or my annual bonus.

Welcome to Black, the star grill and a pricey one at that.

80 Pyrmont St 
Pyrmont, NSW 2009