We have celebrated various occasions at George before, so it was a natural choice for my wife’s birthday, which happens to coincide with New Year’s Eve. The interior remains lovely, quiet enough for conversation. Tables are spaced fairly widely. Service is mostly good, though still not at their high pre-pandemic levels. Servers did not always know the full contents of the dishes; specific requests took several reminders. On the other hand, our main server was friendly and informative. The restaurant also provided some nice extra touches for my wife’s birthday (see below).
The set menu was only 5 courses. However, each person gets a different set menu, so if you are willing to share (we always split each dish) then you get 10 courses. Plus you can order an extra course of gnocchi, you can order bread, and there’s an amuse-bouche and a last little treat after. So you get 14 different things to sample. Quality of the food remains high, with each dish an intricate creation of many elements.
They started us off with a small flute each of an unnamed prosecco - apricoty and pleasant.
We had this with the bread basket, which is annoyingly $5 extra and we order it everytime - flatbread, chewy focaccia, sweet butter rolls, and beautiful sourdough, served with green olive oil with a lemon infusion.
The amuse-bouche included chick pea panelle, burrata, pesto rapini, herbs, half cherry, sprouted peas, fennel and lemon salad, yucca strip chips. Lots of fun textures and flavours to start off.
We split a wine pairing and with the first course we had a glass of Sancerre sauvignon blanc, 2023, Bernard Fleuriet et Fils - crsip and fruity (citrus, melon). One first course was hamachi, with shaved cauliflower, black garlic, dashi gel, tiny mushrooms, a cracker, wakame seaweed, and compressed Asian pear. Light and fresh (and unfortunately not photographed). The other was lobster, carrot and mango gazpacho, purple carrots, quinoa, mango and carrot jam, parsley oil, fennel salad, and oatmeal crisps. The lobster was just barely cooked and was supple and sweet, complemented by all the other accompaniments. As it was a special occasion, we added shaved Italian black truffles on both dishes, just for more excess.
Paired with our second course was a glass of 2020 South African chenin blanc and sémillon, Cartology - excellent, clean mineral and fruity. One dish was seared scallops, squash, fennel salad, dill crepe over aged cheddar pastina (tiny pasta) in green sauce, with chard or spinach or something, and blobs of passion fruit and strawberry.
The other dish featured rabbit (dark meat loosely gathered in patty) under mushrooms, with jus, over mascarpone polenta foam, golden beets, with a dusting of sesame or dukka, and little orange quenelle of pickled something.
With our added extra course of gnocchi was paired a glass of Barbaresco (nebbiolo) 2018, Piedmont - very smooth, cherry, and lovely. The ricotta and potato gnocchi were delicate and light, covered in snowfall of Italian white truffle, lemon preserve, tarragon, mushroom, leeks, and a butter sauce.
Our third course was paired with a glass of Domaine Clarendon, 2016, syrah, Australia - cherry, blueberry, and chocolate; with more depth for the red meats. The slightly more wonderful of the two dishes was savoury venison, coated with herbs, with potato tart, cubes of feta, sunchoke, grape and pear salad, pickled onion, vin jus - packed with a wide range of flavours. The beef tenderloin was a bit more classic, but nonetheless excellent, served with citrus hollandaise, rapini, avocado brûlée, mushroom purée, rapini bundle, potato pavé, parsnip chip, vin jus, squash cubes.
For the cheese course, we had a glass of Henriques & Henriques 10-year-old Boal madeira - caramelized brown sugar, gorgeous. One plate had Le Silo cheddar (creamy and sharp), inside a choux au craquelin, mandarin orange, almonds, strawberry apple jam inside, tiny salad with mint oil. The other had Crosswind chèvre inside a cannolo, miso salt in a quenelle with puréed bean, pistachios, pear jam. Both were excellent.
For our dessert course, we had a glass of Lions 2013 Sauternes - fragrant and caramely.
One dish was a green apple tart, with shaved white chocolate, whipped caramel, lemon meringue, mini raisins, and sesame tuile. The other was a chocolate basque cake with caramel crunch on top, saffron honey, pomegranate, apple strawberry jam, vanilla and caramel taffy, coffee gelato, brown sugar tuile, banana cream, and a piece of plum. Both were perfectly light on sweetness and full of many flavours.
Then came a couple of special birthday extras. First were a pair of dark chocolate and custard beignets - these should be regular options. And they gave us a gift bag of chef-made limoncello and two chocolate dipped shortbreads.
We also bought three house gelatos to take home - salted caramel, banana sour cherry, and saffron orange.
Still a special place to go. Deserving of a Michelin star - hope they get one at some point.
