City Wine Bar Embla is an example of what Melbourne does better
Favorite Embla of the CBD Decade is still as dynamic as the day it has been opened.
15.5/20
Contemporary$$
This week, with Melbourne Food and Wine Festival In full swing, I find myself receiving a lot of Recommendations for recommending the restaurant by people outside the city and food industry. When you present questions like these, I often wonder: What does Melbourne do better? What places do they show who we are? Which chefs exemplify the specific magic that crosses our city? I often come to the same answer: Embla.
Small, owned by the chef, focused on wine? Yes, yes, yes. Sitting in his dark space and unpretentious in Russell Street, Embla is an extremely intuitive restaurant, as well as adapting some drinks to the post-work to his bar as it is a serious celebratory meal, in addition to most things in the middle.
Fortunately, I sank his embrace when I wanted a good meal after a show in the city, later on many other places they need a complete menu. It is the right type of casual: without pretensions, welcoming, but with a serious eye on the professionalism of quality and friendly. Everything is easy here.
Can you believe that Embla has been opened for a decade? (Or close to it; December will mark that anniversary.) Certainly it does not seem in terms of lasting relevance of the restaurant and how everything that still seems completely of the moment on this menu. The truth is that this is one of the restaurants that inaugurated the catering style that we, as a city, which we apparently crave.
There is open cuisine, the fiery hearth, the menu led by the products that focuses on the things that chef Dave Verheul wants to eat-the type of food that you could get to a friend’s house if your friend is an excellent cook who tries to impress. The wine is an integral part of the venue, not only on its fun, accessible and adaptable list, but in the way the food is designed to accompany it.
The flavors are intelligent but never overloaded: your scallop of the island of Ablolhos will be cooked in its shell with a perfect popular grasscoccia, adorned with butter weakly steeped in Aji chilli pepper, not so bold as to overcome the sweetness of the seafood but enough to give interest. A pine walnut puree gives creaminess to cimelio tomatoes, a base for the upper fruit highs at the end of summer.
I often eat here and I realize in half of the meal that I am ordering as a vegetarian, purely thanks to the charm of the dishes without meat in the menu: courgette flowers braided at the top of hot ricotta with oregano; A crispy chickpea pancake smeared with hazelnuts and mandarin pesto, then crowned with a thin layers cutleted with mandarin and vinegar.
But the cuisine is skilled in meeting your needs of meat, poultry and seafood. Verheul is known on his way chicken – It often does not happen to happily order a chicken breast in a restaurant, but there is a good reason for half the people who eat here they order this, currently served with Roman beans, braised almonds and a healthy dose of basil.
A rainbow trout is located in a puddle of dragoncello and fennel with fermented potatoes, a dish that feels decadent, generous and simple all at once.
Everything in this menu still seems completely of the moment.
Embla is one of the great Australian plants, from its cocktails (classics, well made) to its weighted beer choices and, of course, to her list of wines. All those who work here are extremely well informed on the wine front, nobody gets up or led, and regardless of their propensity, you will be guided with confidence and clarity.
Sommelier Russ Keightley It also has an eye on value, with unexpected occasions and delights during the list. On the nights where I eat elsewhere in the CBD and I find my experienced experience, often Decampo a Embla’s Bar to save the evening, looking at his reliable excellence and I assured the welcome to soothe my disappointment.
In a varied and exciting city like Melbourne, any restaurant that seems vital is impressive. What is most impressive is to embody that vitality for a decade. Embla is still dynamic and essential as the day when it has opened – if anything, since it now seems an integral part of what we are like a culinary culture. I hope you live forever.
Bass
Atmosphere: Dark, small, lively, funny
Reference dishes: Whole trout ($ 49); Brazed zucchini ($ 26); Chickpea pancakes ($ 29)
Drinks: Classic cocktails, a list of medium -sized international wines full of small producers: the French are particularly well represented
Cost: About $ 160 for two before drinks
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