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Posts tagged ‘Bunbury’

Vat 2, Bunbury

Vat 2 Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Vat 2 is a restaurant with a lovely outlook across the jetty at Bunbury, and the menu is quite exciting with a combination of cocktails, share plates and larger dishes. It’s a nice big area with a variety of contemporary artwork.

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I started with a blue cocktail containing galliano and blue curacao – very nice.

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We chose our dishes from the tapas style sharing menu.
The first one to arrive was a tray of asian prawn dumplings, and they were delicious, topped with tobiko (flying fish roe), a really nice umami start to our meal.

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The second dish was pork belly. I generally love pork belly when it is cooked well – it needs to be cooked so that the pork is really tender, and the fat either melting or beautifully crispy. I found myself separating the pork from the fat and the crackling and felt that it could have been prepared with more care. The pork was nice, the crackling was nice, but there was a chewy layer of fat in between that was unpleasant, and I left the fat on the plate.

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We also ordered a salad which was a nice contrast to the meaty dishes. The dressing was good, and there was plenty of capsicum, cucumber and tomato.

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The next dish was a Japanese fisherman’s basket. Fish, squid and soft shell crab in crispy tempura batter with mayo. What a disappointment. Not a massive portion for $26, and it was soggy where it had been cooked in oil that was not hot enough. After eating a few pieces of fish and attempting to cut the crab (which just oozed oil everywhere), we left it.

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Lastly we had BBQ chicken ribs which were cooked nicely and had a lovely crispy coating.

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So what did we think of Vat 2 ? It’s quite an expensive restaurant and the menu is full of promise. The food is generally nice but doesn’t deliver on all fronts and not worth the price tag. The waitress did offer a part refund (10%) for the fisherman’s basket but to be honest, taking $2.60 off the bill didn’t really make us feel much better. The dumplings were definitely the star dish, the BBQ chicken was nice, but quite a safe dish, and the rest wasn’t really cooked with the care that you would expect from a restaurant with a sophisticated menu.
It was a Friday night and the place should have been buzzing, but it wasn’t very busy, and I think I know why.

Visit Date – September 2017

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Market Eating House, Bunbury

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This is a restaurant at 9 Victoria Street in Bunbury. The outside is unassuming, and old fashioned building with a purple facade, it just blends in to the row of shops, but make no mistake this is a hidden gem.
Inside the restaurant has a homely but slightly industrial feel with exposed brick walls. The staff are really friendly and knowledgeable – we arrived a little early and sat at the bar for an aperitif. On the advice of the bar waitress we chose a glass of Rieslingfreak no 3 which was a very tasty Riesling and an excellent choice.

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The menu is designed for sharing and has a Middle Eastern feel to it. Market’s philosophy is to use sustainable and ethically sourced local ingredients, and the wood fired oven is the centrepiece of the restaurant.
We chose the ‘Feed me more’ menu where the chef selects a variety of dishes from the menu including dessert – this option is $62 per head.

The first dishes to arrive were a basket of homemade bread, hummus with ground lamb, raisins and ras el hanout (which is a spice mix), smoked and spiced nuts, and olives. Every mouthful was delicious and the bread was lovely and fresh.

The next three dishes were equally tasty:
Turkish lamb sausages with pickled onion and cracked almonds.

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Smoked snapper croquettes with caper leaf mayo:

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Harissa chicken wings with a dill yoghurt dip:

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Every dish was very thoughtfully constructed and the flavours matched well. The chef has clearly thought about texture and flavour when devising the menu and the quality of ingredients shines through. We couldn’t wait for the next dishes!

The next set of dishes were the larger, main course component of the meal. The beef was served with enoki mushrooms, stout, burnt onions and salsa verde,
absolutely divine with the beef melting in the mouth.

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The cypriot grain salad with pomegranate and yoghurt was delicious. Who knew that grains could taste so good !

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The kale salad with onion and garlic crisps was also divine, tasty and filling.

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The slaw with cabbage, radish, sunflower and pepitas was very morish.

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Then barramundi fillet with chermoula (a spice rub), broccoli, capers and mint –
beautifully cooked with a crispy skin and soft fresh flesh, tasted superb on the palate.

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We finished up with sticky date pudding and home made ice cream.

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In summary, a wonderful meal. Everything very carefully constructed and beautifully prepared. The restaurant was packed to the rafters, and even when we were finishing up around 9pm, more diners were coming in. For a little town like Bunbury, this is a diamond of a restaurant, and somewhere that I would be very happy to return to.

Visit Date – September 2017

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