Mike planned a Hunter Valley day trip for his mom’s birthday, and picked the 1 chef’s hat (in 2014 Regional NSW category) Muse Restaurant for the celebratory luncheon.
Road trip, wine tasting and fine dining, woot!
—–HER{curio}MAJESTY SCORE SHEET—–
Visited: 24 May 2014 (for lunch).
Food: 8/10 || Ambiance: 9/10 || Service: 9.5/10
What I loved: The ambiance and the service.
What I didn’t: Nothing in particular.
Will I come back: Maybe.
The place was decorated tastefully.
We went for the two-course menu, $75 per person. Some of us opted for entree and some opted for dessert, and we all left very full.
The bread.
Udder Fram butter with salt and black garlic.
Complimentary pork crackers and duck liver pate macarons for the table.
I have to admit, I don’t like pate (except for the Vietnamese pate spread on pork rolls) so this dish was wasted on me. The pate flavour was very overpowering and left a strong after-taste in the mouth.
Entree. I forgot to take a photo of the menu, and it was different than what’s on their website, so…all I could say is this was very good!
Entree: Pan fried sea scallops. Delicious.
Complimentary Coconut cream ice cream with watermelon granita and ginger palate cleanser. This could be a refreshing dessert on its own.
Slow cooked Berkshire pork, house made bacon, caramelised carrot. The pork was tender.
Whey poached Milly Hill Lamb Loin, braised shoulder, house made ricotta, baby fennel, pollen, blackberries. Even though I’m usually not a big fan of lamb, I found this to be the best main of the day.
Confit ocean trout, squid ink pasta and spanner crab. A bit of a hit-and-miss, and too sweet for my liking.
Side: Stir friend Brussels sprouts with bacon. I really enjoyed this, although it also got a bit too sweet towards the end.
Side: Mixed leaves salad.
Vanilla bean custard, fresh honeycomb, salted date, banana, brown butter. Wonderful.
Passionfruit and dark chocolate, vanilla cream, basil, toffee. It came with a candle for the birthday mom, but they probably didn’t think it through – the crumbs scattered all over the place when Mike’s mom blew the candle out! Haha.
Complimentary petit fours: Salted caramel macaron and marshmallow. The marshmallow was fantastic and it just melt in my mouth. The macaron was pretty average, and it resembled the pate that we got earlier too much.
The decor at Muse was classy yet non-pretentious. We went on a sunny Saturday afternoon, the sunlight that came through the surrounding glass windows created a warm and comfortable atmosphere.
The service was spotless. The waitstaff were friendly, attentive, polite, and knew what they were doing.
Overall, the place lived up to its 1-hat name and is worth a visit if you’re planning for a special occasion in the Hunter region.
{Muse Restaurant} Address: Hungerford Hill Wines, Broke Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320 Website: http://musedining.com.au/