Update, September 9, 2015: Sadly, The Age is reporting that Brooks has gone into voluntary liquidation.
December 15, 2012
To celebrate my birthday this year, Michael as well as I visited Brooks. It's a novel collaboration betwixt the owners of Gerald's Bar as well as sometime Embrasse chef Nicolas Poelaert. Melbourne Gastronome had veg*n food.
With burgers as well as bar owners at Brooks, nosotros weren't quite certain what to expect. We flora a fairly typical high-end eating theatre alongside an expansive bar at i end. The bill of fare was scattered alongside veg-friendly dishes as well as nosotros were inevitably drawn to the $80 5 class tasting bill of fare listed at the bottom.
They started us off alongside cheese as well as crackers 'the Brooks way' - a foursquare of Perl Las blueish cheese hidden within a sparse crisp, alongside a dab of apple tree puree on top.
From the cocktail menu, I chose a Manzana Fresca ($18), a low-cal as well as tangy mix of vodka, sherry, dark-green apple, lime as well as grapefruit bitters.
Sadly it was a petty also sour to savour inward combination alongside the (otherwise lovely) sourdough bread. Michael's G&T mightiness cause got been a meliorate choice.
Our start total plate was a stunning array of to a greater extent than than 25 dissimilar vegetables, herbs as well as flowers - barely cooked or interfered alongside - dotted alongside flavoured emulsions as well as a dash of crumbly olive 'soil'. No 2 mouthfuls were the same, alongside a multitude of familiar as well as and puzzling flavours darting inward as well as out.
This argent platter played on my weakness for potatoes. The creamy, rich riced spud nest held fifty-fifty richer creme fraiche as well as a smoked egg yolk. While the roesti foam didn't evoke much inward me, the crispy spud bits felt similar flaked roti as well as tasted similar master copy Pringles. Dish of the night, yesteryear my reckoning.
Slow cooked leeks as well as cauliflower puree are fairly criterion fare for vegos visiting fancy-schmancy restaurants. The novelty hither is honey! Though I tin ordinarily cause got it or locomote out it, this dish's honey-wasabi sauce as well as sandy sprinkling of bee pollen gave me a completely novel persuasion on cauliflower. We relished our pickled cherries, picking them upwardly yesteryear the stem as well as gobbling them whole, unsure how to brand them operate alongside their neighbouring ingredients.
Our concluding savoury dish featured roasted beetroots sheltering nether dark flakes of potato, alongside burnt carrot puree, crimson vino as well as ginger gel, as well as cows' milk cheese. The sweetness carrots as well as swoon-worthy cheese simply barely saved this from the brink of burned bitterness.
H5N1 side platter of squash, zucchini as well as spinach inward a low-cal vinegary broth served to fill upwardly our stomachs as well as refresh our palates for dessert.
Here they made to a greater extent than or less other Cindy-friendly gesture: land there's entirely i dessert course, they gave us each a dissimilar dessert thence that nosotros could sense of savor two! *Applause* It was slow to split upwardly the summery plum sorbet, piped cheesecake, berries as well as beetroot dusted meringue ... though it was also tempting to scoff the lot.
However I didn't desire to jeopardise my part of Poelaert's evergreen woods floor, a beautiful dessert including buttery hazelnut parfait, powdery meringue, the darkest of ganaches as well as sorrel H2O ice accents.
We finished alongside hot drinks as well as our pick of the petit fours - a passionfruit-stuffed doughnut for Michael as well as life-threatening wedge of salted caramel for me.
High-protein ingredients similar legumes are notably absent from the Brooks vegetarian menu, but on a summertime nighttime I appreciated the emphasis on fresh produce. This is high-end dining alongside all the green trimmings as well as the service is superlative - relaxed as well as friendly but never obtrusive, they noticed every fourth dimension nosotros needed to a greater extent than or less other drinkable a skillful infinitesimal earlier nosotros would have. Now that Melbourne's veg*n degustations cause got skated beyond $100 per person, I mean value Brooks' tasting bill of fare offers notable value.
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Brooks has received positive write-ups on PETIT MIAMx, Gourmet Chick.
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Brooks
Basement of 115-117 Collins St, Melbourne
9001 8755
5 class tasting bill of fare $80
Accessibility: Brooks has a broad entry, as well as then a railed staircase downwards to the split-level eating theatre (we didn't discovery whatsoever step alternatives). We received total tabular array service. Accessing the toilets involved a distich to a greater extent than stairs, as well as the cubicles were narrow.
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