Ezard, Melbourne AUSTRALIA

A few months ago, while i was still residing in Melbourne, my friends and I decided to try out Ezard which is located on Flinders Lane right smack bang in the middle of Melbourne city. The ambiance and the service of Ezard is really good but there is definitely some great hits and maybe some misses with the food. Initially, I was going to go for either 2 or 3 course meal. BUT! When i am dining with my fellow friends who are avid fine diners, they managed to persuade me to go for the 8 course degustation meal that lasted a few hours. Yes, my lunch lasted a good 3 hours. Was so full after lunch, that i had no room for dinner. So if you plan to have a degustation meal, please keep your tummy fairly empty.

This is the interior of Ezard which is clean simple and nothing too sophisticated. You get all the privacy you need and there is nothing i can fault about the service provided.

After about 5 mins of settling down on our table, we were served with fresh bread.

Alongside the bread was the parmesan/garlic/rosemary-infused olive oil and three different powders.
1. dashi salt (with nori, sesame seeds and toasted fish flakes);
2. chilli rock sugar;
3. and "prickly ash" (roasted salt and Szechuan pepper)Out of these 3 spices, i like the chili rock sugar the best followed by the dashi salt !

Our table settings while we perused through the menu.

So we settled for the carnivorous 8 course meal (they also serve vegetarian meals as well)
The first starter was the japanese inspired oyster shooter
This is probably my fave dish!
There was a tinch of spicyness (pickled ginger and wasabi) to it and the sweet broth of mirin and sake and the tasmanian oyster just blended so well together! It was really good!
I'll go back just for the oyster!

Lime cured salmon with pickled beetroot, sour cream pannacotta, basil oil and yarra valley salmon eggs.
This was pleasant but i can vaguely remember how it taste.

Yeap now i do, first time trying pannacotta cheese and its definitely almost tofu like.

It was different but not something i will go back for.

Fried Zucchini flower with goat's cheese, mascaporne, panzanella salad and balsamic syrup.

This is my first time trying zucchini flower but then again anything fried is always tasty and my fave part about this dish is probably the salad!

steamed blue swimmer crab wonton dumpling with coconut and lemongrass laksa

this was pretty tasty i must say!

I love the laksa broth!

Steamed mulloway with hand rolled rice noodle rolls, japanese plum wine dressing, asian dressing and xo sauce.

I love my fish and this was steamed to perfection and the ingredients blended well. Although, i think my mom's soy sauce, spring onion and ginger steam fish taste just as good if not better

Five spiced korubuta pork belly with celeriac and apple remoulade and mustard sauce

This was definitely good but then again you can never beat the chinatown cahr siu !

Sorry ezard! But the sauces blended well together with the pork!

Roast duck with green chilli and shallot sauce, stir fried garlic shoot, bok choy and coconut rice

As you can tell, the layer of fats on the duck definitely did not dried the duck meat . The meat was still moist and its still tender!

Seven score wagyu beef with sake roasted king brown mushrooms, garlic jam, black vinegar and shallot glaze.

The beef was so tender and tasted delicious!

Before we move on to the dessert, we were given these shooters to cleanse our palate!

The set menu only stated that we were given the chocolate and passionfruit torte with pandan macaroon and raspberry sorbet as dessert but fortunately enough the waiter really liked us maybe? he upgraded our dessert to the dessert tasting platter which would have cost an additional AUD$15 per person.

The beautiful arrangement of dessert platter

The degustation meal was something new for me but not something that i will treat myself to every so often. Firstly, I cant sit through such long lunches and secondly it will do no good to my wallet.