Having vegan degustation is one of my hobbies… well. No, it is part of my work!
My last degustation in Sydney was one of my more disappointing moments, so I was super delighted to have an amazing meal at Ezard.
I must say this is one of my most favourite vegan degustation – such a clean and sophisticated flavour combination and very interesting! Oh not to mention, absolutely healthy! No nasty things on these plates! It is $150, not cheap but totally worth it!
Finger foods to start.
Seaweed crisp on sourdough
I love any Japanese twist so I was happy to see lots of Japanese ingredients in the menu! Having nori, the seaweeds and olive oil for bread brew my mind! Such an amazing idea
Jerusalem artichoke crisp with plum sauce
So here is the
Eight Course Vegan Tasting Menu
Smoked tofu cream, jalapeno cream, apple
Cucumber and turnip pickles are covered with thin Sake and mirin jelly with fine apple Granité
Very refreshing! Very delicate, a gorgeous combination of refreshing pickles and granita with creamy tofu and jalapeño sauce
When I had this dish, I knew this degustation was going to be fabulous and I was right!
Zucchini, fermented carrot, savoury granola, dill
Lightly cooked squash and zucchini accompanied with different crunchy textures from the granola and fermented carrot!
Great flavour and texture combination!
Steamed spiced silken tofu, puffed rice, chilli, fragrant oils, sesame
Lovely fragrant oils enhanced the silken tofu, so yummy! And again, gorgeous texture – soft tofu and crunchy rice puff!
Victorian mushrooms, potato crisps, chrysanthemum oil
Potato crips were seasoned with seaweed – I used to eat this in Japan!
You can add extra truffle for $20, which my hubby did.
It was a generous amount but it was shaved very fine so I could not taste much. I prefer to have truffle oil or paste for a stronger truffle flavour. So I am happy that I didn’t add extra truffle
Tempura tofu, aged hon mirin dressing, chilli sambal, sweetcorn, Chinese broccoli
This is my least favourite dish because it was a bit too sweet for me ( I don’t like sweetness in my dishes) but I am sure most people enjoy this a lot!
The broth was also sour. I love sour foods but this broth was a bit too sour for me but the tofu tempura was absolutely gorgeous. I would enjoy this tofu tempura with just salt!
Caramelised eggplant, tomato and lime salad, yellow curry dressing, fragrant jasmine rice
I am not a big fan of coconut-based curry but this…. I just love this one. A not too sweet yellow curry sauce with refreshing yet spicy red finger lime it’s just perfect. I also love eggplant, so very fabulous!
House-made rice noodle, chickpea miso, shiitake mushroom XO, pickled turnip
I used to love love Xo sauce, Chinese spicy seafood sauce -full of umami flavour, but since this version was made from Shiitake I could enjoy it again, Yay!
All the dishes so far were really perfectly seasoned. Just right to bring up the flavour of veggies which is really hard to do and not so many chefs can do. Normally chefs love a strong salty flavour. But only this dish was a bit salty, which I didn’t mind at all. If there were a few more rice noodles, it would be absolutely perfect!
Palate cleanser- dragon fruit sorbet with marmalade
Raspberry and cassis sorbet with candied cocoa nibs
Only one thing… desserts. Three sorbets for desserts are not good. It happens a lot when I dine at top-quality restaurants that serve animal dishes. Chefs are so experienced and great so they can make great meals but not familiar with dairy-free sweets so… just they end up making only fruit sorbets… If I were to order in a vegetarian degustation, it would be super perfect… ( desserts in a vegetarian degustation look amazing since the chefs are able to use dairy products.. )
Anyway, I still highly recommend this vegan degustation ( vegetarian degustation for the best experience if you are vegetarian) in Melbourne
By the way, a similar 5 tasting menu is also available from Monday to Thursday for $100 instead of the 8 courses for $150
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