Allta - What a meal!

leboughton
Mar 15
3 min read

I had one of the best meals of my life last night. Allta is a Korean restaurant with a strong French influence that has been consistently cited of one of Sydney’s best. I booked it a few weeks back, knowing that I wanted at least one splurgy meal while here. It totally lived up to the expectations!

I dressed up a little. Sequined tank and a navy satin skirt. Very country club chic (or so I told myself)

Excuse the messy room. It’s a nice thing to be here long enough to settle in this way!

Getting to the restaurant, which is in the Surrey Hills neighborhood, required me to figure out the train system here. It was easy and efficient. I arrived right on time. I had thought the restaurant was wholly bar seating, but that was in the old space, this one had tables, which were a welcome comfort.

Fair warning - this is a ridiculous foodie post documenting every one of the 12 courses.

Boring to many, so please don’t hesitate to move on if this content is not for you!

I ordered a Negroni to start, which was a nice accompaniment to the first two snacks, a cauliflower toast (on the left) and scallop ceviche. Wow. What a way to get started.

Next came the 3rd “snack”, something called a Naeng Chae, which was a beautiful bundle of julienned vegetables with Korean mustard. So freaking delicious. And beautiful.

We then moved on to the entrees, which is what the Aussies call appetizers.

First up, a dish called sweet prawns. It was shrimp ceviche, sliced super thin, with a sauce and some roe. Looks like brains but really delish. I wish I had written down the description because it was awesome. Those roe popped in my mouth like magic.

Also started the wine pairing at this point. This white Burgundy was excellent with the prawns, as well as the next dish,

The next dish was called kingfish. It was diced raw kingfish in an emulsion of delicious wasabi mayonnaise, with some herbs. Eaten with seaweed crackers. Holy wow.

The final appy was probably my favorite. High bar. It was zucchini flower stuffed with prawn and a Parmesan foam on the left, and a baby zucchini with some pistachios and other lusciousness on the right. Some of the best bites of the night!

Now onto the mains. First up was soup with sou vide chicken and a side of Kimchee. So good. I forgot to photograph before I started in on the soup…but you get the idea.

Also started 2nd wine here. A Kabinett Riesling from the Mosel. Delicious.

The next course was ocean trout. It was cooked rare and served with 3 kinds of rice - jasmine. Sticky, and one I can’t recall - and an emulsion of very intense fish broth, really delicious, but I couldn’t finish it because I was running out of belly room . Also took a taste before photographing again. True sign that the food is so good I just can’t wait…

Final main was the duck. I love duck, and this was a really good one. Rare slice of breast with crispy skin, with a daikon radish, and wasabi and a very rich sauce. OMG, so good!

This course was served with the classic duck-wine pairing of Pinot Noir, in the form of a burgundy. Yum. Unfortunately, I was too full to finish this course but the half I had was amazeballs

Then onto desserts. Wow again. Started with Hwayo, aka “summer”, followed by passion fruit and then petit fours. Finished every single one of these, and like the rest of the meal, wished I could have licked the plates!