A vegetarian degustation at Bentley

I had never been to the old Bentley but thought about it once for a birthday as it is one of few places to offer a vegetarian degustation. It has now moved to the Radisson Blu and occupies half of its foyer, a dark yet welcoming space with muted tones. The atmosphere is sophisticated - no noisy young ones here, strictly date material! The tasting menu is $150 for carnivores and $130 for vegetarians, $80 for matching wine. You know it's fancy-lah when the menu is written in combinations of the ingredients!

Cracker, cheesy stuff, melon slices

I was in the bathroom when the amuse bouche was brought out and my friends didn't catch what this was. The earthy cracker is topped by light foamy dollops of ??goat cheese and subtle slices of melon.

Fresh sourdough

We ate way too much of this bread! They even gave us refills.

Sugar snaps, zucchini, asparagus, pine nut

Pretty as a picture, this was a textural delight. The crunch of blanched then browned sugar snaps is accompanied by velvety soft zucchini slices and a crumble of nuts. Who knew clover could be tasty too?

Onion broth, Jerusalem artichoke, brillat savarin 

The base to this dish was a rich onion and mushroom reduction which packed a real punch. The brillat savarin cheese popped in the mouth to release a sensuous ooze of creaminess, offsetting the solid chunks of Jerusalem artichoke.

Globe artichoke, salsify, white asparagus, brown butter 

The very heart of globe artichokes is paired with pan fried white asparagus, another textural contrast of soft and crunch. The sweet-ish red sauce is further sweetened by a dollop of butter so brown it is caramel, one of my dining companions found this too sickly sweet. 

Cauliflower custard, mushroom, black garlic

This was the most visually stunning dish of the night. Immaculately presented, it consisted of meaty chunks of wild mushrooms sandwiched between a base of cauliflower custard and a crunchy mushroom disc. The whole thing is then decorated by dehydrated wisps of cauliflower, roast black garlic and salty mushroom bits like mushroom jerky. Every element of this dish worked so well together, it was by far my favourite savoury dish.

Roasted parsnip, orange, wattle

Parsnips are such hearty vegetables - here they are presented as caramelised roast parsnip batons amid a thick orange yoghurt sauce. The wattle is pretty but tastes bland.

Charred pumpkin, black rice, broad beans

This was bloody fancy pumpkin. Slivers no more than a couple of millimetres thick are roasted and then reconstructed to form a thousand-layer chunk of roast pumpkin sitting on top of pumpkin puree. The orange is offset by several elements of green - young tender broad beans, a green sauce and pea tendrils. Another well balanced dish.

White chocolate, apple sorbet, fennel

I wonder how they came up with the ingenious flavour combination for this dessert. Fennel is represented in a syrupy swirl, matched by a scoop of the freshest green apple sorbet, discs of softened green apple and intense blobs of white chocolate mousse. The flavours are so wonderfully refreshing that it feels like a garden party in your mouth.

Mandarin icecream, liquorice, coconut

This was a very different dessert course. Under the meringue topping is mandarin icecream, a coconut based cream, segments of dehydrated orange and little nuggets of licorice flavoured cake. There was some visual trickery - the bit which looked like mandarin was actually coconut and vice versa. Whereas the first dessert course tasted of spring, this was a very adult winter dish.


What a treat this degustation was. It was lovely to see the effort they had put into a vegetarian tasting menu that is varied and interesting, definitely no token mushroom risotto at Bentley! I thought all the elements of food were well done - beautiful presentation, pure wholesome flavours, textural contrast, and alchemy of palate. Would love to return for another special occasion.