Attica — Restaurant in Melbourne

It's been 14 years since I last dined at Attica, the little restaurant that could. Since that time, it's garnered a host of accolades including Restaurant Top 50 listings and was rated a 3-hat restaurant by the Good Food Guide. This made bookings difficult to obtain. Attica has since dropped out of the Top 50 (no big deal, as the list has always had some dubious inclusions). More concerningly, the restaurant has also been demoted to 2 chef hats in The Guide. The editors gave no explanation at the time, and almost seemed embarrassed that they had shot Bambi. So it was with some trepidation that I committed to a $360 a head (excluding drinks) dinner on a recent Friday - the restaurant certainly still charges very much like its 3 hatted peers.

The room is all dark greys and moody lighting, with splashes of colour provided by art on the walls and the water tumblers on tables.

The wine list is encyclopedic. Our waiter made excellent by the glass selections for me.

The First Foods nibbles/snacks got things going, with the highlights being the emu parfait wafer and a wattleseed cake. This was followed by the saltwater croc souva, a fun re-imagining of street food, with the chickeny-fishy flavour of the unctuous croc meat complemented beautifully by the XO sauce.

The Thinking of Australia dish with King George Whiting was interesting, with a "taste" of each state. The flavour of the whiting is extremely delicate, so was a good vehicle for the tiny pops of flavour. The accompanying pepperberry may have been a bit too much for the delicate fish. Nonetheless, an enjoyable dish.

Then it was out through the back to the "pub", with a brief stop where the kitchen handed out a cheese puff with Vegemite - perfectly pleasant but I would have preferred it served warm and crunchy. Things kicked up a gear with the excellent roo tail pie floater - a perfect bite of which I could have eaten a whole lot more!

Back in the dining room, the Tart 3K was another highlight, with a fine brunoise of various vegetables in a crisp tart shell. This was a flavour and textural delight, and I felt sorry for the apprentice who had to meticulously dice those veggies. This was followed by the only real misstep of the meal - stuffed blue mussels wrapped in radicchio. The bitter radicchio leaves overpowered the mussel and was not particularly pleasant, to my taste at least. A dollop of sugarbag honey would have balanced the dish.

Things got back on track with the dish of the night, the WA marron with butter sauce, studded with champagne fingerlime. This was served with bread to mop up the sauce, and every last drop was indeed swiped up. This dish is lick the plate worthy.

Roo satay ended the savoury courses. This was accompanied by a nasi impit. The roo was excellent, with some external char and still rare internally. Only thing missing was a satay sauce made of macadamia or the like, which would have been a great accompaniment.

Two excellent desserts followed, with a lime splice recalling childhood memories, and An Emu's Favourite Apple. The latter was fabulous, featuring apple crisps and a balsamic icecream.

Excellent petit fours were served via a an "A la(red) cart", though the cheese flavoured meringue may have best been served prior to the sweeter desserts.

Overall, I was left impressed by Attica. I am miffed as to why the restaurant was demoted to 2 hats. The food was outstanding. Service was faultless. Value for money is subjective, especially amidst a cost of living crisis. However, you will eat things here that will make you re-think what is "Australian" cuisine. Of note, Ben Shewry was not on the pass when I dined. I am unsure how often this is the case, but one wonders whether, with such intensely personal cuisine and at these prices, frequent absences may be noticed by reviewers. It would seem churlish, and the systems here clearly operate very smoothly whether the boss is present or not.

Attica remains a restaurant Melbourne should be proud of. Go before it gets re-elevated to 3 hats and a booking becomes...

The service was great however I could sense the nerves of everyone in the restaurant. I can see that a lot of practice was put into reciting the dish and it's explanation but I did feel that everyone felt anxious. I rather everyone keep it a bit more lighthearted. It did take about 7 dishes in before they noticed my wife was left handed which was not a big minus but was interestingly not communicated around. Would add a plus for the lovely honey cake given to us for our anniversary. Ambience was not the best. The restaurant was obviously in an old building however I do not mind this one bit. I'm here for the food and if anything, it proves the lack of pretentiousness as they weren't trying to hide behind the fine veneer of a roof top setting of a five star hotel. Food was great. See below for more details. This is definitely a place that goes a bit heavier with flavours and can be new and experimental for some. Definitely a great experience if you're in Australia.

Wattle Dahl Wafer and Sprig of Saltbush (8/10)

The salt bush was delicately fried, similar to the type of fry you would see in tempura but without the batter and the leaf tasted like seaweed with a bitter herbal tonic aftertaste. The wattle dahl tart shell was very well made.

Riberry Tart (7/10)

Filled with pepper leaf cream and finger lime pearls, the tart is well balanced with the creaminess cushioning the tartness of the riberry. The finger lime pearls were beautiful but a bit green to the taste and felt a bit immature and unripe with bitter acidity.

Native Fruit & Blue Mussel Skewer (2/10) The dish although well presented was a bit disappointing. Mussel was large and fatty and the fry was perfect  but was lacking any of the sweetness the mollusc is known for.

Green Ant & Ooray Pikelet (3/10) -Pikelet was too thick to appreciate the Ooray sour plum jam and green ants. However, it's quite impressive to produce a pikelet of that height nevertheless.

Saltwater Souva (8/10) This was fantastic. The salt water crocodile rib meat and the salt water, XO sauce, pickled frond and macadamia nut yoghurt felt like a variant of the typical apple cider vinegar pulled pork taco with a almost Thai like twist because of the desert lime that carries the same fragrance of kaffir lime. Well balanced, hearty and absolutely delightful to dig into with your hands.

Thinking of Australia (6/10) Thinly sliced King George Whiting was served in the shape of Australia with each state having its own distinct condiment, ranging from riberry, saltbush, coastal herbs to green ants. Slices were not very even leading to the condiments being too strong or weak for each slice. However, it's great to see the dedication towards drawing attention to the sustainability of food. This was a decent palate cleanser.

Madenii & Lemon Myrtle Jube and 'Magic' Mushroom (2/10) At this point, you're asked to go outside to see th artwork of the outdoor area and enjoy a drink with a savoury pastry. The pastry, aptly named 'Magic' Mushroom because of the neon red craquelin was not great to be honest. I wasn't sure what to do with the sweet choux pastry that was filled with a salty parfait in my mouth.

The Tea is Alive (6/10) This dish was a combination of beetroot, kent pumpkin, celery, purple carrot and more all carefully brunoise. A mushroom dashi was poured on top. The overall dish felt interesting and a fun and refined take on consomme a la brunoise.

A Simple Tart of Crab & Lemon Aspen (6/10) A tart of mud crab from Darwin that has been lightly steamed to perfection, rocket flower, kakudu plum, lemon aspen sauce and cream. The crab was delicate and delectable. However, the over dish felt very busy with the plum and lemon aspen covering the crab's natural sweetness. The rocket flowers added little to the dish as well.

WA Marron with Red Champagne Fingerlime (9/10) Marron with a beurre blanc that is made with sparkling wine and chives. The dish was amazing. The Marron was delicate and well cooked and none of the texture was lost. The sauce was delicious....

A disappointing experience overall. Australia undoubtedly has the best food in the world, but Attica is not one of the world's best dining experiences and I have a lot to compare it to.

After 2-3 dishes and a lovely wine, I sensed we were in for a real treat (hence 3 stars). But as the restaurant really filled up, we felt like we were forgotten at times, with long pauses between dishes and sometimes we had to give a waiter a "look" to prompt the next dish. Wine glasses were occasionally left empty on our table for 15+ mins which is unacceptable at this level. As the pacing continued to drop off between dish 11 and 15, last 2 hours became boring and excruciating, and we skipped the last dish because we were 'over it' by then.

The lack of designated waiter became problematic and the restaurant needs a powerful maître d that observes all tables and notices (and acts) when patrons look disenchanted at a dish or service or anything.... And there were a few in there on our night, including ourselves.

Food: the early finger food dishes were exceptional. Pressed pumpkin snack was a winner, the homemade mini vegemite scroll would win over people who don't like vegemite. Tarts that paid homage to history of the area were great and thoughtful fun... and all this built a sense anticipation about what the 'main attraction' of the night.

However, this didn't materialise and frankly, many dishes contained a sour twist, which grew repetitive. Let me say that again because the biggest let down of the night food wise was recurring sour flavours. For example, the kangeroo dish was covered in finger lime which completely overpowered the dish and seemed to be a poor flavour combination overall. Almost couldn't eat it.

There were some dramatic disasters in there as well. As part of the pairing wine and juice menu, we were served some sort of salted melon juice that was simply repugnant. It's not possible that anyone would really enjoy that flavour. We actually sent it back and it was happily replaced with some sort of sour juice (giving no respite from the sour dishes).

Probably the biggest miss of the night was the marron. The marron itself was fairly nice, but the dressing was some sort of home made XO sauce incorporating, wait for it, finger lime again, making it sour and totally spoiling the dish. As a side note, the savoury pavlova was utterly forgettable.

After a ridiculously unrelenting onslaught of seafood and an absence of meat or fish (beyond a small kangeroo dish), we were finally marched out the back to a highly contrived "aussie backyard" where we were served beer and a mini lamb souvlaki. The lamb was served in pita and topped with pickled shallots which - yet again - gave a sour dimension to the dish. And the lamb was nice, but it's a 'soova' and i want to eat that at a gritty lamb spit joint in prahran or carlton, not at a fine dining restaurant.

We went back inside and we were served dessert 1: lamington.... where the outer layer was coated in black ants.... which i 'felt' between my teeth when eating it. I started to laugh at the fact that "here we all are, paying 300 bucks a head to eat ants!" We skipped the whipped emu egg dessert 2. The take home fantails were delicious though.

All in all, the start was excellent, but the service became uneven, the pacing became uneven, the wine pairings needs a bit of a review as some things didn't go together and a few misses (on juice and food side) need to be culled. Claims that wines perfectly complimented the food comes from reviewers who don't know what they're talking about. I would cap food off at 12-14 dishes as 17 is too many and too long. Dedicated waiters are required for tables or sections and to be honest, the service and dialogue seemed staged and rehearsed. There was no customer engagement / banter. Food and drinks dropped off with 'scripted' text and no warmth.

On a final note: the dish of night was the spanner crab with macadamia cream - absolutely astounding.

Will never go back.... and not really sure if I would recommend...