Etta — Restaurant in Melbourne

ORDERED: 🍞  Sourdough, smoked brown butter ($4.00 each)

🍚 Crispy rice salad, red curry pork sausage, and mussels ($26.00) 🍄  Tempura enoki, grilled savoy cabbage, and shiitake mushroom ($36.00) 🐷 Otway pork chop, sorrel, roasted sesame, and mustard sauce ($48.00)

🍨 Elderflower and prosecco, cucumber sorbet and kiwiberries ($14.00)

I spent $75.90, which includes the 15% public holiday surcharge.

REVIEW: I adored the modern fusion vibes at Etta. Starting with our own order of bread and butter, the smoked brown butter blew me away. The smokiness added a layer of depth that isn't present with normal yellow butter, and the salt flakes provided some much needed saltiness for the flavour pops. This bread is a must order!! 😍

For the mains, the combination was generous. Crispy rice salad was even better than the burnt rice I make for myself using the bottom of a pan at home, punched full with flavour. The mussle and pork sausages kept things interesting, but the perfect texture of the crispy rice is worth raving about. A generous heaping of coriander kept things fresh and light as well. ☘️ Tempura enoki was an interesting ode to Japanese cuisine, but it could've used a bit more pizzazz. It felt like the tempura batter could've benefitted from more of a flavour punch. Displayed on the savoy cabbage, the shiitake mushrooms were stacked inside but weren't doing much except making me appreciate the creative way to get veggies inside my body. 🐰 Otway pork chop was delicious. With a generous fat cap, it really soaked in the subtle sesame and mustard sauce. Eat it asap... it got a little too firm for my liking once it was sitting out for a bit.

The elderflower and prosecco was a refreshing way to wrap up our meal. Would highly recommend it because the kiwiberries were fun! I've never seen it before, so having the sweet fruit in a biteable cherry format was very cool. 🧐

Service was so friendly. Our waitress was very diligent with the water levels, ensuring we were having a good time and made us feel very comfortable throughout our whole experience. Atmosphere has a warm yellow lighting, music doesn't have any vocals but some soothing beats that's: Enough to block out the neighbour table's antics and At a volume perfect soft enough to hear and converse with your dinner partner without either of you raising your voice. 🎶

Etta smashed it out...

I am a foodie, a traveller and a wannabe reviewer! My reviews are always honest, upfront and based on personal experience.

It was a typical, inflated night out in Melbourne …. A city where eating out has become a new risk and a regular disappointment.

Now look, I completely understand the seduction of fine dining and the upper class allure of Brunswick East. Having said this, I have become increasingly flabbergasted by restaurants charging exorbitant prices for sub-par food dressed up to be more than it actually is ….

Though perhaps this is the world we are now living in? Sacrificing quality for the magnetism of a good photo for your social media, the trickle of a ‘wow’ moment when a dish arrives, painted like a canvas.

Then you actually realise that you probably put more food on your toddler’s plate.

I’m referring to this embarrassing trend of dressing up a small mushroom that would have costs 98 cents AUD at the wholesale markets for almost 40 dollars AUD. A 14 dollar AUD piece of fish skewered by stainless steel - seriously, a cube of fish no bigger than a Lego block was 14 dollars AUD … and to top it off, this place is serving half a cup of herbal tea in a wine glass for 14 dollars AUD as well … some where a Sri Lankan tea farmer is crying over the severity of lost profits!

This ladies and gentleman is Etta… A simple meal, easily created at home, has been transformed into a 200 dollar AUD night out for two, where I was still so hungry I had to swing by my local falafel vendor on the way home.

One redeeming feature are the lovely staff members who might all be making up for the costs of food items that I’m sure even they think are unjustifiable.

Trust me, give this...

This was our first hatted restaurant for 2025 and boy oh boy it did not disappoint!

What we ordered: 🦐 Prawn skewer w/ lime pickle & pineapple hot sauce $14ea 🍅 Wandin Yallock heirloom tomatoes w/ confit tuna & fried shiso $30 🔥 Wood fired rare beef w/ sambal & Gatsby potatoes $34 🐖 Cantonese style barbecue pork w/ Ramarro Farm leaves & peach $50 🐟 Torched kingfish skewer w/ gordal olive & blackened blood orange $14ea 🍞 Wild Life Bakery sourdough w/ smoked brown butter $5ea

Everything we ordered was soooo damn delicious and I reckon it was the perfect amount of food for the two of us.

My top three must order items would have to be the rare beef, barbecue pork & the heirloom tomatoes!

Starting with the rare beef - I always love a lil crunch factor in my meals so this plate of goodness really hit the spot for me. It's basically a beef tartare but with a southeast Asian twist thanks to the sambal.

Onto the barbecue pork - not gonna lie this dish low key blew me away. The pork jowl was ridiculously tender and they really nailed the smokey & sweet flavour combo on the head with this one.

And last but most certainly not least, the heirloom tomatoes. Every single bite was just sooo refreshing. The tomato itself was super sweet and the fried shisho added a nice textural element to the dish. It was honestly very difficult to resist licking the plate clean but out of politeness I managed to refrain from doing so lol.

Thank you to the staff for delivering such a wonderful dining experience -...