Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Yellow

February 17, 2016



Yellow is a mid- to high-priced bistro in Potts Point, and part of Sydney's fancy Bentley group. They recently hit the news by announcing a transition to an all-vegetarian menu and I happened to be in town for work for their first vego night. It's a lovely space, with a history as a bohemian arts collective. The exterior is bright yellow and the interior is dark and moody. Service is superb - friendly, knowledgeable and efficient.

The new menu has a decent range of vegan options - the staff were very clear that the chef was trying to avoid relying too heavily on the standard dairy, egg and risotto approach to vego dining. The vegan tasting menus on their website look very promising indeed. There's an a la carte menu of about twenty dishes, from marinated olives ($5) up to a salted carrot, quinoa and kale dish ($27). I was dining with a couple of friends and we all decided it would be easier to just take the set menu - 5 courses for $70.

You get a couple of tasters before the five courses properly get started - we started with some glorious house-made sourdough.


After that came pumpkin crisps with a spread based on toasted coriander.


It wasn't clear what was in the spread that came with the pumpkin crisps besides toasted coriander, but it was smooth, creamy and an excellent accompaniment for the slightly sweet and heavily salted crisps.

There was still one more dish before the official menu started: pickled brassica leaves draped over a white bean and yoghurt filling.


They were tangy and tart and a great mix of textures.

The meal proper started next, and I was so keen to get stuck in that I took a bite or two before remembering to take a photo of the first dish: pea mousse with pickled daikon and toasted buttermilk.


This dish also played with textures beautifully - the toasted buttermilk crumble adding smoky crunch to the smooth pea mousse, which was dotted with sweet fresh peas. The daikon was slightly sour, cutting through the sweeter mousse.

Next up was kohlrabi with enoki mushrooms and vegetable broth.


This dish comes out looking like a beautiful flower - not that well captured by my low-light photography. Hidden under the gorgeous pink kolrabi is a pile of tender enoki mushrooms, while sprigs of ice plant provide both greenery and some fresh crispness.

Things got a bit heartier with the next dish: black rice, snake beans and koji.


I loved this - the discs of snake bean are crunchy, the black rice lightly toasted and the pistachio crumble and koji (weird fermented fungi) kept things interesting.

The final savoury dish was a combo of charred leek, pressed curd and black garlic.


This was another massive success - the smoothness of the curd soaking up the umami broth flavours and the charred smokiness of the leek and black garlic. Alongside this came a dish that wasn't on our tasting menu - baby potatoes with cured egg yolk and ricotta.



It's hard to go wrong with a plate of potatoes and cheese, and the sprinkling of crispy-fried curry leaves on top took this to a whole new level.

Our final dish was dessert - a fennel ice-cream with pollen, plums and plum broth.



The fennel ice-cream was astonishing - a very Ottolenghi-style mix of sweetness and the unexpected aniseed flavour of fennel. As great as all the savoury dishes had been, this was probably the highlight of the meal, capping off a fantastic array of smart and original dishes that didn't hit a bum note.

The people behind Yellow have clearly spent some time planning their transition to vego dining - they had everything working perfectly on day one. I'm looking forward to watching how things develop - hopefully it's a huge success. I'll definitely be taking Cindy there sometime soon.

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I was sure I'd be first to blog the newly vego menu at Yellow, but Belly Rumbles got there ahead of me and was pretty impressed.
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Yellow
57 Macleay St, Potts Point, Sydney
02 9332 2344
tasting menu, regular menu
http://www.yellowsydney.com.au/


Accessibility: The entry is flat, but the interior is quite crowded. Toilets are gendered and accessible. We had full table service.

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