A is for Assiette

The premise is simple - six friends with a firm belief that you live to eat and not the other way around will gather regularly to try restaurants, new and old, with great reputations. The only guideline is that we have to choose our dining venues alphabetically.

So in the autumn chill of May 6, 2010 we gathered in Surry Hills for the first meeting of TEA Club (I love a clever acronym don't you?). For 'A' we were starting high class, with 2010 Sydney Good Food Guide two hatter Assiette. Now the venue wasn't surprising, as the first to pick was the team Francophile, K. K was bestowed with opening honours because the whole scrumptious plan was her idea. Unfortunately, we were a member short that evening as Flying Carpet was unable to attend.

My first impression of Assiette was that we had been invited to a great dinner part at chef/owner  Warren Turnbull's house.  The room has a warmth and home dinning room feel that, in my opinion, many fine diners in Sydney lack. Of course, I may have instantly loved it because they have great Fornasetti prints on the wall, the same as the ones I've been eyeing off at Macleay on Manning since forever.

The staff were knowledgeable and friendly, and and the thoughtful touches like the delightful passion-fruit jellies (my grandmother would have been in ecstasy over them, they left Red Tulip for dead) made the dinner feel really special. 

Now, because we have left this post for so long I'm struggling to remember what everyone ate or many specific details about it - there has been a lot of food consumed since then! I thought I could cheat and look at the menu online but being driven largely by seasonal produce there have been some changes since then. But I can tell you that we definitely ate versions of the following:

• Open Raviolo of mushroom and tallegio with jerusalem artichoke and pedro ximenez - Delicious. It was autumn on a plate. The taste was earthy and warm and although I sometimes loathe when a food is 'deconstructed' the open raviolo really worked.

• Tagine of lamb neck with roasted lamb cutlets, spiced pumpkin cannelloni and pistachios - This was my main, and also the main of choice for 1/2 of the twins. As we like our lamb cooked at opposite ends of the spectrum (pink please!) it was like we had 2 different dishes. Actually, I think ours was slightly different to what's described above, the cannelloni was actually tortellini. Whatever, it was delicious. Again, the warm spiciness and the wintriness of pumpkin was a perfect choice for Autumn. The only fault I could find was that my giant tortellini wasn't as hot as I would have liked. A small criticism though.

We were also pleasantly surprised when the bill came. I think we shared 3 entrees, had a main each, shared 2 desserts, had a couple of bottles of wine and enjoyed the sweet corn amuse bouche, the delicious Granny Smith apple jelly with vanilla syrup and apple granita, and the aforementioned jubes - a whole lot of indulgence for a bill of under $500 for five!  

With A in the foodie memory bank we will now move onto 'B' - heading to the inner west next week for a new project that has been getting some great write ups...

P.S. Other TEA members please feel free to add to this. Twins we need some photos and surely we can put our heads together to remember what we ate?!? 

Assiette
48 Albion Street
Surry Hills
P: +61 2 9212 7979