The Smart Menu
I’ve never had a sweet tooth. It’s one of the things I am quite thankful for as it may have proven my downfall when I discovered the joys of fine dining many moons ago.
Don’t get me wrong, I like a good dessert on rare occasions, especially one that knocks my socks off, and always one where sugar appears to be kept in check and doesn’t dominate flavour.
As menus constantly evolve it’s fascinating to watch how restaurants suck diners in to that sometime elusive final course. My days of degustation dining have dwindled, as I seek out meals that are easier to navigate and which provide a level of comfortableness coupled with some experimentation. This, the true test of a restaurant that can be all things to all people.
When presented with a tasting menu as well as the option of A La Carte, 90% of the time I find myself choosing the latter. I prefer to have a couple of great dishes that are truly characteristic of the restaurant, rather than taste a little of everything they have on offer (which may leave me wanting more of one taste and less of another)
Tasting menus also tend to have more than one dessert on them. I never want more than one. More often than not, I have eaten enough before the dessert course appears and tips me over the edge.
There is also the disappointment factor. On countless occasions I have had a very fine meal and then been let down by a mediocre dessert offering. Usually in these instances I am accompanied by a fellow diner who does have a sweet tooth. Many times, after an excellent appetiser, entrée and main course that all shine, dessert appears to be an afterthought, without any of the creativity and skill that made the savoury dishes.
Italian restaurants seem to be regular culprits. How easy is it to create the most classic of their desserts, such as Tiramisu, Pannacotta and Semifreddo, all so mainstream now that they are available as such ordinary renditions, easily pre-made, or even, pre-bought? Crowd pleasers one and all, but why not give them a twist that stamps the restaurant as the savoury dishes have done?
There are many reasons that the sweets course is overlooked by many. The evil of sugar, so well documented, is a glaring one, with our increased focus on health and wellness. Eating smaller portions and stopping before you are full, another. Then there is the trend to share smaller plates, continuing to explode all over the world.
Menus are constantly evolving and as someone who has steered away from dessert on most occasions, I’ve seen some clever, and often smart ways to influence the diner who stops before the final course.
Now I love a drink. My regular readers would no doubt have cottoned on to that. I am a big fan of the pre-dinner aperitif. So very civilized. When it’s time for food, I love perfect wines throughout the meal. The tricky part comes at the end. If the company and the environment is right and the mood convivial, I love to linger, my stomach satisfied, the accompanying drinks mellow effects having washed over me like a warm blanket.
Then dessert rears its inevitable head. This is where the party gets divided. Some want to satisfy their sweet craving with another course, others simply want another tipple or two. Often it’s both. Enter the clever restauranteur who has the solution.
The Espresso Martini has a lot to answer for. It has essentially become a phenomenon throughout the world, the avocado on toast of the drinking world. Deconstructing it, it sits in the middle ground, mostly satisfying those who want to keep drinking rather than having an end of meal coffee, something that feels more dated as every year passes.
But not everyone wants or likes this unusual concoction. Personally, I feel it’s a bastardisation of the classic martini. But when it comes to cocktails, I’m a purist.
The reduction in dessert orders due to health concerns and meal expense is obvious in the fickle world of dining out. But get a few bevvies under diners’ belts and no-one cares about any of that anymore. We’re having too good a time to stop there!
Enter the Dessert Cocktail. Clever restaurants will now have a separate listing of these, and they won’t be your classic, more savoury cocktails that one enjoys pre-meal. They will have enough sweet elements that they will satisfy even the most avid dessert devotee.
My mind turned to this as I have recently seen the Espresso Martini listed away from the cocktail menu and planted firmly on the main dessert list. It’s no surprise that so many order it.
Recently, at high-end, big-ticket restaurants, special occasion places, I’ve seen the clever addition of Dessert Cocktails. Practically another course! A great way to creep that bill further than you intended, whilst satisfying that impossible craving for another tipple.
The best examples I have seen to date are at Sydney’s waterfront seafood fine-diner, Cirrus Dining. There, at the end of the menu are some tantalising cocktails perfectly pitched for the end of the meal.
Here are the recent offerings, listed as “After-Dinner Cocktails”, clearly alcoholic libations that contain some ingredients more classically attuned to the sweets menu:
Orchard Fae
Rum, Cointreau, Absinthe, Apple, Cinnamon
Avellana Cubana
Spiced Rum, Coffee, Orange, Hazelnut, Maple
Honey Butter Old Fashioned
Butter Infused Bourbon, Honey, Dark Chocolate
Dessert anyone? (I can vouch for their old-fashioned – it’s lip-smackingly delicious!)
Photo courtesy: Cirrus Dining
Normally each of these is enough to knock anyone over the edge after all that went down before, if it weren’t for Sydney’s strictly one nip standard drink policy. These won’t get you smashed unless you don’t stop at one.
Some of my friends revert back to the heavier spectrum of cocktails after a full meal, ordering rounds of Negronis, but that is far from ideal to everyone.
In these times of less excess, restaurants have to do whatever they can, in the cleverest of ways, to do very well. For those that love to drink, for those that can’t resist something sweet, for all parties where guilt creeps in, the After-Dinner Cocktail may well be the answer.
Cirrus Dining
23 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo NSW, Australia, 2000
Ph: +61 2 9220 0111