No35

No35 is a beautiful contemporary European restaurant with a dish for everyone, and if you don't like the food, please just enjoy the incredible view. I would insert a photo of Melbourne city at night, thirty-five storeys up, but I may or may not have been too overwhelmed with awesome to do so. You will just have to imagine it, then attend to see if you're right.

Always a good sign, No35 offered complimentary crusty freshly baked bread and a beautiful beetroot butter spread. It was too good. I wanted more.

The entree that caught my eye was the Citrus cured Salmon, picked apple, micro radish, smoked avocado puree, caviar dressing ($25.0). It did not disappoint. It was a lovely ceviche-style salmon, though the cut was quite thick, so some of the cured effect may have been lost. I loved everything surrounding it, which made it a sweet-smoked-tart dish.

Despite the salmon starter, I chose the Grilled Snapper, fregola, chimichurri, lime, eggplant caviar, roasted onion pearls, herb mayonnaise ($39.0). It was a perfectly cooked piece of fish, with a crispy skin on top which was amazing with the chimichurri. The fregola pasta-cous-cous-carb base was amazing as well; not too heavy but able to hold all the flavours of the dish.

The Seared Duck Breast, beetroot quinoa, confit duck, mandarin, pickled baby turnips, plum wine glaze ($40.0) was a hearty cut, interestingly combined with quinoa cooked in beetroot. It's sweetness was further highlighted by the plum wine glaze and turnips. The duck was tender and tasted nice, but I think I prefer the traditional combinations of flavours to go with the heaviness of duck.

I ensured I chose the strangest sounding dessert on the menu, in the form of Chocolate, Pumpkin Ice-Cream, sweet avocado, chocolate cake, torn raspberry ($17.0). It was presented as a deconstructed dessert, but was lacking in size and flavour. The pumpkin ice-cream was fascinating, and tasted true to form, but the serve was too small and didn't have much depth. The chocolate cake was very light and barely there. Congratulations, your meal is now over!


TL;DR Pro Tip: Impress your date by bringing them to the 35th level of a fancy-ass French hotel.