Australia Blog

Fantastic Find

Omigod I had the best meal in my life last night and I have to plug this place. It's only been open 4 weeks and will surely gain momentum, but it has to be said.

It's called Dulac; it's in a prime location in the valley - nextdoor to Ric's. I noticed it last week when I was having a beer at Ric's; I noticed it'd changed from the Indian place it used to be. I noticed it because it would've been perfect for my birthday the week before. I was looking for a tapas/Turkish place and k'bang, it's both! The decor is very Turkish-looking, long wooden tables outside [which dammit, also would've been perfect!], curtains and cushions and candles... It's small, cafe-like; a very funky little place, aesthetically.

Now, the service. Fan-freakin'-tastic. Sure, they're starting out so have to make a good impression, but just fabbo. The waitress greeted us immediately, handed us menus saying, 'it'll be easier to read these' [than the huge board], take a seat, I'll bring you some water and the drinks menu. We sit, she comes back with 'Indian rose water', saying, 'if you don't like it, I'll just get you normal water'. The rose water is a refreshing change... The waitress knows the wine list off by heart, types and prices... We order 2 Chardies and... the food... Omigod...

There's mezes or individual tapas [$7 each]. A vege, seafood or carnivore meze, the latter two both coming w vege stuff also. The seafood's $30, so we share that between 2.

We sip our wine, chat and long enough to know it's 'fresh', but not too long [and we were both fangin'!] out comes the platter. It's huge. Presentation is simple [a mountain of food!], but fab. Okay... there's grilled/barbecued prawns [big, fuck-off king prawns and I mean, BIG!], oysters [2], mussels [several], both of which taste SO fresh, massive rolls of calamari in a pesto/yoghurt dressing [yum! v. homemade], 2 grilled fish [big sardiney looking things - head/tail still on - like you see in street markets in Asia], more 'succulent' white fish [yummy!], and that's just the seafood element, unless I missed something?! Then there's the vege stuff - the most divine, grilled haloumi [my fave cheese], roasted aubergine/eggplant [done perfectly! crispy, not soggy!], roasted peppers/capsicums, chillis, courgette/zucchini, tomatoes, celery [the only thing we don't eat!] and the most scrummy flat mushrooms I've ever tasted [and I love mushies]... Then of course, there was shitloads of Turkish bread w of course, hommous, chilli and pepper/capsicum dips...

Oh my... Halfway through, we look at each other and say, 'this has gotta be $30 a head'. It was huge, gorgeous, perfectly prepared and absolutely no scrimping on quality...

A manager/chef [?] also came out and asked how our meal was, replacing our big bowl of shells w another to start all over again... all the staff smiley and relaxed... in a laidback cool kinda way...

We were stuffed, didn't get through all the bread and a 'few' things were left on the plate. We go to pay and omigod, it's $40 for everything for two people, including the wine...

That meal had ALL my favourite things on one plate, cooked to perfection...

Yum. Bo.

Cuisine Ging