The Silver Spoon Food & Wine, Victoria Park

As of 29 May, The Silver Spoon closed for business.

We had dinner with interstate visitors recently at The Silver Spoon Food & Wine in Victoria Park.

Shortly after we ordered, a waiter delivered a complimentary amuse bouche: little cups of carrot and cumin soup, garnished with finely chopped fresh chives. This savoury-sweet hit of curry and carrot was a great appetiser: it was warming, tasty and hungrifying. When I worked in hospitality years ago one of my fellow waiters called these espresso cups “dolly cups” and I still think of them as dolly cups to this day.

We ordered the wood fired Turkish bread served hot and crisp with extra virgin olive oil with merlot vinegar, marinated olives and a creamy dip.

K ordered the duck rilettes & hazelnuts, duck liver parfait with plum and smoked duck breast salad and toast (AU$18).

Jac and J ordered the carpaccio of beef, beef tartare, quail egg, mojo picante (spicy red pepper sauce) and watercress (AU$18). As I photographed this dish, I shamelessly ogled the perfectly gooey quail egg yolk. Jac thought this dish was fantastic.

I chose the seared scallops, confit pork, cauliflower with mint and squid ink (AU$19). The scallops were cooked beautifully – caramelised, tender and juicy. The pork confit were like delicious mini burger patties, balanced on beds of cauliflower cous cous with beetroot cubes, blobs of cauliflower puree and salty black squid ink.

J talked wines with the resident barman, who was happy to recommend a red or two.

Having enjoyed duck three ways for her starter, K chose lamb three ways for her main: the lamb cutlet with feta crumble, sauteed sweetbread with eggplant, and lamb roulade served on silverbeet. On the plate, splashes of wild olive jus (AU$38). She declared the lamb to be beautifully tender.

J ordered the roast beef fillet with parmesan gnocchi, exotic mushrooms, spinach and bone marrow jus (AU$39). The gnocchi looked especially good to me, like little pillows, gorgeously browned like mini gyoza.

Jac and I both ordered the king snapper, fondant potato, crab croquette, saffron soffrito, tomato and broccolini (AU$38). It was a little on the salty side and I’m not a fan of foams (and this one looked particularly spittle-like), but overall it was an enjoyable dish, with perfectly cooked snapper, broccolini and potato. The croquette had the crispy yet pliable texture that I love about croquettes, but I thought it could’ve used more crab.

We thought the housemade desserts were very good value. K was too full to contemplate dessert but Jac and J ordered the rose pannacotta, fairy floss, rose granita and Turkish delight (AU$12). All I saw when they were served was clown hair in a glass but upon closer examination and after talking with Jac I must agree with her that this dessert was a stunner: at the bottom of the glass, a delicate rose-flavoured silky smooth pannacotta, followed by a layer of Turkish delight studded with chopped pistachio nuts, then a craggy cold layer of rose-flavoured granita, all topped with light and wispy pink fairy floss (the clown’s hair).

I ordered the chocolate brownie, cookies & cream parfait, peanut brittle (AU$12). The brownie was moist and fudgey; the parfait sweet and full of chunks of cookie dough. Balanced on them like was a piece of homemade peanut brittle, which I was too full to finish; my dining companions (even K could not resist) swooped in eagerly to share it. I’m not a fan of sauces presented as skid marks on plates (especially when brown), but this skid mark was lickably good, tasting of chocolate and peanut.

In the lead-up to this dinner, I visited The Silver Spoon’s website to read the menu and was not impressed by the abundance of spelling errors across the lunch, dinner and dessert menus: “berry brullee” “buffalo mozzerella” “pommegranite” “caramalised apples” “diakon” “smoked mackeral pate” “mille-fuielle” “blue manner crab salad”. But the poor attention to detail on the website was certainly not reflected in our meal. Our food was intricate, interesting and delicious. Apart from the initial annoyance of being asked if we wanted to order when the last two members of our party had literally just arrived and not even opened the menus yet, service settled down to be attentive but not intrusive. Our interstate visitors had a great time and applauded us on our choice of restaurant.

The Silver Spoon is located in Victoria Park, at the heart of used car yard central. Without the black canopy at the front, the building would look rather like a tax accountant’s office. The tables and chairs outside are perched on paved footpath overlooking a busy roundabout on Albany Highway. But if you don’t care about the (lack of) view and you’re after a fine dining experience with interesting dishes served on white linen tablecloths with real cloth napkins, don’t want to pay top dollar (the most expensive main course was the roast beef fillet at AU$39) and don’t want to sit through a degustation (although they do put on special degustation dining events), The Silver Spoon may be the place for you. I’d eat there again.

Click for larger map

As of 29 May, The Silver Spoon closed for business.
The Silver Spoon Food and Wine
691 Albany Highway
Victoria Park 6100
Telephone: 08 9361 4220
Web: www.thesilverspoon.net.au
Lunch: Tuesday to Friday 12.00pm to 3.00pm
Dinner:Tuesday to Saturday 6.00pm to late
Menu changes every 8-12 weeks

Apologies for the general graininess of the photographs. This is one of the darker restaurants I’ve dined in recently (the award for the darkest dining room still goes to Red Cabbage in South Perth. Wonderful food, ridiculously dark dining room).

Happy Easter, everyone!
We’re off on an Easter break this extended weekend. I plan to update Twitter and Facebook, so check those out to find out what we’re getting up to!

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