Overview
For those of you who want to feel luxe but have limited funds, Neil Perry has you covered. Sort of. He's got you covered in a classic I-just-sold-my-restaurant-empire-for-tens-of-millions-of-dollars-and-am-going-casual kind of way — he's rolling out a bar menu at his fine dining establishment Eleven Bridge.
In case you missed it, Eleven Bridge is the new, more 'casual' iteration of Rockpool est. 1989. Perry changed the concept last year (before selling his other restaurants to UPG), although we found that it was still very much fine dining in all its glory. But the addition of a bar menu means that Eleven Bridge is no longer just three-course, white tablecloth, $200+ territory — from this week, you'll be able to drop in for a drink and a bar snack.
Executive chef Phil Wood's new menu is an excellent opportunity to try Eleven Bridge's fried chicken ($30 for five pieces), perhaps matched with a gin, elderflower and basil cocktail. Or how about some Sterling caviar with blinis ($50 per ten grams), or honey and spelt bread with kombu butter and ricotta ($6) — that's the Neil Perry version of coming home drunk and half-cooking a Coles-brand garlic bread loaf.
The steam bun sangas (see, casual), come in flavours like sweet pork and kimchi ($25) or 'hot and numbing chicken' ($24). What exactly is a 'hot and numbing' chicken steam bun sanga? It would be gauche to ask, just order it and see.
And what casual bar menu would be complete without a baked crab stuffed with milk and salted duck egg for a whopping $47? No bar menu would be, hence the surging trend of milk-and-duck-egg-stuffed crabs at dive bars. Jokes aside, this bar menu sounds divine.
Read our Eleven Bridge review.