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Esq.

Air-dried beef with kim chi and kettle chips Esq.
Air-dried beef with kim chi and kettle chips Esq.Natascha Mirosch

16/20

Contemporary$$

The term "value for money" is highly subjective. For some people, it equates to an all-you-can-eat-roll-out-with-your-stomach-groaning-and-collapse-on-the-couch kind of place. Esq is certainly not that, but as far as I'm concerned it is the best deal in town and there should be a line snaking out the door. Certainly if it were in Sydney, there would be. Because the food is sensational and sit for a moment facing the kitchen and observe the attention to detail and you'll get some idea of exactly how much effort goes into everything.

Here's an example of how the $10 popcorn ice-cream dessert is made. The chefs roast corn over coals, and then juice it. They add eggs, cream and sugar and put it under pressure in liquid nitrogen until it froths. Then they freeze it. Then they blanch tarragon to preserve the colour and oils, hang and dry it for a few days, blend it with oil then hang it again overnight to extract the oil. The salty-sweet popcorn ice-cream is served with tiny dots of the tarragon oil. It's just one of the kooky-sounding but astonishing signature desserts you should plan ahead for.

But let's back up a little. How it works is this: Esq, which occupies the front left-hand side and bar area before you go into the restaurant proper, features some of the same dishes from the three-hat menu at Esquire just on the other side of the charcoal grill, but unlike Esquire you can pick and choose instead of doing the full degustation menu.

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Fluffy gnocchi with blue swimmer crab and tomato at Esq.
Fluffy gnocchi with blue swimmer crab and tomato at Esq.Natascha Mirosch

The problem with that is that the decision is then left in your hands and the menu, while short, is packed with appeal. Air dried beef with kimchi and kettle chips? Yes please. Chargrilled native cod with mustard leaf and dill? Uh huh. Warm sourdough with pickles and caramelised butter? Absolutely. Glazed lamb belly with smoked aubergine and cavalo nero? Bring it on. To make it even more distracting, the smell from Esq's coal grill emits the most tantalising fragrances.

Like Esquire, the menu at Esq changes daily but the kimchi/air dried beef is a favourite on both sides. Paper-thin dehydrated beef is both sweet and crisp, the colour of dried blood with rich veins of delicious fat marbled throughout. I have no idea how they make the kimchi part of the dish, but cabbage is be dehydrated too, after being coated in some kind of gingery/umamish glaze. Then there are the kettle chips, in salt and vinegar and "barbecue" flavours. If chef Ryan Squires ever wants to live the easy life he could just retire from restaurants and make bags of crisps.

Another deceptively simple starter is "scraped raw wagyu with soy and ginger": a delicate bowl of wagyu literally shaved off with the edge of a knife, mixed with the ginger, soy (they make their own soy sauce), mirrin and sesame seeds with creamy avocado and garnished with crisp house-made barley wafers.

More down-home is the generous serve of barbecued pork ribs, which manage to be both hearty and elegant, in a finger-licking but not cloying sauce; the tender meat able to be pulled absolutely cleanly off the bones. The gnocchi too is satisfying, while still being pretty, light but with some texture and studded with sweet knobs of blue swimmer crab and delicate dice of tomato.

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On our visit, seafood options were unusually light on; bad weather meant the trawlers weren't going out, but usually there'll be a couple of fishy options too, cooked on the charcoal grill.

We shared two desserts, the famed popcorn ice-cream and the other signature dessert, Campari sorbet with orange sorbet and curds and whey ice-cream It's a perfect but unexpected combination of flavours, the pleasantly bitter and refreshing sorbet contrasting with popping orange sorbet and the milky sweetness of the ice-cream.

There are some changes coming to Esq, Ryan Squires says, a slight tweaking of the decor to give it more of its own identity, but what won't change is the possibility to dine on the food of a three-hat chef at prices not much more than your local cafe. And no post-meal food coma nap required.

Wine Esq shares a wine list with Esquire. It's currently undergoing some changes but expect a thoughtfully constructed & eclectic spread that changes weekly
Seats 36, wheelchair access, bar
And...
Knowledgeable staff are happy to offer wine match suggestions to go with some of the more unusual flavours or textures.

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