Apothecary 1878
This old chemist shop on Hindley Street still has all the old wares in a cabinet, behind me. If I get indigestion, I'll just take a swig of Bickford's hydrogen peroxide.
The waitress hands me a wine list, but not the food menu. She never returns to my table to ask if I'd like to order a drink.
Roasted plum, juniper, celery & horseradish custard.
The meal is infested with coriander! I remove the surface infestation, and thankfully there's no more than that.
The meat is cooked medium, with a kind of herby grit on it, that doesn't do much.
I figured the horseradish and celery custard would contain cooked celery, but it contains raw celery, which I find sour. Combined with the overpowering horseradish, it forms a toxic sludge that I quickly learn to avoid.
The plum sauce is very smooth. It has the taste and tang of plum, but none of the texture or sweetness. It assists the largely flavourless meat.
The curl on top is a big cluster of raw shaved celery. :( Shoulda been more careful when ordering. I'll just rate the part of the dish I ate.
$37 was a lot to pay for a relatively small amount of food. I really did need to add a $12 side dish to it. That's rarely the case.
Lime meringue & coconut custard.
This is pleasant, but its flavours are very muted. The cheesecake has a slight creaminess, and the strawberry has a slight tang. The biscuit base of the cheesecake is actually the strongest component.
The dollops of coconut custard are so faintly coconutty that I have to check the menu, to remind myself that I'm looking for a coconut taste.
The lime meringue is at least interesting. The lime almost makes it a savoury item, like a papadam.