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Byron Bay restaurants: Review of Three Blue Ducks at Ewingsdale
It’s the embodiment of what a lot of people preach – showcasing small-scale farming, local food grown without chemicals and community-driven businesses selling everything from bread to flowers, but with big-money backing and a glamour couple (Darren Robertson and weather presenter fiancee Magdalena Roze) at the helm.
Three Blue Ducks is the on-site restaurant, a sister to Sydney’s kitchen-garden equipped diner of the same name, co-partnered by Robertson (former head chef of Tetsuya’s and expert on Channel 10’s Recipe to Riches).
From the outside, it looks like an idyllic setting – a restaurant inside a ramshackle farmshed, all corrugated iron and raw timber pallets with a small grocer section of local goods.
Grab a menu, though, and it quickly becomes apparent that this is a very smart operation, right down to the friendly but thorough service.
Take the drinks list, for example. There’s just a handful of sensible cocktails, including a barrel-aged negroni ($15, based on Tanqueray gin) and an Agave Cartel, with Tromba tequila, lime, chilli and coriander. No silly, overly sweet concoctions. The rotating beer taps have easy-drinking Stone & Wood, Four Pines and Young Henrys, plus Bridge Road Chevalier saison and La Sirene Belgian praline. The wine list, stacked with biodynamic and organic wines, has great stuff by the glass, including Brash Higgins Nero d’Avola for just $7.
Our little corner on the rear deck was comfortable, with thundering rain on the tin roof drowning out Chet Faker’s warbles.
A big quenelle of smooth chicken liver parfait ($17) arrived studded with crisp shards of chicken skin and bread wafers, but our table was so dark we could barely see the other elements. Each bite was a lucky dip of tart Davidson plum jam, bitter sorrel and roasted almonds.
A good handful of the dishes are vegetable-based, but not strictly vegetarian.
Whole roasted fat kipfler potatoes ($22) were layered on goats curd, so fresh it was almost fluffy, and then garnished with confit egg yolk, char-kissed onion petals, puffed sorghum and a shower of grated bottarga. Subtle, delicious, interesting.
Salsify ($20) was treated more aggressively, roasted with miso and honey until the long stalks were all sweet and caramelised, tossed with roasted almonds for crunch, and garnished with green leaves and burnt hay. Thick slices of lamb rump ($23) sitting on a rib-sticking quinoa-based porridge were perfect fodder for the wet weather, lifted by ribbons of pickled carrot.
For dessert, there’s just three options, including a whipped brie with pickled beetroot and dandelion. You’d be crazy to go past the sweet potato doughnuts ($9), though. These are the real deal, served old school-style, all hot and cinnamon-crusted, with the slightest sweet potato flavour on a bed of boozy caramelised Pedro Ximenez cream. This is how it is done.
THREE BLUE DUCKS
Address 11 Ewingsdale Rd, Ewingsdale
Phone (02) 6684 7888
Web threeblueducks.com
Owners Darren Robertson, Mark LaBrooy, Sam Reid, Chris Sorrelland and Jeff Bennett.
Headchef Darren Roberston
VERDICT
Food 8.5
Service 9
Ambience 8
Value 9
Originally published as Byron gets its ducks in a row
Source: The Australian / Courier Mail, Sharnee Rawson, 11th August 2015
Originally published as: Byron Bay restaurants: Review of Three Blue Ducks at Ewingsdale
