I am a big fan of degustation menus and restaurants that want to show off the range of foods that they excel at. It may also be a lazy way out of deciding what to have on any particular night out in a restaurant.
Now the way I have previously enjoyed this concept were either to enjoy the entire menu in small portions or given a couple of choices of what to have at each course. So well done to the Manse in North Adelaide for the eight courses with matching wine and the Chantecler in Nice, which is still in most ways the measuring stick that I go by.
I had another meal at Auge on Grote Street in Adelaide recently which is one of my favourite restaurants in town. However, I was far from impressed with the changes they have made. You used to be able to choose either a three or four course selection with a fixed price from their extensive menu. Not any more! Now you have either a four or six course chef selection which is fixed.
What really gets under my nose is the fact that if one person had the chef selection then the whole table had to do the same. There were five of us dining that night and we all had the same meals, we had to plead the staff to let us choose our own deserts!
What I am complaining about is that the waiter's argument for this stupidity was how the kitchen staff didn't want to have people eating different courses or have some people watching others eat when they didn't order adjoining courses. A more expensive option was to each order 4 totally different courses with twenty different things they had to cook and what would they say then.
I am guessing that it is a big fat excuse to make life easier to the kitchen. Why else would they make the changes from what they had before. The other sad fact was the six course option which had the same desert and added the cheese platter as another course so it was essentially the same menu with cheese which they don't have to prepare, plus another entree for $30 more.
Despite all of this, the same three courses we had were of excellent standards as expected. The gnocchi with squid ink and cuttle fish was lovingly made, the risotto was alright, the beef fillets were cooked the way I expected.
What stood out however were the little things that I always look out for, and I go away from a restaurant feeling empty if they are not there. Like if they took out an entire scene if I was watching a play. Well I am the fussy one and at Auge they had one of the things that I like which was only available for those who ordered the chef selection menu, a pre-desert desert. I am not aware of the correct them so we will leave it at that for now but it is something that I judge a good restaurant or fine dining by. There are many more but we will get to that another time.
So overall a positive experience, I mean I will return but not necessarily have the chef selection again. Bon appetite!
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