OS Kitchen: Hampton
Until about 18 months ago John and I often said “what we really need on Hampton Street (our local shopping / eating strip in Hampton) is a great restaurant”. This soon stopped when OS Kitchen opened at the end of our road.
It quickly became popular and it was a while before we managed to book a table. Once we had been there for dinner we quickly understood why it was so busy and have been the biggest fans and regular customers ever since.
Alastair has made OS Kitchen a place that not only locals want to go to but, also people from further afield as well. His passion for food and wine and the service you get from not only Alastair but all the staff is outstanding. The food is amazing and so is the atmosphere, so it is no surprise that we would go down there so regularly. We sometimes just drop in for a wine and plate of the mouth watering cured meats when we are out for a walk with Bob.
The menu changes every few months, which I was quite unhappy about the first time round as their Pork belly was to die for. I am pleased to say it has just come back on the menu, a different version, but just as good as ever.
12 months ago they did a foraged mushroom degustation dinner which we thought sounded interesting and went along to. From memory the mushroom foragers had been tracked down through Twitter and were all from Victoria. The food and the wines that accompanied each dish were outstanding and we got plenty of great information about the mushrooms and wine along the way.
We missed out on the duck degustation dinner a few weeks ago and so when the foraged mushroom dinner was announced I booked table for 4 straight away.
When we arrived we were given a beautiful glass of bubbles and a bowl of the raw mushrooms to look at and touch to see what we were eating. When Alastair started talking about the mushrooms we took a look in our bowl only to find one was half eaten. John had to quickly confess he had been trying them!!!
The menu was amazing and the food so good that I had eaten a number of my dishes before I remembered I was going to take a picture to go with my blog post!!
We dined on:
Beetroot cured kingfish, pickled asian mushrooms and wasabi sorbet
Foraged mushrooms on toast, truffled pecorino
Confit chicken leg, mushrooms provencal, garlic emulsion
Jerusalem artichoke risotto, pine mushrooms, braised beef cheek, fresh horseradish
Autumnal forest floor
There was much debate on our table as to what the Autumnal forest floor would be and I was convinced that it would be berries with some mushroom shavings. How wrong could I be.
It was one of the best desserts ever: Crème anglaise topped with a layer of frozen chocolate crunch and honeycomb, with a beautiful handmade marshmallow mushroom and flowers on the top. How was I supposed to pick that!!!
If you want a restaurant with friendly service, fantastic wines amazing food and great atmosphere, OS Kitchen should definitely be put on your list of places to eta.
Let us know if you have eaten at any great restaurants lately that you can recommend to us.
Happy eating
Rachel
