Recently my good friend Nick and I had the pleasure of visiting The General Assembly for lunch. This place is conveniently located at the heart of South Wharf, with a short walking distance from Southern Cross Station. It’s a very large venue that sits up to 600 people and is perfect for special occasions and events and the plus side is they have a great view of the river and the city.
The General Assembly’s philosophy is to source high quality and well sourced produce, plus they have a strong affection for beer, where they are offering the full line up of Matilda Bay craft beers as well as one-off seasonal brews on tap. They also offer unpasteurised Carlton Draught from copper Duo Tanks. As for their food department, their restaurant is headed by Head Chef Darren Mercaldi (formerly of Matteo’s, Circa, Nobu, Middle Brighton Baths and Ladro). With such great restaurant names under his belt, you are sure to be in for a real treat.
Starter Dishes
For starters we had two dishes:
1. Yellowfin tuna ceviche, watermelon, jalapeños, and shallot
2. Scallops, beer pickled cauliflower, XO Sauce.
The General Assembly’s food menu is a true reflection of their philosophy with dishes that highlights the season’s produce. All the dishes looked enticing which made the dish choosing exercise difficult, however the waitress who looked after us that afternoon provided us with her recommendations.
The first dish: Yellowfin tuna ceviche, watermelon, jalapeños and shallots was a light and refreshing dish. A beautiful fresh piece of yellowfin tuna coupled with cubes of fresh watermelon and finely sliced jalapeños that gave the dish a nice spicy kick. The yellowfin tuna ceviche is served on a bed of seaweed – very interesting and gave it an extra fresh touch.
Our other starter dish was the Scallops, beer pickled cauliflower, XO Sauce. This dish was recommended by waitress – she said it was cooked in their JOSPER oven. The JOSPER oven is only used in a handful of Melbourne restaurants (Donovan’s is the other). It combines the function of an oven and grill, where it can work at high temperatures, sealing the product, smoking and grilling at the same time.
The scallops in this dish was cooked perfectly and still had a bite to it, while the beer pickled cauliflower complemented the dish well. I love the addition of edamame beans to the dish – a fresh pop of green to the dish!
Main & Side Dishes
For my main I chose the Grilles 500g spatchcock, panzanella & basil salad, while Nick chose a 300g Hanger, Black Angus, Ranger’s Valley from the Josper Charcoal Grill menu.
For sides, we shared a Truffled mac & cheese and Polenta Chips, Smoked Salt.
I absolutely loved my spatchcock dish! A generous portion of spatchcock that was cooked to perfection with the meat still tender and beautiful char flavour to it. This was served on a bed of fresh panzanella & basil salad, that consisted of fresh tomatoes, chunks of soaked stale bread, capers, and basil.
Nick had the Hanger, Black Angus Steak from Ranger’s Valley, this was recommended by our lovely waitress. As Nick and I both have never tried a hanger steak before we were quite curious in the taste of it. We were told that the steak has a slight gamey taste to it. Nick chose his steak to be medium rare and served with red wine jus.
The steak was cooked medium rare and was tender – not surprising as it’s the lower belly of the cow.
The side dishes deserves an honourable mention in this blog post, as they were amazing.
Truffled mac and cheese. Mac and cheese is my guilty pleasure, and when it’s truffled mac and cheese, I was in heaven. Very cheesy, and the aromas of the truffle oil was incredible. Highly recommended side!
The polenta chips and smoked salt is another recommended side – the polenta chips were crisp on the outside and moist on the inside and lightly salted with smoked salt.
Desserts
For desserts we had a Christmas Pudding with Brandy Anglaise and Chai Ice-Cream and Beer battered Doughnuts, Cinnamon and Raspberry Jam. Out of the two desserts my favourite was the Christmas Pudding – perfect for the time we went as it was very close to Christmas. I’m usually not a fan of Christmas pudding but this one was moist, not overly sweet and together with the lightly sweetened brandy anglaise and creamy ice-cream it was perfect.
As for the beer battered doughnuts, I found the doughnuts to be slightly undercooked so it tasted rather doughy, however Nick seemed to enjoy it.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food and how spacious The General Assembly was. If you’re in the South Wharf area and you’re looking for a place that serves high quality food using fresh produce and a good beer or two, I would highly recommend the place.
The General Assembly Contact Details
Address: 29 S Wharf Promenade, South Wharf VIC 3006
Phone: (03) 9682 6007
Website: http://thegeneralassembly.com.au/
Social Media: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Things to note: Open for lunch only on Sunday
Peach attended as a guest of The General Assembly. The opinions expressed in this post are based entirely on my experience and observations made during the time of my visit.
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