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6:58AM Sunday 05 July, 2009

Dining for the locals

15 January 2009

| By Ann Rickard

It couldn’t have been a nicer culinary way to start a new year: the announcement of berardo’s locals’ nights. A three-course dinner for just $35 in five-star surroundings is good news indeed.

But it gets better. There is a glass of good red or white wine included in the price. The menu is available every night of the week except Saturday.

While the offer might be cut-price, the food, stylish atmosphere and attentive service are not. Just because you pay $35 for three courses does not mean there will be shortcuts.

The menu will change weekly (on Sunday evenings) so we can’t tell you what to expect, but we can tell you what we had.

Our menu started with a Persian fetta, rocket and apple salad with a cherry vinaigrette.

We loved the crumbly texture of the fetta with the little crunch of wafer thin slices of apple. The cherry vinaigrette added a little sweetness against the saltiness of the cheese. It was a simple yet excellent start, and with the good bread roll and Lurpak butter (a French creamed butter) we were reassured there would be no scrimping just because this was the locals’ special.

The main course of shredded beef cheek and tomato braise with parmesan gnocchi, I’d like to believe was made especially for me. I love the richness of melt-in-mouth beef cheek and I adore little pillows of good gnocchi laced with parmesan. Chef Shaun Morris told us later he put the beef cheeks on the menu deliberately in spite of them being perceived as a winter dish.

“It was a bit of a risky one,’’ he said.

“But I wanted the menu to reflect comfort food. To get people eating the things they enjoy.’’

The beef cheeks were braised for more than three hours in a red wine base with tomatoes, chilled overnight, broken up and then put back into the rich braise.

We drank a Shaw & Smith Sauvignon Blanc with this main course and loved it, even though a big red wine probably should have been our choice. (There are endless varieties on berardo’s wine list.)

Finally a dessert of chocolate fondant scattered with a sugar crumble and showered with a grape musk.

A fondant is a glorified rich chocolate mousse, and a generous scoop of it was more than enough. The grape musk – like a fortified wine – cut through the rich chocolate perfectly.

Only one of us at the table ordered coffee (not included in the $35 price), but the kitchen sent out four beautiful petit fours with it so we could each enjoy a tiny chocolate case filled with chocolate brioche.

Of course, the berardo’s a la carte menu runs every night and we will go back to enjoy it. But, for this time, we loved being locals enjoying the locals’ special.

IF YOU GO:

berardo’s, Hastings Street, Noosa.

Fully licensed. Opened for dinner.

Phone: 5447 5666. www.berardos.com.au

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