District Dining ~ Jump On It Deal , Surry Hills

Jump On It Menu - February 2011

By the time this post is up, the Jump On It deal at District Dining is probably over :P

Just had a quick peek at their current menu on their website, looks like all of the items in this reduced special menu is available on their regular a la carte menu, so hopefully this post can still be of some use (I hope....)

Bondeville Blanc

With the voucher, it only costed us $69.00 on a 3 course meal for 2 people, plus you get to choose a bottle of wine.

Excellent value for money especially if you are a wine drinker, unfortunately both of us were not so the good bottle of wine kinda go to waste, we only managed to drank half of it...struggling....

You can choose either a red or a white, we have obviously chose the Bondeville Blanc which had a crisp, sweet fruity flavours and went well with our meal.

Chef's Selection Platter

The first course is a Chef's Selection Platter to share - a selection of 4 of their popular entrees, and I'm so happy to see that the veal tongue is part of the platter. Enjoyed it very much when I had it on the last visit here.

Smoked Eel Pate, Cucumber, Epi Bread

The smoked eel pate was served in a cute sardine tin, it was creamy and love the smokey flavour. Served with a cooling cucumber with dill while the epi bread replaces the usual green onion flatbread that this dish is served with.

Crispy Quail Eggs, Tarragon Mayonnaise, White Anchovy

The egg was fried till crisp but with still oozing centre, the tarragon mayonnaise added a nice herby tang to it, made a pass on the anchovy though, too strong for me :)

Veal Tongue, Pickled Turnip, Salsa Verde, Almonds

The veal tongue once again was a hit ! It was just so tender and melts in your mouth, the pickled vegetables added a nice zing and texture to the dish.

Beetroots, Sumac, Salted Yoghurt, Basil

I actually quite like this plain looking entree, it would have been perfect if our order of bread had came before the platter as it should have.

Turned out they forgot our bread order and we had to inquiry what happen to it after noticing other tables arriving later than us got theirs first.

Back to the salted yoghurt, it was creamy yet clean tasting and very refreshing, the dusting of sumac added extra flavours and the crunchy pickled beetroot and pinenuts was a lovely addition.

Bread  $3.00



A basket of piping hot epi bread served with olive oil and sea salt that came a tad to late - didn't stopped us demolishing them though. Warm crusty bread was just too irresistable.

When it comes to choosing 2 mains out of the 3 options, it was easy :)

Neither of us is a big fan of pasta and olives hehehehehhe.....

Crispy Pork Belly, Watermelon, Cashews, Pickled Daikon

The pork belly though crispy was a tad bland....wished it had more salt to it, non salty pork belly is just not right somehow....

The sweet peanuty dressing was delicious and the pickles goes well with the rich pork belly (seems like pickles is everywhere at District Dining isn't it ?)

Baby Snapper, King Crab, Sweet Corn, Congee

Don't judge the dish by how it looks - and this is a good example of that. It turns out to be the highlight of our lunch !

The fish was cooked perfectly, silky smooth, with nice crisp salty skin. The congee itself was amazing, the combination of sweet corn and the equally sweet king crab with soy sauce was simple but tasted so beautiful !

It's a bit fiddly to share this dish, with the soupy bits...and not to mention you don't want to share it with anyone else - I want the whole plate to myself !!

Crispy School of Prawn w/ Lemon & Mayonnaise  $15.00

We couldn't go pass ordering something extra from the Specials board though, the sound of crispy school of prawns with mayo just sounded too tempting.

The spiciness of the prawns took me by surprise - I thought it would just be salted.

It was indeed a moorish dish, the prawns were crispy, salty, spicy....

Strawberries, Raspberries, Meringue, Vanilla Cream

A.k.a. Eton Mess with raspberry sorbet and sprinkling of pretty flowers :) A dessert that tasted as good as it looks.

There was just a right balance of sweetness and tartness in it, right amount of meringue, strawberries in whipped cream and refreshing frozen raspberries and sorbet.

Buttermilk Pannacotta, Spiced Peaches, Mint

The vanilla bean speckled buttermilk pannacotta was served in the glass jam jar, and served on the side in a sardine tin was cubed peaches with mint and slivers of pistachio.

Not quite sure what was the jelly flavoured with, it was quite non descript - there was a subtle hint of flavours that I just couldn't figure out (frustrating!).

Spiced Peaches

Another satisfying meal at District Dining, I've been here only during lunches (for obvious reason - natural lighting) and also it is less hectic and more relaxed compared to dinner time.
Can't wait for my next visit there :)