Opened for 10 years, a year after Cumulus Inc now. A mission to offer top end dining, yet you feel relaxed without feeling out of place if you’ve dressed up or down. As you approach Gertrude St of Fitzroy, you see casual dining table and chairs outside, that day was filled with many people unwinding for a drink after work. High ceilings and large windows made us feel very welcomed, and right at the door was someone ready to help me with my reservation.
You can see how busy it was when we visited for dinner from 6.15pm on a Tuesday.
And the usual we ordered non-alcoholic cocktails, I had the better pick this time, it was a faux pinot, strong depth in flavour (pomegranate and spice from star anise and brewed earl grey). J ordered the Italian Orange Spritz.
Italian Orange Spritz, $14
Faux Pinot, $10
Complimentary dish as a appetiser, lightly fried tomato based crackers with delicious salsa.
Bread also came as complimentary, they came out warm, and as we tore the bread apart in quarters, we saw the steam come out. The bread was delicious with the umami butter, the other salted butter was a little too salty for me. I enjoyed the umami butter, it had a sweet aftertaste. Cutler & Co was so generous with bread and butter, when they offered us seconds they gave us new quenelle butter.
We ordered the Yellowfin tuna crudo, Tasmanian wasabi, finger lime & celery, $34, it was very fresh with very little flavouring. The dish looks small below, but that’s because they plated in two for our convenience. Love it when restaurants do this for us. Not only is it prettier than us grabbing off each other’s plates, but it’s not as messy. J could taste the wasabi flavour from his dish, but I couldn’t. I could taste the celery more in the dish. J preferred this entree, whereas I enjoyed the Asparagus and Pistachio Entree.
Jonella farm asparagus, pistachio, egg yolk, black garlic & rye $32
A vegetarian dish, but I enjoyed the black garlic addition bringing a stronger tastes than just veggies. The finely sliced asparagus were crunchy, never had asparagus like this before. Crispy pistachio in fine bits and pistachio puree were really good to dip the asparagus with. The egg yolk was thick and I just mixed it with the puree.
For mains we ordered the O’Conner Rib Eye of 1.1 kg, with house made mustard, shaved cabbage and fennel salad, $180. We were advised upon ordering that it would take 1 hour to prepare and checked if that was OK with us. We thought we were fine, we were very hungry at 6.30pm and could take our time… but I think we had a lot of bread and two entrees got us half full…
My first bite of the rib eye was quite chewy. But after my next piece it was fine. I think it depends on which part I pick. Lightly grilled on the outer and blue to medium rare inside. It’s not very common we eat blue. We weren’t asked how we want our meat cooked, so if you can’t take blue meat, i’d suggest to speak with the waiter first.
My favourite sauce to dip was the yellow mustard. Sour enough to keep me going with the enormous amount of meat we ordered. Shaved cabbage and fennel salad were great, I couldn’t have any more of the meat, but I could continue bit by bit with the salad. Finely shaved and easy to eat.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it to dessert. There were two other desserts we wanted to try but just didn’t have any more room for it. The waiter mentioned we can have dessert next time at the front of restaurant if we don’t want to have the full dining experience.
Service was brilliant, ambience was very warming, both of us had a great time. I’m still longing for the desserts I couldn’t get to try. So I’ll definitely revisit just to be completely content.
Location: 55-57 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
Website: https://www.cutlerandco.com.au
NoWongFood Rating:Service: 5/5Ambience: 5/5Entree: 4/5 Mains: 4/5Dessert: N/ABeverage: 4/5Overall: 22/25
★★★★