Wine Room
Level 2 in Manly Greenhouse
36-38 Steyne
Manly, Sydney
Wine Room is a great new Basque inspired venture on the second floor of Manly Greenhouse. The room itself is calm, relaxed and elegantly casual. then there are the views! It’s located right across the road from Manly’s iconic beach and its raised position certainly captures the sights beautifully. There are actually three floors here including a rooftop area and Wine Room is the middle level. This new venture from Craig Hemmings and James Evangelinos is impressive.
We decided to start our evening with cocktails. It just fits here even though their wine list - as you may have guessed - is impressive. Mlady being a fan of coffee went with the Cafe Carlito - Patron reposado coffee infused tequila in Campari and sweet vermouth. It was a really nice combination with a subtle coffee taste. It also looked so good with the large square ice cube prominently in the glass.
Sir had the Sloe Jazz - pineapple infused corazob blanco, haymans sloe gin, grapefruit oleo and lime. There was a lovely garnish of dried pineapple holding court while protruding up from the glass. Sir thoroughly enjoyed his refreshing tasty cocktail.
A serving of house made bread arrived at the table. It was still warm, smelled great and tasted divine. It came with a fruity and flavoursome South Australian olive oil made with a Spanish grape. So moreish! We had originally decided to just have one slice each to nibble but ate the lot!
We had a few starters and both loving oysters, we had to try these. They were Sydney Rock oysters with sherry vinegar and Basque pepper. Yes we did remember to squeeze the lemon! OMG, these were delicious! The vinegerette and lemon went perfectly and we loved them.
White Anchovies are also a very big favourite of ours so of course we tried these to. They arrived on corn bread with onion and coriander. It goes without saying - white anchovies are are winner - but the corn bread and tangy herb mix was a great fit. It was soft with a light crunch and had a lovely salty seafood flavour that the onion and coriander complemented so well.
Anything that has duck and/or Pedro Ximenez in it - Sir just has to have. It was a done deal at once! This dish had gilled duck liver with Pedro Ximenez (a sweet Spanish sherry )and sage. It was a lovely tasty dish with a lot of flavour and the duck liver was cooked perfectly to a tender and juicy texture. This was one of Sirs favourite dishes.
The chargrilled bay squid with Parmesan, chilli and lemon was another vibrant and super tasty dish. The chargrilled bay squid was beautifully soft and tender. All the ingredients went so well together. This was yet another really good sharing dish that we both really enjoyed.
Mlady loves fish so she had the butterfly King George Whiting with capers and white wine.It was an impressive looking dish and was also cooked perfectly. The flesh was soft and juicy and mixing it with the capers gave it a really great salty sweet taste sensation. Mlady thoroughly enjoyed this.
Still with the duck theme, Sir had aged duck breast, grilled radicchio and duck jus. The duck was perfectly cooked, tender, pink and juicy. This dish had so much flavour and texture that it ticked all the box’s for Sir. Put a bit of everything on your fork for an incredible taste sensation!
We just had to try their duck fat potatoes. How good were these! They were beautifully crispy on the outside yet also had nice soft fluffy centres. It was hard to stop eating them - and we didn’t stop! .
Indulging in a few lovely red wines , Sir had Ravensmith Pinot Gris from the Canberra District ACT. This wine actually looked like a Rose! Mlady had Bodegas del Abad ‘Dom Bueno’ Mencia Birezo, SPA. Sir also had another tasty red - Vina Pomal Centenario, Crianzo Tempranillo Rloja SPA. It’s well worth spending some time looking through the wine list here. There is a great range available from a well curated selection!
Managing to just fit in dessert, we decided to share two. Oh we do like cheesecake so we had the Basque cheesecake with roasted fig. We’ve had the cheesecake at La Vina in San Sebastian, rated best in the world, and were really keen to try this version. Sensibly, they’ve gone for a variation, delivering a light soft cheesecake with goats cheese added still creating those great traditional flavours we know and love.
We also shared Baba- vin santo, chantilly cream with warm valrhona chocolate sauce. The chocolate sauce came in a cute little ‘saucepan’ and was then drizzled all over this tasty dessert. We both enjoyed our desserts that were so visually and actually appetising.
After dessert we had what is similar to ‘after dinner mints’ but it was not minty. It was macadamia and peanut brittle which was magnificent. We loved the toffee crunch. It was a lovely way to end our delicious meal.
This is a sophisticated and comfortable venue where the food is fresh, simple and not overdone and the quality ingredients do all the talking. A brilliant idea at Wine Room is that you can have smaller portions of some of the mains which are on the menu. It really fits in to their Basque tapas concept so well.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Manly Greenhouse. Big thank you to General Manager Craig Hemmings for taking time from his busy schedule to chat with us and provide insight into this amazing venue and it’s food. Thank you also to Restaurant Manager Maureen Er for also taking time with us. Both bring a wealth of experience. Thanks also to Cat for looking after us on the night. Special thanks to Rebecca from hospitality PR firm Darling Crackles for arranging this lovely visit.