Tonight was the opening night of Rosetta, the latest offering from Neil Perry of The Rockpool Group…read more-- and it was fantastic! We were the first booking, and I was the first in the door when the opened to the public -- a more complete review will follow, but, I wanted to get this into Yelp as soon as possible.
The staff is a mix of Sydney Rockpool Group staff, The Waiting Room staff, as well as staff from Spice Temple and Rockpool Bar and Grill Melbourne -- and, of course, some new faces. They are still finding their way with the layout, the menu, and each other, but tonight's opening was truly a joy to behold.
Pictures and more to follow, and I would give this 5 stars, but I felt that being opening night there is always something to learn and improve upon.
Neil Perry was present for the evening, and was a fantastic host. Those of us who are "fans" will feel right at home. The menu is focussed, delicious, traditionally inspired, but creatively enhanced. The wine list is just right for the venue, and the desserts, well, YES PLEASE ALL OF THE ABOVE.
Right, that's it for now. Really, just, wow, great start to what I truly hope will be a fantastic addition to Melbourne's foodie landscape. Great job Neil and crew, looking forward to the next visit!
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Update December 31st 2012:
My wife and I have just finished our last meal of the year at Rosetta and it was the best yet. The entire meal was flawless; three hours of the best wine, food and service that you can get in Melbourne. I promised to update the review as soon as the crew had hit their stride, and boy, have they.
There's a sense of flow between the staff and the location that only comes as people get to know one another and their environment. They know how to duck and weave, how to give way to patrons, to people carrying food and drink, and this "coming together" is reflected in all parts of Rosetta now.
For dinner we started by sharing the Insalata di Mare - both my wife and I loved every bite, but the scampi was probably our mutual highlight here.
Next, we shared one of the primi dishes: Tagliarini Neri. Described as "Hand picked warm mud crab with fresh chilli and lemon zest" the dish is likely one of the more complicated ones to prepare -- that hand picking is tedious work, and the server did say that since it's not done by machine, there may be a bit or two in the mix that isn't expected. We were more than fine with that, and in our case, no issues. The pasta was absolutely perfect and we both found ourselves using bits of bread to get as much of the lemon/oil as possible. This was probably our favourite dish at Rosetta to date.
My wife went with the Maccheroni Giganti and I went with the Anatra - they slightly changed it, now it is served with braised cherries; last time we visited it was peaches and vinaigrette. I must say, I preferred it with the cherries. The skin was crispy, the flavour spectacular.
We finished with some of the gelato (wow), and of course had a bottle of wine with our meal - but the experience at Rosetta has, to us, reached that level of enjoyment that is about far more than just the meal itself, it's the interaction with the staff, the way they truly seem to enjoy their jobs, and how much we look forward to going back as soon as we can.