Duck served in style at Sauce Restaurant. Picture: ALICE PROKOPEC Source: The Advertiser
A SMALL suburban restaurant continues to impress with finely tuned winter-sensitive cooking.
If there's anyone who could tell you something about the current state of dining, what people like to eat, whether business is up, down or anywhere around, it would be your small operator, suburban restaurateur.
Someone like Andrew Bruce, the proprietor at Dulwich's The Sauce, and his tiny team of cooks and waiters who admittedly work at the higher end of the spectrum of familiar, local eateries, but who nevertheless would have an all-too-real understanding of the fickle nature of guests, the line where contemporary cuisine becomes too adventurous and turns away the regulars, and the pricing, service and atmosphere equation that works right now in 2009.
Admittedly, The Sauce doesn't do the daggy schnitzel thing, though it serves a casual lunch menu with bruschetta, tuna wrap, a greek salad, steak sandwich and a burger, the latter from wagyu beef and tagging out at $16.50.
The Sauce, however, opens almost every night even in the depths of winter and waits midweek for its small number of tables to fill. It's a measure of dependability that couples come in and share a plate of soup before their favourite television show starts. Or arrive towards the end of the night and grab a glass of bubbles, a couple of desserts and a coffee just before heading home.
If they are just picking the eyes out of the menu to suit their busy lifestyles then it's a shame, as The Sauce is right up there in the kitchen department and deserves to be taken at leisure and in proper hunger.
The stoves are now overseen by a young Shane Piercy, who has been in the same surrounds for a number of years, the past 18 months as head chef. He is the main change to The Sauce's feeding regime in the past three years, with the general demeanor of the dining room still a mix of quirky artwork on the walls and unclad tables, even at dinner.
Such are the personal peccadillos of privateer ownership, though the room feels like it needs some unbiased curating in design and decoration, as does the wine list in parts.
Firstly, the wines by the glass. All begins well with a choice of aperitif including Plymouth Sloe Gin, encouraged by the house manager this night and deservedly so for its rarity and intriguing flavours.
Then there are some weird little quirks: An unrecognised label of chardonnay from Mt Jagged that's then doubled with the same maker, also listed with a pinot noir. The same with a McLaren Vale brand that is barely known but appears twice. Without knowing or offered a tasting of them, who knows what they offer, but with just eight table wines by the glass that's half the choice potentially in the too-hard basket virtually before you even start. The full bottle list, ranging up to a $205 bottle of elite shiraz, is set out with a few style and varietal confusions within informal groupings, and generally the value is in the $40 to $60 mark. Glassware offered stopped at designated XL5 tasting style shapes, but bigger vessels would have been better once the reds came to the table.
Despite these minor quibbles, the rest of an evening at The Sauce is all about the cooking. The menu is in full winter mode now and well conceived to satisfy the needs and produce of the season, local desires, and the latest contemporary cooking fashions, evidenced with the offer of a tasting plate for two, chef's choice, etc, etc.
These are common as muck nowadays, but few have the class of Shane Piercy's, who showcases a few of his entrees in miniature, such as a rich white bean and tomato soup in small sipping cups, and terrific little blue cheese and leek tartlets. Add classic tapas-styled anchovy on red pepper, pickled mushrooms, and superbly pan-cooked medium prawns with a bare shake of spice and you get the idea the kitchen is very serious about what it is doing. Even more so is a black, squid ink ravioli filled with fresh snapper meat and balmain bug meat sitting in a light fish broth lifted with aromatic lemongrass and ginger flavours, ringed with a handful of smartly cooked scallops. It's a bold idea and well negotiated.
The mains are where Piercy leaps to greater heights. A deftly roasted pork loin sits on a bed of kale with pieces of turnip poached in what appears to be cider vinegar, lifting out the core savoury richness of the dish. Wagyu rump pieces sit on a "fondant" of pumpkin with a yorkshire pudding beside them.
A duck breast and confit leg combination seems to be everywhere at the moment and here rates as one of the city's best renditions, crispy skinned, masterfully pan fried, while the leg is shredded into dark rillette slices, all sitting on a succulent parsnip mash.
Desserts stay on the straight and narrow, a creme brulee given texture but little flavour enhancement with diced apple inside. And then sticky date pudding, which seems like such a throwback here but in its suburban setting a genuine crowd pleaser, moist and butterscotch sauced so well even this geriatric of a dish is good.
Therein lies the joy - and challenge - at The Sauce. The cooking is terrific, and is delivered by mature, encouraging staff. Perhaps at dinner a layer of linen over the tables is deserved, bigger glasses placed as standard, and a fuller wine list offered including a wider single glass choice and more Mediterranean styles. But at top-end pricing already, are these extras needed, are they cost effective, and would they ultimately lift the food another notch?
Whatever the answers to those almost academic ponderings, Dulwich's diners are most fortunate to have such a gun chef in their midst.
THE RESTAURANT
THE SAUCE
64 Dulwich Ave, Dulwich
Phone 8364 2310
Lunch: Noon-3pm, Mon-Sat
Dinner: 6pm-10pm, Mon-Sat
Wheelchair access and facilities
Proprietor: Shane Bruce
Head Chef: Shane Piercy
THE VERDICT
THE BILL
Entrees: $15.50-$19.90
Mains: $26.50-$35
Desserts: $12.50-$16.50
Corkage: $16
SUMMARY
A welcoming suburban restaurant with a lunchy feel but much greater achievement from the kitchen than first may be expected. Highly sophisticated cooking, mature service and a well-thought-out seasonal menu put this up there with Adelaide's best.
SCORE 16/20
Score guide: Below 10: Awful. 11-12: Fair. 13-14: Good. 15-16: Special. 17-18: Outstanding. 19: Brilliant. 20: Perfect.
