The evening was off to a good start; torrential rain and nobody had seemed to get the memo about building an ark. It took us close to an hour and a half to get from Redfern station to Darlinghurst, a journey that should take no longer than five minutes… that’s how ghastly the traffic was. We finally arrive and see we have not really picked a great venue for weather like this. Universal is an open restaurant, with a large portion of seating outdoors under a canopy. It’s 12 degrees and flooding. Not a great choice, but thankfully we are seated inside and have full view of the side-show that is a waiter with pole, pushing the water along the canopy so it cascades off, before the whole thing collapses. How delightful. Dinner and a show! Meanwhile, this is certainly the first time I have dined at a chef’s-hatted restaurant in gum boots and an eskimo jacket.
I had been wanting to come to Universal for a long time and now that I was finally here, I was rather excited. The cocktail menu is fabulous! We started with a Bitch Slap: Havana Club Blanco Rum, Mt. Gay XO Rum, Vanilla Bean, Lime, Peach and Ginger Beer. Very piratey and summery and delicious!
The menu is structured around entree sized portions and the idea is to get a bunch of them and share. This is what we did. The menu is mostly Asian inspired, however there is an odd 30% of the menu that isn’t Asian inspired, and seems rather out of place. It all sounds amazing, but just doesn’t seem to be a cohesive, flowy menu.
We start with the braised octopus, persian feta, white anchovy, watermelon, green chili and mint. Fresh and clean. Forgive my photos. It looks like we dined on the sun. There was not much light and the light there was, turned everything a lovely shade of molten.
Next we had the seared sea scallop, green asparagus tempura, lotus root, edamame and wasabi avocado. There were only two scallops in this dish… “Oh, there were only two scallops…” says my friend somewhat surprised. I got to eat the tempura vegetables, which were lovely, but two scallops?! Come on, Christine! At least make it an even three!
Next up was the hiramasa kingfish, steamed mud crab, palm heart and spiced coconut broth. This had a good amount of bite and heat to it, perfect fare for this blustery, tempestuous night.
My friend then had the Sichuan pepper mandarin duck and XO chili. Apparently it was amazing.
Finally, I had the surface ripened goats cheese, black truffle mushroom tortellini with gruyere chantilly. This was the hero dish of the night. Just delicious. But really out of place amongst all the other dishes… Delicious but confusing. Excuse the photo. It looks nothing more than a Salvador Dali-esque melting fortune cookie, but I assure you it was stunning!
Desserts! This is where things got even more confusing. Unlike most of the food which was Asian inspired, the desserts are decidedly Western. I opted for the “gaytime goes nuts”: honeycomb icecream, caramel parfait, chocolate crunch, salted hazelnut caramel. All the classic flavours of that childood classic Golden Gaytime Icecream, but catapulted into the modern era with panache and flair.
My friend had the “adam’s downfall” which was baked cinnamon apple galette, buttermilk honey custard and green apple sorbet. I swiped a spoonful. Yum. Nothing says winter like apple and cinnamon. I stand firmly by this.
Although I enjoyed Universal, I would not rush back there. It gets very pricey ordering several entree sized dishes, some of them more expensive than mains at other top restaurants. The staff was attentive and made for completely enjoyable dining experience. When it was time to leave, thankfully the rain had stopped. Splish splosh.
