QUICK BITE
What: Scotties
Where: 38 Scott Street, Newcastle
Prices: Entrees all $17; mains all $28; desserts all $14
Chef: Jerarmie Heywood
Wines: BYO
Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 7am til late, Sunday, 7am 7pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Extras: Steamed green beans, green salad, hand-cut fries, $5 (small), $8 (large)
Vegetarian: Not on menu but ask when booking
Bookings: 4926 3780
Bottom line: Entree, main, dessert about $120, plus drinks, for two
Mention Scotties and the response is invariably: 'Isn't that the fish and chips shop in Scott Street?' Well, no, not any more or at least not completely.
You can still get jolly good fish and chips at the side door to eat at the outdoor tables but inside, tables are set ready for some more elegant dining and waiters are ready to take your order.
Chef Jerarmie Heywood's market-driven menu is designed around what's in season and readily available. So it's sensible to use a blackboard rather than a paper format.
Tonight there are five entrees and five mains, mostly of the fishy persuasion, with a quail entree and a Nolan grass-fed rump steak to keep your carnivore mate happy. Then there's the nod to surf and turf. Pork belly and scallops ($17) is one of those seemingly weird combinations that really work but it takes an adventurous chef to put snapper fillet with confit forequarter lamb ($28).
The pork belly is a perfect cube of spoon-tender lean meat and crisp skin, topped with a fanned slice of caramelised fennel. Two scallops sit at 10 o'clock and two o'clock, the whole dish united with smear of pear puree and a line of reduced balsamic vinegar.
Lamb confit provides a supporting role to the crisp-skinned snapper; more of a rich sauce containing pieces of melt-in-the mouth lamb, modified by lightly pickled onion and caper berries. Heywood's dishes are light on carbs but this one has a small amount of potato puree. You can always order a dish of hand-cut fries to share if you need more.
I love the way beetroot has left the tin and returned as a vegetable in its own right. In the sardines escabeche ($17) its earthy flavours go particularly well with the crisp-fried and lightly marinated fresh sardines; another escapee from the cannery. Baby cos leaves provide crunch and colour contrast beautiful ingredients simply prepared.
While Hiramasa kingfish is making appearances everywhere it's not always handled so well. It is so easy to overcook and turn into cardboard. Not here though. The skin is "crispy", as described on the menu, and the delicate white flesh is moist and tender. A splodge of saffron gazpacho makes for a tangy and colourful sauce with creamy white beans providing some starch. A definite umami note (savoury flavour) is introduced by dehydrated olives.
With a largely protein-heavy menu it's pretty easy to fit in dessert as well. And thank goodness for that. There are just four, but even so it's hard to choose. Will it be the white chocolate mousse with berry consommee, the saffron semifreddo with truffle honey syrup or the trio of house-made ice-creams chocolate honeycomb, chocolate swirl and raspberry swirl?
Vanilla champagne sabayon is so thick and frothy the toffee-coated poached pear appears to float ($14). The wine-flavoured sabayon is a perfect foil to the sweet pear and intense caramel. In a word, yum.
Yes, Scotties still has fish and chips, but now there's so much more.
Email a friend