Dinner fit for Royalty at 2KW

Food fit for a King and Queen.

That is one way to describe how amazing the food was on a Wednesday night at 2KW. It was my partners birthday and we wanted to celebrate in style. We booked a hotel room, picked out some very expensive wine, dressed up and took ourselves out for an amazing meal.

If you haven't had the pleasure of dining at 2KW before then I suggest you head over there straight away. The menu is designed to share, so it is best to take a few friends along so you get to try a few things out. I have to come out and say that my partner actually works there, so I could be slightly biased but I have also eaten there before he started and thoroughly enjoyed the food. Even with that being said, I know the food is amazing so look below for all fantastic food and wine we enjoyed.

Donny's Pink Pants

Dinner couldn't start without pre dinner drinks. My partner started with a beer while I choose to try a cocktail from their new selection. Made with Raicilla, pomegranate molasses, strawberry and lime. Sweet, sticky and viscous, this drink has a heavy feel in the mouth and coats every inch. It is a little sour which balances out the sweetness stopping this drink from becoming overbearing. The rim is salted adding a nice touch. I liked it both with the salt and without, it changed the tone of the drink when you added the saltiness to the sweet and sour elements.

Eye Fillet Tartare

You would have never got me eating steak tartare before I met my partner. I was the kind of girl who liked her steak cooked well done and would have never dared to try a dish such as this. Over the last few years my tastes have opened up and this is one of the nicest steak tartare I have ever had the pleasure of eating. The eye fillet melts away in your mouth, whilst the egg yolk adds a delicate richness and the dehydrated olives bring a brightness that helps the dish from becoming overwhelming. The best way to eat this is on the crisp bread with some yummy potatoes on top. Every bite just gets better and better, then suddenly it's over.

Charcuterie

Oh my goodness this was phenomenal! Zesty and bright lemon gel, walnuts, spicy and sweet poached quince, creamy Jerusalem artichoke puree and perfectly cured prosciutto. It came with some soft, squishy bread and we piled everything on it. As you take a bite each flavour melds together in harmony and then little bursts of the individual elements flash across your tastebuds. Give everything a taste on its own and then eat it all together to get the most out of this dish. I could have savoured this dish for hours, just taking small bites of everything to make it last longer. The Chefs really out did themselves putting these elements together to create a harmonious dish.

Cream Corn Polenta

This was the dish of the night for me. I could eat this every single day and not get tired of it. Silky smooth corn polenta, crisp salty pieces of speck, 3 different types of mushroom - king brown, oyster and enoki, toasted corn bread and a fresh egg yolk. When you get the dish the first thing you do is break the yolk and then mix everything together to make the most comforting dish I have had. It is the perfect winter warmer and comfort food that has been elevated to another level by the care and skills of the Chefs. The dish is rich but not overpowering, it warms you down to your soul. I am not a mushroom lover so I picked most of the larger ones out and gave them to my partner but I still enjoyed the few that I tasted. They had a subtle flavour and if you aren't a fan like me, I do recommend giving this a try. When you hit a salty piece of speck you feel like you have struck gold and there will be a fight over who gets the last piece. I daydream about how delicious this was, I hope I'm lucky enough to be able to try it again before the menu changes.

Roasted Pork Jowl

with sherry glazed clams, oyster mushrooms and speck

Sides: Triple cooked salt and vinegar potatoes.

Roasted carrot and leek, green pumpkin seed sauce, leaves and annatto oil

Now there was nothing wrong with this dish. It was cooked to perfection, the pork was tender and juicy, the clams weren't overpowering and the glaze was sticky and delicious. I just personally would have chosen the chicken instead. As it was my partners birthday, it was his choice and he really wanted to eat this. Whilst it wasn't my favourite dish of the night it certainly was cooked perfectly and if you love sticky pork that's soft, tender and rich in flavour then I highly recommend this dish. The salt and vinegar chips were something I have been waiting to try since I heard about them being on the menu. Salt and Vinegar are my favourite flavour of chips and I'm very fussy about them as I have been disappointed in the past when people have put them on the menu and they turned out to have almost no flavour. These were some of the best chips I've ever had, coated with flavour they added a nice balance to the pork dish. They didn't let me down on the flavour front and had a good vinegar to salt ratio. The only change I would make to the flavour, is to have them more acidic. After eating a few they tend to get a little sweet and I would love to see more of a tang to them, but other then that small change these were fantastic. The carrots and leek was another fantastic side, the leeks being my favourite. You only need a small amount of the green pumpkin puree as it is extremely flavourful and goes well with the carrots. A great winter vegetable side dish and one I would be happy to enjoy again.

Dessert

We decided that both of us were feeling so full that we could only share a dessert between us. I had wanted to try the Redskin ice-cream so we ordered the Raspberry, Rhubarb smash. It came out on a large plate with beautiful chocolate writing in the words Happy Birthday. The ice-cream is amazing, it taste just like the redskin lollies and surprisingly isn't too sweet either. The fruit and the spiced biscuit added balance to the dessert which stopped it from being overwhelming. This dish was the cherry on the top of one of the most amazing meals we have had in a long time. 

The Wine

Krug

2002 Krug Brut, Champagne, France

 A champagne like no other I've ever had before. We had bought this for a special occasion and we couldn't have picked a better time. Both of us have been working hard with new jobs and responsibilities so it was nice to have something extra special to look forward to on his birthday. I didn't know what to expect from this champagne and was excited to try it. It was highly effervescent, intensely bready, which surprised me but in the most pleasant of ways. Like a lot of wines this changed whether it was paired with food or not. The notes became almost spicy, with the food bringing out different characteristics in the champagne, the bready notes settled down allowing more of the fruity notes to burst forth onto your palate. A fantastic long lasting champagne that you will remember for a long time.

A few thoughts below form my partner about the wine

A sommelier by occupation, he is extremely passionate about all things wine.  

"What struck me the most when I first put the glass to my nose was the intense bread and biscuit characters flowing out of the glass combined with beautiful fruit aromas and an intense lift made this an amazing first impression. Upon tasting it I was immediately blown away by the sheer intensity of this champagne. Fresh apple and pear notes, brioche and gingerbread characters combining for a complex intense wine that continues lingering long after your mouth is empty.

Krug is one of the most highly regarded champagne houses in the world and 2002 was a vintage considered by many as one of the best in recent memory. Like all bottles of Krug this one came with an ID number on the back of the bottle, you can enter this number into the Krug App and find all the interesting details of that particular bottle of wine, adding a very personal touch. This wine was absolutely true to that hype, whilst I'm sad the bottle is gone, I was thrilled to have experienced it."

2014 Joh. Jos. Prüm Welhener Sonnenuhr Spätlese, Mosel, Germany

This wine has the funkiest smell I have ever smelt in a wine. It's hard to describe and if you aren't expecting it, it can be a shock. Once you are used to the smell you start to pick up fruiter notes and suddenly the funky smell starts to make your mouth water. Once you take a sip this wine sings on your tongue, it's like liquid gold. The notes are citrusy with a honeyed sweetness, all balanced out with a levelled acidity. There is still a little note of that funkiness but it just sits pleasantly in the background. I could drink this wine forever and never get tired of it.

Now for my partners thoughts

"This wine holds a very special place in my heart, one of the first few premium Rieslings I ever tasted, this wine shows exactly how amazing this grape can be. As soon as the aroma hit my nose I recognised the wine's trademark funkiness, it has an odd character that can not really be perfectly explained its certainly not offensive and once you move past it you get exciting fresh lemon lime and honeyed apricot notes. On the palate zesty lime, fresh apple and honeyed apricots are prevalent, there is an inherent fresh sweetness balanced out with mouth watering acidity that leaves you feeling refreshed.

Joh. Jos. Prüm, affectionately known as "J.J.", is one of the highest rated Riesling producers in the Mosel and indeed the world, producing a large range of Riesling from various sites. Welhener Sonnenuhr is one of those sites, across the river from the town of Welhen the 'Sundial' vineyard is planed on an incredibly steep hill, which requires the vineyard to tended to and harvested 100% by hand."

Cocktails at Hains & Co

We couldn't end the night without having an amazing Charlie Chaplin cocktail at Hains & Co. A fantastic bar hidden in the lane ways of Adelaide, it has a great nautical theme, amazing selection of gins and meticulously made cocktails. Sweet, zesty with a vanilla undertone this little glass packs a punch. One of the best Charlie Chaplin's I have been lucky to have. It was the perfect end to what had already been a perfect evening.