07 Mar Element Restaurant & Events, Lower Plenty

Located not too far from the CBD, Element Restaurant doubles as an wedding and event space. I attended a wedding reception here, which provided me the opportunity to try out a number of dishes. It had a lovely vibe going, being classy but also providing a relaxed environment.

The night kicked off with two canapes: the pumpkin risotto was a little dry and could have done with a little more salt, while the chicken ribs with accompanying soy-based sauce were almost the opposite – tender, juicy and tasty.

Both the entrees for today were seafood-based. Dense and meaty scallops were accompanied by a salad of poached Balmain bug and potato, with a micro leaf salad and ruby grapefruit dressing. The salad wasn’t bad, but I’m generally not a fan of creamy seafood and/or potato salads so I tired of it after a while. The snap-fried local calamari was finely floured and reminded me of fried white-bait.

The somewhat crispy skinned salmon was slightly overdone and needed a bit more seasoning. I wasn’t too sure about the combination of the slightly sour cream sauce, green pea puree and tomato-based prawn ragout, though I did quite like the flavours of the ragout.

Though unevenly cooked, the Riverina Black Angus Sirloin was tender and flavourful, even without adding much of the jus. I personally preferred this over the salmon.

Onto dessert! First up was the home-baked apple strudel w. double cream and caramel sauce. The tender slices of apple enveloped in flaky pastry was well received. The flourless chocolate cake was my favourite dish for the night. It was moist, dense and moreish and the vanilla bean ice cream and berry coulis were perfect for breaking up the richness of the cake.

There were a few hits and misses but overall the guests tonight had a good impression of the quality of food, especially given a tendency towards low expectations of wedding reception cuisine.

Element Restaurant & Events
410 Main Rd
Lower Plenty, VIC, 3093
(03) 9439 9941
http://www.elementrestaurant.com.au/