Erwin’s Gastrobar Review: Your Favourite New Chill Spot 10 Minutes From Orchard

The new menu reflects modern and alternative takes to traditional Italian dishes while using premium cuts of meat and some of the freshest seafood available. These babies take 3 days of drying, boiling, even more drying and finally frying to achieve this crusty and delicious texture.

As you’d expect when you hear about deep fried pork, these are savoury and delicious. Beef Sliders ($13.50) You know a restaurant takes its food seriously when you find out they make their burger buns in-house.

From the beefy, juicy patty to the sweet tomato and onion chutney, the sliders don’t disappoint. Mac & Cheese Balls ($11) This fun take on an Italian-American classic is breaded and deep fried for maximum texture and taste. The cheese was mild but savoury, and the accompanying tomato dip did a great job cutting through the heaviness of the balls.

Fried Gnocchi ($8.50) These crusty and chewy potato bites are plain on their own, but the basil ricotta dip adds a sweet, herbaceous lightness to the otherwise hefty gnocchi. Salad Medley ($10) As someone who considers salad to be rabbit food much like this guy; Source I usually avoid them at all cost.

You’ll be happy to know though that you can top up you rabbit chow with a selection of meats including prosciutto, tuna, steak and grilled chicken. You’ll be able to choose one of three different salad types: Raw, Roasted and Classic.

My favourite pick was quite surprisingly the Raw, it was a bright salad that looked as exciting as it tastes (as far as salad goes). The avocado dressing was buttery and grassy adding fresh flavours to the salad without overpowering everything and the beets added sweetness.

Main Courses Lamb Burger ($19) Lamb is a pretty unconventional choice for a burger patty, but it pays off in this case. In pesto form, the danger of lamb is that it might be too gamey alone, but the burger does a good job of balancing that out with the savoury cheese and lamb’s life long friend mint. Crayfish Risotto ($18.50) We were excited to try this dish when we saw it on the menu, the idea of a risotto cooked with a seafood stock and fresh crayfish was one we could agree on excitedly.

Dessert Mocha Mousse ($3.50) Erwin’s dessert offerings may be a little scarce, but this particular one stands out. Taking them together is a mixture of warm and cold, as well as earthy and sweet.

Cannoli ($9.50) Erwin’s plays up the classic Italian dessert by swapping the traditional shell with a wafer cone. While it sounds delicious on paper, the flavours came off as too sweet and overwhelming. I’d leave the cannoli and take the doughnut for this particular occasion.