Review: Rockpool on George, The Rocks

For my birthday a few weeks ago, K booked us a table at Rockpool on George as a special treat.

The dishes we sampled were:

• Chirashi zushi of kingfish, snapper, prawn, squid, scallop, abalone and flathead
• Tasmanian lobster, scrambled eggs, lobster essence, shaved kombu and seaweed
• Butter poached calamari with broad beans, oats, bone marrow and ham
• Chinese roast pigeon with king prawn, smoked eggplant, black mushroom and cucumber pickle with XO sauce
• Fish grilled over rushes, iceberg lettuce, pearl balls, onions and red date infusion
• Passionfruit souffle, passionfruit ice-cream
• Vacherin of pandan custard, coconut parfait, jasmine sorbet and lime granita

I’m sitting here trying to think of ways to describe these dishes. I’m coming up with phrases like “the perfect fusion of Western and Asian flavours”, and “the subtle juxtaposition of different textures”, or “it simply melts in your mouth as you indulge in a little mouth-gasm”, and truthfully, I feel like all these phrases have all been used before. Everyone knows that Rockpool on George is an amazing restaurant – it’s got three chef’s hats and it’s one of the top restaurants in the world!

We had an amazing meal, that really goes without saying. It’s the type of food perfection that everyone needs to indulge in at least once in their lives even if they don’t like fancy restaurants, because it’s a real experience in itself.

What blew me away however, was simply the individualised service. We chatted easily with our waiter for the evening and had some good recommendations from the sommelier. But the real finishing touch was when they brought out a tiny little chocolate cake with a birthday candle in a cylinder of spun sugar as a surprise, to mark my birthday.

The symbolism is far weightier than the actual cake itself. It symbolises their attention to detail, with our waiter taking the time to get to know us as a couple and to find out why we were there that night. It symbolises their readiness to make our special night that much more special. Most of all, it symbolises how they value each individual customer and strive to make them happy. Those are the values that make Rockpool what it is.

Overall, I rate Rockpool on George a 9.9 out of 10…and I only take off that .1 of a point for the sake of my reputation as a reviewer!