Doot Doot Doot (Merricks North - Mornington Peninsula) 01/2018

 This contemporary Australian restaurant is part of the Jackalope hotel, described in it's blurb as a "delicate interplay between the ideal and the surreal, delivered through boldly curated installations and collaborations with some of the world's principal designers." It is something quite special which is why they can charge $650 + per night. That does include breakfast!

They have two restaurants, The Rare Hare, a wine bar shared plate venue and Doot Doot Doot which is upmarket dining. 

This continues the designer theme with a 10,000 globe chandelier which represents fermenting fluid,  you can almost feel the bubbles,

only upside down. 

It took a week to put the globes in and only a small proportion of them are alight at any one time. They brighten and dim to add to that bubbllng atmosphere. It's hard to capture this with a small camera but a look at their web site will show something of its magnificence

 It is a dark space otherwise with contemporary black furniture and some tables barely large enough for two plates.

The menu here changes so often, every few days they tell us, that it's not worth expanding too much on particular dishes. It's a six course set menu with extras, oysters, cheese plate, if you like. You can have matched wines, or juices.

We started with Port Douglas oysters ($5) which were as good as they get, exceptionally tasty.

Vegetables 3.0

Not much to see but they tasted good

They go in for unintelligible , or at least incomprehendible, descriptions of the wines with these dishes

A Tasmanian treasure blending three unlikely grapes.

Spanner  Crab, Potato, Furikake, 

I got no instructions about eating the rather hardy leaf so I didn't try but the rest of it was a go to dish.

Bottatarga - Japanese grapes? A treat from high up in the mountains.

Evidently they have been growing grapes in Japan for centuries, and making wine. Duck, Strawberry, Rye

Cloudy rose wine from the border of Hungary and Austria

The last wine this legend made, his son is carrying on the family business.

The menu gave us a choice.

Beef XO

Barramundi, Pickles, Vermouthor

Sandra chose the fish - I should have too.

A serve of cheese.

Followed by a surprise, sweet as sugar black plum with an almond  (amoretto) filling.

And then dessert. 

Chocolate Cherries

And a classic Mclaren Vale Aussie blend.

A 10 year old Madeira which I enjoyed, but Sandra did not so they kindly gave her a Vouvray.

They do have an extremely interesting wine menu, prettily presented,

and it is not excessively marked up compared to some of their neighbours. They are also generous with the matched wines giving about 120 ml for each serve.

Comments A very sophisticated meal in a very sophisticated setting. Zalto glassware, the best you can get, and Leon cutlery all add to the total experience.

Score:17.5/20