Academy Kitchen & Bar

Located on Bridge Road, Academy Kitchen is in the fast growing section past Church Street. It is headed up by Will Manning (impressive Chef Hat CV including The Botanical)

Melbourne Glutton and I decided to spend our Saturday night here. We weren't sure what to expect as Academy is not fine dining the same way that Botanical was, but Will's background is fine dining, either way we were both very excited. There was quite a few things on the menu that excited us but it was hard to choose so we decided to leave it up to them to feed us.

To start we got Oysters natural with mignonette. The oyster was fresh and creamy, we only got 2. I think I could have eaten half a dozen by myself.

Salt and Pepper Calamari came after. This came with orange, fennel and chilli mayonnaise. It was golden yellow. I liked the citrus pairing with the chilli mayo, it was refreshing yet creamy.

Next starter was Duck and Truffle Parfait. With chutney and toasted brioche, it was devine. I love all things fatty and bad for me. This hit that spot, the smooth buttery parfait with the brioche was so good, we asked for extra brioche so no parfait went to waste.

For pasta we got Goats Cheese Tortellini. It was served with ratatouille and tomato foam. The fresh made pasta was perfectly cooked and ratatouille balanced out the goat cheese to give a well rounded mouthful.

Mains we got Pan Roasted Snapper served with dragoncello, fried potatoes and green tomato salad. The snapper was crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. The fried potatoes were a guilty pleasure too.

Dessert was Tiramisundae. This was made up of coffee mascarpone, marsala soaked sponge and chocolate sorbet. It was decadent and full of rich coffee aromas. If I wasn't so full, I would have finished the whole thing on my own.

Other dessert we shared was Ricotta terrine. It came with lemon mousse, figs and pistachios. Personally I am not a big fig fan so I was biased and went towards the tiramisundae more. MG enjoyed it so between the 2 of us, we made sure we have a good balance amount of dessert in our belly.

Overall I was very happy I got this invite. The food was better than I anticipated and I can't wait to take D back to try more things on the menu.