[Mermaid Beach] Little Truffle

Little Truffle Dining Room & Bar
2444 gold coast highway, corner Bondi avenue
Mermaid beach 4218
07 55 265 033

Web: Little Truffle

After leaving Kingscliff, we made our way to Tweed Heads to have a look at the oyster farm. Alas, the place was closed :-(.


Birds Bay Oyster Farm

Lunch was at Little Truffle.



Classical dining room

There was a choice of either 'Modern' or 'Classical' dining room to choose from. Personally I prefer the 'Classical' because of the presence of table cloth. We went back another time to sit in the 'Modern dining room', it was pleasant but without table cloth the cutleries keep sliding everywhere around the table, quite annoying. However, 'Classical dining room' is near the back alleyway door whick keep opening and closing when the chef went in and out to get into the pantry/cool room, quite annoying too.

We went for lunch and they have a simple lunch menu; two courses $35, three courses $42, both comes with a glass of wine.


Fried zucchini flowers filled with feta and capers, tomato relish

The other choice on the current menu is shaved Wagyu bresaola, celeriac remoulade, fresh horseradish.

Zucchini flowers was delicately deep-fried but the filling was too tart and heavy/stodgy for me. I prefer it to be lighter for an entree, say mousse of feta/salmon. But still, it was a tasty dish and goes well with the tomato relish which cuts right through the stodginess of the filling.


Moreton bay bug and prawn tortellini, sweet mustard fruit buerre blanc

It's hard to find well-made tortellinis. Little Truffle's version is perhaps the best I've had so far. The skin thin and resilient, filling smooth, well-seasoned. Very pleasant to eat especially with the sweet butter sauce. Princess was still singing praises for the sauce for the rest of the day. These days its hard to impress her unless you are outstanding. She turned her nose at her plate (mine and Big King's) at Manly Pavillion recently but that is another story altogether (yes, chialat, the place really buay tang, even plating was horrible). Both restaurants shared similar concept of food. Though without a hat, I much prefer Little Truffle, just that, it does not have a killer view like Manly Pavillion does but the food has class.

The other choice for the main is red wine braised lamb shanks, creamed potato, red onion jam, green beans. I had the tortellinis both time we visited simply because they are absolutely delicious!


Fish tempura and fried potatoes

Freshest of fish and crispy perfectly mushy potatoes with crunhy skin makes the Little Princess absolutely delightful. She refused to share her potatoes :-( and only allowed us to finish off her fish when she can't finish.


Roasted rack of lamb, onion jam 4 bone/8 bone 37/67

Big King ordered the lamb on my order haha.

The lamb came and we were quite disappointed, it was still a bit raw (still a little bloody) for us, we asked for medium. The sinew on the meat was still white and not even slightly charred. Should we send this back? We hardly do fine dining so we were unsure. In the end, we stick with it. The raw taste was quite unforgiving not even after dousing it with the thick and syrupy jus (aren't jus suppose to be flowing texture a little runnier than sauce?). It has a side serve of a tian of potatoes which was tasty. The chef seem to have a flair with potatoes.


Assiette of desserts $29

Assiette - a selection of all items on the dessert menu comprising of petit blackberry soufflé, white chocolate sauce; vanilla bean panna cotta, strawberry jelly, rose granita; warm chocolate pudding, caramel, double cream, honeycomb

Look at the magnificent souffle tower! And no it did not collapse even after I spent considerable time snapping it. It tasted as good as it looks. I don't understand when people mention souffle has to be devoured fast as it collapsed as soon as it was brought out. They should all come and learn from Little Truffle's pastry chef. Inside of the souffle was perfectly cooked, oozy but still hold its shape rather than those splat of failed marshmallowy inside you get at most restaurants. Having said that, the panna cotta was some of the worst I ate, it was extremely rubbery, if you stick your spoon inside, well, it will stick unless you pull it out hard hehe. But the rose granita was beautiful, I could have dunk bucket loads of this down my throat, hehe it was that good. Big King said chocolate pudding was good and inside meltingly oozy but honeycomb was extremely chewy, it stuck to my teeth and refused to budge for a long time. Darn.

The second time we went back, the standard of the food was maintained with the tortellinis still smackingly good and panna cotta still rubbery, hehe. I like consistency at restaurants/F&B establishments. If you are anywhere near Mermaid Beach, give Little Truffle a try.