12-Micron

For those who don't know already, I love my desserts. When there was a tasting menu featuring 7 desserts for dinner, I knew I had to try it. It's part of all the new restaurants in Barangaroo, but 12 Micron is level 3 in a building. It's a bit fancier than your modern Australian restaurant, but a bit laid back and not quite fine dining. They have heaps of windows throughout, so I can imagine day time views are decent, just don't really see the Harbour Bridge unlike all those top restaurants on Circular Quay side.

(I just wanted a pretty picture for my thumbnail featuring my fav dish)

First impressions was that the restaurant was so spacious. There were 2 open kitchens: one for savoury the other for dessert and both were really big. So rare for restaurants in the CBD since rent ain't cheap. You could choose between bar or table seating. If you go for bar, you can see them make your food (and obviously gets to you  faster, rather than your ice cream melting on the pass waiting for a waiter). Even the tables and chairs were spacious, like I sat on a whole lounge seat myself (although I was a tad bit short for the table since the seat was a bit lower than normal).

dining area

unique glassware

savoury kitchen

sweets kitchen

long tables


bar

Now onto the real deal: desserts. I have never eaten off such fancy plates before, so I have to commend them for their ceramics. Each dessert you get a new set of spoon and fork. The menu only lists the flavours of their desserts, so I'll try my best to expand on each component. At times, I did fulsome dishes had way too many elements to get everything onto one spoon, and too many flavours going on. It's also a degustation, so serving sizes around half the size of a la carte, and the price reflects that. The seven course desert degustation is $85pp.

1.  Gin & Tonic

Four Pillars Gin | Lime | Lemon | Cucumber | Juniper

   

This was my second favourite dish from the night. I loved how you can taste the gin and tonic throughout, especially in the clear jelly. The thing in the middle had an icy texture with a hint of cucumber in it. There was also lemon pannacotta but not too creamy, and a lime sorbet which I think they spray gun dusted it. Everything just went together in a not really sweet but nice alcohol taste.

2.  Rose

Apple | Yoghurt | Strawberry | Beetroot

Favourite dish of the night. I love the colours of this with the crystallised rose petals, and deep red beetroot sponge cake. There was a sort of strawberry mousse and yoghurt inside which added a creamy element. The apple sorbet was very refreshing as well.

3.  Olive Oil

Dark Chocolate | Bread | Smoked Salt

The most interesting element was the olive oil jelly. It's in the middle of a jelly and parfait texture since it's opaque and a bit denser and creamy, yet still light because of the flavour. Weird but cool to eat. Couldn't taste much of the toasted bread in the ice cream, but you can taste some bread flavour. The dark choc ganache was quite heavy so the olive oil flavour in the jelly and around the plate helped. I forgot what's under the choc disc, some sort of cake...There was also a mini piece of toast for a crunchy element, which you could pair with any of the elements.

4.  Smoked Vanilla Ice Cream

Plum | Barossa Valley Wanera | Thyme Sable

Our least favourite dessert, hence it only deserves 2 pictures. The flavours were so weird and not really to our palate. Separately they were ok, just not really together. I've had plum and cheese before, but a sweeter sort of plum and a creamier/stronger cheese flavour. The plum sauce around with bits of plum was that weird jammy taste with a bit of sourness and not completely sweet, and the cheese wasn't that creamy either. I guess there was the honeycomb to add some crunch, sweetness but also bitterness, it's just not the same amount of sweetness compared to the plum sauce when they cook and reduce it. Also, the ice cream was already melting when it arrived on the table, so probably sitting on the pass for a good minute or so, which sucks, since by the time I took photos it already half melted. Couldn't really taste the smokiness in the ice cream. The thyme sable was soft and salty with a hint of thyme, but I couldn't appreciate the savoury to complement the sweet. Liked salted caramel works, just not sure how salted plum, bitter and sweet flavours comes together. In this dish. The actual plate was quite heavy and very interesting to look at, but I think it makes the plate too busy and crowded.

5.  Roast White Chocolate

Banana | Coffee | Passionfruit | Avocado

Interesting combo of flavours. I like that sort of banana mouse which is caramelised just a tad bit so it's not like fake artificial banana flavour. Maybe would've liked a bit bigger piece of the banana bread  it's more like a small cube here. The parfait with the white choc flavour and roasted white choc ice cream not too sweet either. There was a coffee crumb which helped balance out the sweetness from the white choc. That passionfruit jelly thing which was more like a fruit gel thing was super sour, feels like they added sourness to it lol. The other passionfruit piping cream was a bit sweeter, and avocado piping tasted like a slightly sweet avo, again interesting. Somehow the flavours worked.

6. Cheesecake

Fermented Strawberry | White Chocolate

inside

It's a lemon cheesecake which was light and tangy, with nice acidic strawberry centre. Loved that pink gel on top, makes everything so pretty. Fermented strawberries taste not as sour or sweet, but more strawberry flavour, looked a very off pink. The sponge here looked like but it tasted kind of like bread with a denser texture. The crumb was nice and not too buttery. Don't think it needed the white choc since I liked just the acidity from the lemon flavour and strawberry. Another favourite, and I loved the plate it was served on.

7.  Mandarine

Salted Caramel | Tonka Bean | Chocolate

inside 

I was drawn to all that gold dust sprinkled on the dessert that I ended up getting gold on my phone...Finishing with a relatively heavy dessert, but luckily it had more bitter choc so not too sweet. As you may know, I have a sweet tooth but I'm not really a fan of chocolate. There was a nice mandarin liquid centre inside the centre inside the dark choc mousse. Salted caramel could have been salted a bit more in the chocolate. There were the mandarine balls which sort of tasted like passionfruit. From memory, the ice cream was a tonka bean flavour which tasted a bit like vanilla but melted quickly (quick google search shows tonka beans used as a substitute for vanilla, so my memory was correct). The chocolate crumb was average, not too dry or buttery. There were also some hard but thin caramel bit which looked pretty but didn't do much.

Petit three: caramel chocolate truffle, mint + white choc biscuit, blackberry jelly

Didn't even realise they had complimentary petit fours here (well three since only 3 things). I was full but I like to maximise my value for money lel. Luckily the caramel wasn't too sweet in the dark choc truffle. I don't like mint flavour things, but this mint biscuit reminded me of peppermint tea, which is nice to have something refreshing after a dessert, even if it's in the form of carbs...thank goodness the white choc wasn't sweet. I actually don't like those jelly fruit lollies encrusted with sugar, but still had it anyways. I just don't like the grainy and mushy texture, but the black berry flavour definitely came through.

I hope I remembered all the elements correctly with their corresponding flavours. I love my desserts, but I think my new maximum is definitely 7 plates. We were all so full afterwards. The tasting menu didn't say per person, so it may be possible to share a tasting course between two so you don't feel so bloated afterwards. Most desserts weren't actually sweet and had a good balance of flavours. It's just that when you only eat desserts continuously for hours, it does end up being too much. I wouldn't mind coming back here some time to try the savoury items since they looked pretty good as well.

Tl;dr, order the Rose and Gin & Tonic.

  

This post actually took me over 2 hours to do. I can understand how some people can blog about food as a full time job. By the time you travel there, eat, take photos, go over and select photos, then start blogging, it's about the equivalent hours of a normal working day...Too bad this wasn't sponsored haha. I just love eating desserts (: