The Gaya Restaurant Applecross

Having only been blogging for a short time I was very excited to have received an email from Chef Leo, Owner of The Gaya in Applecross.

He invited my Hubby and I along to dine at his restaurant in return for an honest review. He also mentioned to me that his restaurant serves Modern Korean Cuisine - something I've never experienced before, so I was very curious and booked a table on a Thursday Evening.

Based NOR we drove 45 mins through peak hour traffic and arrived a bit late. I was surprised to find an empty restaurant but figured most diners would pile in later as it was still early in the evening.

I've read that The Gaya is BYO and that gave us a chance to bring a bottle of Forest Hill 2013 'The Broker' SBS which I thought would go well with both our meal choices. We were quickly seated by the friendly waitress who quickly put our bottle on ice and gave us our menus.

After not too long the waitress arrived to take our order and served us with complimentary Starters which consisted of fried rice pancake and fried cheddar cheese with a dot of a sweet type sauce. Everyone receives this complimentary starter and also a small side dish before your mains arrive, though they change what is served each time, its great to try something you haven't ordered!

For Entrée we ordered the Beef Cream Roll, asparagus, inoki mushroom, capsicum, cucumber and cream cheese wrapped in a thin layer of beef, grilled and served with Gaya special sauce. This dish was fantastic, the sauce was salty and sweet and the creaminess of the thin, tender beef with the cheese was a great combination. It was almost like a beef stir fry in a roll! My hubby would have picked these up and eaten them like a spring roll if he was at home!

Crumbed Oysters were another one of our entree's and this is the first time I've tried a cooked oyster. Crispy crumbed, almost panko-like and deep fried these were crunchy and fishy and served with a Sumac Mango Red Onion Salsa.

I've read a few reviews from other bloggers and regular diners on Urbanspoon and knew I'd join the pack and order the 36 Pork for one of our mains, a signature dish for The Gaya. 36 Hour sous vide pork belly, served with Sweet Potato Puree, Korean Chive Salad, Sumac Spiced Apples and a Soy Bean Paste Sauce topped with Red Onion, Radish and Crispy Garlic.

The Pork was lovely and tender, not dry like some slow cooked pork belly can be. The sweet potato puree along with the Apples married well with the pork and the Soy Bean paste sauce tasted a lot like tamari which added a nice contrasting earthiness to the traditional pork and apples.

Beef Bulgogi was the other Main, this Beef type soup was served with a Sticky Rice and Sweet Chilli Sauce in separate bowls. The beef was sliced very thinly and was tender in the hot, sweet n salty broth with Rice Noodles and was topped with Inoki Mushrooms and Spring Onions.

Before our mains came out we were served another lovely complimentary course each which were 2 little plates with 3 small items, one of them being a Spicy Pickled Celery, Yellow Radish and a Zucchini Korean Pancake. My Hubby loved the Celery, it was still crunchy and was sour and spicy.

By now we've shared 2 Starters, 2 Entree's, 2 Mains ,2 Side dishes and a Bottle of wine so we opted to order a Red Misu and 1 Chocolate Pave.

The Red Misu was smaller than I expected and was beautifully presented, almost like you shouldn't eat it! A Tiramisu with added Red Bean Paste presented in a Cute little Pot complete with Chocolate 'soil', chocolate 'rocks' and a green leaf. We wasted no time (after photos) and got stuck in, and I immediately noticed the Baileys and then the Red Bean Paste. With 3 spoons eating this, it was gone quick! I think I should have ordered 2!

Chocolate Pave was 3 handmade truffle-like chocolate squares differently flavoured being 'Wholemeal' 'Green Tea' and 'Cacao' presented beautifully and topped with 24 Carat Gold Leaf. Call me crazy but the Green Tea Flavour brought out the flavour of the Crumbed Oysters I had for Entrée! Strange...........

The Gaya offer a $45 Set Menu and also a la carte. They're open for Dinner Tuesday - Sunday and Saturdays for Lunch.

The menu, I found, had variety, was reasonably priced with generous servings and if you choose to BYO it can be an inexpensive night out trying Modern Korean Fusion Cuisine.

They're also in this years Entertainment Book which offers 25% off up to $30, great value!

The stand out for me was definitely the yummy Beef Cream Roll.

I dined as a Guest of The Gaya in return for an honest review. This is the first time I've received an invite to dine anywhere.