Three, One, Two

Dining Date: February 2007

2009 Rating: 14th

2009 Star rating: 2

Chef: Andrew McConnell

Location: 312 Drummond Street, Carlton, Vic (Soon to move to Fitzroy)

Website: www.threeonetwo.com.au 

Three One Two will soon be moving location from its Drummond Street premises, to a new swanky outfit in Gertrude Street Fitzroy. At this stage, they should be fired up and raring to go by early 2009.

When I last visited, the restaurant was relatively new to 'the list', it had just won best new restaurant and had alot of expectation sitting on its shoulders, at least in my mind. At first impression it completely failed. Spacing between tables was very tight and it made for a very interesting night. We were dining in a large group and were placed directly in front of the door and dead centre of the room, so getting around us was a bit of a squeeze. You could tell the floor manager was anxious, wanting to make sure every customer had a good experience, evident by the wait staff constantly hovering around us, and the manager's ability to eyeball every guest. 

We decided to go for the degustation menu, despite being in a large group. The food in general was great - innovative, unique and extremely pleasing, extra kuto's for obtaining this level of cuisine in a short period of time. My only gripe of the night was the timing of the dishes. I dont know if they were having a bad night, and let's face it even the best restaurants can have off nights, but the whole thing dragged out for way too long. The wait in between courses was almost unbearable. At two separated points, the entire table got up and went outside for something to do. Probably not the best thing to do during a degustation menu, but we just couldn't handle sitting around for any longer.

We were celebrating one members birthday at the time. I had called ahead and asked if I could bring a cake along to celebrate the occasion, they kindly offered to present a cake as an extra dessert course. Boy was I glad I organised the cake! When it first came out we were all a little disappointed at the sight of it. Considering it was the smallest birthday cake I had ever seen and this tiny "cup cake" had to satisfy 7 people. But I was SO wrong!

Once the cake was cut up we all got a thin slice each with ice cream on the side, but that was more than enough. It was the richest most yummiest flourless chocolate cake I have ever had. As soon as everyone took a bite, there was dead silence and only groans of enjoyment coming from each person. A great way to shut everyone up I say. To this day I still fantasize about that cake. It was a great way to top off the evening in my opinion, it made all the waiting in between meals worthwhile.

Flourless Chocolate Birthday Cake

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Like the Lake House, I plan on re-visiting Three One Two at their new location. I'm sure they have sorted out the table spacing issue, but hopefully the Chocolate Cake is still on the menu.