Duende

662 Newcastle St Leederville 6007
(08) 9228 0123
http://www.duendetapasbar.com.au/

Duende is owned by the same people who own Balthazar but it has a much more casual feel. The sleek modern fit out is an interior design award winner.
The dishes at Duende are quite small, and served in a tapas style way.
To start we each ordered one of the tapas to share. This way you get a tiny flavour filled morsel of each one.

We ordered:
- char-grilled calamari tentacles with balsamic ($9)
- sweetcorn and manchego frittas, red pepper jam ($9)
- merguez sausage, caramelised onion ($9)
- buffalo mozzarella, basil, tomato balsamic dressing ($15)
- fresh shucked oysters, jamon shallot dressing ($3.5 ea)

My favourite of these was the sausage - it was a lamb sausage flavoured with middle eastern spices served with a plum flavoured onion jam.
The caprese style dish had the softest, creamiest buffalo mozzarella which always tastes great with the sweetness of the balsamic and acidity of the tomato.

For racione (translates as ‘ration’) I ordered a slow roast lamb, romanesco sauce ($27). The sauce was a rich tomato, capsicum sauce. The lamb was very tender, just a little pink.
Daniel ordered the seared kingfish, with silverbeet and saffron potato ($26). The fish had a crispy skin and the mash was so soft and creamy.
Eve ordered the braised duck leg, with date lime chutney, and carrot salad ($25).

Winsome ordered the most amazing dish for her main. The petite washed rind fondue, puff pastry ($14). It was a piece of camembert which they cut the top off and put a small piece of a very strong italian cheese inside. This was then rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried.
It was served with the top taken off to reveal a sort of mini fondue. The cheese inside was all melted and delicious and it was served with breadcrumbs to dip.

Dessert was equally as fantastic. Again we shared some homemade icecream ($4), the most scrumptuous poached pears and quince served with mascarpone and honeycomb ($14). The quince was lovely with the pears, adding just the right tartness against the sweet of the pears. It was really nice having mascarpone instead of icecream, much richer.
We also had Duende’s signature dish which is churros (doughnut things) that you dip into melted dark pedro ximinez chocolate ($14). Absolute decadence.

All in all a fantastic night, and a lovely experience to share and savour these tasty treats together.
The only thing that let Duende down tonight for me was the wine. I had a Shiraz from the Heathcote region and it was very soft, almost like a merlot. I prefer a Shiraz with more body, like those from the Coonawarra region. But the white was very nice.
Service was excellent, Food top notch. Quite expensive:
Entree: $8-$17
Mains: $18-$27 (Menu)
Dessert: $3.5-$14
but definitely worth paying for..
This grublover will be back.