Pure South

River Level Southgate, Southbank

Just a very quick post to say that:

1. The name "Pure South" refers to the fact that all produce from this restaurant is sourced from Tasmania (if you're feeling blonde, I in no way picked up on this either until I read the provenance of the produce on the menu), and
2. It's quite a fancy place so they're not really very suited to doing dinners pre-opera (we pushed ourselves for time here before seeing the Magic Flute - brilliant - and I would have liked more time to savour my dish), but
3. The food here is really, really, fantastically good. The place is a bit 1990s, it's not particularly hip and trendy (I mean, it is on Southbank for goodness sake - no matter how much they renovate it, Flinders Lane will always trump it in coolness), but the nosh is top quality. Here's what we had.

My dad had a lovely piece of Tasmanian hapuka with a herb crust, sitting on a little mound of cutlefish, braised lentils and salsa verde. He loved it, said it was very fresh and well cooked.

Alex, being a teenage boy, went for the Cape Grim Angus eye fillet with marquise potato, onion marmalade, spinach cream, horseradish butter and wine jus; just about the perfect accompaniments to a good steak.

Mum went for the Mount Gnomon farm organic Wessex Saddleback pork loin (longest name for a piece of pork ever), with smoked pork belly, semolina, cornichons and tazziberries. She really enjoyed it, and commented how the two cuts of pork tasted very different to each other.

I also loved my dish - Glencroft farm rabbit, chestnut spatzle (great word), swiss brown mushrooms and peas. The shadows cast of the sides of the bowl were rather arresting, and that warm, chewy, nutty, mix of chestnuts and mushrooms and peas was to die for.

After dinner, we hurried off to see the Magic Flute, which had been done in English. I was initially disappointed, because sometimes the lyrics to an opera seems a bit lame when you can understand them, but the storyline here is quite simple and at times funny (rather than soppily romantic), so it translated well. Alex and I also saw a man in a cape! An opera cape, like something out of 1910! Now Alex has his eyes set on one along with a top hat and cane - well, a boy can dream...