Ride the superb Christmas waves at Australasia
| 14th December 2021
| 14th December 2021
If you want to do Christmas in style, then Australasia is a great starting point with its festive menus a fusion of everything you love from the Pan Pacific stalwart sprinkled with the magic of the season.
We checked out their set Christmas menu which starts from £35 for three courses (or waves) and £49.50 for four waves. There’s a vegan version too.
For those that don’t know the eatery just at the top of Spinningfields and off Deansgate, it’s Manchester’s pioneer of Pacific dining with the focus on Australian, Japanese and Southeast Asia small plate made to share and has been excelling at one of VIVA’s favourite cuisines for a decade.
It’s a beautiful room that suits the season perfectly as coastline chic turns to winter white, decked with tasteful sparkling lights. There are intimate booths a plenty, so perfect for a date and lots of space if you’re getting down to business or want to party in style.
The service is fantastic, friendly and professional, and we adored Greg who looked after us and who we felt we got to know over the course of our meal.
It’s small plates that come in waves of dishes designed to complement and match each other. The Christmas menu begins with a sushi selection and this is Instagram pretty but more importantly fresh and bursting with flavour.
There’s a nod to the season with a touch of Rudolph, well seared venison nigiri, a wonderfully seasonal goats’ cheese and fig roll, with a salmon poke bowl that just played on the palate full of good things.
Onto wave two and this was my stand-out, with the chicken skewers just probably my favourite thing in the world. There’s not a bad dish in the Christmas set menu by the way, just some that are outstanding and unlike some small dishes, these are big and fulfilling courses.
The prawn tempura has Australasia’s light batter that melts in the mouth and the red dragon succulent beef skewers, juicy and dripping with goodness.
The third course went full out Christmas with duck breast in orange, which was just superb and miso cod, which had more than a nod in flavour to their signature blackened cod. Served with a side of roasties, I have to say these were just delicious dipped into the sauces. Both of these were just fabulous dishes and hearty in portion size, which is all part of the Christmas spirit too.
The final wave was dessert and as you know VIVA doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth but OMG. There are three to go at and our favoruite was a dinky trifle, which was just outstanding and made me want to make this for my own Christmas table.
This was sake rather than sherry, but my goodness it worked. We also loved the brownie and blueberry cheesecake but we wanted to marry the trifle.
We were washing this down with cocktails which start from £9 and can recommend the Kiwi honey crush and with a fantastic wine selection starting from £24 a bottle, there’s a tipple to suit all tastes.
VIVA verdict: Australasia have Christmas cracked with this fantastic festive menu, beautiful setting and wonderful team. Enjoy!
To find out and book, visit Australasia – A stylish sanctuary, hidden under the heart of Manchester