I’m told that Acre Eatery in Camperdown is one of the many cafes available to staff at the Centre of Excellence™. One of our friends and colleagues from said centre suggested we have lunch here, not knowing that lunch is a $70 per person set menu.
Acre is apparently a farm-to-bowl establishment. Some or all of the plant matter served comes straight from the tiny on-site organic farm, which I expect must be an extremely expensive piece of government subsidised real estate in the inner West.
So first of all, I love small foods in big plates. The Sweet potato fritti, spiced fruit marmallatta fits that criteria well, and also meets the additional hidden criteria of having two words I don’t know. These were basically crispy sweet potato balls that were probably fried but possibly baked. I’m scared to write definitively because I don’t want these inner city types to sue me.
I really enjoyed the Cannelini bean & almond hummus, roasted grapes, homemade lavosh, even though one of our colleagues said she could do it better.
The Local burrata with lemon oil was also great. One of my other friends was very keen on this and I think noticeably sad when they took it away unfinished. There was no explanation of whether it was the cow or the cheese that was local and I think this detracted from the experience.
The mains I didn’t get to take a photo of, but allow me to paint a poor picture in few words.
The Porchetta, celeriac puree, roasted quince was quite good. It was a large portion with a generous serving of pork, and good flavours.
The Pan-fried King trout, braised cabbage, pippies, capers was extremely disappointing. The trout itself was not faultable, however the accompanying braised cabbage and vegetables were reminiscent (in both form and taste) of the frozen cubed vegetable mix that you’d get from the supermarket.
The five of us did not stray from these two mains. There were some other choices available without animal but I guess we love animal.
I would probably not go back to Acre as it stands, but I would recommend it to a friend. There’s only so much of the exact same menu that you can eat and enjoy. Maybe they will change their menu in the post-COVID age.
ACRE Camperdown
31A Mallett St, Camperdown NSW 2050
(02) 9194 3100