St. Elmo Dining Room and Bar – 22 Fletcher Street, Byron Bay

This post is so overdue, but finally I have the pics so I can show you what we had and tell you about this Byron Bay restaurant.

First of all, I have to say I had my first Espresso Martini here and OMG was it amazing!  Creamy on top and with a big strong hit of sweet caffeine.  I was tired and needed something alcoholic but with a hit and wasn’t red bull and vodka, so this was the beverage of choice.  The drinks menu is impressive so if you have time, stay longer and sample the many cocktails and wines.

This is the Espresso Martini x 2, by the end of the night I think it was x4!  And the Pimms Cup which is Pimms, mint, orange, cucumber topped with lemonade and dry.  Had a sip of this and it was faaresh and zingy!

The menu is tapas style, so we order a heap of dishes, the special of the day was roasted pork belly!!!  They must’ve heard I was coming to town!

First up was the cured meats. 

This is the Morcon Picante - Spanish style salami with guindillas, which are chilli peppers/capsicums.  I loved the big meaty bits and how there wasn't much fat to it.  With some fresh bread, olive oil and a bit of the peppers it was really a great way to ease into the meal. 7/10

Sorry about the blurry pic here, it was on the other end of the table. . .  This is the Jamon Serrano,  Spanish ham with tomato bread.  If I recall correctly this was like a mild proscuitto.  This is why I should write these reviews very soon after it was devoured. Pretty ordinary, 5.5/10.

Impressive photo below of the Ensalada De Lechuga Romana also known as the salad  of baby cos with white anchovies, crisp capers, boiled egg, croutons and guindilla dressing.  I love the fleshiness of the anchovies and the dressing was pretty tasty too.  7/10.

This is another salad we had, and for the life of me I can't remember what it was, and it isn't on the menu anymore.  I think it was goats cheese, beetroot, orange and rocket?  It was an interesting mix for a posh salad. 6/10, I'm not a huge leaf fan.

This was the special of roast pork belly with chickpeas, broccolini and roast potatoes.  We got two of these plates of soft, salty, fall apart pork meat goodness but I still somehow managed to miss out on the crackling to my great disappointment!!!  The servings were rather small despite being full of flavour, so I give this daily special a score of 7.5/10, maybe more or less if I had some of the crackling. . .

 

Below is the Carrillera De Vaca, slow cooked beef cheeks in caramelised red wine with cauliflower puree, fried bread crumbs and thyme.  This cut of meat is starting to make it's way higher and higher on my list of dishes to order when on a menu and getting closer to pork belly.  When cooked correctly with an abundance of flavour and textures it is awesome.  This in particular had so many levels of flavour, the crunchy bits of bread crumbs and thyme were so good in amongst the rich red wine sauce and the shreds of soft beef.  This was the highlight of the night.  8.5/10.

 

Chorizo con judias negras y pimiento de piquillo - which basically is pan fried chorizo with piquillo peppers, black beans, cider and almonds.  The chorizo wasn't very salty which is a good thing, I hate chorizo when it's too salty you can't taste anything else.  The black beans made this a more substantial dish.  The piquillo pepper is from northern Spain and tastes more like capsicum rather than a chilli.  7/10.

 

We had to have a seafood dish so we had this, mussels and clams with some type of aioli on top.   It's the first time I've had mussels with aioli.  Usually it's on the side with my pomme frites.   It was good though, the creaminess of it went well with the seafood creaminess of the plump orange sea morsels.  The clams are harder to get out and not as satisfying as the mussels.  7/10.

 

After a few drinks each and the assortment of Spanish inspired dishes we were too full for dessert.

St. Elmo Dining Room and Bar is a nicely decked out space with the feature bar,  moody lighting and dark wood tones dark enough for romantic dates yet light enough to be able to see what you are eating.  I would recommend this place for a nice evening out in Byron, although I think it's a bit overpriced for what the food was in comparison to Sydney restaurants, but hey we were away for the weekend.