Neil Perry's Rockpool Melbourne Restaurant review

I know its not very Turkish in food but I thought you'd still be interested.
Last Tuesday night, my husband and I went to the famous Neil Perry's Melbourne restaurant, Rockpool.
It was a lovely balmy Melbourne evening where I met my husband along the banks of the Yarra, where we stepped inside Rockpool. We wandered through a dark corridor where we found ourselves at what looked like a mini hotel reception. So the staff greeted us warmly but then there was a little kerfuffle as they couldn't find our booking,, Last name, first name, spelling of last name, spelling of first name, they couldn't find our booking although my husband had received a phone call from the restaurant only an hour prior to  confirm we were still dining at 7pm.  So luckily there were plenty of tables and we were seated in a large dining room.

It was lovely in the sense that the kitchen was open for everyone to see so you could watch the chefs, cooks and apprentices at work, busily weighing everything to ensure precise portion sizes and exact measurements.
We wine menu arrived in a lovely brown leather bound book and no jokes it was like a book. Prices varied from $45 to $5900 for a bottle.. So we opted for the lower end of the budget, a nice Bannackburn Sav Blanc (Geelong region) which was lovely and crisp without being dry.
It took a while for our dinner menus to arrive and except we didnt quite realise it was the menu. A piece of butcher paper with a black and white cow was printed on it and was layed on the table in front of us, cow facing up. It felt like the tray lining at Mc Donalds and i have no idea why i lifted it and turned it around but lucky i did. It was the menu!!! So as we perused the menu, it was really lovely and i must say, somethings were priced reasonably and others seemed crazy. $150 for a 300gm steak but clearly it was special.. I didnt order it. For entree i had a chicken waldorf salad which was perfectly balanced sharpness from the apple but had the creaminess from the mayo and soft crunch from the walnuts. Truely magical. Ertan has the king prawns which he said was lovely. What was nice was they had sliced them down the middle so they kept thier shape but they also could be eaten with a knife and fork, leaving his hands nice and clean.
We sat there with dirty plates in front of us for 20 minutes or so which surprised and disappointed me. I would expect a restaurant with that  
For mains, Ertan had a steak, not the $150 one and i chose a duck cooked in an apple sauce on a mango cheek. We ordered sauteed mushrooms and garlic brocollini for sides.
The food was nice but did it have the wow factor i would expect from that standard of restaurant. Not one little bit. I ate it enjoying my meal but thinking to myself, this place is an fancy steak house.
It was time for dessert and although i understand consistency, I got quite confused with this next part. The dessert manu arrived. This time a smaller piece of butchers paper with a printed black and white cow. Turn the page and voila.. the dessert menu.. Now i didn't understand how the cow was quite relevant to the dessert menu. Thankfully the dessert was  truely devine. I had a hazlenut macaroon sandwich with banana icecream. finally i got the WOW factor i had been looking for. Ertan had the strawberry tart of which he enjoyed but didnt get the wow i had just experienced.
Time for the bill,, so we requested the bill and again, we were wondering what was happening. Why was it taking so long. Then the waitress proceeds to tell us there is a queue for the credit card machine therefore our bill will be out shortly.
So all in all we found ourselves a little disappointed as our expectations of 2 hatted restaurant were clearly higher.. Its quite funny, as we seem to find little gems of restaurants and cafes for a fraction of the cost were we are offered the same if not better quality of food and better service.
Do i recommend it, no... I would take my chances on another 2 hatted restaurant and see how that goes..