As part of the 'ultimate instant restaurant', teams offer their foes a choice of entrée, main and dessert. The result is double the amount of meals to prepare, and an extra opportunity for rival teams to put the pressure on by selecting more complicated meals.

Queensland surfer dads Paul and Blair are first up. Being the only blokes left in the competition, they've dubbed the evening "ladies night" and planned their menu accordingly; seafood, champagne and chocolate – smart lads.

WA's Chloe and Kelly seem determined to take them down, snatching the opportunity to pick their meals strategically. Insert the first eye roll-worthy comment of the evening from Kelly: “My mortgage could use the $250,000!”

For entrée, Paul and Blair devised a curious wasabi and avocado soup, with marinated tuna and mayonnaise. Despite the name, cucumber seemed to be the main ingredient with a few decorative dots of tofu mayonnaise floating on top.

Kelly said she could only taste cucumber, Bree couldn't taste any wasabi and judge Manu agreed it lacked the wasabi "punch".

The alternative was tempura prawns with beetroot puree, light on the prawns, heavy on the puree. The guys seemed to acknowledge this by sprinkling some feta cheese to “break up the sweetness”, but really, who loves beetroot that much?

Tasmanian best friends Thalia and Bianca said the prawns looked “good, big and juicy”, but judge Pete said the dish was too sweet overall.

Putting the lackluster entrée feedback behind them, the duo moved to mains. Both admitted that their crispy skin salmon with Moreton Bay Bug ravioli in champagne sauce was the most labour intensive – and it was just their luck that eight orders came in.

Helena and Vikki seemed a little confused about the ravioli, with Vikki declaring she hoped the bugs would be served inside the ravioli. Erm, yes Vikki, that's the point of ravioli, it comes inside.

Chloe and Kelly shared a giggle at Vikki's expense, suspecting the Victorian twins were “a bit dumb”.

Given they drove across town to pick up their seafood, big things were expected. The pressure got to Blair early on, losing three salmon fillets after they stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Things didn't improve much, with Paul struggling to cook the alcohol out of his champagne sauce, but in the end decided it was supposed to taste "winey". The result was crispy skin salmon without the crispy skin, not enough filling in the ravioli, and a sauce which Pete declared tasted too "winey".

After an hour of waiting, Bree made salivating noises upon viewing her choice of main – slow cooked beef cheeks in an Asian-style soy and orange sauce. The guys were pretty confident about this dish, giving themselves a smug “pretty good” in the kitchen.

Manu's critique started swimmingly with a single, emphatic “Wow!” His enthusiasm continued as he spoke of meat literally “falling apart” bathed in an “amazing” sauce, which was “more of a broth”.

Then, the let down. Elation was replaced with disappointment as Manu spoke of the “rice and a couple of beans”, which brought the whole dish down.

Paul and Blair haven't performed too well on the dessert front in previous challenges, and pulled out all the stops. Just as well, given everything else hadn't quite gone to plan.

The pair admitted brushing up on their cake knowledge and decided to tackle a spiced cake with lime sorbet and salty coconut sauce.

The other option was a drool-worthy triple chocolate cheesecake, with raspberries embedded in a dark chocolate base layer, followed by a light and smooth white chocolate-flavoured layer and topped with milk chocolate.

Bree and Jess opted for the spiced cake, as they cheesecake felt the cheesecake had “too many calories” (eye roll number two).

Helena and Vikki were the only pair who chose the cheesecake, but even they soon backflipped and headed into the kitchen to make a last-minute request.

Paul and Blair were a perfect picture of calm and collected during the kitchen invasion, agreeing to change the dessert order, even though they weren't sure the spiced cake was any good.

They decided the cake was still too moist in the middle so decided to give it a few more minutes in the oven, despite concerns that they may end up with an overcooked dessert.

Not so, the extra four minutes proved spot on, meaning they could plate up and hope for redemption through their sweet offerings.

All of the rival teams ordered and were served the spiced cake, leaving Manu with the only slice of the beautifully-presented triple chocolate cheesecake.

Upon seeing the chocolatey goodness, Helena and Vikki immediately regretted changing their order. Manu didn't hold back – his famous poker face writhing in ecstasy with every bite, finally declaring the dessert was “to die for” and awarding the only perfect score of the evening.

The spiced cake received a rave review from Pete, who would have also awarded a perfect score but for one minor detail – not enough sauce.

Two of the teams had issues with the combination of sweet cake with the tangy lime sorbet, and reflected this in their scores.

In the end, the teams from WA and Victoria gave the surfer dads seven out of a possible 10, while the SA team and the Tasmanians awarded them a respectable six points apiece. A total of 26 out of 40.

Manu's perfect 10 for the cheesecake contributed to a healthy score of 23, with a slightly lower 21 points from Pete.

So with no one else on the leaderboard at the moment, Paul and Blair default to first place, setting the standard at 70 points.

Next up, the WA team. Kelly declared that she's going to change the way the other teams think about food with her culinary efforts (third eye roll moment), though Vikki declared that “no-one cares”.

The teaser looks promising, with tears and tantrums in the Perth kitchen. Is it the end for the competition's most hated team?