Vue de Monde
Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street Melbourne Victoria 3000
w
www.vuedemonde.com.au all details for Bistro Vue and Café Vue can also be found here
e refer to web site
t
+61 3 9691 3888
open lunch Tuesday to Friday 12 noon to 2.00 pm, dinner Tuesday
to Saturday 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm, reservations essentialgg top 10 Melbourne
FOOD Arriving at a restaurant, even as famous as Melbourne’s
Vue de Monde with a live and very active Southern Rocklobster is certainly
a way of setting the scene and reinforcement to the kitchen to “bring
it on!”. Bring it on they did, not just for us, but everyone within our
restaurant vantage point; a vantage point that gave us an intimate view of
the kitchen and plating and enabled us to observe just how this very professional
operation works.
For those who complain that the restaurant is expensive, as an industry professional calculating loosely the sums required to run Vue de Monde their running costs are staggering, terrifying! Start with the venue, add a proper kitchen brigade, still only about half of the equivalent crew in a three star Michelin restaurant in France, but a terrifying wage bill. To be fair in France at least 25% of the kitchen would be working for nothing for the privilege of learning. Embellishments and attention to detail start with the accoutrements, exquisite and expensive plates, cutlery and especially made tea services that draw their inspiration from the deco Limoge range with that exquisite pale turquoise with gold handles and other embellishments. Then add to the costs a monumental cellar and only Reidel glassware for wine service. At this level of dining anywhere in the world running costs are a burden of massive proportions. Bennett miraculously manages to serve his food for just slightly above entrée price of most two-hat restaurants. Stating the difference in environment, food, service and wine list would be to state the obvious. Vue de Monde is not every day dining but nor should it be cast in the special occasion bag; this is a restaurant that would stand up and thrive at the highest level in Paris, London, New York or Shanghai.
Modern French is a very loose way of describing the food and in fact we suspect that some of the flavour profiles would be very foreign to many French chefs most of whom are currently struggling to lift their food from the early 80s and take into their cuisine Asian and other ingredients. They are ingredients that are relatively new to them but long since established in Australia.
Our menu was to take a journey through the best of modern techniques and whilst
there is cleverness it never disappointed by being tricky without substance or
flavour that started with the amuse bouche. Bennett’s food is complex and
influenced with the touch of an artist’s brush in everything his kitchen
produces. Add to that beauty, complex colour and textural combinations, throughout
the meal theatre takes over at the dining table, dragging the diner from conversation,
impelling them to pay attention to the food and service. With such an amazing
array it is almost impossible to select which dish was most pleasing, but outstanding
dishes were; BOUILLABAISSE ’EN CINQ MINUTES’ ET TARTARE DE
KINGFISH 5 minute bouillabaisse, tartare of lobster, buffalo milk skin, finished
with aromatic herbs, and a touch of theatre was, believe it or not understated.
Finished at the table using Danish Peter Bodum’s vacuum glass coffee maker
that first appeared on the market in the 50s and remains to this day in constant
production. The consommé was not better than one that had been conventionally
made and finished but the presentation was impressive. The Rocklobster was perfectly
cooked and the buffalo milk skin perfect disintegrating a the consommé was
poured over it. The balance of the entire dish was delicate and the lobster was
cooked to perfection. We loved the ebb and flow of attention span required to
enjoy the meal and appreciated that dishes like RISOTTO AUX TRUFFES
classically inspired Manjimup truffle risotto made no attempt to be tricky,
sensibly realising a truffle risotto is just that. The risotto was perfect
with a soupy ooze that confirmed our opinion that a good risotto cannot
be piled into a mound because a good risotto flattens in the bowl.
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The dish
was monochrome, black with truffle and wonderful. Having been lucky enough
to have eaten foie gras in huge lumps in China and smaller portions in France
where it is much more expensive we nearly always find foie gras in Australia
disappointing. Most of the Australian foie gras dishes have a nasty
chemical metallic end palate that we have assumed to be a preservative or
chemical of some sort, an AQIS requirement for its legal importation into
Australia and we have saved eating foie gras for China. The foie gras component
of this dish could have come that morning from Rungis, the Paris wholesale
markets. Worked to a velvety silken cylinder it was divine and combined
brilliantly with the other components of the dish. The three lobster dishes
were brilliant, perfectly cooked and exquisitely napped with sauces that
take a skilled and restrained hand. The FROMAGE
Goats curd served with sugared rose petal and rose jelly topped with goats
curd ice cream was beautiful to look at but managed a delicate balance
of fresh cheese and rosewater that was delightfully interrupted with the
gritty crunch of a crystallised rose petal. The only disappointment of the
meal was the Grand Marnier soufflé which was more egg white/hot meringue
than soufflé.
It had the look and feel of the famous Austrian dish
Salzburger Knockerl, that comes to the table in mountains of lightly coloured
vanilla flavoured, egg white laden soufflé. We know that a
single criticism about a 13 course degustation menu means the meal was brilliant
not just by Australian standards but international standards.
Whilst in the face of such opulence it may appear vulgar to mention cost it is
important to note that the 13 course degustation was just $250 (food only), less
than $20 per course, which for the work on the plate makes some other restaurants
look expensive by comparison.
Modern French, intelligent use of molecular cuisine without sacrificing flavour
or texture we loved Vue de Monde. We have not tried their other levels of dining,
Bistro Vue and Café Vue,
but assume they are approached with the same obsession. The food at Vue de Monde ood is sometimes challenging
(as one would expect it to be), but always executed with great skill and intelligence. If you don’t enjoy the formal dining experience, or hate degustation menus you would be wise to eat elsewhere and give joy to the many enthusiastic diners who languish on their waiting list for weeks on end in the faint hope of gaining a place in the restaurant.
It would be wonderful to see Vue de Monde transported to France to snaffle Australia’s
first three Michelin stars on sacred French soil.
View our menu and matched wines by
clicking here
WINE In Melbourne, humble restaurants have wine lists to
make one drool, restaurants of the caliber of Vue de Monde have list to make
you weep for joy. It is a list that does not succumb either to the common or
the company, but rather to the excellent, interesting and new and exciting.
It is a ravishing list. A wine list, that makes one wish for a millionaire
benefactor willing to pick up the bill; please apply for this honorary position
by emailing our
FOOD EDITOR Ann Oliver
The head sommelier at the time of this review was Rouel who has now moved to Café Vue at St Kilda. Rouel has something of the
theatrical feel of an actor from a movie by Spanish director Almóndovar, perhaps
Tie me up! Tie me down! His straight back, heavy accent and determination to
have his way leaves one expecting the unexpected. It would be a foolish person
not to take advantage of a sommelier like Rouel and succumb to his advice as he intimately knew
the wine list and wine is clearly his greatest passion.
There are marvelous vintages on the Vue de Monde list but when two people are
dining taking the wine degustation is the obvious choice and given the depth
of choice and excellence of the offerings it is very modestly priced per person.
We especially enjoyed trying two Portuguese wines not previously known to us,
but there was a well-chosen wine for each course, elegant matches that could
not be achieved without intimate knowledge of the food flavour profiles and the
determination of their management to provide a complete dining experience. View
our menu and matched wines by
clicking here
editor’s note
Vue de Monde frequently have great wine dinners and checking their web site if you are in town is well advised! AO
