melbourne

chez olivier le bistro – take three

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

121 Greville Street, Prahran
www.chezolivier.com

Third time’s the charm: after an offer by Chez Olivier’s owner to try the restaurant again, and a $100 voucher as motivation, Robyn and I headed back for a quiet, anonymous dîner à deux.

It was a hot Melbourne evening and the cosy restaurant was all but deserted. We chose a table in the cooler back room near the air conditioner but after a few minutes the draught got uncomfortable, so the waiter happily moved us to a larger table away from the direct blast.

A bottle of 2006 Château Noaillac from the Médoc hit the spot despite the heat of the day. We sensibly ordered first and talked later, otherwise we’d never have gotten to the food. For starters, we shared a pissaladière – an onion, anchovy and olive tart – with a serving of coquilles St. Jacques. The tart was tasty but not as substantial as I would have expected. The coquilles were just divine, and I quietly wished that all three were mine. They would be worth going back for themselves.

For main course Robyn chose the confit duck special and I, predictably, chose steak frites. Robyn’s duck was good but, she said, a little overdone. My steak frites was plentiful, perfectly cooked medium-rare and just what I wanted.

Dessert was out of the question but the waiter chose us a glass each of an alternative red to finish the night. All told, the service was friendly, unobtrusive, helpful and attentive. The food and wine were most agreeable, and most importantly, the company wonderful.

At just over $150 for two (most of which was covered by the $100 voucher) Chez Olivier is not a cheap option, and in my opinion it’s still not the best value in town. However, with money no object my conclusion is not to choose Chez Olivier for a large dinner party, but for a smaller table of two or four. At this size, they acquit themselves pretty well.

 

Chez Olivier - Le Bistro on Urbanspoon

claypots

~ maireaddoyle ~ 1 Comment

Claypots Seafood and Wine
213 Barkly St., St Kilda, 3182

The prospects of an extra-long wait at Cicciolina’s on a Saturday evening saw seven of us walking the streets of St. Kilda last night looking for a place to eat. Passing Claypots, we saw an empty table in the window, already set for seven. Amazingly, the booker had cancelled and we could take over immediately. Marvellous.

We were shown to the table and left with a couple of wine lists. After a few minutes a waitress came and explained the ordering system to us: a large blackboard in the corner had a long list of dishes, usually ordered to share we were told, and another smaller one by the door had a shorter list of claypots. Unfortunately most of us could see neither of them and we were hemmed in on a bench seat, so it was hard to get a real sense of what was on offer.

After that, it took almost half an hour to get somebody’s attention to order some wine, which was disappointing. It took even longer to order food. We eventually ordered the meze platter and a (huge) garlic prawn each for starters, which in fairness arrived fairly promptly. The small platters were beautiful: kingfish tossed with capsicum, figs sprinkled with coriander, a delicious lump of stingray which looked like it had been slow-roasted for hours, a tasty but not spicy Mexican-type onion salsa, and a small dish of green-lipped mussels. However, the sizes were not conducive to sharing amongst seven: we got the equivalent of a few teaspoonfuls each. I would have much preferred a smaller selection but larger portions to suit the number at table.

The huge prawns came out in a skillet, with plenty of Turkish bread to dip into the impossibly-garlicky oil. The waitress had impressed upon us that their prawns had been voted the best in Melbourne. One or two of our party thought them a little over-cooked, but they were fine. Not award-winning though.

When it came to ordering mains, I found the waitress quite condescending. When we attempted to order individually, she looked disapprovingly at us, and reminded us – yet again – that they prefer their customers to share dishes. “It’s all part of the experience.” Now, she may have been right, but I didn’t like the attitude much. Nor, indeed, am I a huge fan of sharing, and certainly not with such a large table. In my experience, sharing dishes amongst large groups means I get a spoonful or so of what I really want, and numerous small portions of dishes I’m not all that interested in.

In the end, we ordered three claypots: a Malay one, a Cajun one and an Anatolian (vegetarian) one for the vegie amongst us. A dish of kingfish cutlets and a whole flathead finished the ensemble.

It was all perfectly fine, with the possible exception of the Cajun claypot which was tasty enough but really not very Cajun at all. The Anatolian one had some sort of granular texture through it, that Nicola could only compare to the sand you sometimes get in mussels. Not pleasant. The Malay one got my vote, and I would perhaps come back for this dish alone (but, again, I’d like more than a couple of spoonfuls).

The flathead was lovely but, as with most of the fish served here, it was a full fish and the lighting was simply not good enough to de-bone at the table.

The kingfish cutlets, with just a few bones around the edges, were really lovely and fresh, and probably my other favourite of the evening. Again, I got to taste less than a quarter of one cutlet.

My verdict: at $50 a head, I came away feeling simultaneously full and unsatisfied. This is because I only got a tiny taste of everything that was on offer, rather than one or two decent dishes I could savour. The service was pretty poor, there was an overall feeling of pretentiousness about the place, and I couldn’t help but feel the staff didn’t think we were sufficiently in awe of them and their radical sharing system. Which we weren’t, really. I suppose we could have insisted on not sharing, but as often happens in a large group most people were being easy-going and we all just went with the flow.

The food is perfectly fine but there are better seafood restaurants in Melbourne with better service and where you don’t feel under pressure to share when it’s clearly impractical to do so. I won’t be hurrying back.

Claypots Seafood & Wine on Urbanspoon

chez olivier le bistro – reprise 2011

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

Thirteen months after our first lovely experience at Chez Olivier the Bistro, we came back again for dinner with a friend home from France. It was the day after Bastille Day, and the wintry weather outside made it a perfect choice for some good hearty winter food.

Unfortunately, whilst most of our food was perfectly lovely, the service was appalling. We had a new waitress who did not know her way around the menu. Fine: we all have to start somewhere. Six out of a table of seven chose starters, but only four arrived at once. Two were presented to the table under different names, one under a name nobody had ordered. People had started eating before the staff came back and started swapping plates around.

The wait between courses also appeared quite lengthy. Then the same thing happened: only five out of seven mains came out. We waited for quite some time before we could find someone to tell us that the waitress had fallen with two dishes and they had to be made again. Would have been good if they had volunteered this up front. We gave up on our side dish of broccoli, as nobody seemed to know anything about it. Halfway through our mains, the waiter who had taken our orders came and apologised as he had forgotten all about it and had not put the order through.

Combined with accordion music so loud one of us had to go downstairs and ask for it to be turned down just so we could hear our own conversation, it was a disappointing experience. For almost $100 a head including wine, Chez Olivier’s is not a cheap option, and I can think of half a dozen other places with better service I would rather frequent.

I fear this was our final visit to Chez Olivier.

Chez Olivier - Le Bistro on Urbanspoon

>Giuseppe, Arnaldo & Sons

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>A weekend late (very late) birthday treat with Lee saw us cruising Crown on a Sunday lunchtime looking for fish. We’d just spent a couple of hours in Melbourne Aquarium to see the baby hammerhead sharks, and seafood was the order of the day. You know your fate is sealed when you stand at an aquarium window staring at a large octopus, and the only three words that come to mind are: Lemon. Oregano. Chargrilled.

Sadly, Waterfront is gone forever, replaced by the shell of a new restaurant called Atlantic Bar & Grill. So we wandered into Giuseppe, Arnaldo’s no later than noon to see what they could do for us.

It’s a funky place with a serious pedigree, and I have heard nothing but good stuff about the place. On a 40C day in the city, we sat alongside the strange folding windows, opened out to show a sleepy riverfront, and the coolness of the interior still won out. The wait staff in their butcher’s coats, jeans and Converse were attentive but not overpowering, and it didn’t take us long to order two plates of the spaghetti with crab.

The wine list didn’t really attract for wines by the glass, so I went with the house red, a tempranillo blend straight from the tap behind the bar. It worked. Beside us, a man about my own age entertained a gorgeous young four- or five-year-old to lunch. She sat imperiously at table, knowing how good she looked in that hairband with the huge pink flower, and looked like she was pretty good company.

Behind me the big salami showcase glistened, and we are not sure how we succeeded in not ordering a plate of everything, with a hunk of the fresh artisan bread lining the walls beyond. But we stuck to our guns, and awaited our pasta.

Not sure why the pasta was served wrapped in a baking sheet parcel. It was a lovely, garlicky, tomatoey pasta sauce with plenty of fresh crab meat, and I just know it was only in that oven for a few minutes. It didn’t need to be oven-baked. But the visual impact was pretty good on arrival, even if the baking parchment then got in the way for the rest of the meal.

The pasta was too saucey for Lee. I didn’t know what she meant. There is no such thing as too much sauce for me.

At the next table, a couple chose the chicken cacciatore which looked and smelled amazing. Nearby, somebody else chose the Sunday roast – suckling pig. Now, that looks like a dish to come back for.

I can’t comment on the value for money, as lunch was Lee’s treat, but the menu looked tempting enough for a second, more leisurely, visit another time.

Giuseppe, Arnaldo & Sons on Urbanspoon

>loading dock

~ maireaddoyle ~ 1 Comment

>Riverfront, 70 Lorimer Street, South Wharf, Melbourne
(03) 9681 8289

A casual afternoon lunch with friends on a sunny Melbourne Sunday. Where to go? Initially I balked at the idea of Docklands, even on such a perfect day. Everybody knows that despite the developers’ and Melbourne City Council’s best efforts, Docklands is a wasteland, and only barely acceptable for about three weeks of the year when the wind is at its lowest and the mercury at its highest.

But no, this little gem of a place is on South Wharf, over the curly pedestrian bridge from Docklands proper, or a pleasant 10-minute stroll west along the river from the Polly Woodside. If you are a shopper, it’s less than five minutes walk from the South Wharf DFO complex. The tables outside face north, so they are a bit of a sun-trap, with a small marina spread out in front, and city views all around. Perfect.

Over the course of four hours we grazed on perfectly-cooked thin-crust margherita pizza, fresh and flavoursome thai beef and black-seared tuna salads, generous panini, a pretty stunning Aussie burger, and a couple of excellent Jamaican dishes – curried goat and Jamaican-style snapper with pumpkin rice and okra.

One of the co-owners here is Jamaican, and on the third Sunday evening of the month they host a West Indian evening. We missed the last one being out of town, but February’s is firmly in the diary.

The wait staff were lovely. Well, I admit one of them was the daughter of the friends with whom we were eating, but the other waiter didn’t know who we were initially, and was most welcoming and accommodating. On paying our bill, one of the owners looked after us, and his civility gave us every reason to give him our custom again.

I have to say the pizzas alone are worth the wander down to this little-known corner of Melbourne city, and I know it is going to become a bit of a regular haunt for us.

So if you’re looking for a new corner of Melbourne with some pretty good food and a laid-back riverside vibe, head down to Loading Dock. It’s worth the detour.

Loading Dock on Urbanspoon

>duchess of spotswood

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Duchess of Spotswood
87 Hudsons Road
Spotswood 3015

A mid-week day off from flood response saw me, Kerry and Nina meander down to their new(ish) local eatery, the Duchess of Spotswood. This place is not open that long and has a huge following already, so I was looking forward to a late breakfast with good company.

We sat at the big table right at the window, in a sparsely-decorated but bright and welcoming main salon. One or two tables sat outside on the pavement. On a late Wednesday morning the place wasn’t hopping but we were still three of about eight or nine punters.

The breakfast menu was interesting and full of lovely names – breakfast of champignons, anyone? – but nothing on there for one of us who did not fancy eggs. Everything bar the muesli and the toast (Zeally Bay sourdough, thankyouverymuch) included eggs. Happily, they cobbled together a breakfast of sides for our eggless one, whilst Kerry chose poached eggs with spinach and tomato on Zeally Bay sourdough. I chose the Prince of Wales: house-smoked salmon with a poached egg served with potato pancakes.

My weak English Breakfast tea came out in a proper pottery teapot with a tea-leaf holder inside that meant I could stop the brewing anytime I wanted. Marvellous. Kerry’s latte was perfect. I believe they use Auction Rooms small batch coffee.

We didn’t have to wait too long for our dishes to arrive. My smoked salmon was small but perfectly-formed, and although initially I quailed at my portion size, it was indeed an elegant sufficiency. My poached egg was perfectly cooked, a delight. The tiny potato pancakes were lovely, but with one slice of bread were insufficient for my carb-loving body, so I followed through with some more toast and home-made rhubarb jam for afters. Or it could have been the hangover I was nursing.

The service was fine: efficient enough, a little hard to raise at times, and bordering on the unenthusiastic if I’m honest. All in all, some lovely food and great company, but I am not entirely sure the place is worth all the hype I’m hearing about it. I would like to re-visit for lunch sometime, to see if this place really is the next big thing, or just the Emperor’s New Clothes.

Duchess of Spotswood on Urbanspoon