Vue de Monde www.vuedemonde.com.au
· Level 55, Rialto, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne
· Dining at Dinnertime
· Party of two
Set on the 55th floor of the Rialto tower offering amazing views of the city as well as amazing cuisine is Shannon Bennett’s Vue de Monde. A restaurant that was recently awarded ‘Restaurant of the Year’ in the Good Food Guide 2013, it is renown by foodies and foodie-wannabes as the place to dine. I had been wanting to visit Vue de Monde for a considerable amount of time and was pleasantly surprised and spoilt by my husband as he had sneakily booked us in for dinner a good three months prior to my birthday.
I must devote an entire paragraph to the service at Vue de Monde. It can only be described as impeccable and meticulous. From the moment you are greeted on the ground floor, through to taking their private lift straight to level 55, through to being escorted to your table via the impressive wine room, through to being seated in a kangaroo fur chair and right through to having your kangaroo leather covered table dusted of crumbs by staff between each course. As well as the usual napkin folding when you leave the table, the attention to detail was impressive. But this is just how the ‘Restaurant of the Year’ rolls, it is their thing and contributes to the experience.
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| Cucumber Sorbet and Herbs |
We were advised of two options for our dining session, the “Freedom” or the “Choice”. The “Freedom” is the degustation, basically a tasting meal of nine courses that would progressively grace your table over a comparably lengthy period of time. And at $250 per person, I considered this option to be overly indulgent for the occasion that we were dining for. To include matching wine it is $15 - $25 per course. So we opted for the “Choice” menu which is a four course meal where there were several options under each course. At $150 per person, I felt this option satisfied this particular occasion.
Each course had its in betweeners such as palate cleansers (a Cucumber sorbet with on the spot crushed herbs) and the fancy things you would expect in a restaurant of this caliber.
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| "Snacks" to Begin |
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| Salt Cured Kangaroo |
The experience began with Oyster, Salt cured kangaroo, Celeriac, Sunflower seed and Smoked eel, white chocolate, caviar. The presentation and how each item was strategically placed on the table intrigued me perhaps more than the actual food. However the salt cured kangaroo was exceptionally tender and delicious and was rolled right in front of you.
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| Trout Belly |
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| Ox Tongue |
For entrée we had the Trout belly, smoked eel, nasturtiums, wasabi and to be adventurous I chose the Ox tongue salad, Gascony butter.
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| Duck, Yabbie, Kale |
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| Wagyu |
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| Cheese Course |
Course number three was an Assortment of cheeses, bread, jams. The chesses are especially served to you from a mobile cabinet of different cheeses after you tell the waiter what kind of cheeses you prefer. Served with a variety of jams and bread, this course is not something I normally have when dining out however is a pleasant lead up to the sweet finish.
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| Pavlova |
For dessert we chose the Pavlova and Chocolate soufflé, chocolate mousse, crème anglaise. This course was an anti-climax to what was one of my most unique and special dining experiences. What we did not realise was the Pavlova would be “deconstructed” and therefore did not meet our longing expectations of crispy meringue and fluffy light egg whites. The chocolate soufflé was served by the chef where a knife was inserted to create a hole for the crème anglaise to be poured into. Very nice in theory but so very disappointing in taste. A lackluster finale to an enjoyable experience.
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| Chocolate Souffle |
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| Petit Fours |
And to round up the meal petit-fours were served.
From booking right through to after the meal where the menu complete with wine choices is emailed to you, It can be described as nothing other than an experience - and a memorable one at that!
I was wondering when your next blog would be posted and here again sitting at my computer on a very early Autumn Saturday morning I found myself reading and learning about food from your most informative blog.
ReplyDeleteSalt cured kangaroo meat, trout belly, smoked eel, nasturtiums, ox tongue salad, gacony butter, wagyu beef, yabbie, kale, petit-fours…all of which I never tasted and will keep an eye for in the future.
Through the facility of modern search engine I got myself reading about gascony butter and ended up finding myself in Gascon in South West of France.
To my unlimited knowledge of French Food I learned that the French uses a lot of duck fat because it consists of only 33% of saturated fat instead of 62% and 49% of mono-unsaturated fat versus 29% in butter. Its profile is more resembles to that of olive oil. I think I’m going to start using duct fat if I can put my hands on it as easily as grabbing a bottle of olive oil from a super market shelves. I guess not, I actually never seen it sold in my local super market. Perhaps I should migrate to Gascon :)
From west of France I ended up in the other side of the world: Japan then back to Australia! There I learned that although wagyu cattle originated in Japan and it means Japanese cattle, Australia has been exporting wagyu to Japan! The wagyu beef is well known (not to me) for its intense marbling and high contents of “oleaginous unsaturated fat”. It is considered to be the most tender, most succulent, and tastiest meat in the world. However it is also the most expensive meat, 1kg of sirloin cost AUD 189.99 at a Sydney butcher called Victor Churchill. This is way too expensive for my family food budget which only allows for only casual of the ordinary sirloin steak. I don’t mind trying wagyu beef one day at a special restaurant in Melbourne such as Vue de Monde where AUD150 per head is the cheapest you can get :) That would feed my family for the whole week but who cares if it is only for once in 10 years.
In fact, I’ve just landed myself in an Australian website which says Subway is selling the wagyu beef a six inch for AUD7.45 and AUD10.95 for the foot long.
I’d like to find out how many “petits morceaux of wagyu beef” you can get for that price.
Another interesting dish I found in this blog is the “petits-fours”. From what I see in your photo I thought it resembles some food that was offered to Koalas in a zoo! All those leaves! Were they edible I wonder. One thing I learned form following the Master Chef’s shows is that the contestants are always reminded not to put inedible things on their plates. So I looked up the “petit-fours” and found out that they should be better served by themselves. Some of them are so beautifully crafted.
Before I leave this blog until next time I think I should point out another negative point about Vue de Monde dish, the deconstructed pavlova. I don’t think this dish would pass the test in Master Chef.
Until next blog...