Jaques Reymond (Prahran) 05/2011

Jaques Reymond offers two degustation menus, a vegetarian and a ‘Taste of our Degustation Menu’ for omnivores. Both are designed to ‘feature the finest of Australian produce to reflect the flavours of the season’. Knowing that we could share everything we ordered both menus.

This is what we had.

Menu Vegetarian
Soy milk, corn and watercress soup, potato foam, shiitake kakiage and panko cheese
2008 Champalou Vouvray Sec, Vouvray France

New style gazpacho with pure natural tomato jelly, beignets of Australian bush tomatoes, cucumber and melon, a champagne foam
2008 Pouilly Fumé Tonelum, Loire valley France
Flavours of Autumn: cannelloni of beetroot and red cabbage relish, Mount Buffalo hazelnuts and orange oil, saffron rouille dressing
2009 Toolangi Jacques Reymond Sélection Yarra Valley Vic
Lacquered marrow zucchini in masterstock, exotic mushrooms and fresh pappardelle. Tasmanian wasabi espuma and ponzu juices
2008 Durandal Grand Cru, St Emilion Bordeaux France
Steamed silken tofu like a Waldorf salad, crispy enoki, spiced walnuts and compressed apples, oloroso sherry vinaigrette
2008 Yabby Lake Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula Vic
Egg white omelette of turmeric carrots and pickled chokos, grated daikon
and chilli, our ketchup sorbet
2006 Dalwhinnie Jacques Reymond Selection Cabernet, Pyrenees, Vic
Iced coffee and chocolate martini, Tahitian vanilla, caramelised nuts Deconstructed cheese cake: galette of fresh Timboon fromage blanc l artisan,
warm fruit pudding, mountain bush pepper berries ice cream
2006 Pressing Matters Riesling R139 Coal River Tasmania

Coffee and petits fours

$135.00 without wine

$230.00 with wine

The general degustaion dishes often looked quite similar in appearance and ended with the same desserts.
Tea smoked chicken and watercress soup, potato foam and tempura wakame oyster, azeite dende
2008 Champalou Vouvray Sec, Vouvray France

Gazpacho of tuna oriental style, dashi and pure natural tomato jelly, native Davidson red plum
2008 Pouilly Fumé Tonelum, Loire valley France

Flavours of autumn: deep sea rockling with anchovy and coffee, Mount Buffalo hazelnuts and orange oil, saffron rouille dressing
2009 Toolangi Jacques Reymond Sélection Yarra Valley Vic
Western Plains young pork shabu shabu in masterstock, fresh pappardelle, Tasmanian wasabi espuma and ponzu juices
2008 Durandal Grand Cru, St Emilion Bordeaux France

Gippsland white farmed rabbit and crispy squid, spiced walnuts and
compressed apples, oloroso sherry vinaigrette.

We had pheasant instead.
2008 Yabby Lake Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula Vic

Wagyu beef rump and oyster sauce, egg white omelette of pickled chokos, grated daikon and chilli, our ketchup sorbet
2006 Dalwhinnie Jacques Reymond Selection Cabernet, Pyrenees, Vic



$175.00 without wine
$270.00 with wine

There are a lot of good things to say about this restaurant in a fine old Victorian house. The lovely ground floor rooms exude quiet sophistication, a further reminder of Victorian times. The pleasant lighting, the white clothed tables, the solid cutlery and good crockery produce a fine ambiance supported by impeccable service. This is a fine setting for a three star restaurant, it only needed food to match.

First, it must be said, it was a beautiful meal. Every dish was a picture but it was far from being a really excellent meal. Reymond seems to have gone foaming mad. Dish after dish was topped with foam, sometimes referred to as espuma but the greatest deficiency was in seasoning. The ingredients were undoubtedly of top quality, though we would have liked a higher grade waghu. The vegetarian menu relied heavily on mushroom to add flavour to the food There were some not very commonly used ingredients, for example watercress soup and pickled choko. This is all very nice and mostly his combinations went well together sometimes they really seemed to be mismatched. The most extreme example of this was the egg white omelette. This contained a mixture of lightly cooked julienned vegetables the coarseness of which contrasted unpleasantly with the delicate omelette. On the other hand the steamed silken tofu was a super dish. The two things we both agreed as the best of all on the night were the bookends of the meal, Jaques signature gruyere flavoured gougeres,
a French choux pastry cheese puff, which are the best Sandra and I have ever eaten, and the deconstructed cheese cake which was delicious. In conclusion it was a meal that looked great had great textural variation and showed enormous skill in technique but failed to impress in the ultimate taste test because of the blandness of the dishes. We drank wine by the glass. Generally wines were about $18 a glass. A Moet was $28!

Score 15/20