Originally a culinary journey through the best (and sometimes not the best) eateries in Melbourne interstate and international. This site is a free guide. Your comments are very welcome and any contributions will be added to the site. Feel free to email us reviews, anytime and anywhere.
I guess we're easily surprised. It turns out that this is the 32nd time we've been to Vue de monde. Probably nearly as often as we've been to KFC or McDonald's. Considering the price there has to be a very good reason to keep coming back and there is. It's everything about the place. In brief its the venue, the ambiance, the service, the cutlery, crockery and glassware, the food, the inventiveness and the theatre.They're tops in every division, not that they don't have a few misses along the way. We had a birthday and an anniversary, not ours, to celebrate and asked for some variation of the menu but wanted some of the fantastic dishes from last week and this is what we got: SUNDAY 24TH July 2016 Chefs Tasting menu
“Chiko Roll”, fermented buckwheat, charred cabbage Raw wallaby, enoki mushroom and chive cream Rusty wire oyster and rhubarb See Last Weeks Pics Port Phillip scallop with wood sorrel and horseradish Beer and fennel bread with cultured butter Dangerous as ever Black lip abalone, hen’s egg yolk and fumet blanc The elements are more obvious in this pic, the truffle did not even get a mention on the menu! Marron served BBQ, raw and cured with citrus Same as last week and just as desirable. Marron snag sizzle In a toasted Brioche, With accouterments. Red Snapper with black sauce The black sauce was over reduced, heavy and too salty overwhelming the fish which was otherwise excellent. Davidson plum with flowers and herbs A palate cleanser. Quail, bunya bunya nuts and celeriac Another heavily reduced sauce was added to this dish. Lamb with Cauliflower and native spices Anothe heavily reduced and salty sauce added. David Blackmore Striploin grilled and brussel sprouts There was a lot of salt in these protein dishes. Trolley of cheese
Gumnut
Rhubarb with Quandong and Ginger The rhubarb was too tart for my taste, still a nice walk through the garden. Jerusalem artichoke with pear and white chocolate See last week. Passionfruit Soufflé They are masters ofSoufflé but make sure you like passion fruit. Then came a surprise for us. and for our friends. Lamington A little postprandial delight Comments: Perhaps you can have too much of a good thing. The distinguishing delicacy of the cooking here was somewhat diminished by the sauces with the meat dishes but in all it was still an excellent meal although some of our colleagues needed extra stimulation by the end of the meal! Score:17 /20
Within a day or two Vue sent me a copy of the menu we enjoyed over a long lunch. Their capacity for innovation and finesse in presentation and taste never ceases to surprise and delight us. SUNDAY 17TH July 2016 Chefs Tasting menu Chips made of kohlrabi, seaweed and kale with oyster emulsion Mouth watering. Pickled leek and roasted chicken Not as exciting as the previous dish. The chicken crumb around the leek was a little lost for flavour. Rusty wire oysters and rhubarb The sweet sour rhubarb was much better than a ponzu or lemon dressing. Port Phillip scallop with wood sorrel and horseradish The seared scallop hardly needed anything else. Delicate and delicious - again Beer and fennel bread with cultured butter. This is a disaster. It's so moorish it's hard to stop eating it but there is so much more to come. Black lip abalone, hen’s egg yolk and fumet blanc Beneath the thin slice of Canberra truffle and the fumet blanc was a treasure of taste and texture. The barely cooked egg and the abalone with a few squares of potato in a rich sauce would be a signature dish in any restaurant. My dish of the day, week or month! Marron served BBQ, raw and cured with citrus. Somehow Vue always find a great way of serving Marron that never fails to please. The accompanying Marron snag sizzle, which also contains prawn and chicken is the best seafood sausage you could ever want. It was served with a toasted brioche so you could have a DYO seafood hot dog. Poached Barramundi with turnip dashi A near perfect dish, the flavour enhanced by the dashi it would be hard to find a finer fish dish. Davidson plum with flowers and herbs, a palate cleanser. Roo on charcoal with beets This is a very underrated meat but we could have done with more. We also had aged Duck, fermented bay leaf and sour onions because Sandra does not like eating Bambi. & Braised aged pork neck, fermented bay leaf and sour onions
All this while drinking NV Charles Heidsieck ‘Brut Reserve’,Reims, Champagne, France, followed by 2014 Donnhnoff ‘Oberhauser Loistenberg’ Kabinett Riesling, Nahe, Germany from the finest imaginable Zalto glassware. David Blackmore Striploin grilled and brussel sprouts was the last main. Trolley of cheese followed.
by a couple of savoury desserts Persimmon and tea tree
Macadamia (Ice cream) and fermented apple, and Jerusalem artichoke with pear and white chocolate before another signature dish. Chocolate Soufflé and then some chocolate mouse dressed up as lamingtons. We're really putting them to the test next week having asked for a quite different menu we're coming back again to celebrate an occasion. Score: 18.5/20
This is a joint venture, to which you are welcome to join. Sandra, a perpetual student, has a doctorate in Psychology and now completed a Masters in gastronomy at Adelaide University.. She is an excellent cook and has a very good palate. We share interests in travel arts and literature and especially food. I am an aging bonviveur, workaholic gourmet slowly losing a battle with obesity. We love all good things.
