Montrachet (Bowen Hills - Brisbane) 09/2018

It's four years since I last visited Montrachet and things have changed a bit. It's been sold and it's moved from a slightly isolated spot in Paddington to a busy restaurant strip and now also have outside dining. In other ways it's very much the same. A seven course degustation ($110) or a four course degustation ($90) with matched wines if you wish. A very French a la carte menu, uniformed wait staff and at least one French waiter.
Table settings are simple

with half a dozen places along the bar

for those who might wish to sit there.
Time for the food.
I find a few dishes that are a good test of a chef, one of them being French onion soup.

They did it very well. Well balanced, not too sweet, enough onion and the crouton covered with just enough cheese remained crisp.
I had been seated outside looking in!

After the first course I accepted a seat at the bar. Fish? lamb? fillet? quail? duck?
Lockyer Valley Quail won the guernsey .

This quite large bird, pan roasted, was served with preserved lemon farce on a bed of baked rhubarb accompanied by a 'baby' potato, parsnip and Juniper scented pan juices was a little bland but the accompaniments made up for everything. The light lemon flavour, the extremely tasty pan juices and the rhubarb were incredible.
As good as ever
Score:16.5 /20

Le Petit Tracteur (Main Ridge, Mornington Peninsula) 06/2018

Rightly or wrongly I always thought the idea that the name 10 Miles by Tractor was intended to convey was of environmentally conscious organic local food. That restaurant is now closed but it's little brother, you might say, Petit Tracteur, is serving French style cuisine in an attractive rural environment roughly an hour and a quarter out of Melbourne concentrates on the same sort of thing.
Adjacent to the restaurant we came across something new to me.

 but we came to eat and anyway I had a three hour drive later that afternoon so alcohol had to be minimal.
The restaurant has a room attached to the main venue which is a sort of conservatorium, filled with greenery.

 Tables are large, attractively set

and well spaced.
Waitstaff are neatly dressed in white shirts and blue overalls.

Remi looked after us very well.
They offer a typical French style of food though the bread, which was appealing, was not the typical baton.

 Between us we tastes quite a few dishes starting with Coffin Bay oysters ($15 for 6!)
 
 Steak tartare

Seasoned minced raw fillet steak, egg yolk, capers, shallots, croutons. A little light on the seasoning.

Tarte au Celeri-Rave

Puff pastry celariac tart, mushroom duxelle, salt baked celeriac. Good but dominated by the pastry.

Portrine de Porc

Pork belly, quince puree, black barley, pork jus.  Aparently some people order this dish and then complain it is too fatty, au contraire, as the French might say, it could have been even more so, and could have been cooked for longer too. The skin looked good but was barely crisp but the black barley was excellent. 

Barramundi au Legumes D'Automne

Crispy skinned Barramundi, leek consomme, roasted celeriac. Perfectly cooked, it could not have been better, moist and rich.

Selle D'Agneau au Topinambour

Pan seared lamb rump, artichoke puree, roasted Jerusalem artichoke, lamb jus. Almost sweet this very tender piece of meat was excellently prepared and presented. Not too fussy it ticked all the boxes.
Canard a la Orange

Confit duck leg, orange sauce, green beans. A classical French dish.
Peas

This side dish was brilliant. I'm not sure what was in it apart from the peas, some onion, probably shallots and lardons which gave the whole dish a fabulous mouth watering taste. Yum.
With a long drive ahead of me I was happy to drink a 5% alcohol Massolino Moscato d'Asti

which fitted well with the desserts.
Tart Tatin

Pink Lady apples served with cream and ice cream was too sweet and lacked character.

Cream Brulee

looked good even with the unusual berry dressing but the custard had the wrong texture and was so loose that it ran onto the plate once the crust was broken and a spoonful had been eaten.

Tea was nicely presented.

Let down by the desserts this is well above average though a little short of 'fine dining'.

Score: 15/20

Harmony BBQ and Seafood Restaurant (Malvern) 05/2018

The name tells you most of it. It doesn't tell you that this used to be Ripples BBQ and Seafood restaurant but to all intents and purposes it is identical.
The venue is exactly the same. The ducks hanging in the front window, the aquarium next to the entrance, the cashier and bar set up, 

even the table positions. 
Daily yum cha with uniformed wait staff 

pushing trolleys filled with small dishes also continue as before. Prices are marginally increased but pretty average for these meals. 
We had a good variety of steamed dumplings, 

spring rolls and deep fried dishes 

as well as chicken pie and chicken feet.

The best thing was the quality of the dough in the dumplings. It was not too thick, well cooked and held the ingredients together well. Unfortunately the Singapore pork dumplings had no soup in them.
There was nothing to criticise. In all a god yum cha worth a visit.
Comments Score: 14/20

Fellippe Melbourne CBD) 07/2017

Perhaps Philippe Mouchel will have more success at this subterranean site than a number of his predecessors. certainly he was busy enough last night with only a few empty tables and customers still arriving at 8.45 pm. The venue is unchanged from when Brooks was here. Decor is pleasant. Good sized white clothed tables have paper protection.

Chairs are hard and not comfortable but there is a soft backed settee running the length of the wall.

They have a couple of glass cabinets featuring meats, cheeses and other produce. 

The busy Saturday night had an unexpected down side for us. They had a seafood platter on the internet menu but not on the table menu. Some were lucky enough to get that but it was sold out when we wanted to order. Soup was also sold out! They have a Plat de jour - Saturday night is Cassoulet night - guess what, sorry no more cassoulet available. The one page menu is quite small so there were few attractive choices.

We had had a superb charcuterie platter at  Phillipe's Russel St restaurant (I think it was called FM 15) a few years ago but I wanted something different. We settled on sharing two different entrees, a beetroot cured salmon and a snail dish.

A pretty presentation the salmon was as good as it looked. The accompanying salad delicate, colourful and did not dominate the salmon which was superb.
Snails with free range egg "en meurette", mushrooms, leek and croutons ($21) was another story. 

Meurette sauce is a wine sauce rather like gravy, the egg in this recipe is poached, firm white with a runny yolk. it was as it should be but the snails, I think there were four of them, were no way enhanced by the rest of the dish. they need not have been there at all.

We were very limited for mains (Plats principal) The duck dish ($55/person) was for two and I wanted variety and did not particularly feel like duck. The vegetarian option did not appeal and I did not want a fillet of snapper so that left the meat.

I settled on the slow roasted lamb with sweatbreads and eggplant ($40) and Sandra chose the Waghu rump cap ($60).

The lamb was nicely seasoned and cooked as requested. The sweatbreads, on a stick with a strip of bacon dividing them were good too but it was a tiny serve.

Sandra's waghu was a bit chewy as you would expect 

and never had much marbelling.
Our waitress suggested we have a side dish (Accessoires) and we chose the char grilled cos lettuce with Caesar vinaigrette and croutons ($9)

a great choice, we both thoroughly enjoyed it.
The dessers (Gourmandeses) were not exciting but if we waited 15 minutes we could have a souffle. Yes please.

It looked fantastic. Unfortunately the texture was all wrong, almost cake like and grainy and the liqueur overwhelming.
Our waitress tried to be helpful but struggled, not being able to make sense of her notes which appear to have been written on a paper serviette or a Kleenex tissue. She knew nothing about the wines. they have quite a good list and they are not excessively marked up.
I'm finding these little touches of French or Italian on menus a bit pretentious. We all know what they are. It's about time they stuck to English, or if they feel the need to acknowledge the origin of their menus useFrench or Italian or whatever!!

Score: 13.75/20

Aegean Waters Restaurant (Hervey Bay Queensland) 05/2017

The name may be Greek but this restaurant is a Provincial French gem. It could have been dropped into Hervey Bay from the heart of France 50 yrars ago. The instant I walked through the door 

I was struck by the warm welcoming atmosphere. The decor is very old style. 

Seating is comfortable and tables are set with cutlery, crockery and old style cloths.

Walls are decorated with French impressionist style oil paintings

About 40 small portraits are hung around the top of the room

and a large mural adorns a wall at the end of the room.

A unique place for a small Australian town. 
The menu is also basically French offering some classics such as snails and some uncommon dishes such as crumbed lamb brains.
I ordered a grilled baby lobster ($26) which arrived covered with an excellent Mornay sauce resting on a bed of rice.

Presentation of dishes is attractive. I had Mandarin Duck ($36) for my main course, a variation on Duck L'Orange.

served with seasonal vegetables. The boned crispy skin duck was a trifle dry but tasty and saved by plenty of sauce. I loved the vegetables. Slices of swede alternated with carrot and snow peas rested on grilled courgettes.and crumbed mashed potatoes. I enjoyed swede for the first time ever.
Perhaps the decor could be considered quirky and stuck in a time warp but it remains very attractive and the food is very well prepared.
Service is pleasant and unhurried
They have a modest, adequate and relatively inexpensive  wine list and pour a generous glass.
Comments: The most enjoyable meal I've had for a long time.
Score: 16/20