French food is brilliant, but for a guy like me who doesn’t like snails or seafood, I can be a tough patron to please. Fortunately L’étoile solved that problem.
 
L’étoile is located in Paddington near the Five Ways. It’s a little hard to find as it’s not overly lit up like Vamps and other restaurants near by. However, the atmosphere is perfect for a quite dinner.
 
I reserved a table, however based on the crowd I don’t think it was necessary. There were no more than 4 or 5 tables out of 20ish that were full at any given point of the night. They also have an outdoor section at the back of the restaurant, but that looked empty too. I assume it was the Friday summer nights that got most of Sydney in bars and after work drinks. Regardless, we had a nice table next to the window with a view of Glenmore road (OK, not so exciting).
 
The waiters spoke with a strong French accent and were very courteous throughout our dinner. The minute you sit down you feel like everything is taken care of. The menu is simple yet mouth watering. The wine list has a variety of both Australian and French wines, though not as extensive as Tabou. We had a bottle of chenin blanc, beautifully flavoured wine (approx $65 a bottle). My entree was spinach salad with warm goat’s cheese and sliced pear. The bitterness of the cheese and spinach was perfectly balanced by the sweetness of the pear. At the end however, I had hoped for an extra slice or two to sweeten my taste buds. Maia had a twice cooked Moreton bay bug and gruyere soufflé which looked very soft but was advised of its seafood flavour.
 
We ordered the sautéed lamb rump with beans and garlic confit. However, the kind waiter advised that they have 2 lamb racks from the previous night’s special if we liked. I was up for it!
 
What I got back was a perfectly cooked lamb rack of 4 cutlets, served with a side of beans. The 4 cutlet rack lamb was sliced in the middle and presented as 2 pieces. It looked quite rare the middle, however once you start to cut through there is only a fine line of rare meat. It was soft, succulent and very flavoursome. The side of beans again perfectly complimented the meat.
 
All throughout our meal, there was constant attention to have our wine filled and glasses of sparkling water kept up. Good customer service and attention.
 
Time for dessert, and I went for the apple tatin (see image) and a glass of French dessert wine. A few minutes after we placed our dessert order, we got a glass of what looked liked crushed red ice flakes. The waiter announced them as frozen vanilla vodka and creme de cassis ice which were to help clean our taste buds for dessert. I expected to taste the alcohol within the first teaspoon full, but it tasted like berries. Perfect I thought and my buds were refreshed.
 
Dessert topped the night off. Nice warm baked slices of apples on top of a pastry that wasn’t fully crisp but still had bite. The syrups and juices were warm enough to just melt the ice cream a little bit. Each spoonful of the tatin reminded me of winter, and each spoon of the ice cream gave a taste of what’s ahead in summer.
 
Overall, a beautiful night at L’étoile – good service, great food, great wine and a lovely setting. I’m definitely going back!