I had been taken here for my birthday – and the experience was second to none. This had to be in the top 3 for me in 2009!

Run by Justin North, Chef of the Year 2009 (by SMH Good Food Guide), Becasse is quietly located on Clarence Street, Sydney. The first thing I noticed, was the calm welcoming feeling of a fine dinning restaurant with staff who you knew would make you have a comfortable evening.

You didn’t feel that you needed to be your best to enjoy Justin North’s impressively looking and tasting Modern French menu. We were shown to our table, located near a corner with views of the restaurant’s mezzanine level. The interior is comfortably lit with just the right amount of lighting to have a nice intimate dinning experience. With two tones of brown curtains draped along one side of the wall, and the opposite side matched with similar tone paints, all then tied in together with brown matching wooden chairs, gave the entire room a nice warm and expensive feeling. You can’t miss the round chandeliers hovering around the centre of the restaurant.

Our host for the evening I believe was the Sommelier himself and his casual and humorous professionalism made our night even more enjoyable. We ran our eyes fairly quickly over the menu for a bit, given that our intentions were to have the degustation menu ($130 pp). However, after spending a little too much time over the extensive wine list, we decided to go for the degustation with matching wine ($190 pp).

Given my lack of palate for seafood, our host was able to speak with the chef to alter just my courses – which was a treat. I think more and more restaurants are getting better at this, as opposed to ‘Sorry sir, the tasting menu is fixed – here’s our A La Carte menu’ (knob!)

Now do forgive me, as I dined at Becasse back in December – so I maybe short on the details of all ten courses – but more importantly having 9 or 10 glasses of wine didn’t make things easier.

I remember starting off with an Amuse Bouche of some sort after which we received 3 different varieties of bread – rosemary, pumpkin and poppy seed (I think). Then I recall a basil with tomato and olive oil sorbet. And I remember this clearly because of the olive oil sorbet  – rich, but cold and yet perfectly matched the tomato and basil concoction. I then recall a course of sliced pork with a little salad and another of a steak fillet of some sort (told you I was hazy with the details). However, one of the dishes that I knew didn’t settle well with me was pork liver – I just couldn’t handle that stuff. A bit too gamey, with a texture that didn’t quite suit.

Also failing to please the palate was dessert, but I think I blame this on the 8 courses of wine before dessert arrived, as well as the bottle of champagne that was knocked off before dinner. I’m not having a go at you Mr. North, I just don’t think my stomach appreciated the consumption of the last 2 hours before dessert was placed in front of me.

Complimentary coffee helped, as well as a short conversation with the host and some of the staff towards the very end. Friendly yet attentive staff, minimalist décor, creative cooking and nicely matched wine made things simply enjoyable.

I definitely intend to head back to Becasse – the next time I’m hoping to remember all the dishes.

Just a wonderful way to celebrate my 26th.

Atmosphere – 8.5/10
Food – 8.5/10
Wine – 8/10
Staff – 8.5/10
Value for money – 8.5/10

http://www.becasse.com.au/