After having been to Tabou, L’etoile and Vamps, I figured I should try Assiette. After all, there’s no better way to compare restaurants unless you indulge yourself in their finest food.
Making a booking was a breeze – I thought I’d give their online enquiry form a shot, and surely enough, within 24 hours I got a response from a very courteous Rachel McShane, the manager herself.
We arrived as promised, at 8pm. Rachel showed us to our table, and as we sat – the first thing they asked was “Would you like some water or a glass of champagne?”. Clever, I thought. What a way to start off as soon as you sit down. Champagne, of course, was what we preferred and they got back with an impressive wine list – to choose both our champagne and wine for dinner.
After ordering and receiving our glasses of French bubbles, they left us with the menu and gave us ample of time before we ordered.
Just after we ordered, Rachel suggested we move our table a little to the north as she was expecting a birthday group behind us. This allowed us a little privacy by avoiding their loud conversation.
Having cracked open a beautiful bottle of 2007 St Clair Omaka Reserve Pinot Noir (Marlborough, NZ), oysters were presented on the table (I skipped this bit due to my lack of appetite for seafood).
For entree, my plate consisted of goats cheese sprinkled with spices served with tomatoes cooked 3 ways. One of the tomato were presented in jelly form and was quite remarkable – something that I’ve never had before. I’ve tried beetroot jelly – but not tomato jelly that wrapped itself around some tomato puree. Beautiful textures and flavours.
Following my entree, was sliced lamb fillet on top of mashed eggplant, served with onion puree and deep fried pieces of lamb placed on top of wilted spinach. Individually, each of them tasted great. However, I didn’t find that the entire dish came together as one. The onion puree was quite overpowering and deep fried lamb bits were just there for the sake of presentation I think. Although, the lamb and eggplant were perfectly matched. Overall, it was very enjoyable.
I must however say, that the choice of wine did very well suit the main course.
Finally for dessert, we shared a glass of dessert wine accompanied by a serving of vanilla compote. The taste was perfect to end a meal and each bite just melted in your mouth.
The staff were very good at what they did. They paid good attention to your table and knew when to top up the wine and water. They even explain each dish as it was placed on the table.
With each person having a glass of champagne, bottle of wine, entree, main, dessert and a glass of dessert wine, expect to pay about $150-$180 each.
To top it off, I had a good experience – but did I find it better than the others? Unfortunately, yes. I still prefer Tabou and L’etoile. I would have also hopped that Assiette updated their website showing their latest menu, as I went with the expectation of their existing online menu.
Atmosphere – 7.5/10
Food – 7.5/10
Wine/Cocktails – 8.5/10
Staff – 9/10
Value for money – 7/10
http://www.restaurantassiette.com.au/
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!
The first impact of this French restaurant was that it was busy – very busy! We had a booking for 4 made days in advance (just to be safe) and I recommend you do the same, don’t just turn up.
The staff immediately attended to you once you stepped in and we were seated pretty much in the middle of the lower level. The upper level has more tables and a bar.
The menu was perfect with not too much variety, but just enough to make your selection easy from 6 options for each course. In fact, you can view it here – http://www.tabourestaurant.com.au/menu.pdf
We ordered some white wine, and if memory serves me right, I believe we a 2006 Andre Kientzler, Pinot Gris – actually, we had 2 of those!
To start, I had the cheese soufflé – which was perfectly cooked. I was told prior to coming to Tabou, that this could be quite a heavy dish. It wasn’t too heavy, but then again – I had a good appetite built up before leaving home. With each spoonful, the cheese just melted in your mouth and the taste was exceptional, I could do it again for mains.
My mains contained slices of roast lamb loin served with aubergine (eggplant), courgette (zucchini) and anchoiade (?). The lamb was cooked really, medium-rare – just how I like it. The vegetables and sauce however, was quite bland – a bit too simple in my opinion. The vegetables had a nice bit and complimented the lamb well – without them, it would be a plain meat dish with tomato paste. Might try the pork next time.
To top it off, I had another soufflé, but this time it was chocolate and I can’t say that this was my favourite dessert. While the soufflé itself was very nice, the surrounding chocolate sauce was quite bitter – almost tasted of coffee, not what I expected (or maybe I didn’t read the fine lines of the dessert description). But the dates flavoured ice cream served beside it, saved my tongue. We also had a bottle of dessert wine to leave a sweet taste on our palates.
Overall, I enjoyed dining at this restaurant. Yes, it is expensive – especially when 4 of us order 3 bottles of wine at $60 a bottle. If you get a 3 course meal alone, be prepared to fork $70 out. If you have French bottle of wine or two, you’ll soon be looking at 3 digit figures per head. Overall for the quality of food, I may have preferred elsewhere (like Vamps). But the overall experience in itself, was well worth it.
Atmosphere – 8/10
Food – 7/10
Wine/Cocktails – 9/10
Staff – 8.5/10
Value for money – 7/10