121 Greville St Prahran
Your dear old Ecumer is not much of an Prahran habitue. A visit to David's once in a while, The Essential Ingredient if I absolutely cannot find the ingredient elsewhere and it is indeed essential, and of course Dan Murphy any time we're passing by. But my main conception of Prahran, dating from as long ago as when the young Ecumer used to go to Greville Street to listen to Kate Ceberano sing jazz (at the time just beginning her career and with only one or two LPs under her belt. Yes, you heard right, LPs.) is that it is dominated by cool, groovy places, nowadays often including hipsters. Pastel coloured polo shirts with the collar upturned are not rare.
So I was astonished to find an old fashioned French bistro deep in the heart of Coolville. The kind of terrace-house to restaurant conversion that I thought had long ago been banished to Fitzroy or Brunswick, and even there it's mostly done with retro irony. No irony here, I promise. Just good, traditional bistro food. And where do they get all those waiters with the fantastic accents?
It's nice to go to a restaurant that's comfortable in itself. It's not trying to be at the cutting edge of food technology, or architectural design, or the coolest ingredient; it's trying to do the food that the restaurant and its customers know and love, that they are used to and that they do well. And just such a restaurant is Chez Olivier.
The space is a series of smallish rooms, mostly dark panelled in wood with prints and cherished wine bottles from the past sitting in places of honour on the walls and a few other odd spots (occasionally getting knocked over by passing staff and customers). Waitstaff bustle back and forth with cartes of vin and cuisine; they are a little disconnected on orders just once but always quick and keen and the accents - tres Gallic!
But what about the food? Ecumer & the Periguexse, Scotty & Nic, & Manto all joined in to get our bistro on!
Brown Onion Soup ($13). The soup was a rich beef broth with onions; the croutes were both (in two orders) overcooked to charred around the edges, although appropriately cheese-toasted on top. A small-moderate flaw.
Calamari a la Schubi ($18) - Fresh calamari with pistachios, garlic, chilli and a sauce Provençale. A very good dish; the calamari was adeptly cooked to crispy on the tentacles, gently firm on the rest; the sauce Provençale was tomatoey, garlicky, oniony; the garlic and chili fitted right in and the big chunks of pistachio added a savoury taste that you wouldn't want to miss.
Assiette de Charcuterie ($18) - pate of chicken liver, rillette of pork, terrine of we think rabbit, some salami and cornichons. The pate of chicken liver was slightly grainy but well flavoured, and the onion jam matched well. The meat in the rillette of pork was stringy and chewy and unattractive; the terrine was firm and moist but did not excel; some fresh herbs in the terrine or even just some mustard on the plate would have livened it up nicely. Overall a passable set of charcuterie. Manto thinks I'm being too harsh, and maybe I am; she marks it as good overall with the exception of the rillette.
Cassoulet a la Jackie ($36), a Toulouse cassoulet with duck confit. Great depth of flavour in the stock surrounding the beans and veg; a decent piece of pork belly; a nice juicy flavourful piece of pork and garlic sausage; good rich confit duck, and gorgeous dribbles of goodness down the outside of the casserole dish. Some obvious shortcuts taken that are necessary for a single serve version of a group classic; but an excellent dish that got big yums from everyone that had a taste.
Rabbit casseroled in a wholegrain and tarragon mustard with basmati rice ($34). Remarkably tender and juicy rabbit, a single long loin and leg. Rich creamy herby sauce; it's French, it's rich, it's creamy. If we hadn't worked it out yet, this made is clear this was Old School French. And may I say anyone who can get rabbit legs soft and juicy gets a big Ecumer tick. For what that's worth.
Crepe Sauce Aigre-Douce ($28) - sweet and sour curry and vegetable crepes with salad. If I saw this in an Australian-Chinese restaurant I would run a mile; and yet somehow I expect the French to get a handle on this complex set of flavours (mind you, I didn't order it). And they did; sauteed veg in a crepe with a stock-based sauce with tomato for acid and sweetness both, a tad of lemon or vinegar (not sure which), and the classic pinch of curry powder, moderately (for the French) finished with cream and/or butter. The only complaint was that the serve was a tad small for a main.
Kangaroo Fillet a la Kobi ($36) - marinated and grilled with a sweet potato mash and sauce aux cepes. Yes, the photos are looking a bit cruddy at this stage. Sorry. We're looking to upgrade cameras soon, but in the meantime you'll have to put up with our shaky hands and whatever it was at Chez Olivier that made all the photos come out yellowish. Another good dish; the kangaroo fillet was grilled and rested to a good juicy tender medium rare, which with kangaroo is absolutely as good as you can get. The sauce had a strong dried mushroom flavour, well handled; the carrot puree was a nice smooth sweet carrot puree (with no flaws) that balanced out the strong sauce. Actually, a very good dish.
Cuisses de Canard Confites ($36) - duck legs confit with cider and calvados sauce & pommes Sarladaises. I was discussing with my French colleague G this week, why the classic accomplice to a dish of duck poached in duck fat is potatoes sauteed in duck fat? Why not some boiled potatoes or something vaguely lightish? His response was that in the south-west of France they have a lot of duck fat. And then he did a Gallic shrug, you know, eh? This was a good confit, slightly crisp on the outside (though I've had crisper) with a great pink juicy tender interior. I was slightly discommoded by the amount of butter in the sauce, as the Periguexse and I are on a mildly reducing diet plan at the moment. I had asked the waiter if the sauce ("cider and calvados" on the menu) had any cream in it, because Normandy dishes of cider and calvados often are finished with cream and butter. I was anticipating a nice jus. No cream, he said, and the 50g or so of monte au beurre that was going on obviously didn't need mentioning. Hmm. Excellent dish as long as you are expecting the butter. I may cook the dish the way I was expecting it sometime soon.
Orange & Cointreau Creme Brulee ($14). We were mostly full up at this stage but Manto is hard pressed to pass up a brulee; it is possibly the gold standard benchmark of bistro desserts. In a nice piece of theatre the bruleeing was done at the table with an extremely groovy torch (Ecumer covets it despite having a super powered BernzOmatic TS2000). Very good brulee; thin crispy crust, smooth even custard, nice flavours. Note Manto's hands clasped carefully away from the flame. Good Manto; learn from Ecumer's mistakes.
Tarte Tatin ($13.5). And SMT & Nic shared a tarte Tatin, probably the other bistro dessert benchmark. This was slightly non-standard as the apple was cut into thin slices instead of chunks, but a good sweet-short crust, well cooked apple, moderate caramel (could have been closer to that dangerous edge of bitter) made a very good dish.
And maybe a Poire William and a Muscat de baumes des Venice to go with dessert; and then a gentle discount from the good folks at the Entertainment Book, and we were good to go from a nice dinner.
Let me explain - no, there is no time; let me sum up. Good to very good bistro food with adept cooking in a traditional style which does not stint on ye olde Frenche fats. If you go on a Sunday - Thursday night when they are BYO wine ($11/bottle) the value goes up from good to very good (assuming you like wine and have a cellar).
Look at that S Car go,
Ecumer
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