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Vue de Monde
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Restaurant
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Melbourne
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Credit Cards:
All major cards
Open:
Lunch Tue - Fri, dinner Tue - Sat
Price:
Expensive (Menu Gourmand $135)
Licenced/BYO:
Licensed
Score (/20):
16
Reviewed By
Sue Dyson and Roger McShane
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Phone Number:
+61 3 9691 3888
Address:
430 Little Collins St
Melbourne, Victoria, 3000
Country:
Australia
Food Style:
French
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Vue de Monde's new location on the side of the revamped Normanby Chambers is a perfect showcase for the food and wine experience offered by Shannon Bennett and his team of very professional staff.The restaurant now provides lots of space for the large tables and comfortable white-backed chairs. The walls still display the quirky paintings of Tasmanian artist and former chef Tom Samek.The deal is simple here. You discuss with the waiting staff how much you would like to eat and whether you want to splurge on the 'premium products' such as osetra caviar, Umbrian truffles, snow crab, West Australian marron or whatever else is fresh on the day and then they devise a sequence of dishes for you. It is also a very good idea to let the sommelier match the wines for you as you will have only a general idea of the food that will be served therefore it is hard to make the match yourself. On our recent visit to the new location we left it to the sommelier and were delighted with the results.The dishes we had were:An amuse gueule in a conical white dish which held some Wagyu tartare with a sweet tomato-based(?) sauce topped with a potato foam and a drizzle of truffle oilA duck egg filled with a barely set yolk mixed with foie gras and a little maple syrup and topped with a sliver of truffleSnow crab which had been seared then wrapped in spinach, topped with a sorrel leaf, and some tiny batons of squash and apple then surrounded by a truffle and butter sauce and sprinkled with walnut dustA cylinder of risotto topped with finely sliced cepes with a drizzle of cepe emulsion and a scattering of cepe dustThree mounds of baked King George whiting topped with a prawn and then a house-made prawn cracker mounted on a chiffonnade of lettuce cooked in goose fat and dusted with lemon verbena and sesame seedA constructed cassoulet sitting on a refined bean puree and topped with a slice of foie grasA basil sorbet on a spoon was teamed with a fine tomato consommé flecked with tiny pieces of tomato jellyA tiny, tiny rack of flavourful Gippsland hare served on a crepinette of hare meat sitting over a cube of crusted polenta with a garlic and chicken broth A Rochecave blue accompanied by some lovely Rutherglen muscatels and some home-made sourdough fruit breadA lollipop of watermelon, rockmelon and honeydew melon on a stick that had been dipped in strawberry jellyA mix of pineapple and ginger topped with coconut foam and two stands of chocolate tagliatelleA Manjari chocolate fondant and perfect pistachio ice cream linked by a fine vanilla anglaisePetite foursOverall this was a good meal that suffered somewhat from an over-use of truffles and truffle oil - these are ingredients that should be used sparingly to enhance their effect.The wines included a La Sacristia de Romate Oloroso sherry, a glass of Granbazan Albarino, a delightful Zind Humbrecht Heimbourg Pinot Gris 1997, a Mon Redon Cotes Du Rhone 2003 and a Chambers Grand Muscat.
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