chez olivier, prahran

yowza! i know it’s been ages since i’ve posted something up, work has just been absolutely mental. the food pics have been piling up, i just haven’t had the chance to write anything. but after my first experience with french cuisine in melbourne i felt it was probably time to get back on the blog-wagon.

it was a friend’s birthday and he took us to his favourite french restaurant, chez olivier for a feast (121 greville street, prahran 03 9525 2273). not having had french food for a bloody long time i was really looking forward to the meal. we walked in through the tiny entrance to a chorus of bonsoir! from the waitstaff and was promptly led to a table upstairs.

i had taken a year’s worth of french classes at uni, and 2 weeks after graduating i had promptly forgotten about 90% of my training. i was happy though to remember the standard greetings and food descriptions. the menu was quite extensive and it took me a while, but as soon as i saw steak tartare on the list of entries i decided i had to try chez olivier’s version and that struck all the meat off my main course option list.

we ended up sharing the eye fillet steak tartare, escargots and the assiete de charcuterie.

although clearly a bit messy, the escargots were yummy and garlicky. not everyone’s cup of tea and i don’t think i could have eaten the whole entree, but one was just right.

this wasn’t much to look at either, but the steak tartare really hit the spot! it was full of flavour that exploded in your mouth.  although i really don’t think 4 slices of toasted french loaf was anywhere near enough for the amount of meat we had! no big drama though, we had an endless supply of fresh bread on the table so we just ended up using that instead.

i didn’t try anything except the pate which was AWESOME. i’ve grown to like liver pate and while the aftertaste takes a little while to get used to, each mouthful made me want more and more!

onto the mains. after all the meat we started off with i decided to go with the poisson du jour… a kingfish with mushrooms and bearnaise.

the mushroom mix and bearnaise were beautiful, but unfortunately as i got to the end of my kingfish i was disappointed to find that it was slightly undercooked.

after the slightly underwhelming main course i really hoped that we would end on a better note with dessert. and luckily that was the case!

k went straight for the orange and cointreau creme brulee, a huge serving that was torched at the table to the boys’ delight.

i had a mouthful of the wonderfully smooth creme, which k proclaimed to be the best he’d ever had.

a girlfriend ordered the self saucing chocolate fondant, which was the hugest i had ever seen!

i could only have a mouthful as it was so rich, but the next time i turned to look at the dish it was all gone so clearly it wasn’t TOO rich. the chocolate was bitter which i loved but that may not be to everyone’s liking.

after being hooked on masterchef we decided to give the tarte tartin a shot. i would have preferred the apples to be a little more firm but it was still quite good.

i hadn’t had crepes suzette for ages, so i decided to go with that.and i was happy i did! the orangey syrup went down a treat with the thin pancakes and little blobs of vanilla ice cream.

all in all i thought that the entrees were the clear highlight of the meal and while my main wasn’t up to par yesterday i would definitely give chez olivier another shot. in fact, i jumped on the website a few minutes ago and just realised that the company has a l’epicerie around the corner from where i live. excellent, our next local spot to try!