The downstairs has a dark cosy bistro feel, a perfect escape on cold winter nights. Upstairs the feel is lighter with white walls, vintage wallpaper, ruby crystal chandeliers and a great soundtrack full of fabulous French clichés.
Because there are a few of us we decide to spread out our two courses and sample as much of the menu as possible. The entrée I sampled, the crispy river prawns with sauce gribiche, is a stack of sweet soft shelled prawns surrounded by a gorgeous tomato and prawn stock infusion that in my opinion outshines the gribiche.
Our table is split between those ordering the entrecôte béarnaise with salad and pommes frites and the moules marinière with aioli. The mains aren't exciting but are classics done well. Inferior to the exceptional food on the normal menu but it's hard to offer roast duck breast with quince or steak with truffles and foie gras at these prices. It's worth noting even à la carte both the mains and exceptional European wine list are well priced.
We finish by sharing plates of Roquefort with quince paste and toasted walnut bread and strawberry and crème chantilly sablé. Each generous cheese portion is easily enough for four people. The sablé are delightfully buttery yet lovely and light.
The outstanding sweet treat are the complimentary petits fours- a bite of dark chocolate mousse encased in chocolate. I finish with a pot of Darjeeling filled with a very impressive leaf indeed. The tea is characteristically light in colour yet becomes bitter if left too long in the pot- a sign that it's pure Darjeeling and not mixed with other leaves as is all too common. This isn't a place that takes short cuts and it's all about the special touches. Chef Nick Creswick (ex-Attica) and wife Zoe Ladyman (ex-sommelier at Ezard) certainly have a winning formula. A real gem.
The details:
Libertine
500 Victoria St, North Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9329 5228
Lunch midday-3pm Mon-Fri; dinner 6pm-10pm Mon-Sat
6 comments:
Sounds fantastic. Libertine would have to be one of my favourites as well; a dinner there earlier in the month (escargot, duck, chocolate delice and Beechworth Gamay) was just fantastic (especially the wine).
I think Libertine *can* do very well, but is inconsistent. For one, I don't think you'd want to be a vegetarian - on a night where none of the meat dishes appealed to me, the cabbage filled with rice was an exceedingly bland, stodgy piece of work. Entirely unremarkable. And dessert (a fig tart with roquefort cream, if I recall correctly) overplayed the cheese and underplayed the fruit (a sliver of fig on a thick bed of frangipane does not make a fig tart). I do know others who've enjoyed their meals much more.
Moules marinieres with aioli, Roquefort and strawberries with sables!! Where do I sign? It looks like you had a very good time and a delicious meal.
Matthew- sounds like a perfect dinner. After reading that I want to make a return visit very soon!
Duncan- I agree it's really a place for the carnivores!
Rose- Thanks for the lovely comments. It was delicious indeed!
The meal looks wonderful, if only it was a bit nearer to me!!
Freya and Paul, consider it a good reason to visit!
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