Chez Olivier

Chez Olivier was one of those places I visited fairly regularly some years back now, even before I realised how much I did enjoy food. It was a short, brisk walk from my uni and back when I was still studying and still waitressing, I would visit for dinner fairly frequently with my girlfriends and my mum would visit with hers.

I always loved how one step in and you would be instantly teleported, the sounds, the sights, the smells. The heartbeat in here, is all European. French, specifically. The interior is very reminiscent of a random bistro/restaurant my mother and I wandered into while we were in Paris for my 20th birthday (which was a good few years ago now…). With brick peeking through some of the white wall, French memorabilia on the walls and bar, there is a wonderful, cosy character to the place.

Although with food blogging, came the never ending hunt for new eats and new places, and Chez Olivier was unvisited for many years.

I had always said to Brad though, that I would take him there, as I've always had good memories about the food, and just wanted to spend some time being surrounded by waiters with French accents. Not that I'm sure how that benefits Brad…

So this year when planning our little anniversary celebrations, I decided to pick a restaurant first and then figure out if there were any nice hotels in the area. The Cullen was a 5 minute walk from Chez Olivier. Pretty handy hey?

'Bonsoir!' was our friendly greeting, the waiters were quick to seat us and help us choose a wine. I can't remember exactly what we got, but it was a white from France that made me quite tipsy. This mixed with a dark interior means it's a struggle to take pictures. I apologize in advance!

The bread was warm, the butter insane. Insane. It was so soft and delicious, there was some other flavour that I couldn't quite put my finger on in it, that really just bursts open in your mouth. May have nibbled on more slices of bread than I should have….

We got pretty ambitious with ordering, and why not? We had nowhere to go, anywhere to be, we could sit there and digest all night! …Or at least until they kicked us out I guess.

This was Ventreche de Porc en Salade Froide de Betterave et de Pomme Fruit.

In the rather brusque English language, that means, salad of beetroot, pork belly and apple. I was quite surprised at how big the portion was! It felt quite simple and rustic, it also surprised me that the pork belly had been diced and mixed in with the leaves, rather than leaving them in big fat slices like most places do. It made for a nice balance though, with a mouthful of greens being interjected with a wee bit of pork.

I knew I had to try at least one dish from the Easter special menu….as all of the dishes on it had chocolate. Even the entrees and mains! So my choice was the scallop with pancetta and white chocolate.

Although it sounds a little bizarre, the dish was so beautifully balanced and perfectly executed. A bit of saltiness from the pancetta to go with the buttery scallops and just a subtle hint of sweetness from the white chocolate sauce, that just gave it that tiny boost of richness. I feel like it was a dish that could have gone so wrong, but fortunately for me, it hadn't! I absolutely loved the creativity!

Mains. I started to wonder if I had underestimated Chez Olivier's portions, as I was getting a bit full.

And then Brad's Beouf Bourguignon en Croute arrived (there's some emphasis on the u in Croute, but I'm too lazy to figure it out on my keyboard). Slow cooked fine beef in red wine with bacon and veg, steamed in a puff pastry.

Oh dear. The thing was as big as his head! It smelt amazing too.

I went for the Gratine de la Mer (which I like in French, cause it sounds like something Mermaid-y and pretty), but is essentially a mix of prawns, scallops, mussels and fish in a tomato, bechamel-esque sauce. It was a very comforting dish, something I would love to have at home on any cold night out. All the seafood had been cooked very well, and tasted quite sweet. I liked that it wasn't drowned in the sauce either, the sauce really just being the complimenting factor to the seafood. God I love scallops.

I think I surprised my waiter when I ordered the side that I did, commenting that not many people liked bone marrow, which resulted in me swooning for a bit about how much I did like bone marrow and an exchange of how to eat it the French way ensued! This is apparently just to put a bit of salt in it. Who doesn't like eating it that way?

I was pretty impressed. The bones came out hot to the touch and well…looking a bit bloody. Very manly. So on and so forth. The bone marrow itself, was, as one would suspect, rich. So intensely rich, jellyish and fatty. If anyone ever wants me to shut up for a bit, just stuff my face with some good bone marrow. It'll do the trick pretty well.

There was, surprisingly, quite a lot of bone marrow tucked away in these bones. We sadly only got through about 2, as we were struggling to get through our mains as well. It broke my heart to leave one bone untouched!

Through our mains all I did was moan and groan about how full I was, with Brad having to continuously remind me that there was no rush. Was kind of strange to me, although I don't eat quite like a vacuum cleaner, I do like to clean up my plate in a nice momentum. Stopping to digest upsets that a bit, but I really had to, as it was almost, ALMOST, painful to be this full!

But! I could not give up yet. Chez Olivier had one thing that I had to have, that which I previously loved, their tarte tartin. Dessert was going to happen whether my tummy liked it or not!

So after taking a break to polish off the bottle of wine, and a pot of peppermint tea, we were served caramelised upside down apple tart.

I'm a little bit sad to say, it's not exactly the same as what it was several years ago, but still very, very, likeable. It used to be served as a single slice, with thin layers of very soft cooked apples layered on top of a tart base, which would all just melt in your mouth. I feel this presentation is a bit more rustic, and I did enjoy the texture of the roughly cut apples which were a little bit denser, and the rich caramel sauce absolutely made the tart for me. Even if I did miss the old melt-in-your-mouth tarte tartin, the caramel made it allllll better.

Truly, Chez Olivier delivered one of the most filling meals I had had in a long time. I was quite amazed at the portion sizes and the generosity, in particular, of the proteins. What I also loved was the fact that as a French 'bistro' the plating and the flavours truly reflected that. It's not too dressed up (except maybe for the scallop dish), the flavours not overly complex (except again for the scallop dish) and is more focussed on being hearty and wholesome. It is also undeniably French, without trying too hard to be. And cute waiters with French accents. Mmmm.

Chez Olivier

121 Greville St
Prahran, VIC 3181

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The European

I make the majority of my friends online. It's true. I spent my secondary school years on videogame forums, sharing fanart and talking about…well games. I used to be really good at keeping in touch with all these friends too, spending hours on msn, aim, whatever messenger fit the bill.

These days though, I am terrible. I think as I've gotten better at socialising in person (yes, I am that big a loser that it's something I have to work on...), I've gotten worse at chatting to people online. Go figure.

Daniel, who I met back in the day on a Golden Sun forum, sent me a message on twitter that we should catch up. It had been probably a year and a half since I had last seen him! So of course, I said yes, but we couldn't find a date that worked for us within that week, so the topic got dropped…and I forgot to follow up with him for a week or two.

Whoops!

I eventually got around to getting in touch with him again, and suggested we go to the European, somewhere that had a delicious looking menu, and seemed like a fairly easy going place to eat, and good spot to catch up.

Daniel is one of those few friends I have, who is always as punctual as I. We both arrived at the European, 3 minutes past 7pm and squeezed in through the rather narrow entryway.

The European, at night, personified, is a dark and broody man, he would drink whiskey and smoke cigars on the rooftop at the Supper Club next door. It was quite an intimate space, with tables pushed in close together and spots for two lining the hallway, where we sat. Taking photos in here was any food bloggers worst nightmare, but I perservered and hoped for the best!

I really enjoyed browsing through the menu, it is not too long, but there is plenty of variety and of course, many, many, yummy sounding things. It was quite hard not to just order one of each!

The bread was served, not with butter, but something else. It was like mayonnaise or aioli I think, but it was pretty addictive, as it was so light, but so savoury!

One thing I had been eyeing on the menu online, before we even arrived at the restaurant, was the smoked eel and jamon croquettes. Lightly crumbed, these nibbles were just delightful. They were packed with flavour, more jamon than smoked eel to me, but there was a lot of bang in these little balls. Cheesy too. Num num.

When I ordered the pork belly parcels, I was half hoping we'd have little dumpling like wrapped goodies, like a mini santa bag filled with pork! Although this was not quite the case, but I really liked how these came out regardless. The pastry was light, and didn't interfere with letting the pork belly shine. I enjoyed that the meat wasn't falling apart and had a bit of firmness to it, but that's how I personally prefer my pork belly.

There was a comfortable wait between our entrees and mains, allowing us to digest the richness a bit. In this time Daniel and I caught up on videogame chat, him filling me in on all the new stuff coming out, as I'm a bit out of the loop these days. One of the many reasons I love my guy friends.

It was a slightly warm night, so I decided instead of getting a meaty main, to just have the tomato gazpacho with crab and avocado. It was absolutely what I needed. A bit of acid from the tomato, creaminess from the avocado (which was absolutely perfect) and sweetness from the crab and prawns. There was a bit of bite in the gazpacho as well, like a little surprising firework. Light, but zesty. I'm actually surprised how long I managed to make the soup last, as I really did savour every sip and nibble.

However, as delightful as my soup was, Daniel's pan-fried potato and ricotta gnocchi…well. It was pretty out of this world. Each bite in the generously sized gnocchi was creamy and pillowy. I'm no expert with gnocchi, but I really loved it's density and texture. With ricotta too? Seriously. Perfection. Want to show up at the European everyday when it's winter to warm my belly with this goodness. We were both rather impressed.

Although I thought I was pretty content, it's always hard to turn down the dessert menu when it's just, y'know, casually plopped onto your table.

And so, turn it down, I did not.

Yeah, yoda mode.

Chocolate salty caramel, peanuts and sour cream ice cream. Yes, this I had.

And yes, it was sinful. It was thick, dark and rich. There was nothing light about this dessert in the slightest. Dark chocolate wrapped around a really dense caramel. Ah huh. Although I went full ball at the beginning to try and get through as much of it as I could, I was not able to see through to the salty chocolatey caramelly end.

The sour cream ice-cream was something quite different, and it's tanginess was absolutely needed as a little intermission of palate cleansing in all of the richness. Great pairing.

Daniel kept it simple and went with the coconut and apple gelato. He actually ate all of it. I did not try any, so I can only assume it's deliciousness. It is presented quite cutely though no?

All in all, a fabulous meal. Maybe a touch noisy in the restaurant at times, but bearable for the most part. Food though, fantastic. Am quite relieved, now that I've visited myself, I can recommend people to eat here too!

It was so great to catch up with Daniel and reminded me of times in the past when we would sit in the state library or along the Yarra river and take turns showing each other new DS or PSP games. It's a little bit sad to be growing up sometimes though. Now that we're both working, both have partners, it feels like there's not so much time for getting lost in that kind of stuff. Life and what not.

The European

161 Spring St
Melbourne, VIC 3000

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Pinotta

I'm usually full of words. And when I eat out, I am brimming with sing-song praises and happy cat sounds, to express my joy of eating of course.

But I don't really feel like I want to say too much about Pinotta, a low-key Italian bistro in Fitzroy North, which I decided Brad and I should visit before I disappeared to Asia for two weeks.

The hand written menu speaks verses, of beautifully thoughtful Italian food. Flavours that are unique yet honest.

From a gorgeous lamb shoulder gnocchi which is incomparable, to a rabbit dish, resting on a bed of soft polenta. It's comforting, like curling up in a blanket and watching the rain outside.

A handful of silverbeet with parmesan and a twist of lemon, for a hint of zest and lip puckering, to offset all the protein…

And a semifreddo laden in bright and sweet strawberries. A joy on the eyes and tastebuds alike.

Pinotta could be that place to have a little special night, with it's crisp linens, or somewhere to warm up and have a lazy meal when you're not in the mood to cook. It's a little understated, unpretentious and totally cosy. My soul longs to return for more of that gnocchi...

Pinotta

32 Best Street

Fitzroy North VIC 3068

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The Commoner - Poultrygeist

Disclaimer: I dined at The Commoner as a guest of Wasamedia. My meal was complimentary. However, as usual, my thoughts are based on my thoughts on my experience at the time.

I'm pretty terrible when it comes to watching movies. As a child, absolutely everything scared me and my aunt loves to remind me how when we went to watch Aladdin in the cinemas, I spent the whole movie on her lap...facing her. This has led me to missing out on a lot of classic movies as I've grown as up (which Brad always berates me for and has worked on fixing), as I had an innate fear that whatever I was watching was going to scar and terrify me for life.

I've gotten better now though. Really. Although '2001: A Space Odyssey' left me totally freaked out as well last year...

And although I don't watch horror and thriller movies at all (I even flip the channel when commercials for them come on...), I still decided to suck it up and make my way to the Commoner's 'Poultrygeist' degustation dinner. If you're thinking chicken ghosts, it's not quite that. Or at least...I didn't sense any....

Over the next year, every other month (starting this month in February obviously), The Commoner will be drawing inspiration from slightly modified cult classic movie titles, and serving up a matching dinner. 'Poultrygeist' is a spin off from 'Poltergeist', a horror trilogy based around a family who are being stalked and terrorised by a group of ancient ghosts, who talk to one of the daughter's through the tv and kidnap her through the closet. Eerie. Eek!

Fortunately though, the only horror that awaited Caryn and I at The Commoner, this particular night, was the poultry carnage that we were going to unleash. Yeah!

The Commoner is somewhere that has been on my eating list for…well…ever. Located on Johnston Street, a stone throw away from Brunswick Street, it has a personality all of it's own.

Although rather unsuspecting from the front, The Commoner is a gorgeous little hideaway from the urban cool, and is homely and welcoming. For me, it was the small decorative touches that made the place, in the sense that nothing was designed to go together and probably came from all over the place, but it all worked together to create it's own character.

The table feather decorations were extremely appropriate for the theme tonight, and could be found draped here and there as well.

I was smitten with the wooden red labyrinth-esque shelf hanging across the wall from me, filled with all sorts of knick-knacks. I particularly liked the little pig with his curly tail. So cute!

Another thing I also really liked, was that on the two seater tables, rather than having people sit across each other, which is the norm, they were sat next to each other on a 90 degree angle. Once the restaurant filled up, it really made the room look much more intimate and cosy. Small, and odd things that I notice, but to me they make a difference!

Since I arrived a bit earlier than everyone else, I scuttled around and checked out the upstairs dining areas, which are just lovely. I love the 'Rabbit Trap' room, which fits a small group comfortably.

The bar area which is upstairs is also lovely, and I particularly love the seats by the window. So much lovely light!

However, before long, the other people who were sitting on the communal table I was a part of had arrived and I quickly hurried back down (heels and stairs do not go together so well) and prepared for food.

Before we embarked on the 5-course menu, we sampled the Bress Harcout Valley Cider Bon Bon. What a perfect way to start on a warm evening. It was much more full-bodied than many of the other cider's you'll find out there, really rich and wholesome. You could really taste the apples and to me it was quite viscous, making me think of honey or dessert wine. Totally yum.

Before long we had our first course of Ossau-iraty (which Wikipedia tells me is a French cheese made from sheep milk), crispy chicken skin and onion jam.

There was indeed a moment where the table was void of conversation, and just the crunch of the crostini and chicken skin was all that reverberated in that space.

The crostini was buttery, the chicken skin sinful, it reminded me a lot of the deep fried pork chicharon from the Philippines, except a little more refined! The Ossau-iraty I found was quite mild and soft, it's gentle and delicate flavour was a good partner for the chicken skin as it did not overpower or compete with the other elements. That onion jam was pretty awesome too. Want it in a jar to bring home…

I just realised I forgot to take pictures of the wines! Oops! But anyway, the next wine we had was the Mon Redon Cotes du Rhone Blanc. It was quite a dry wine, Caryn was not so keen on it as she tends to prefer a slightly sweeter wine.

As these plates were served, we all sat there sniffing the air, which was filling with the aroma of the perfectly seared scallop, served on barnyard jelly with fresh peas and a carrot crisp. The scallop was just gorgeously cooked and had a lovely texture.

Caryn and I however, weren't so sure on the 'barnyard jelly'. Although it looked more like a soup or a sauce when it first came out, it really was essentially a stock jelly with chardonnay vinegar. It was served chilled as well. There was a bit of sweetness to it and tasted alright. It was in fact a bit refreshing, but I think the texture threw a lot of us off as it was so different! Quite a bold move and it's always interesting to try something different, but just personally not quite my cup of tea, maybe someone else's?

Caryn's observation of the next wine, the Bress La Gallina White, a blend of viognier, chardonnay, sauvignon and a range of other white varieties, amused me. She lifted the glass to her nose to have a sniff and then quietly conferred with me…"This wine smells like chicken!". Really though, it was the that woody, savoury, chardonnay smell coming through, at least to me, although it tasted a lot sweeter than it smelled. Quite fruity, with peaches being one of the flavours I managed to figure out. Still learning wine, etc. etc.

Our next course, I thought was almost like a spin on the typical charcuterie platter. Just with like, cooked meat. We had a spiced neck sausage with mustard fruits, scotch egg with piccalilly and a pheasant terrine. Absolutely all elements were delicious. Where to start?

I think my favourite of the three would have been the spiced duck neck sausage, it was delightfully hearty and warming in the mouth, like a really mild curry from the spices. The spices gave a little bit of a tang as well. Could have just had this on it's own for lunch!

I would really like to say more about the terrine other than it was yummy, but I'm not very well versed in terrine and it's subtle and delicate flavours. It did have a lot more flavour than other terrines I've tried.

The scotch egg was a favourite around the table. The piccalilly on top reminded Caryn and I a lot of the Malaysian achar, although it was much sweeter and sour at the same time. I really liked that the egg yolk wasn't fully cooked and that you could just mix it in with everything. For being deep fried, it wasn't oily at all either, the crumbing was perfect.

Throughout the night we had absolutely exceptional service from the waitstaff, who knew exactly what they were doing and all about the food and wine. It was great when they came over with the wine and excitedly told us about the different wines, what flavours we could expect, where the wines were from and every other question we had under the sun (or moonlight by this point probably…).

A feather from one of the birds from the Bress property.

Jo Corrigan, the owner of The Commoner, who was present and looking after us, was especially passionate about every aspect of food and drink and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to meet her. Originally from a bush town in New South Wales, she moved to Sydney when she decided she wanted to be a chef and also spent 12 years living in London before coming back to Melbourne. I was impressed at her knowledge and love of local produce and wines, talking at length about Bress, where most of our tipples were from. Happy and passionate people are just so infectious, you just get swept up in their excitement!

The next glass of wine we had was the Bress La Gallina Red, a blend of tempranillo, garnacha and syrah. A gorgeous, easy to drink red. I found the nose quite plummy and this reflected in taste as well, a nice structured red.

Next, we were presented with the brined and wood grilled quail with pickled butternut, quinoa and date puree. Wow, these birds looked beautiful. The whole quail was quite a visual statement, which again, smelt beautiful. Jo brought us out finger bowls and told us to really get into it. As best as we all did to try and stay civil and neat, there's really nothing like pulling the bird apart and digging meat out of every little crevice. And there was heaps of meat on this little bird, so juicy and tender, really perfectly cooked. Plus that little bit of gravy? Like your grandma would make for Christmas.

I also loved the pickled butternut, it was really light and refreshing, which was perfect as it balanced out the dish, added some freshness and didn't make it too rich. Easily a favourite for the night, with many voting it as their favourite when we did a post dinner debriefing.

The dessert wine was Pennyweight Gold, from Beechworth. Caryn again, amused us all with her frank and blunt observations, claiming upon first sip that this one tasted like pancakes. And everyone agreed. But it is a lovely thick and sweet dessert wine (naturally), I tasted apricots and enjoyed that although it was sweet, it wasn't too sugary. Although I was sort of hoping for a lingering taste on the palate, I found it was quite short.

We were all hanging out for dessert, which was a sumptuous duck egg brulee with summer rhubarb and sumac shortbread.

Oh. Just so rich and delicious. I was amazed at how thin the caramel top layer was, absolutely gorgeously done. The rhubarb we added in to the brulee was a lip-puckering tart. It complimented and cut the richness of the brulee well. Was so sad when I finished eating this. Wanted more!

Honestly, after this experience, I can't say enough good things about The Commoner. The food was absolutely delicious and creative without being pretentious, Jo and her staff looked after us very well and it was just an incredibly comfortable space to be in. Caryn and I had a peek at the ala carte menu and instantly starting drooling. With offers such as parmesan and truffle croquette's and a rare beef rump with BONE MARROW MOUSSE, how were we not supposed to get excited? Definitely will be back to try that out.

Poultrygeist is usually $80 for 5 courses and $110 all up for the food and wine. With prices like these I'd totally be back in the upcoming months to try some of their other degustation dinners. Later in the year check look out for 'Whisky Business' or 'Planet of the Canapes'. My mum's already fired up for the April installment of 'Claws', where we should be chomping down on crustaceans with crunch. Duh-dun. Duh-dun. Duh-dun….

Disclaimer: If you missed it the first time, I dined complimentary of Wasamedia.

The Commoner

122 Johnston St Fitzroy,

VIC 3065

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