Had a fantastic time in Melbourne - so fantastic. Reall fantastic. Did I say it was fantastic? Except for dinner at Vue De Monde. Four million dollars or thereabouts later it was a HUGE dissapointment. I reviewed it on eatability, but hey haven't published it yet. Funnily they have published the other Melbourne dining reviews I did at the same time. So I cut and pasted it here:
"We had a table of eight and were all excited about dining here. I have personally fawned over the VdM website for a long time and had recommended this restaurant as an anticipated highlight of a gastronomic tour of Melbourne. How wrong could I be?
We had the Gastronomes Menu as we wanted to experience the very best and because it featured my favourite ingredients foie gras and truffles. The only dish I enjoyed was the pain perdu accompagne de foie gras. This was a playful version of French toast and well balanced.
All the other dishes were bland and or offensive to my palate and also to those of my dining companions. The worst offenders were the gnocchi aux champignons and the cheese course of 'whipped brie with quail egg and truffle'. The gnocchi was visually unattractive and had a gruesome mouth feel and taste. It gained the moniker of 'poo on a plate' from our displeased table.
The aforementioned fromage was stomach churning on its immediate placement in my mouth. I love these ingredients, however this missed the mark on so many levels. Please leave the brie alone Mr Bennett. If anyone has actually enjoyed this course please enlighten me as to how and why?
I am not a fan of souffle and the VdM's offering did nothing to shift my loathing of this dessert. However a chocolate version I had a day later at another restaurant has made me a possible convert.
Another niggling issue was the bullying sommelier, some of our party wanted to choose single bottles of wine and were hurriedly bossed to choose the matching wine course. Which was the only saving grace of our night really. We enjoyed the wines immensely. Did you know something of things to come Mr Sommelier?
I noticed that 95% of the other tables did not touch their petits-fours and when ours arrived and were sampled, the mystery was solved. In a word 'wrong'.
Our Party had an enjoyable evening regardless as we embraced the farcical 'foodie' comedy of errors that played out.
I wouldn't advise people not to dine at VdM's as you should experience this place for yourself. I just wouldn't venture that way again and waste the stomach space for myself personally.
Overall our group enjoyed our cones of chips from Lord of the Fries much more."
Hey Belinda! Eatability DID edit it...and I knew it was in that exact spot too! haha. Loved your review, agree completely. You were quite restrained, I think they probably wouldn't publish my review at all ;)
Posted by: jen | July 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM
LOL - Jen I just read it - and it doesn't have the same impact does it? They took out the stomach churning comment as well! They are weak bastards at eatability that's for sure! LOL.
I think you should do a review and not be restrained at all Jen and see what creative editing they come up with - go for it.
Posted by: Belinda | July 22, 2009 at 03:19 PM
I remember David telling me about it and I looked on eatability. They were probably wondering how to edit it! What a shame that for that money it was so disappointing and with bullying staff :( David mentioned how much was spent and for that amount you should be enraptured!
Posted by: Lorraine @NotQuiteNigella | July 23, 2009 at 06:35 PM
this is awsome.........I worked there back when it was in carlton and I kind of agree, can't bring myself to give my money to him.
Posted by: matt_bazley | August 03, 2009 at 03:52 PM
Hi Belinda,
Read your Vue de Monde review. We had the lunch degustation there last week and had a great time. The sommelier we had was pretty relaxed and let us order what we wanted and we didn't feel like we were being bullied into the wine matching degustation. The menu we had looked completely different to the one you had - we did have a brioche french toast with foie gras and green apple puree. I found the french toast too sweet and completely overpowered the foie gras, but apart from that, our king brown mushroom risotto with Manjimup truffles was delicious, the trio of Riverina lamb very good. The chocolate souffle was light and airy but a tad too sweet for my taste. Overall, maybe we caught them on a good day with friendly staff on board - perhaps the lunch dego is a touch better than the night dego, I'm not sure...
Posted by: Brisbane Budget Bites | August 04, 2009 at 04:54 PM
Thanks for the comments matt and BBB - I haven't done an exhaustive review here on my blog by any means. I really only cut and pasted my review that was intended for eatability, because they edited it majorly.
BBB - I have a friend who did lunch at VDM as well and loved it. I wanted to love it. I didn't. Nor did the seven other people I dined with. Paying $860 for dinner, I think I'm entitled to a little bit of a vent if it didn't meet my expectations.
Posted by: Belinda | August 04, 2009 at 09:04 PM
Hi Belinda.
We ate at VdM for my husband's 40th this year, and I still think of it fondly, which is a good thing, considering the price ( $300 a head, sans dessert ! )
We had lovely waitstaff and were well looked after - choosing our own wine with excellent recommendations from our som.
We had courses that I loved, and some not so much, but that was due to my palate and I knew they were not offensive to others. The foie gras 'cigar' comes to mind - i'm not really into food that looks like a smoking implement, no matter how clever it was. I tried it however, and then passed it on to my husband. With 9courses, I knew I could pass on a few and still have room for more!
I remember a chilled consommé, and something infused in a .. bong.. that I enjoyed muchly.. and some other things too. We also had your 'poo bags' and after at first being alarmed at their springy, waterballoon texture, I must say, the way they exploded in the mouth and the taste inside sold me. Willy Wonka Wow.
I did write about it briefly here:
http://house-n-baby.blogspot.com/2009/04/3-birthdays-in-3-weeks.html
.. but forgot to talk about the food. oops.
BTW - I hate that last plate in your pics. I really hate silly quirky plates. I still remember an ep of Gordon Ramsay where he took a restauranters' collection and binned them all in the dumpster out the back .. hee hee..
Posted by: h&b | October 27, 2009 at 02:27 PM