Arrow Foodie: French

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Mr Mason
530 Little Collins Street
Melbourne

Visits Thu, 8 Nov 2012
Thu, 29 Nov 2012
Thu, 10 Jan 2013

Cuisine: French inspired
Taste Rating: 7.5/10 Value Rating: 7.5/10

I had a fantastic lunch at Mr Mason and have been back twice since. Each time, I have been happily satisfied with my meal and my dining companions have been similarly happy.

I have to say this up front - the chocolate souffle at Mr Mason is to die for! Freshly made and delivered hot to the table, the smell of the chocolate wafting up is heavenly and invites you to hurry up and dig into the dessert. The souffle is nicely moist in the middle and has a great dark chocolate flavour. Broken pieces of honeycomb provide a nice contrast in texture. As does the vanilla bean ice cream.

I have ordered from both the regular A la Carte menu and the Express Lunch Menu. I prefer the Express Lunch Menu because it changes weekly. Also, there is an interesting point with this menu. It says 'One Course for $15', 'Two Courses for $25' and 'Three Courses for $35'. You would assume this means one each of entree/main/dessert. But that is not the case. You may choose two mains for $25, or two entrees for $25, for example! I like the freedom of this. Some days, you may feel like having one main and one dessert, on hungrier days you might like two mains.

My only gripe is that the chocolate souffle has not appeared on the Express Lunch Menu when I have been there. So we ordered it separately from the A La Carte Menu, to go with our Express Lunch mains. That is how much I liked this dessert!

We found the service to be friendly every time. There are French and non-French staff. At our first visit, the waitress for our table was French, and had a first name of Paris!

There is a Mr Mason free membership which provides you with food and beverage related benefits, and member invitations to in-house events.

On the whole, Mr Mason is a good place for a work or social lunch. The French inspired food is good quality at reasonable prices, especially on the Express Lunch Menu. The service is prompt. The staff are friendly and helpful.

Thu, 8 Nov 2012

Entrance at Little Collins Street

Nondescript Entrance, Notable Food

Bar

Bust at Bar

Chic Seating

Lighting Feature

Lounge Area with Wall Heating

One of the Seating Areas

Chargrilled Rump Steak, Roasted Garlic and Onions, Buttered Beans

Grilled Rump Minute Steak, Hand cut Frites, Dijon Mustard, Petit Salad

Chicken Liver Parfait, Toasted Brioche, Apple Chutney

Interesting - cut bunch of garlic - with the Chargrilled Rump Steak

Chocolate Soufflé, Broken Honeycomb, Vanilla bean Ice Cream

Another view of the Chocolate Soufflé,

Thu, 29 Nov 2012

Crisp Confit Chicken Leg, Mograhbieh Cous Cous, Beetroot, Goat's Milk Curd

Sticky Beef Salad, Chilli Orange Glaze, Iceberg Lettuce, Mint

Pork fillet Wellington, Sweet Potato Puree

Chocolate Soufflé, Broken Honeycomb, Vanilla bean Ice Cream

Thu, 10 Jan 2013

Salmon Tartare, Crème Fraiche, Crusty Baguette

Kingfish Ceviche, Lime, Cucumber, Mango Granitè

Country Terrine of Chicken, Capers & Jamon, Pickled Vegetables, Toast

Confit Pork, Spiced Cous Cous, Carrot Puree

Tagliatelle, Mussels, Clams, White Wine, Cream

Profiteroles, Vanilla Custard, Cherry Puree, Chocolate Ice Cream

Another view of the Profiteroles

Sunday, 12 August 2012

Review - The Hardware Societe

Tues, 7th August 2012

The Hardware Societe
118 -120 Hardware St
Melbourne

Cuisine: French, Spanish

Taste Rating: 7.5/10 Value Rating: 7.5/10

Dropping in at lunchtime, we found the place bustling as expected. One downside to eating here is that the cooking fumes waft over the interior. The aroma is appetising but it's not so appealing to go back to work with intoxicating parfum sexy de la nourriture in your hair and clothes! Luckily, a little table outside near the entrance had just freed up. So we checked with the waitress and grabbed that table.

The Hardware Societe has a nice ambience. It's not due to any particular thing, just little touches that make it a pleasant place to be at. I liked sitting outside, under the verandah, near the curb, with a view of the quiet end of Hardware Lane. The small overhead heat lamps glowed like red rectangles (yes, I haven't forgotten the carbon footprint!). It was winter but comfortable enough where we were.

We didn't check out what specials they had that day but ordered straight off the regular lunch menu. Seared Scallops. Slow-cooked Lamb.

Before you know it, the two dishes were brought to our table. Rustic looking, comfort food in big white bowls. The cheerful waitress obligingly brought a couple of platters so the food could be shared. Again, nice touch - I liked the classic look of my cream-coloured platter with a simple scalloped edge. Also, the simple little table with a marble top on a black petal pedestal.

According to the menu, the scallops were cooked in a 'saffron bean broth, pistou, olive croute, Idiazabal ewes milk cheese'. Pistou is a sauce made of garlic, basil and olive oil which are pounded or ground in a mortar and pestle ('pistou' is 'pounded' in the language of Provence). Pistou is like pesto, except that pesto contains pine nuts. The pistou was served as a green mound on top of the scallops. The six scallops were juicy enough but there was a definite difference in taste between the ones with the seared marks (sweet and flavoursome) and the ones without (not as sweet and more bland). The beans looked like haricot or navy beans, the same beans in canned baked beans but larger, and cooked with a firmer texture (and without the tomato sauce!). There were two slices of croute (toasted bread) with olive pieces baked in. Surprisingly, these slices were really hard and unappetising so I soaked one piece in the broth and it became slightly more palatable. Aside from that, I would order this dish again as it was not bad overall.

The slow cooked lamb had 'chermoula, israeli cous cous, hazelnuts, minted yoghurt'. Chermoula is a mix of spices, herbs, garlic, coriander, lemon juice, oil and a few other ingredients, with the mix and proportions varying depending on whether it is Moroccan, Algerian or Tunisian chermoula. I'm assuming the lamb has been marinated in chermoula, but am not sure what the gravy in this dish consists of. The flavours were nice, with the lamb tender, but we agreed that it tasted gamey. The Israeli cous cous are little balls of pasta, larger than semolina cous cous - they don't clump together and are rather fun to scoop up and eat. I'm not sure if I would order this dish again as I don't really like gamey meat but the meat could be different on another day.

Overall, a very pleasant lunch in a cafe with a good vibe. Being in a quiet, neat lane gives it that little bit extra ambience. I didn't have time today for the 54% dark callebaut hot chocolate drink but I'm going to redress this asap!