Melbourne Getaway Part 1

Early March saw us with an interesting proposition. I needed to go to Melbourne to pick up a watch and Vikki had days off that made it possible for her to come down and join me. For Vikki it had been over 30 years between visits to Melbourne. 

We stayed at The Hilton South Wharf, not right in the city but the walk along the Yarra River is very nice, even with a chill breeze blowing. We had a great view of the city and river from our suite, which was quite magical in the evening as we were lucky to have a full moon.

After checking in, it was time to show Vikki around the South Bank area. We headed over to Crown Casino and walked past Nobu, No. 8 by John Lawson, Spice Temple, Rockpool Bar and Grill and many more restaurants . As I never went to Guillaume at Bennelong before it closed, we decided to head in to Guillaume Brahimi’s Melbourne restaurant, Bistro Guillaume.

A very bright lime green door marks the entrance to a room that is the epitome of a classic French bistro. Marble, brass, bentwood chairs and lightshades that reminded Vikki of the puffy skirts she used to wear in the 1980’s.

As it was a lovely day, we sat out on the verandah which has views of the river and city. While we decided on what to eat we ordered a glass of Perrier Jouet Champagne. A nice mini loaf of Pain d’Epi, (a variant of a baguette, shaped like a head of wheat) was also bought out for us. Lovely chewy crust and soft inside.

Bistro Guillaume has several options for lunch from a la carte to two set price options. We chose the 3 courses for $65, which covered most of the items on the a la carte menu, with the exemption being the chateau briand. 

We also ordered a bottle of Domaines Manoncourt Chateau La Fleur Pourret 2005, from Saint Emilion. A very nice drop considering we don’t often enjoy merlot or merlot dominant blends.

. 

For entrée I had one of my favourites, steak tartare which was served with pommes gaufrettes and a petite salad.

Vikki had the chicken liver pate with pear relish and cornichons. 

On our visit the fish of the day was one of my favourites, John Dory. This was simply pan fried and finished with a beurre noisette, capers and lemon, simple but full of flavour.

Vikki ordered the Berkshire pork belly served with pickled cabbage and apple salad,  A small mound of pommes puree was topped with the pickled cabbage, then the pork belly which was topped with the apple salad. 

Of course pommes frites were also ordered and came nicely presented in a copper bucket. 

As we chose the three course option Vikki ordered the profiteroles filled with fresh vanilla ice cream and smothered in chocolate sauce. Three profiteroles seemed to be too much for Vikki as she tried to palm one off to me. I ordered the cheese selection which was brought out on a BIG wooden board and then served on to a smaller service board which had the bread and garnishes on it.

We were well and truly full but really happy to have chosen Bistro Guillaume for our lunch. We were so full in fact that all thought of going to Nobu for dinner got pushed out the window and we had some snacks in the executive lounge and watching the sun set over Melbourne.

Stay tuned for Part 2: lunch at The Flower Drum….