Fine Dining Restaurants: Vue de Monde

Another restaurant that had been on my list for a long time was Vue de Monde.  This is Shannon Bennett's restaurant in Melbourne, and because it was all the way in Melbourne, I hadn't ventured there yet.  But then Tara moved to Melbourne, and suddenly it was a little easier to get to!

The booking process was really easy, and again, didn't have to book months in advance.

I also really enjoyed that they sent a PDF of my menu and my matching wines (customised with my name and date) after the dinner; a lovely touch I think.

Matching wines I would recommend here.  I think with yummy food, matching wines really enhance the experience.  Only when the food is exciting and confusing enough as it is would I not match wines haha.

The sommelier here was amazing as well - loved our experience with him taking us on a little wine tour.

And then the menu.

A 14 course degustation - the chef tasting menu that was on in October 2017 (I'm pretty sure the menu changes very regularly).

Eggplant with eucalyptus, wattle seed pollen and emu jerky

Raw Flinders Island lamb with spring peas, finger lime and lemon myrtle

Matching wine: 2015 Vanguardist CVR,Clare Valley, Australia Pea, celery, parsley and lime

Paperbark smoked green asparagus from Jonella farm with seaweed and Rusty wire oyster

Moonlight flat rusty wire oyster with Jonella farm asparagus and salted riberries

Matching wine: 2016 Prager Hinter der Burg Federspiel (Gruner Veltliner), Wachau, Austria

Port Philip Bay scallops with blue lip mussels, spring shoots and flowers

Matching wine: 2016 Jim Barry (Assyrtiko), Clare Valley, Australia 

Schultz dairy milk curd with broad beans, rosella flowers and lilly pillie

Matching wine: 2013 Le Rochers des Violettes Montlouis, (Chenin Blanc), France

Mud crab with pickled kohlrabi, marigold and squid ink

Mud crab snags with kohlrabi coleslaw and tarragon emulsion

Matching wine: 2016 Bass Phillip Vue de Monde (Chardonnay), Gippsland, Australia 

Beer and fennel bread with butter

Barramundi with smoked koji, sea herbs and desert lime

Matching wine: 2016 Domaine de la Pépière Sur Lie (Melon de Bourgogne), Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine, France

Davidson plum sorbet with celery and apple Roo with muntari berries, pine and red cabbage

Matching wine: 2015 Philippe Alliet Vieilles Vignes (Cabernet Franc), Chinon, France 

Roasted marshmallows Avocado on toast

Matching wine: 2015 Urlar Noble (Riesling), Gladstone, New Zealand

Chocolate soufflé

Matching wine: 1987 Toro Albalá Don (Pedro Ximenez), Montilla-Moriles, Spain

The menu also wrapped up with a final wine, and a trolley of cheese, which was super yummy (there is also a beef dish somewhere in there but I don't appear to have a photo of that).  They also provided us with a muesli and loose leaf tea in a little takeaway bag, in preparation for breakfast, which was a little bit cute.

What did we think?

Honestly, I was a little disappointed.  The food was delicious, and the view was spectacular, and the matching wines were great, but the experience as a whole just felt so rushed.  Bookings here are a 2 hour sitting, but even with the waiters being like hey hurry up I need your table, and even with us rushing to eat slightly to try and hurry, it just isn't possible.  A 3 hour sitting would be plausible, but yea.  If I'm paying $500 per person, I want to feel special.  I want to enjoy the experience and I want to be taken on a journey, and here I was constantly reminded that they need our table sometime soon.

They did eventually move us to a table in the bar, and served our cheese trolley and final wine there, which was nice (and by which point we were pretty drunk anyway - 14 matching wines anyone?).  But it didn't really make up for the rushed feeling I had all night.  I really am one of those people that can have the most sensational food and wine, and excellent company, and all of the makings of an amazing evening, but if the service is sub par (which in this case it wasn't, they were actually pretty great) or the evening is really rushed, and the focus isn't on making our evening wonderful, they totally lose me.

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Fine Dining Restaurant Mini Review:

Was it worth the money: honestly, not really, no
Did I love every dish: I did

Matching wines: highly recommend

Anything I didn't like: the service, and the constant feeling that we were in the way and we needed to hurry up

Would I go again: No, I wouldn't

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Join me next week when we take a trip to Dinner by Heston.

Hx