Tastevin (Darlinghurst) - vive la French bistro

Save the French bistro, save the world.

With apologies to canned television show Heroes (whose Season One tagline I've misappropriated), this city's French bistros appear to be under a minor threat. News that Crown Street mainstay Tabou has closed indefinitely and a similar fate almost befalling Bistro Moncur because of the sale of the Woollahra Hotel has Sydney's culinary Gallophiles in a whirl. If two of our most beloved and best French bistros can become endangered, the best I can do is offer the remaining estaminets my support.

Tastevin is a culinary fledgling but has - in a few short years - nonchalantly ensconced itself as the bistro of choice in this crowded section of Darlinghurst's Victoria Street, even making the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide for 2011.

It is everything a simple and humble bistro should be, with a cosy and minimalistic dining room, a concise menu, an amiable French headwaiter, and longer trading hours. 

The menu is one of the smallest we have seen, with nine savoury dishes and four sweet dishes, and the range is regulation bistro: oyster, duck, lamb, beef, mulloway, gnocchi (the lone pasta dish), tart, creme caramel, and chocolate fondant.

House made bread with French butter ($5)

There is no complimentary bread but a five dollar basket's worth is more than sufficient to satiate. It is a lot more bread than we usually consume but the crusty and doughy slices accompanied by butter and olive oil are fresh and delicious.

Duo of roasted duck breast and ballotine of leg with apricots, pumpkin and hazelnut jus gras ($33)

The duo of duck stuns with its simplicity and execution; the roasted duck breast is incredibly tender and succulent while the three discs of leg ballotine are meaty and flavoursome. I am a duck lover and nine times out of ten I will order it from the menu; this is the best and most memorable anatine dish I have tried this year. Hazelnuts add a contrasting crunchiness and the sweetness of the pumpkin puree complements the dish in a smooth swirl of orange. Frabjous, substantial, and a cordon bleu bistro plate of food.

Slow roasted pork neck with soused apples, chorizo, and shaved fennel slaw ($31)

The slow roasted pork neck is no slouch either. A hunk of fall-apart porcine neck in a rich, flavoursome jus is lightened by a slaw of slightly tangy and well-seasoned shavings of apples, chorizo, and fennel. Not as divine as the duck but a hearty and reasonable dish none the less.

Flambeed Grand Marnier crepes Suzette with creme fraiche ice cream ($13)

Dessert is my favourite course of any meal but the two we try are inconsistent and unmemorable. The flambeed Grand Marnier crepes Suzette are deliciously orangey and soft but overpowered by the Grand Marnier, while the ice cream is more vanilla than creme fraiche. The presentation is also messy and uninspiring.

Dark chocolate fondant with lavender and walnut ice cream ($15)

Chocolate fondants are a staple of many restaurants and one of my weaknesses, but this one - while decent - does not impress me enough to warrant a place on my wall of favourites. The fondant is small and slightly misshapen but it is moist and sweet while not being particularly gooey-centred. The toffee crumbs did not add much to the dish except teeth-sticking annoyance and the ice cream's flavour is a soupcon too subtle to have its own identity.

So does Tastevin hold its own among Sydney's French bistros? Yes and no. The dining room upstairs is minimalistically suitable for an unpretentious diner, and the service is very bonhomous. The concise menu delivers some standout dishes in the savoury section, with the pork neck excellent and the duck utterly wonderful. Two months after dining here the memory of the duck still lingers on the palate, so that's testament to the superb dish, but the desserts are a disappointment. Rather ordinary crepe Suzette and chocolate fondant dishes undo the good work of the mains, but there is enough in Tastevin to suggest they can stick around and save the world.

The good: excellent mains (in particular the duck), house-made bread, bistro hours, friendly service

The bad: desserts are average

What the?: watch the step when visiting the toilets as they may cause a tripping accident

www.tastevin.com.au

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Ms. G's (Potts Point) - ta muchly, MasterChef

After Ms. G's head chef Dan Hong appeared on last Monday's episode of MasterChef Australia, views of my previous post on Ms. G's instantly tripled. Coincidence? Unlikely. So feeling like a lazy shit at the moment, I decided to ride on the chef's apron strings (since they don't have coat tails) and post a fairly recent revisit to Ms. G's. This time, we dined with a larger group of people and tasted more eclectic dishes. So on with the show!

Mini crisp pork belly banh mi ($6 each)

The banh mis - as previously noted - are a must have. Despite the uneven presentation, these pocket-sized snacks are scrumptious and fresh.

Grilled calamari, bacon chilli jam, potato & lettuce hearts salad ($14)

Most salads are mundane, but not this one. Lightly grilled calamari, crunchy potato gems, snappy lettuce hearts, and a jazzy bacon chilli jam make this salmagundi a tangy and textural success either as an entree or a side.

“Buddha’s Delight” textural vegetarian salad ($14)

How many diners would have ordered a salad called "Buddha's Delight" ten, or even five years ago? My, how times have changed. This vegetarian salad is described as being "textural", and indeed it is, being a jumble of soft, crunchy, and the in-between: carrots, cucumbers, bean sprouts, tofu, seaweed, and cashews. The acid surprisingly comes in the form of a gelatinised dressing of vinegar in oblong strips; unusual and a little confronting, but tasty none the less.

Egg noodles with XO sauce, braised duck, soft poached egg ($18)

This plate is small and the least successful dish I've sampled here. The egg noodles are too dry, and the poached egg's yolk is not runny or ample enough to adequately coat the noodles. The duck is sparse and the XO sauce is insufficiently spicy to raise the dish beyond middling.

Mulloway fillet steamed with white soy & ginger, salad of fennel, radish, herbs ($28)

The disappointment in the duck egg noodles is however compensated for by the quality and simplicity of the steamed mulloway. A beautifully moist piece of fish is gorgeously cooked and the stack of ginger, fennel, radish and herbs on top adds texture and punch, but the piece de resistance is the wonderfully fragrant and sharp broth, an intoxicating blend of salty, sweet, and umami.

Fried baby chicken, Kimchi Mayonnaise (Whole $25)

Another must-order dish, the fried baby chicken is crispy, moist, and very flavoursome. Nothing beats good deep-fried chicken, and these are superb though a little expensive.

Pandan chiffon cake, strawberries, coconut sorbet ($12)

The now famous pandan chiffon cake that sent frontrunner Jay home on MasterChef is a regular on the dessert menu. The main difference is the attendant scoop of coconut sorbet, which was a black sesame ice cream for the MasterChef challenge. The cake is airy, light, and possesses a heady pandan flavour, while the accompaniments of tapioca and diced strawberries lend a balanced sweetness and acidity. Black sesame ice cream would have given a creamy richness to the dessert, but the refreshing coconut sorbet is also a perfect fit.

“Stoner’s Delight” doughnut ice cream, chocolate, rice bubble, pretzel, peanut brittle, marshmallow ($12)

The "Stoner's Delight" is the ultimate dessert for the sweet tooth. It is simply decadent in its richness and the beautifully contrasting textures of the individual components (the pillowy softness of the lightly toasted banana marshmallows, the airy crunch of the rice bubble cubes) stimulates. The cinnamon-flavoured ice cream is delicious and coupled with a caramel sauce, the whole dish is divine. It is just the ideal size as well but I always hanker for more.

Dessert is certainly one of Ms. G's fortes so always save room for one of the kitchen's dulcifying creations.

With much fanfare, Ms. G's has skyrocketed into Sydneysiders' notoriously fickle culinary consciousness, and with good reason. Unfettered by expectations and uninhibited by rules and traditions, the team at Ms. G's has confidently crafted a sharing menu of dishes designed to appeal to the masses. From Vietnamese sliders to fried chicken to corn on the cob, there is a wink and a nod to the fast food empire of the US, but in a way incorporating the finer sides of pan-Asian cuisine. Little wonder then that barely six months into its infancy, Ms. G's has been named by The Australian newspaper as one of Australia's Top 50 most exciting restaurants. Casual, hip, cool, ridonk, and buck indeed, chefs Hong and Yu.

www.merivale.com/#/msgs/msgs

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So Good (Wolli Creek) - something tells me I'm not into something good

So Good Asian cuisine ....

Is ....

Spring rolls ($5.60)

The perfect example ....

Curry chicken Malaysian style ($12.80)

Of ....

Salt and pepper bean curd ($11.80)

An oxymoron.

Pierre is down for the count

Fini.

The good: it's in Wolli Creek and nobody knows where the hell that is

The bad: insipid food, the prices

What the?: the name

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