Jacques Reymond

78 Williams Rd
Prahran 3181 VIC
Phone: (03) 9525 2178
Website: www.jacquesreymond.com.au

On Thursday I had dinner with my parents at Jacques Reymond. My dad had originally asked me if we should dine at Vue de Monde, however I opted for something a little more classic.

Let me start off by saying that, Jacques Reymond comes with guest parking behind the restaurant, so you don't need to spend your time trying to find some parking on the street. (Yes we parked on the street)


From the outside, the restaurant looks like any other house that you'd find on the street, but it was definitely a restaurant inside. I actually really loved the interior design of Jacques Reymond - it had a very pleasant atmosphere. With the fire place quitely roaring on the other end of the room, the diners were able to relax and enjoy a spectacular meal without the "uptightness" that you may experience in other fine dining restaurants.

I had already decided on having the Winter Degustation Menu when I made the dinner reservations, so it didn't take long to get our meal started.

I'm not too sure about other food bloggers out there, but I really don't know my food all that well yet. I find that when the waiters are describing each component of the dish to me I just nod and smile as if I understood. But in reality, everything they just said flew over my head. Do other food bloggers have like a pen and paper to copy down each component of a dish so they can blog about it later or something? I'd probably need to bring a voice recorder to get down everything they say!

Bread Puffs
Originally I thought this was our bread for the night, silly me. Because I would have been shattered, I guess I was never too fond of Cream Puffs let alone Puffs without any cream in it. I think people who generally like their croissant or puff pastry would enjoy this.

Now, why not take the photo of the butter? You don't see that many restaraunts with such nice looking butter covers!

Lime MocktailMy parents decided they weren't going to have any alcohol for the night, so we each ordered a mocktail. It was very nice! Not too sour, not too sweet and had the right fizzyness to it.

White Bread, there were 3 kinds in total - they were all really good.
The white bread came in two different shapes, this and one which resembled a bread stick (more crunchy on the outside). The other kind was wholegrain, which both mum and I agreed was the best out of the 3.

Crab dumpling
Considering that this had blue cheese in it, it was very light and enjoyable.

Scallop & kingfish
I have a confession to make. I used to hate scallops as a kid. But I have since converted and I like them whenever they are fresh and not overcooked. And this was a fresh scallop :)

Five Spiced John Dory
Okay to be honest, I'm not too sure if this was John Dory anymore. Correct me if I'm wrong. The fish was flavoured nicely and had a nice texture. Wasn't too big on the lime dressing, though I did not despise it either.

Deep Fried Quail Leg rested on brown rice
I'm starting to see a pattern of coriander in these dishes.. still a nice dish though

Wallaby
I didn't know people ate this either. When the waiter had told me he was serving us Wallaby for the next dish, I was pretty suprised. Sure I've had kangaroo meat before, but it definitely was not something I particularly liked. It's tough and it has a strong smell to it. And also I imagine a Wallaby to be an ever more adorable version of a kangaroo.
The wallaby in fact was not tough at all, it simply had the texture of Beef Tataki. However, there was still a slight smell - just not as strong as kangaroo meat. Somehow Jacques Reymond managed to have me enjoy eating wallaby...

Wagyu Steak with mustard icecream

Hands down the best dish that night. I don't even know what to say except that the wagyu was oh so sweet and tender. Definitely a must have!
Wild Mushrooms with Rosemary
At the beginning of the night, the waiter went around asking diners if they would like to order some wild mushrooms as a side. The flavour of this dish was oh so lovely, I loved the rosemary and cheese. However, I didn't quite like the texture of these mushrooms - was kind of weird to me (mum only had one and stopped eating it and dad doesn't even like mushrooms). I ate a few more for the taste - if only it was some other kind of mushroom I probably would have demolished the whole thing.

There was not a single dish which I did not enjoy, except maybe the mushrooms.

DESSERT

Chocolate Mousse with chocolate sauce, coffee icecream and rice puffs
(When they described it, it was MUCH more sophisticated than what I'm regurgitating on my blog)

Pear tart with some kind of tea flavoured icecream and yuzu jelly

Up close

Petite Fours
Now this is what I call Petite Fours (Forty One need to learn to make Petite Fours like these) . All of them were delish!

I loved ALL the desserts, and I don't even usually like pear! I even had 2 servings of each dessert seeing as my dad doesn't eat sweets. I can honestly say that I was about to explode by the end of the night with so much food inside of me. But it was well worth it.

Overall it was a fantastic meal and I highly recommend anyone to go. If you don't know what to order, the degustation menu is always a good choice.

Pricing:

• Eight Course Degustation Menu $165.00, including matches wines $255.0
• Menu Vegetarian (Degustation) $130.00
• Three courses $98.00
• Four courses $125.00
• Five courses $150.00

Overall Score - Fine Dining: 19/20

• Food: 9/10
• Service: 5/5
• Venue: 5/5

Other Useful Information

• Your Restaurants
• The Age Good Food Guide 2009 - 3 hats Score: 18/20
• The Age Epicure (September 11, 2008)
• Blog Reviews: Tummy Rumbles (October 30, 2008)
• Blog Reviews: Belly Good (February 15, 2009)
• Blog Reviews: The New Epicurean (April 18, 2009)

Opening Hours

• Lunch: Thursday to Friday, noon till 2pm
• Dinner: Tuesday to Saturday, 6.30pm till 10pm