Philippe

We recently dined at Philippe, a French restaurant by Philippe Mouchel, located in the heart of the Melbourne CBD. We had quite high expectations given his previous restaurant, the Brasserie Philippe Mouchel at Crown was pretty good. Upon entering you are warmly welcomed by a window showcasing some of their quality meats before you are escorted by their friendly staff to your table. It is a formal setting with white table cloths, perfect lighting and large framed mirrors. The night we were there it was quite noisy and rowdy. We also noted that there were a lot of tables squashed in closely together particularly in the back room where we were seated, so you don’t get that spacious feel even though the restaurant itself is quite large.

We decided to order the quail and foie gras parfait with red currant and orange ginger jam, and toasted brioche. We’ve never had quail like this before and found it quite interesting. The parfait didn’t taste too unhealthy and rich like the foie gras that I’m used to and we enjoyed it with the jam and toasted brioche.

The second entree we ordered was the beetroot cured Ora King salmon gravlax, fennel salad, walnut mayonnaise and mushrooms. This was also a very nice dish. The salmon wasn’t too salty and was balanced in flavours with the other ingredients.

For mains we ordered the pan seared wild barramundi with autumn brunoise vegetables, beets and a red wine sauce. This dish was nice but didn’t stand out for me.

Davin ordered the Mayura Station wagyu rump cap with a black pepper sauce. It was cooked medium rare, however the outside was probably seared too much which made it a bit tough to bite into. The sauce was probably the highlight and accentuated the meaty flavour of the steak.

We also got sides for our meals which included the potato gratin and sauteed green beans. The potato gratin was quite mushy and was probably lacking in some flavours. The sauteed green beans were also soft and we generally like our beans crunchy so that was a bit of a let down.

Overall, the restaurant provides for a French experience, however for the price, the quality of the food in general could have been better.

Philippe
Approx $75 AUD per person
Address: 115 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone: +61 3 8394 6625
Website: philipperestaurant.com.au

Philippe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato