Dinner at L'Oustal

[Shinboners]

Albert Park is not a place I often visit. Whilst it’s a beautiful part of Melbourne, I feel like an outsider amongst the comfort and wealth. Slipping into L’Oustal on a Tuesday night, I watch two of the staff chatting with friends who are enjoying dinner there. If L’Oustal’s aim is to be a second dining room for the locals, my impression is that they are achieving that with ease.

The restaurant seats around 40 people and it gets to about half full during the evening. The friendly and professional attitude of the staff results in a liveliness and warmth in the room. Watching the guests come and go, they all seem to be friends of L’Oustal’s staff.

We open our dinner with a plate of charcuterie. A plate with five selections plus Cumberland sauce and pickled gherkins arrives. The highlight of the plate for me was a subtly flavoured tripe sausage and pork, bacon and pistachio terrine. There was no initial punch of flavour, just a slow introduction of taste on the tongue. The other selections was a pork rillettes that was too fine for my liking, slices of salami, and a chicken and foie gras mousse.

The mains were excellent. I enjoyed a lamb rump and crispy lamb belly served with spring vegetables and sauternes sauce. The lamb rump was served rare. It was tender and sweet, the flavour of the lamb allowed to shine without any interference from herbs and spices. But these slices of rump were trumped by the belly. The belly pieces were cut into cubes, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried. The meat had a texture similar to duck confit that contrasted well with its coating. Again, there was enough taste to let you know it was lamb, but not so much that it was overpowering. It was a wonderful balance of flavour and texture. The meat sat on a bed of broad beans, celery, and spring onion with a well flavoured sauternes sauce.

After a warm Melbourne day, a cassoulet should be the last thing you would want to eat for dinner, but nonetheless, that’s what Pein ordered. I had a taste, and the thing that struck me was the lightness of it. All the components of a good cassoulet were there, but without the richness.

Our mains were accompanied by some very good French fries. They came out hot (something that seems to be happening less these days), were fluffy on the inside and nice and crisp on the outside.

I finished with a crème brulee. The texture of the custard was good and the top had excellent caramalization, but the flavour probably lacked a bit of oomph. Still, it’s better than most of the crème brulees around town.

Overall, the food at L’Oustal shows a wonderful lightness of touch. The restaurant has a warm feel, and the service was excellent. We chatted to the people dining on the tables next to us. They were regulars and very affectionate about the restaurant. I came into the restaurant feeling like an outsider, but left feeling as if I was part of the family.

[Shinboners]

PCL can write about the wines in more detail.

From the scrappy notes written on the back of the receipt, it seems we had the following:

Dominique poztet cabernet/merlot. I had a glass of this. The bouquet was lovely, it really filled the nose. And it tasted great too - full bodied, really rich chocolate flavours.

We shared a carafe of (apologies if I got this wrong, the writing is quite doctor-like!), chateau quiot g.m.s. It took me a while to figure out whether I liked this wine or not. Part of the flavour was like the previous wine, but other bits reminded me of a pinot noir. I am not a fan of pinot noir - to me, they taste too much like cough mixture (as I quickly duck my head as the pinot noir fans take aim at me).

PCL had a hugel riesling (from Alsace) and he had a muscat di beaume venge for dessert.

[Dim Sim]

We open our dinner with a plate of charcuterie. A plate with five selections plus Cumberland sauce and pickled gherkins arrives. The highlight of the plate for me was a subtly flavoured tripe sausage and pork, bacon and pistachio terrine. There was no initial punch of flavour, just a slow introduction of taste on the tongue. The other selections was a pork rillettes that was too fine for my liking, slices of salami, and a chicken and foie gras mousse.

Any idea what we will be making (charcuterie-wise) ?

[Shinboners]

Any idea what we will be making (charcuterie-wise) ?

Not yet. We're trying to figure out time frames at the moment. We'll send you a PM in the next few days with a few ideas.

It is funny, the first and only time I had lamb belly was also in a French restaurant  (Albert Street Restaurant , Morninington, very, very, very good BTW) Chef Pierre Khodja cooked this lamb dish ( memory is a bit vague now , it was about a year ago) but what stucked in my mind is this belly thing, it is cut in 1 inch cube, crumbed, deep fried, there was a slight hint of cummin, it was sticky and soft, gelatinous.  I could have more.

That sounds almost identical to what I had.

I could easily have sat down with a bowl of these things whilst watching the soccer last night.

I'm going to try and track down a recipe for this dish.

nice review, John Le____n , you better watch out 

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Aw shucks.

[PCL]

The chicken liver/foie gras pate was more like a mousse, as noted by Shin. To me, diluting something as precious as foie gras in mousse largely dominated by chicken liver might be trying a little hard, but like as Shin said, if that's what the local population want, then so be it.

Big points on the wine side of things, with a number of selections available not only by the glass but also by the carafe.

The Chateau Quiot was a grenach/shiraz/mouverde blend, ie. typical of the Southern Rhone. As Shin said, a little gamey thus reminiscent of some pinot like qualities, but also powerful on the nose and well harmonised on the palate. Not like our own GSMs which generally blow you out of the water before you even taste it.

Don't worry shin, we'll teach you all about pinots in good time.

[Shinboners]

The chicken liver/foie gras pate was more like a mousse, as noted by Shin. To me, diluting something as precious as foie gras in mousse largely dominated by chicken liver might be trying a little hard, but like as Shin said, if that's what the local population want, then so be it.

I thought you first said it was more like a mousse.

Anyway, to expand on my comment, I reckon that foie gras in an unadulterated form might be a bit too strongly flavoured or rich for the locals. So they may as well (for want of a better phrase) water it down. Hopefully in the long term, people will demand more of the pure product. With any luck, sometime in the future, we'll just be able to order foie gras and a few toasted baguettes.

I also noticed that one of the specials (off memory, it might have been the confit duck) came with a roquefort sauce. Now, I've never tasted roquefort, so I might be very wrong on this - but the flavour may be too strong for the locals. Putting into a sauce as an introduction isn't a bad way of trying to get people hooked onto it. Again, regulars may start to ask that roquefort be included as part of the cheese selection.

Of course, the flipside of this is that people may be content for these diluted tastes. However, with diners becoming more open to what's on offer (for instance, you would never find things like chicken livers on Melbourne menus around 5 years ago), I suspect that we'll see more and more of the unadulterated product on offer in restaurants.

Don't worry shin, we'll teach you all about pinots in good time.

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Now, is that before or after you try and teach my about the joys of camping?

[Tim White]

PCL can write about the wines in more detail.

From the scrappy notes written on the back of the receipt, it seems we had the following:

Dominique poztet cabernet/merlot.  I had a glass of this.  The bouquet was lovely, it really filled the nose.  And it tasted great too - full bodied, really rich chocolate flavours.

We shared a carafe of (apologies if I got this wrong, the writing is quite doctor-like!), chateau quiot g.m.s.  It took me a while to figure out whether I liked this wine or not.  Part of the flavour was like the previous wine, but other bits reminded me of a pinot noir.  I am not a fan of pinot noir - to me, they taste too much like cough mixture (as I quickly duck my head as the pinot noir fans take aim at me).

PCL had a hugel riesling (from Alsace) and he had a muscat di beaume venge for dessert.

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Sounds like you guys need some dinner partners! Your review accords well with all the feedback we've heard about LÓustal and Daniel Southern's cooking

I too like Dominque Portet's wines. Since his departure from Taltrani I think his personal wine style has blossomed. His family has a great wine tradition and his wines now seem to express a french sense of terroir that bring out the best in his wines. He also makes a very accesible rose recently given 4/5 stars in the Age.

I understand why you might not like Pinot - to commit the unpardonable sin - a lot of Australian pinot isn't that good - it is a hard wine to make and we have a lot of seasonal variation - we also have some plantings of pinot in some very odd places!

Got to love PCL's choice of wines... Muscat Beaume de Venise suits just about any good fruit orientated dessert and as a vin doux is a much better weight for dining than Australian stickies

How was the cheese?

Edited November 18, 2005 by Tim White (log)

[Shinboners]

Sounds like you guys need some dinner partners! 

Next year, I'd really like to get a bunch of eGulleters together for a dinner at Interlude.

I'm very keen for a return visit and I know PCL hasn't been there yet. Robin Wicken's food is sublime (and hello to Robin if he's reading....want to do a special deal for us? )

[chef robin]

Sounds like you guys need some dinner partners! 

Next year, I'd really like to get a bunch of eGulleters together for a dinner at Interlude.

I'm very keen for a return visit and I know PCL hasn't been there yet. Robin Wicken's food is sublime (and hello to Robin if he's reading....want to do a special deal for us? )

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Always happy to accommidate food lovers. Don't think Tim has been in yet either!!

drop me a line robin@interlude.com.au

[PCL]

Sounds like you guys need some dinner partners!  Your review accords well with all the feedback we've heard about LÓustal and Daniel Southern's cooking

I too like Dominque Portet's wines.  Since his departure from Taltrani I think his personal wine style has blossomed.  His family has a great wine tradition and his wines now seem to express a french sense of terroir that bring out the best in his wines.  He also makes a very accesible rose recently given 4/5 stars in the Age.

I understand why you might not like Pinot - to commit the unpardonable sin - a lot of Australian pinot isn't that good - it is a hard wine to make and we have a lot of seasonal variation - we also have some plantings of pinot in some very odd places!

Got to love PCL's choice of wines... Muscat Beaume de Venise suits just about any good fruit orientated dessert and as a vin doux is a much better weight for dining than Australian stickies

How was the cheese?

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No cheese that night. Didn't feel like it. The Southern Rhone I really liked thinking back about it. Affordable too.

To be fair, Shin suggested the sticky. I'm not much of a sticky person usually, and would normally defer choice of one to someone else. Must work on that this festive season!

As for dining partners, watch the ISO space up top of the forum!

[Shinboners]

Always happy to accommidate food lovers. Don't think Tim has been in yet either!!

drop me a line robin@interlude.com.au

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I didn't expect a reply! Thank you very much.

I will certainly send you an e-mail in the next day or two. I'll have to have a chat with Pein and check the eGullet policy on organising dinners. And there's one or two other things that I'd like to ask you as well.

Again, thank you for the reply.

[Shinboners]

To be fair, Shin suggested the sticky. I'm not much of a sticky person usually, and would normally defer choice of one to someone else. Must work on that this festive season!

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And I'm going to have to confess that I know next to nothing about stickies. I enjoy them every now and again, and I only talked Pein into it because I know I enjoy muscats and the name of the one on offer had a pretty cool name.