3 Hats

[sgw]

Over the past fortnight I have dined at Melbourne’s entire 3 hat restaurants bar Flower Drum, and every time I have been left feeling disappointed.

The first meal was at Pearl. Now I have eaten at Pearl on a number of occasions, but this was the first since it has been elevated to its 3 hat award. What has changed I ask. I have always had a nice meal at Pearl but never anything amazing. It’s hard for me to even remember what we ate. The service was ok and it’s a nice looking restaurant, but is it really the best Melbourne has to offer.

The next meal was Vue de Monde. This was my first trip to the new premises. I have to say it’s nice, and we had an enjoyable experience, but at a price. The meal was nearly $380 a head. The food was average at best. Everything was cooked ok but again nothing was exciting. Truffle risotto, pea soup, this was pretty boring stuff. On the few occasions the kitchen tried anything different I’m afraid to say they failed. The flavors didn’t mix well; the presentation was too much etc, etc.

This brings me to last nights dinner at circa. Again I have eaten here on numerous occasions. I love the room; it has a great wine list, but the food. We had the degustation menu, which turned out to be such a disappointment. I mean a freshly shucked oyster as an amuse is hardly ground breaking, and it went on from there. We had to send two courses back as they were cold. The food was drastically under seasoned and once again boring.

In my estimation a 3 hat restaurant should not have off nights, especially charging these prices and should not leave you feeling disappointed. I think Melbourne lacks any restaurants of this caliber, no-one prepared to push the boundaries, think outside the box, like other big world wide cities.

Anyone agree or think of a restaurant that actually deserves the much coveted 3 hats.

[Shinboners]

In my estimation a 3 hat restaurant should not have off nights, especially charging these prices and should not leave you feeling disappointed.

I totally agree with you on that point. If you are paying top dollar, then you should be walking out the door satisfied.

I think Melbourne lacks any restaurants of this caliber, no-one prepared to push the boundaries, think outside the box, like other big world wide cities.

I reckon that there is probably more pushing of boundaries when a place has 2 chefs hats than 3.

Perhaps when a place gets the 3 hats, perhaps a degree of conservatism could creep in (as they try to protect the rating). There could also be a sense of sub-concious self-satisfaction too. There's also the issue of diners who go to a place due to the chefs hats rather than the food. As someone else had pointed out in the Vue de Monde thread, there were diners who were simply happy to be seen in the restaurant, and it wouldn't have mattered what you served them.

Anyone agree or think of a restaurant that actually deserves the much coveted 3 hats.

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It's been over a year since I went to Vue de Monde and Pearl. At the time, I thought Vue de Monde was worth 3 hats whilst Pearl was probably a 2 hat place.

In regards to Circa, I was very keen to go there this month. I checked their menu online, and nothing really grabbed me. So I booked elsewhere.

[PCL]

I don't really pay attention to the hats.

Having said that, sometimes you find that your favourite place hasn't got what you think it should get and then you get disappointed and angry and hard done by. And that's where I think it really gets interesting, the hat thing simply provides for good conversational fodder.

[Shinboners]

And that's where I think it really gets interesting, the hat thing simply provides for good conversational fodder.

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It certainly does. But I reckon that for the restaurants, the gaining or a loss of a hat would have a significant effect on their bottom line.

Which leads me to the next question. In Sydney, restaruant owners are quite open about their desire to get a chefs hat rating. Note Neil Perry's response to losing a chefs hat and Matt Moran's determination to regain a lost chefs hat in the "Heat in The Kitchen" documentary. Then there was Chui Lee Luk's concern about what rating she would get as the owner of Claude's. I suspect that Melbourne chefs are the same, but they're probably less open about it compared to some of their Sydney counterparts.

[chef robin]

This is an intersting topic. I guess each chef has their own ideas about what a 3 hat restuarnt should be and can achieve.

It would definately be an option to play it safe at hold onto the award, nobody wants to lose hats and go down in the rankings. But can you justify charging more(as all restaurants would raise their prices in going from 2 to 3 hats) for the same product you were doing 6 months ago.

To me the change would open a whole lot of new possibilities to move the restaurant onto a whole new level that would be fitting a 3 hat restaurant. For example when we moved from 1 to 2 hats, yes we were able to charge more and we were busier, but this meant we could do things with the food and the service we would never had been able to do as a one hat restaurant. If it doesn't work and you end up losing the hats then maybe you wern't meant to have them in the first place.

As for commenting on which restaurants deserve 3 or dont that not for me to say.

[Shinboners]

But can you justify charging more(as all restaurants would raise their prices in going from 2 to 3 hats) for the same product you were doing 6 months ago.

That depends on the hard headed financial decision vs. (for want of a better word) ethics. And I reckon that 99 out of 100 owners would take the financial decision.

On purely ethical grounds, I reckon it'd be hard to justify a rise in prices for the same product (assuming the same input costs) simply due to an extra chefs hat. If you were profitable beforehand, you should still be profitable with the extra hat, and if anything, you'll know you'll have a waiting list of diners. I would also think that as prices rise along with the chefs hats, you'd probably lose a few diners who helped support you in the beginning with their patronage as they get priced out.

But in the real world, you charge what you believe the market is willing to pay. After all, you run a restaurant to make money. If you happen to be cooking the food that you want to do, then that's an added bonus.

I know that if I ran a restaurant and got an increase in chefs hats, I'd be putting up the prices.

For example when we moved from 1 to 2 hats, yes we were able to charge more and we were busier,

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I really should look up my old economics textbooks as there is a term for this phenomena of increasing prices and yet, demand increases. It's to do with human psychology. If you have a certain reputation, then you must charge a certain price. And if that price is high, therefore the product must be good.

I knew a guy who ran a wine appreciation course (an excellent course, btw - I think it's called Fine Wine Appreciation and you can find flyers around town). A few years ago, he put up his prices, and despite the course being the same, demand skyrocketed.

[Shalmanese]

I really should look up my old economics textbooks as there is a term for this phenomena of increasing prices and yet, demand increases.  It's to do with human psychology.  If you have a certain reputation, then you must charge a certain price.  And if that price is high, therefore the product must be good.

I knew a guy who ran a wine appreciation course (an excellent course, btw - I think it's called Fine Wine Appreciation and you can find flyers around town).  A few years ago, he put up his prices, and despite the course being the same, demand skyrocketed.

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Veblen goods.