Entrecote: Happy 5th Anniversary!

Is it just me, or do I start every post with, “It’s been a while” or something to that effect? Any way I’m here now, and I’m posting a food review of a French restaurant that I visited with emmy last week to celebrate our fifth anniversary of being together.

Croquettes

I’d read a couple of reviews of this place, and even though I’m not a massive fan of French cuisine, I had a bit of a hankering for steak and chips, and well, there is sort of only one main on the menu at Entrecote (South Yarra), and wouldn’t you know it, Steak Frites. Obviously we didn’t just have steak and chips, although the apparently limitless fries could make that a reasonable option (although you’d have to be a bit of a dick to do that), we did manage to fit in an entree, and also a dessert. We just went with a couple of recommendations for drinks, I had some red wine from Burgundy which was quite nice, and emmy went with a lemony cocktail, France 75 or something, no issues yet! We started with the “King Louis Boulettes” which are croquettes with spiced beef and some other substance (mashed potato-like) in them, the filling was so fluffy and the crunchy exterior very well done.

Following that up with the steak (porterhouse) and fries, with a side of leafy salad (radish, lettuce, and walnuts with vinaigrette). The salad was simple but very well executed, the crunchy lettuce and walnuts great with the dressing. The fries were straight outta Maccas, nothing wrong with that, maccas chips are great, maybe not as fried/crunchy as maccas but shoestring fries are hard to get wrong, and these were good.

My steak (medium rare) was a little dry and over cooked on one edge (fortunately the side I started on), but after a couple slices the tender section appeared and the rest was in my tummy in no time. The buttery herb sauce works on this steak and I had no complaints, also mixed in some French mustard which is always a winner with steak. I was full, but sacrificed what space remained in my stomach to help out emmy by finishing off the last couple pieces of her steak.

Profiteroles

We couldn’t leave without ordering dessert, everything looked great, but having had a great lemon tart only the day before, we decided on the chocolate profiteroles. Covered in dark chocolate, both melted and chips, and with a vanilla iced cream centre, these totally hit the spot, even though the spot was nothing but a tiny little speck of air that was being squished from all sides by steak and chips!

That’s it, we were done, could barely move, and ready to doze off into food coma heaven. There were a lot of things we didn’t try that I would’ve liked to, but it was probably a good thing we didn’t over indulge as we were both ready to explode/collapse/pass out (in that order) after a great meal. Chicken liver parfait, steak tartare, smoked salmon, escargot, maybe next time. I’d rate this one over Bistro Thierry, but we didn’t get steak there, and we also ordered too much and ate too much bread – Entrecote don’t serve bread, free or any, for a French restaurant that seems bizarre – so I’d be willing to give Bistro Thierry another try. This place? Put it at the top of the French restaurant list (that’s my list of two) and I’ll be happy to go back and enjoy some of the other dishes, they also do breakfast and lunch, hmmm.

Oh, and something that doesn’t usually rate a mention from Asians (or maybe it’s just me), the table service was very good, very attentive, cleaning up very quickly and getting our food out in reasonable time (we were to get kicked in two hours, so I guess they couldn’t dawdle too much). I’ll also take some time to mention the atmosphere and appearance as well since I’m here, nice, charming, romantic, although a little squeezy, stick to the iphone camera as the focus light of any decent camera might be a bit too much for anyone to bare ;).