Bistrot d'Orsay, Melbourne
For years I've assumed that a frog name means pastry for breakfast. Don't get me wrong. I like a good croissant. But it's no match for a nice plate of eggs. And so I've avoided Bistrot d'Orsay, 184 Collins Street, Melbourne, Tel +61 3 9654 6498. Silly me. Their Eggs Benedict is seriously good.
Excellent poached eggs. Warm toasty muffins. Fine slivers of ham. And just the right amount of delicious hollandaise. Why is this so hard for so many others?
The venue is dark, stylish, and well-located in the heart of Collins Street. The service is friendly, professional and swift. And the Genovese coffee is excellent.
Of course, with a frog name, they also do the obligatory croissant and pain au chocolate.
18/20 "Magnifique"
Excellent poached eggs. Warm toasty muffins. Fine slivers of ham. And just the right amount of delicious hollandaise. Why is this so hard for so many others?
The venue is dark, stylish, and well-located in the heart of Collins Street. The service is friendly, professional and swift. And the Genovese coffee is excellent.
Of course, with a frog name, they also do the obligatory croissant and pain au chocolate.
18/20 "Magnifique"
posted by Jamie Wodetzki at 8:34 pm
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8 Comments:
I paid D'Orsay a visit on the weekend with an expectation of Eggs Benedict, but alas, they are no longer on offer. Now there's just your standard eggs and bacon variations, but my formerly vegetarian companion - who rarely eats a full plate of any savoury brekkie - cleaned their plate with a gusto they normally reserve for fine dining. It must have been exceptional, because flying cutlery prevented me from sliding a furtive fork in for a surreptitious taste of the fluffy scrambles and curly bacon.
I too broke from form, choosing a sweet breakfast instead of a heart stopper. I inhaled two tiny, light and creamy ricotta fritters, dusted with cinamon and icing sugar, accompanied by an exquisite little poached pear with vincotto. Delicious and unexpectedly satisfying. Coffee? Perfect.
Unexpectely visited d'Orsay for brunch last Saturday and was amazed at the magnificent eggs (Florentine with extra of bacon) - probably the best I've ever had! (I brunched at Mart130 the following day and confirmed that, though excellent, they weren't as good as d'Orsay...) Everything - eggs, bacon, spinach, muffin, amazing hollandaise - seemed the epitome of perfection: I'm just a bit scared to return in case I'm disappointed!
The manager(?) said the eggs are 'Green Eggs' from the Western District, and that when they arrive they're guaranteed to be less than a day old.
Please understand that rating a cafe based on factors like the creaminess of its hollandaise - which is pretty infantile food in any case - misses the remaining 70% that makes a place worth spending time in. I mean ambience and hospitality, or basically putting yourself in the customer's shoes.
We visited this embarrassment to Melbourne's riches yesterday (Saturday) with a visitor from Sydney at the obviously inconvenient time of 11am. The place was almost empty.
My wife opened the door and was greeted by a waiter wearing that shade of dumb insolence that belongs in Darlinghurst or parts of LA.
My wife, who is very polite: "Hi, we'd like to have breakfast".
Dumbwaiter, condescendingly: "Breakfast is finished".
My wife, still polite: "OK then. We'd like to have lunch".
Person who wants to appear not to work in restaurants or retail but aspires to be an art director or something equally impressive: "Lunch doesn't start until 12."
My wife made one final effort to spend money at what I remember to be a half-decent bistro (before they expanded into the tenancy next door) and was rebuffed again.
We won't be back.
I had breaky at d'Orsay for the first time today only to be dissapointed.
- breakies took a long time between ordering and serving
- the waiting was quite terse
- no soy milk but yes skim
- Scrambled eggs were $1.50 extra and mine was laced with egg-shell
I won't be re-visiting anytime soon.
2007 hasn't been kind to this place. I revisited recently, having seen some narky comments, and was not as impressed as before. I will be downgrading the score when I eventually get around to decided just how far they have fallen.
Well, we have never eaten at Bistor D'Orsay for anything other than dinner. We stopped in recently before a show at the Athenaeum and the experience was billiant. The food, the service, the atmosphere was all superb. Maybe it's just their breakfasts and morning staff?
Well, after my first couple of visits at the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007, there's been nothing but disappointment for me here. Mainly because they've cut off breakfast earlier and earlier as the year went on, and I'm not good at getting to the city before 10:45am on a Saturday. Despite previously being served their Great Eggs at 11:50am and 11:40am, I've since been sullenly told that they've "never" done that. And the 'new' 11am cut-off is variable - at 10:50am I was refused breakfast because "the kitchen is busy preparing for lunch" (the place was empty, by the way): a special trip into the city wasted. So in the last 18 months I've only managed to breakfast there once - and the Benedict was great - out of about 5 attempts. I've reluctantly just stopped trying.
Its April 2009, and I'm back in Melbourne again for the Comedy Festival. I was very disappointed to find Bistro d'Orsay doesn't appear to open for breakfast. They had the best breakfast for many city blocks. I guess the recession is spreading everywhere. It's time to try the hotel breakfast again!. :-)
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