We took our table in the buzzy French bistro style dining room upstairs and settled in for the evening. It was busy and we were seated in between two other dating couples. The menu is very French with a wide selection of lighter entry course and the main courses stick to the staples of steaks, roast chicken and the like.

We started off with:

• Spanner crab, avocado, brioche and salmon pearls
• Local mushrooms en papillote with shaved black truffle, confit garlic and hazelnuts (unpictured)

The mushroom dish was a special and delicious it was - perfect for the wet and Autumnal evening outside. The spanner crab was the complete opposite but still delicious; light, bright and crunchy. We found the brioche a little dry and sawdust like but the crab, avocado and salmon roe was delightful.

We shared the:

• 700g Dry Aged Cote de Boeuf

It came with some Dijon mustard and grated horseradish so we added the fries. Surprisingly the fries came with a little ramekin of malt vinegar that took me right back to the chips in the UK - such a happy place.

The steak was cooked well; classic fare really.

Steve and I had a Saturday night date at Camus recently. I know at least two people who have been recently and they raved about the food and they are people whose food opinions I respect. The French Algerian slant was something we'd read about and were intrigued by so we were excited about what lay ahead.

We walked into what appears to be a cosy and buzzy neighbourhood restaurant. The first waiter I catch the eye of doesn't offer to help nor does he greet us so I speak first and enquire about our reservation. He doesn't respond particularly warmly and says to me that I need to speak to someone else. Luckily that someone else promptly appears. I guess the roles and responsibilities are pretty clearly defined here and you don't do someone else's job but a warmer reception wouldn't have gone amiss.

Anyway, we're here for the food and not to make friends so let's continue...

Drinks orders are taken quickly and they arrive pretty promptly too. In fact, in spite of the rocky initial welcome, we find the service responsive and quick although it's not particularly informative. Our waitress and the other wait staff in our section and friendly but they just don't seem to have the slick experience that normally comes with restaurants in Melbourne. There's nothing particularly wrong; it just feels lacking in personality and that personal touch.

Anyway, like I said we're here for the food rather than making lasting friendships and I've already digressed..

Our starters are:

• ​Marinated quail, radicchio, dry fruit salad, argan oil
• Seared scallops, oxtail, preserved lemon

And the food doesn't disappoint. The plates are presented attractively and there are some wonderful fragrances rising from them of spice and fruit. The tang of the pomegranates in the quail and the bitterness of the radicchio work a treat against sweet flesh of the little bird. The scallops are also delicious - sweet seafood against the rich meat of the oxtail and then the sharp saltiness of preserved lemon to lift it up.

Main courses arrive pretty quickly. In fact the whole meal happens quickly. We didn't feel rushed but the kitchen must be operating like a machine churning out food.

• Braised beef tagine
• Duck bastilla, almonds, fruit chutney
• Crushed potato, lemon, za'atar (unpictured)

The beef tagine was exactly how it should be. Heady with spice and tender fork soft meat; no surprises but it's good to stick with classic. The duck bastilla was delicious and so pretty to look at. Packed full of meat and enhanced by the sweetness of the fruit chutney, it didn't feel dry in spite of there being no sauce.

• Murray cod, tomato, green friend rice, black garlic
• Confit duck leg, Puy lentils, smoked speck, port sauce

We decided to go main course and dessert given it was later in the evening and a school night! Steve had the duck and I went with the fish. We didn't have to wait too long for a food considering it was busy but I think we arrived at the tail end of evening service. It wasn't the quickest but for freshly cooked food it was probably about right.

The fish dish was one piece of fried and one piece grilled on top of some garlicky rice. Clean flavours, simple ingredients - a good bistro dish on a plate.

Steve's duck was amazingly tasty. The Puy lentils and accompaniments were as expected but the duck itself was just so delicious. This was the standout.

We planned dessert so we were going to have our cake and eat it!

• Rhubarb and beurre noisette tart, rose and strawberry
• ​Basil scented creme caramel, blood orange, olive oil cake

Both desserts were prettily presented with vibrant fruit colours and clean flavours. Steve enjoyed the rhubarb tart, I thought the pastry was great but the rose flavour a touch over powering. The basil creme caramel was smooth and creamy and the fresh orange flavours cut through some of the sugar sweetness of the caramel. The pieces of olive oil cake disintegrated with all the moisture on the plate into grainy mush but the chunkier pieces I managed to salvage were tasty.

Syracuse is a decent bistro type restaurant that is pretty good value and a nice place for a date or a girly catch up. It may not have the glitz or the glam of some of the other CBD establishments but it has bags of charm joie de vivre!
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French cuisine seems to be experiencing a bit of a renaissance here in Melbourne and I love a good French classic. I dined at Philippe on a Monday evening in the company of two fine ladies for a catch up over some good food.

Service is pretty exemplary and a little on the formal side but as refined ladies(!) we don't mind a bit of polite formality. Philippe feels classy and sophisticated and certainly has that je ne sais quoi that makes it tres chic.

• Collinson & Co Black Angus porterhouse 300g, cassis & red wine jus, polenta fries
• Beer braised beef cheek “Carbonnade”, carrot, cumin, bacon emulsion, opaline

I have the steak and it's well cooked and delicious. I feel that the two polenta chips are bland and unnecessary and they look like play food. The real French fries we ordered and share are the real deal.
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Shern has the braised beef cheek and declared it good. That's all we need to know!

• ​Rum baba, exotic fruit salad, mascarpone Chantilly 
• Oeuf á la neige, passionfruit curd 

My choice was the rum baba and it came with pineapple and mango shards. I enjoyed it but the baba itself was a little bit soggy and perhaps over soaked in the rum syrup but it didn't stop me from eating the whole thing!

The oeuf a la neige was apparently a light souffle like way to end things and delicious.

Philippe is all the good things about French cuisine under one classy roof. It's a great classic and you can't go far wrong if it's some ooh la la you're after.

Bon Ap' is in our neighbourhood so it was high time we gave it a go. I feel there has been a renaissance of French cuisine in Melbourne in the last 12 months from the casual (Bon Ap') to the unusual (Oter) to the old school classic (Phillipe).

We arrived with no reservation on a Friday evening and were warmly welcomed and shown to a cosy table towards the back of the dining room next to the spiral staircase. It certainly has a French wine bar feel and I feel like I could be in Paris or on the set of Allo Allo!

We start off with:

• Escargots in garlic butter
• Housemade Toulouse Sausage, Shallots & Armagnac

I wanted to try the steak tartare too and the charcuterie and pate also looked great coming out of the kitchen and going to neighbouring tables.

The escargots come with the neccesary implements. The butter is rich and garlicky just how I like it but the dish is under seasoned and there's no table salt. The Toulouse sausage is much better in terms of seasoning and the jus in the dish is a flavour hit. I like the texture of the sausage which is coarse but there are some small bits of gristly cartilegey stuff in there which is not so appetising.

​The chicken is a small Maryland that comes in a cute square crockpot. The trout is presented on a retro square plate. Both look quite small in size and we have debate on whether it's value for money or not. The price point is not particularly high at around $20 per main dish but the servings are not large and they don't come with sides.

Having said that, as we worked our way our dishes, I found that there was actually a decent amount of trout on my plate and the chicken is very rich with the truffle cream so it's probably the right size.

The taste I had of the chicken was good, comforting, creamy and rich. Personally I think mashed potato or even just steamed baby potatoes would have elevated this but Steve didn't have a problem using the fries to soak up the delicious sauce.

The trout I had was delicately flavoured and just on the right side of being over cooked. The brown butter wasn't brown enough for my liking and stopped just before it turns nutty so it was more melted butter. To me butter tastes good in all forms so it didn't stop me from enjoying the dish but browner butter would make it better butter! I do like a tongue twister! Like the escargots it needed a bit more seasoning but the chips were very well seasoned so I just had to mix everything up a bit.

After all that butter and cream we were too full to tackle dessert but the classic offering of tarte tatin was very appealing.

Bon Ap' is a nice local restaurant. It's not somewhere I would travel far to but I'm pretty pleased it's around and I'd like to try breakfast there too. It would also be a great place for a lunchtime charcuterie plate and accompanying wine so it's a welcome addition to Brunswick Street.

This was my second visit to Entrecote as I'd been for lunch with Stef to check out the digs and see if it reminded me of Relais d'Entrecote in Paris where I'd been a couple of times before and love dearly. Apparently the Parisian version has inspired Jason M. Jones to lanch a Melbourne option. Lunch had been successful so when Steve said he'd like to try, I was happy to go along. 

It was Friday evening and we arrived there around 6pm after work and we weren't ready to eat but then didn't want to have to wait for a table later. The friendly maitre d' was happy for us to go for a drink at Stokehouse City and to return 30 - 45 minutes later which worked for us.

Our table was intimately sandwiched in between two other tables for two and we were all very close to one another.

I think even in romantic Paris it wasn't quite so cosy! We were also looking forward to a carafe of rustic house red served in a glass bottle probably filled from a tap at the bar a la Paris but instead had to go for a very pleasant if inauthentic Victorian pinot noir.

We decided to share and try the French Onion Soup and the Spring carpaccio of scallop. The soup arrived steamingly hot with the cheesy top, gratinee as they say in France! It was very savoury and satisfying. Probably too rich for one person but yes, very French. I like the cheese to be a touch browner so there is some crispiness as well as gooeyness but this was a good start.

The scallop was reminiscent of Paris in Springtime. Delicately and prettily presented, it was fresh and light with a heavy lemon zing from a a citrus gel dotted around the plate which was pretty intense. I wasn't too sure about the lemon gel and maybe a lighter touch would have been a better balance but it was still good to have some sharpness and acidity.

So the piece de resistance...Grilled Hopkins River porterhouse, frites, sauce maison au beurre et aux herbes and a soft leaf salad.

I liked the way the waitress marked on a paper placemats the R for rare which is what they do in Paris but it's S for saignant. The sauce is a little greener in appearance than its French cousin which has a deeper flavour and more of a mustard kick but I like the freshness of this version. The steak I had the first time was good if a little tough but this time it was tender and melt in the mouth. Funnily enough the fries were better first time round - crispier but these ones were still pretty yummy. I love that authentic shoe string frites are served which is hard to find in Melbourne.

The salad is a delicious blend of nuts, soft leaves and radish. This time round there was less dressing on it so it didn't have the sharpness to cut through the richness of the meat, sauce and frites but the leaves lightened the load.

I really wanted to try dessert as who can resist French expertise. I was torn between the lemon tart and the strawberry profiteroles. I was anxious that the lemon tart wouldn't live up to Phillipa Sibley's version from Prix Fixe (the predecessor to Entrecote) and the waitress' suggestion was to go strawberry. Steve couldn't resist the sound of the Bombe Alaska with salted caramel, raspberry, chocolate and meringue.

The desserts arrived and looked pretty. I found the profiteroles a bit disappointing though. There were three each one filled with something different - cheesecake ice cream, strawberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream. The cheesecake ice cream had a nice flavour with a tang at the end but it was a bit grainy and the other two were fairly standard. Sadly the Bombe Alaska was also disappointing. The ice cream sphere in the centre was too frozen rendering it difficult to eat.

I've since learnt from a former chef that used to work at Prix Fixe that the lemon tart at Entrecote is to the same recipe...darn...should have had that...it's on the to do list...

A wonderful Saturday night get together with Tim and Rachel meant a meal at Hell of the North. We'd all heard so much about it that we were salivating even before we were there!

We entered through the yellow door with its imposing brass knocker and it was so busy  inside. It was like walking into a busy bar on a ski slope for apres piste. I loved the European stone walls and the cosiness of the place.

We decided to focus on conversations about us rather than waste time discussing what we wanted to eat so went with the "Feed Me" menu and we were so impressed.

• Prawn Fritter, Tamarind Sauce
• Beef Tartare

These two dishes came out first followed by a beetroot salad with back barley.

The prawns were piping hot, encased in crispy pastry that was light and golden and without a hint of grease. The sweet prawn was enhanced by the fragrant basil lead inside and then the sweet and sour flavour of the tamarind dipping sauce.

The beef tartare is traditional French style with the crispy potato waffles. No frills, no tricks but lots of great flavour and the bottle of chilli sauce placed on the table for us to add ourselves is great.

The beetroot salad is just fresh and sweet and there's a nutty chewiness from the black barley and other grains. Again an absolute success.

Next up come two meat dishes:

• Milawa Chicken Ballotine, Potatoes Lyonnaise, Pork & Foie Gras
• Roast duck leg and breast with onions and mushrooms

Accompanied by an

• Endive & Orange Salad

The salad lightens the meat dishes that are comforting and homely. The chicken is tender and remains juicy and its delicate nature boosted by the more robust punch of the pork and foie gras. The duck is similarly great this time with an earthiness enhanced by the mushroom aspect.

The orange in the salad acts as a palette cleanser and the bitterness of the endive cut through the richness of the meat.

There's a little confusion next as dessert is talked about but then we're informed we have more meat coming and whatever was planned took its time to arrive. There's a dish of lamb and turnips and carrots and then braised beef with mushrooms and on mashed potato and our veggie accompaniment is a bowl of petits pois à la Française.

Again true to its French roots the beef is reminiscent of boeuf bourguignon and pomees purees. Everything is well cooked, well braised and well flavoured.

This extra round of meat does throw us though and our bellies full even before dessert.

I said our bellies were full even before ice cream but Steve somehow finds enough room to chow down the cheese board.

There's a green tea, foamy dessert with fruit that I remember being refreshingly good with a great meringue ladder but I can't recall the fruit that was there.

The rum baba is topped up at the table with rum so it's a proper adults only boozy dessert. As a rum baba should be some would say. For me the sponge is delightful and the icecream even more so. I don't actually like the alcohol in it though, sponge and ice cream does it for me but for the grown ups I can absolutely see the appeal!

Hell of the North does wonderful French rustic, country food. I love that it knows and understands the difference between chic Parisien bistro and rural, mountainous French countryside where appetites abound unrestricted by the little black dress and Coco Chanel.

Rainy mid week get together with my girlfriend Tanya took place at Le Grand Cirque. Entering is all a bit dramatic with a heavy, velvet curtain shrouding the dining room. You're taken behind the curtain and there it is...I guess it's meant to be the "ta dah" moment.

It's nice enough but I'm not sure if the black curtain helps as it raises the expectations and the dining room whilst pleasant enough is another dining room and I can't say it's super special. The plant pots at Gazi are probably more special than this space.

We were shown to our table for two - I felt like I was seated at a bar really as the table felt small but it was comfortable enough.

It took a while before we were given menus and for our order to be taken. We were meant to return the table after two hours and really this delay didn't help. I also have to concede that I was also 10 minutes late but anyway, we were never pressured to release the table and were in fact encouraged to linger over dessert.

We started off with one of the dips and we chose the beetroot one which had some cumin flavours in it and was enjoyable with the crispy croutony toasts. We also enjoyed the ham and cheese croquettes that came on some cauliflower puree. The croquettes were piping hot, crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside and yes, I would order these again. I think my favourite Melbourne croquettes is the cheese and jalopeno one at Huxtable but these were good too.

We shared the braised beef cheeks and also ordered side dishes of mashed potato and the peas and bacon. Very French bistro. The pot of beef cheek was certainly big enough for two especially with the two generous side dishes.The beef was tender and in the pot were mushrooms and carrots. Flavour wise, I felt it was still a little but sharp from the red wine and could do with a touch more seasoning. The liquid was still a little runny.

The side dishes were delicious though. Buttery, creamy mash and buttery peas with salty chunky bacon bits and sweet onion. I could have just eaten the side dishes!

I really liked the fact that we could share one main course and there's no judging by the wait staff that we're ordering too little. This makes it good value for money. I always envisaged this restaurant to be simple French bistro fayre and Manu was more the face of it and just helps with the promo side of things. And that's what it is. It's not cutting edge cuisine or twists on classics. It's pretty conservative but what I had was enjoyable enough.

Service throughout was attentive and friendly enough except for the initial long wait for menus.

For dessert, there's a trayful of petit fours that you can do a pick and mix with. We shared one just for a mouthful of sweetness as that mash had really filled us up. Great to leave on a sweet note though.

Ici is right on our new doorstep so with part 1 of the Barley move going on, it made sense for a familiarisation visit so we made it for weekend brunch on Saturday.

Ici is a very quaint and cute looking outpost. It's a little bit French with its cosyness and blackboards on the wall but then once settled in and looking at the clientele and wait staff, it's much more eclectic than  France.

The other customers look so Fitzroy. Funny jumpers, skinny trousers, men in ponytails, in bow ties - all so creative. And the blackboard offers a Croque Monsieur and a Madame, that aforementioned nod to France, but there's a dumpling soup with shitakes that takes us to Asia, and then a mixed grill for breakfast taking us back home to UK. See? Eclectic melting pot...

I wanted the dumpling soup and maybe one of the many Tasmanian salmon dishes but when I tried to order I was advised no broth for dumplings left and no salmon. Also no chorizo but that was never going to feature in my menu lineup for today anyway.

So I joined Steve with his nod to home and waited for the breakfast mixed grill. When it arrived it was attractively presented in a iron pan with toasted bread and relish on the side. The menu mentioned black pudding but there was none so I can only assume it was with the Tasmanian salmon, broth and chorizo.

So what was in my pan? Two fried eggs, spinach, grilled tomato, mushrooms, bacon and some sausage. Pretty good sustenance food. I had to ask for butter for the toast though and it was quite hard to flag down someone but the butter came and the toast was yummy. The whole pan was pretty darn good.

For a place across the road from home, really we could do a lot worse!