Manu Fieldel's L'Etoile - A restaurant review...

After a rather busy morning shift this today, I tarted myself up with some make up and nice clothes and S (sister in law) and I went to Paddington where Manu Fieldel - the host of My Kitchen Rules on TV at the moment, has his lovely French restaurant called L'Etoile. 

 

L'Etoile in Daylight (Credit to Honey and Soy Food adventures)

At night (my photo)

Its at 211 Glenmore Road in Paddington, Sydney and its situated in one of the cute little terrace houses in the area as shown in the photos above. I so love these houses, really would like to live in one of them one day, but that is when we have made our millions as they are very expensive little pieces of real estate.

Inside of the Restaurant (my photo)

The inside is very simple but elegant with a creme, dark wood and red colour scheme. A beautiful mirror is on one of the ways which seems to extend the length of the restaurant. The kitchen is pretty much behind this mirror. We were seated right next to it. It was nicely lit and has small candles flickering on the tables. Rather lovely atmosphere.

Manu and his son (credit to Yahoo.com)

S asked if Manu was in the restaurant this evening but the kind answer from the waiter was No, he spends his Sundays with is son which is fair enough. I found a cute photo of the two of them in my google travels. Apparently he is a single dad, and juggles TV shows, running a restaurant and father hood. Good luck to him I say. I have enough trouble juggling work, social life, wedding planning and going to the gym.. haha. .

Me trying to look nice (my photo)

The waiter was a very nice young man with a French accent. It was nice to hear something different than the usual Australian accent that you hear at most restaurants these days. He presented us with a menu and went away so we could decide what we wanted to order.

The Menu (my photo)

After some umming and ahhing. The prices on the menu were reasonably priced. The selection of entrees all cost $22 I think and the mains were all $38. The plates that were coming out seemed to be small sized portions as you'd expect in a fancy restaurant. S and I placed our orders and next thing we know the waiter is bringing us out a complimentary bread basket with some yummy butter.... 

Complimentary bread basket (my photo)

This was a nice treat as it is good to have a bit of bread when you don't know what size portions the meals are going to be. Some restaurants I've finished at and still felt hungry so this is a sure fire way of beating that.

After this our entrees and mains started to come out. I ordered oysters and S ordered an asparagus dish which was quite interesting. It turned out to be a asparagus and crab soup, completely different to what she thought it was going to be. Pictures shown below: 

Asparagus and Crab soup (my photo)

Bread and Oysters with crispy onion (my photo)

Crispy Onion Oyster (my photo)

 So our entrees were quite interesting. S said that her soup was cold (supposed to be this way) and it was different to what she'd expected. Didn't finish the whole thing though. My Oysters were nice. Have had better ones, almost to the point of very well chilled. But it was different and good to try. 

The mains arrived and consisted of:

Assortment of lamb, a cutlet, meat patty and capsicum filled with lamb (my photo)

Fillet of Snapper with seasonal veges (my photo)

Bowl of Fries (my photo)

So we stated to tuck into our meals and found out that they were rather yummy. S's snapper had a rather yummy sauce and it was also the first time she'd eaten a whole baby turnip. My different assortments of lamb were quite yummy and flavoursome. I found that the cutlet didn't have much meat on for my liking but the patty and capsicum thing made up for it. But the awesome thing about the cutlet was that it was done perfectly to a medium rare - just how lamb cutlets should be cooked otherwise they go a bit chewy..

Here are some photos of the assortment of lamb as I was rather intrigued:

Medium rare cutlet - just perfect (my photo)

Inside of the stuffed capsicum and the meat patty (my photo)

Once we'd got through all that, we were quite contented, but because of the saltiness of the chips, I was left craving something sweet. Enter dessert menu please ...

The dessert selection - Yes please (my photo)

S wasn't keen on having dessert but I managed to find something that we would both enjoy and it was White Chocolate Mousse and Raspberry Sorbet. We placed our order for dessert and next thing we know these as shown below were  placed on the table by our lovely waiter... 

Watermelon and Champagne Palette Cleansers (my photo)

Alas I couldn't try these as they had a decent dose of champagne in them according to S. And because I'm on my p's, I didn't want to risk it as I'd probably get pulled over by the police on the way home and get breath tested. S said that they were nice, like shots pretty much. 

And then dessert arrived. Oh yes, my taste buds were doing a little dance every time I put a spoonful in my mouth. The raspberry sorbet was rather strong but the white chocolate mousse helped rectify the situation. And to top it off there was a hard dark chocolate with nuts spike stuck in the middle, rather nice!

White chocolate mousse with raspberry sorbet (my photo)

So we finished dessert and asked for the bill and were kindly presented with these little beauties as well. Chocolate and peanut strips, rather strong on the dark chocolate side and left me gasping for some water, but if you love chocolate you'd love these...

Chocolate and peanut frog looking things (my photo)

So overall, the bill came to about $183 which included meals for two people, a couple of glasses of wine and a lemonade and a Sunday 10 percent surcharge. I wasn't completely fussed with the restaurant. Both S and thought it was about 7/10 as we thought maybe the meal selection would be a bit more stunning from a TV chef's restaurant but each to their own. 

The ambience of the place was beautiful and the serving staff attentive. It wasn't particularly busy that night so it was a nice quiet hum from the other diners that we heard. When I went to the toilets, they were nice and clean, and one thing that pleased me was the lovely French conversation that I could hear coming from the kitchen when I walked past it. It was a rather lovely to hear such a beautiful language...

So don't think bad of L'Etoile ... experience it and see what you think. Every diner's experience is different due to their taste buds. We found this menu quite earthy and country with touches of the sea included in some of the meals ... a nice dining experience all up...