PROFILED BY DEGROOTS MEDIAHere’s the recipe – take a well respected name, mix in a busy location and add people.Guillaume Brahimi, one of Sydney’s best chefs, has opened Bistro Guillaume, making a welcome addition to the already lively eating scene at Crown. It’s located on the promenade, with a large downstairs bar that’s open during the evenings. The restaurant can only be described as pretty, with its pale colours and light-shades that look like fashionable skirts suspended from the low ceiling. The tables in the main area are dressed in white while those nearer to the promenade are bare marble-topped tables.
As the name suggests, the food is classic bistro fare. The menu contains all the usual suspects – a terrine of the day, snails from the Hunter Valley, oysters, onion soup, steak tartare and confit of duck (nicely accompanied by Brussels sprouts). The char-grilled yellow fin tuna came with a notably good ratatouille but the significant charred flavour rather overpowered the tuna for me. Some more interesting dishes include the roast Barossa chicken or Flinders lamb for two. There is a daily plat du jour – among them is tripe on Monday, minute steak on Tuesday, bouillabaisse on Friday. The wine list is a stupendous collection, mostly at prices so high they are quite sobering. Some of the French Burgundies and drops from Bordeaux have price tags that read like a year far into the future. Even the wines by the glass are pricey. Oh well, we should all have an alcohol-free day or two a week. Or let’s just blow the budget for once.
Rita Erlich, April 2008
