Melbourne Eats: Maison Bâtard Food Journal

Melbourne Eats: Maison Bâtard Food Journal

Welcome back to another Eats with Ash foodie review blog. Except, this time, it’s not really a foodie review, it’s more of a foodie photo journal. For my 30th birthday dinner, my partner Luke and I headed into the city to try a French fine dining restaurant – Maison Bâtard. Maison Bâtard is a take on modern French cuisine, but with a bit of a Melbournian spin on it. It’s a love letter to France, but with all the bells and whistles that we love about fine dining in Melbourne. Maison Bâtard also translates to “Bastard House”. It is owned by Chris Lucas, who I believe also owns Society.

Maison Bâtard pleasantly surprised me. I have to admit that I ended up reading a lot of the bad Google Reviews about the place and started to worry that something was going to go wrong. However, both Luke and I had a great time, the staff were super lovely, and the food was delicious – I even tried so many things I wouldn’t normally go near. The only bad thing I have to say about the place is that the tables were quite close together, so you could hear everyone’s conversations next to you. I also felt a bit out of my depth as it’s very fancy and my imposter syndrome was ripe – I’m not a rich b*tch. About 90% of the people in there were dressed really well; there was only one family who came in jeans and jumpers.

The restaurant was dimly lit, so I didn’t get a lot of good quality phone photos, but you’ll get the gist. There were a few different menu options available for us, but we went with one of the set menus, which was $135 pp + an add-on of cheese (fromages, yay, I learned a French word), and drinks are separate. Luke had a martini, and I’ve forgotten the name of my cocktail, but it had absinthe in it, and I love licorice as a flavour. Their wine list was also like a massive bible; there is SO much to choose from if you’re a wine lover.

Funnily enough, I didn’t read the set menu properly because we ended up eating steak tartare, and I never thought I would eat that in my life. But you know what? It was really delicious – even though the texture of it always reminds me of cat food LOL. I’d be a terrible judge on MasterChef. My favourite thing we ate was the entree – it was like a little savoury choux pastry bun with parmesan. I also really enjoyed the cured salmon and the dessert. I’m not sure what the name of the dessert was, but it was like a butterscotch caramel pudding kinda thing + they bought me a birthday macaroon with a candle; super cute.

Would I go back? Absolutely. Hopefully, I can try some more wines when they work out what’s wrong with my health. And I think we’ll go for the a la carte menu next time so we can try a different dessert.

Here are some pics!