112 Majors Bay Rd
Concord, Sydney
Antoine's Grill is a lovely French restaurant situated in the rapidly growing food district of Concord. Owned by chef Antoine Moscovitz and his partner Sam, it provides a modern take on traditional French cuisine. Antoine has an impressive list of achievements - he cooked under world renowned chef Alain Ducasse at La Cour Jardin in Paris and was appointed private chef to the House of Roederer Cristal Champagne. In Sydney he was at Salt restaurant with Luke Mangan and Bather’s Pavilion at Balmoral Beach with Serge Dansereau.
Antoine's Grill is a long narrow room that has the charm of a Parisienne restaurant with authentic decorations from Antoine's grandmothers collection adorning the walls. It has charm and warmth and makes you feel like you've been transported to France.
We started with a "le fournil" baguette that arrived at our table still hot and crisp on the outside but soft on the inside.The lovely butter that sat in a small pot on the board went perfectly.
Throw in a nice drop of Morgon Beaujolais from Domaine Lathuiliere-Gravallon - a winery founded in 1822 and you have a wonderful start to a French cuisine journey.
This was grilled Yamba tiger prawns with green papaya and creamy feta served with gazpacho.
The thick juicy prawn pieces arrived in a bowl which then had the cold gazpacho poured on it.
The whole combination was lovely.
The next delicacy to arrive were scallops with baby carrot, carrot puree and foie gras.
The plump juicy scallops were beautifully cooked with a light touch that preserved the flavour and texture.
The sweet carrot puree went nicely and the lovely baby carrot garnish added a playful touch - and we'd never seen one this small before!
Then we had one of the signature dishes from Antoine's Grill - deboned quail on a bed of spinach all nestled on top of a puree of almond cauliflower.The delicate quail was again lightly cooked which kept it moist and juicy and the blend of flavours all combined beautifully.
Nothing overpowered anything in this dish - it was perfectly balanced!
A lovely plate of wild mushroom and black truffle risotto with mint mousse arrived next.The earthiness of the wild mushrooms and black truffle went so well with the risotto.
The light taste of the mint mousse added another playful touch to the appearance and taste of the whole dish.
We then had a lovely serving of crispy skinned barramundi with potato fondant and preserved lemon.
The pureed preserved lemon was a delicious partner to the salmon.
Fortunately, the skin lived up to it's billing of being crispy as well - as not every place does end up achieving this! The fish was also cooked perfectly.
We then had some lovely beef fillet that was so tender and so nicely cooked.I was lucky enough to also have this topped with a pork rib - to sample this as well. The pork simply melted - it was so tender and fell off the bone!
The quality of the plating of the dishes we had was exceptional - and matched with the tastes and textures of the food! And we were filling up!
A good meal needs a good dessert to finish it off - and the Café gourmand on the menu is this and more! What a selection! It comes with a miniature lemon tart, chocolate vanilla profiterole, Baileys scented crème brûlée, chocolate velvet fondant and a deconstructed cheese cake. It was all delicious and quite a big finale to the meal in taste and quantity.We also managed to sample their miniature "magnums" which were simply fantastic.
We'd spied some lovely "egg carton like" dishes going past at different times during the night and it turned out to be a great selection of creme brulees.
Even though we were almost bursting by now we decided that we just had to try them.
The "six pack" - or creme brulee six ways - has six varieties of creme brulee - caramel, chocolate, lemon marshmallows, orange, bourbon vanilla and quince. If you love brulee - like we do - you'll be in brulee heaven with this dish!
A garnish of a hollowed out egg shell on a nest turned out to be more than a decoration. The nest the egg was perched on was in fact a light delicate fairy floss. What a great finish to an amazing meal!
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| Sam and Antoine Moscovitz |
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Antoine's Grill. Special thanks to Sam and Antoine. Thanks also to Thomas, Zahra and David for looking after us on our visit.
