V Rating: VVV
Where: 141 Belmore Road, Randwick
When: Tues - Thurs: 6pm - 10pm. Fri - Sat: 5.30pm - 10.30pm. Fri lunch: 12 - 2.30pm
Tel: (02) 9399 9660.
Price: Degustation $80 pp. With wine: $125 pp.

Last Thursday I went to a degustation dinner at French restaurant, Balzac. I was nervous about the vegetarian fare. Most French restaurants struggle to produce a single vegetarian dish. How would Balzac go thinking up five of them?

French, fine dining restaurant Balzac is an anomaly on Belmore road, more notable for its squashed, communal and mainly Asian eateries. The sense of disjuncture is symbolised by Balzac’s cheerfully awkward position on a thin peninsular of land jutting out between two bustling roads, where it perches like the Tardis having landed some place it oughtn’t.

Entering the restaurant is like stepping through a door into a different dimension. Exposed sandstone walls, soft lighting and white tablecloths transport you to a romantic, semi-rural restaurant in the Loire Valley in France. Urban Randwick, not so much.

But back to the food. I had no idea what dishes to expect because there were no vegetarian options written on the menu. Once the waiting staff heard that I was vegetarian they were very attentive and made sure that dishes met my dietary preferences.

For example, I was told that the first dish was quail’s eggs and asked if that was OK. I said yes, a little apprehensively. Technically I eat eggs. Just not a lot, or by themselves, and not generally from quails.

I was secretly relieved when the waiter reappeared with onions fried in spices and mixed with finely shredded brussel sprouts.

For the next dish I was expecting gnocchi. What actually came out were four fried truffled quail eggs with celeriac and asparagus. I didn’t immediately realise this, however, and had a Julia Roberts moment when I first tried to pick up an egg and had it roll into my lap, then tried to poke it quickly and had the yolk splash up into my face. Hence the old saying, I guess.

My favourite dish was the sauté of potato gnocchi with roast jerusalem artichokes, portobello mushrooms and reggiano. The gnocchi was soft, and the large, carefully placed slices of mushroom added a hearty flavour.

At this point in the dinner we were treated to a passionate speech about the recent RU486 debate in the Federal Parliament. It was inspiring to hear how women from different parties had joined together to convince the Government to allow a rare conscience vote on the issue, and then persuaded the Parliament to pass amending legislation placing the decision to approve RU486 in the hands of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), rather than the Minister for Health.

It was sobering, however, to hear that the situation arose because a number of fortunate coincidences, and that the fate of related issues, like the push to ensure transparent advertising in pregnancy counselling, was bleaker.

After this food for though we returned to food for stomachs. The waiters served small glasses of ice cream, but thoughtfully offered to bring me a different dish because they assumed that I didn’t eat gelatine. Instead, I got dark cherries in sweet syrup with lemon sorbet. Lovely.

For dessert, I had the chocolate fondant with thick chocolate sauce. This was a beautiful, rich pudding perfect for a cold winter’s night.

I’m not sure that a vegetarian happening by Balzac would have such an easy time, because like most French restaurants the regular Balzac menu is squarely focussed on meat. However, my degustation experience at Balzac was great. The service was impressive and friendly, the company was stimulating, and the food was carefully prepared and conceived.

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