V Rating: VV
Where: Woollahra Hotel, 116 Queen Street, Woollahra
When: Lunch: Tues - Sun , noon - 3pm. Dinner: 7 days, 6pm - 10.30pm.
Tel: (02) 9363 2519 (but no reservations).
Price: Entree: $16.50 - $29. Main: $29 - $39.90.

Expensive restaurants, in my experience, are unkind to vegetarians. French restaurants are even worse. Hence, I was in a highly dubious frame of mind when I arrived at the expensive, French restaurant Bistro Moncur.

In some ways I was right. Bistro Moncur doesn’t offer a lot of choice for vegetarians. However, the exceptional quality of the food, combined with the relaxed, welcoming atmosphere, put me in a forgiving mood.

It helped that Bistro Moncur is located inside a pub hotel. You can only be so pretentious when to get to the toilets you have to pass beer swilling patrons watching Fox Sports.

There were a decent three vegetarian entrees on the menu (double the usual number you find at these types of places). I chose the vine ripened tomato salad. It was essentially just large, ripe tomato slices in a light dressing. Refreshing, to be sure, but a leetle bit underwhelming for $16.50.

The other vegetarian option was a salad of celery, roquefort, radicchio, pears and walnuts. in a walnut oil and coddled egg vinaigrette. The person next to me chose this salad, and it looked far more exciting than my dish. Sigh.

Apparently one of Bistro Moncur’s signature dishes is the french onion, blue cheese souffle. I didn’t feel up to ordering this for lunch, especially with a main to come, but this may have a been a fatal mistake on my part because it gets rave reviews on Sydney restaurant sites.

This is just one vegetarian choice for main, a seasonal vegetables with a pumpkin and mostarda custard timbale, flageolet beans and lentils in a tomato broth.

Each aspect of this dish was fabulous. The custard timable had a soft, delicate, frothy texture that melted in my mouth. The pumpkin and mostarda (an Italian fruit mustard condiment) gave it a predominantly sweet taste with a slight kick.

Flageolet beans are large and white with soft texture. They reminded me a cross between canellinni and kidney beans. They combined well with the lentils and the lovely tomato broth.

It was clear that chef Damien Pignolet had put this dish together carefully using some more unusual ingredients like mostarda and flagolet beans. While sometimes unsual ingredients feel like they’ve been included solely to add some ‘fashion’ to a dish, in this case the meal had a hearty, down-to-earth feel.

My only criticism is that even though the flavours complemented each other, there was no strong relationship between the food, so it felt like a tasting plate rather than a ‘meal’. As a general note of caution about Bistro Moncur, you can’t book and it is popular so get there early or expect a long wait.

Although I’d normally only give an expensive restaurant with one vegetarian main a v-ware, because of the three veggie entrees, lovely atmosphere and unusual main dish I’ve awarded Bistro Moncur VV

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