Bon jour, Chez Olivier

I went to a French Restaurant on Friday. Le nom est Chez Olivier.

The French restaurant is called Chez Olivier and it is located at Elsternwick with another branch in Prahran.

Friday being the end of the working days and a chance to pop out of working clothes, tempted me to flash some new accessories as well - my $5 Diva flower headband. Not forgetting the opportunity for darker eyeliner and purple eyeshadow which would prompt domestic abuse talk if worn to work. Pitoyable.

I LOVE to bits my flower hair band, comfy too! And since my impression of the French (shallow as I may be) is all flowery and elegant - I thought this was parfait. Génie is me.

Chez Olivier is a very understated place. Tucked in the middle of a quiet block of shops, it can be easily missed. The shop is small with a maximum capacity of approximately 35 people. Wine bottles line the side of the walls under the illumination of yellow lights. Their staff are extremely friendly and warm. And their French action kinda does the trick for me as well, after all people never been to France ma.

The menu is heavy in French with decriptions in English, thus appealing more to the shallow beings like me (like you too?). When we asked the waitress about certain mains in the 'Traditional Menu" section, she could only tell us they were traditional French food as we did not know any of the ingredients she mentioned. Except for white wine. Oui.

Entree: Les Escargots (Land snails)

The first time I had escargots, was with Dad in KL. When the waitress asked if we had escargots before, I was acting smart and told her I had it the cheese baked-style last time. Ooops, apparently, that is not French at all, non non non!

Escargots in (what I suspect to be) basil and olive oil with crispbread.

Super amazing if eaten this way.

Kanpai (woops not French).

The escargots were relatively tasteless as compared to the cheese-baked ones (according to Me)or as compared to lala (according to Ray, jakun).

Mains: Kangaroo Fillet A La Kobi (marinated and grilled with sweet potato mash, sauce aux cepes and Jus).

Kangaroo fillet was medium rare hence the juiciness and slight chewiness, étonnant! Oh and the sauce was thick and bursting with flavour - just the way I love my food. Mmm-mm!

Mains: Cassoulet A La Jacky (Traditional dish from Toulouse region with duck confit).

Did Ray like it? More like, did Ray love it.

I cannot describe much about this dish other than that, it was étonnant! (Zero French vocabulary and limited Translation tool at dictionary.com spoils my French post >:( )

Waitress: Did you enjoy the food?

Me: You see how clean the duck dish is?

We ended our French gourmet tour with the special dessert of the day - Crepes with wildberry and vanilla ice cream - it was quite good and not too sweet definitely. Hence ended une belle soirée.

. . . au revoir.

We headed to St. Kilda beach for a stroll and to spot penguins. The sky was really beautiful and the moon was full.

To the P******cy Group of 2006, do you remember this place? Remember the good OLD times? Oh and our beautiful picture in front of Luna Park? I mean, how could YOU forget.

We were lucky enough to spot ONE penguin despite being there so early. ONE. UN.

We officially ended our gourmet evening with a soft serve plain vanilla ice cream cone from an ice cream truck just before the pier. It was crazy expensive but also mad yummy! Savoureux! Aimer! Graisse.

Chez Olivier

Le Bistro

121 Greville Street

Prahran

Chez Olivier

L'epicerie

256 Glen Eira Road

Elsternwick