‘Luxury touches’: French restaurant offering $240 crumpets

With quality produce and top-notch cooking supplemented by luxe add-ons, Albion’s Herve’s is luring diners through the door ... once they can find it.

It’s dark and cold and we’re wandering Collingwood St in Brisbane’s inner-northern Albion looking for new French restaurant Hervé’s.

There’s no sign that we can see and soon another couple alights from an Uber ride and starts looking around, tapping their phones and then walking up and down like us. Of course if you are familiar with Craft’d Grounds, the former timber mill turned hospitality hub that launched last year, Hervé’s might be an easier find. But we are newbies and we seek help in what turns out to be Brewtide, a cavernous craft beer and cocktail bar, where the barman points us to the upstairs back of the building.

New restaurant Herve’s in Albion. Picture: Liam Kidston

Once aloft we find a roomy bar and the spacious 76-seater restaurant sprawling beneath a raked wood ceiling. Bentwood chairs, bare wooden floors and tables, exposed steel girders and airconditioning ducts lend an industrial feel softened by fabric-upholstered banquettes, linen napkins, leather-encased menus and wine lists and the action in the central, open kitchen.

The restaurant takes its name from co-owner Hervé Dudognon, a hospitality veteran whose bulging CV includes working as a sommelier at the illustrious Hotel De Crillon in Paris and more recently, as director of front of house at Brisbane’s Howard Smith Wharves.

Herve Dudognon at his new restaurant Herve’s in Albion. Picture: Liam Kidston

A French soundtrack sets the scene for a menu that begins with pomme souffle, puffed potato topped with caviar ($24), moves on to a wagyu and snail skewer ($12), duck and foie gras pate ($28) and features steaks, a cold seafood platter and other main course options such as coal-grilled Moreton Bay bug ($80).

Luxury touches include truffle on the potato and leek veloute ($18), caviar added to the lobster ravioli ($40 extra) or 30g of the premium roe served with crème fraiche and crumpets ($240) and there’s a 1kg wagyu T-bone ($250).

Fraser Island spanner crab with rockmelon and pomelo at Herve’s. Picture: Liam Kidston

It’s a parade of bistro favourites underwritten by premium produce and strong technique courtesy of chefs Chris and Alex Norman, (ex- South Bank’s Emporium Hotel).

From the beginning there’s a finesse to the food: a gougere l’artisan fermier ($8), a delicious choux pastry ball, and a Flinders Island scallop baked in a cheesy sauce ($10) are spot-on winter starters. And house-made sourdough baguette with whipped butter and red gum salt ($6) proves to be perfect for mopping up the lobster bisque foaming across three silken raviolo stuffed with western rock lobster ($30).

Coal-roasted Moreton Bay bug at Herve’s. Picture: Liam Kidston

The wine list is global with a broad array of price points and a focus on small to medium producers. Unusually, there’s also a page of Corsican varieties imported by Dudognon, with two making it on to the by-the-glass selection. Service is attentive although our waiter is in a bit a flap.

Jersey milk-fed pork ($46) from Tommerup’s Farm in the Scenic Rim is moist and succulent with a seam of fat and a cap of cracking crackling. Native spices, a crescent of roast pumpkin, lentil and pomegranate jus conspire to add vim. Another fine piece of meat, a 180g black Angus tenderloin ($48), is a blushing triumph served the requested medium rare, accompanied simply by a half lemon encased in muslin, watercress, deeply flavoured jus and a choice of mustards and horseradish. A side of coal-roasted cauliflower gratin ($14) with comte, gruyere and bacon crumbs bringing the bling is a fine support act.

Moelleux Chocolat Valrhona Millot 74% dessert at Herve’s. Picture: Liam Kidston

Dessert must not be missed, with the piece-de-resistance a chocolate confection ($22) topped with hazelnut nougatine, a whorl of roasted vanilla ice-cream and encircled by Pedro Ximenez-soaked sultanas. And dessert of the day, on this occasion a generous slice of lemon tart ($16), is lovely and edged with piped meringue topped with a hint of gold leaf.

It’s a fitting conclusion to a restaurant offering a superior menu that’s running smoothly just weeks after opening. Oh, and a separate entrance is on the way apparently.

Herve’s Restaurant and Bar

Level 1, Craft’d Grounds,

31-37 Collingwood St,

Albion

Open

Lunch Fri-Sun noon-2.30pm, dinner Wed-Sat 5.30pm-9.30pm

Must try

Ravioli of western rock lobster

Verdict

Food 4/5 stars

Service 4 stars

Ambience 3.5 stars

Value 3.5 stars

Overall 4/5 stars

For more reviews

visit delicious.com.au/eatout