The duck a l’orange at C’est Bon is the best I’ve ever tasted

This Brisbane restaurant has had a radical makeover but the menu is still as exquisite as it was under renowned chef Michel Bonnet.

C'est Bon in Woolloongabba. Picture: AAP/Steve Pohlner

THE “Boy from Burgundy”, as he describes himself, was born in a stable southwest of Dijon in 1944 where his family lived with cows, sheep and chickens after they were pushed out of home by occupying German soldiers.

Taught to cook by his grandmother at seven, Michel Bonnet later completed a formal apprenticeship in France before arriving in Australia in the ’60s in search of adventure.

The ebullient Bonnet introduced diners to the joys of emblematic French bistro fare such as foie gras, escargot, lapin, duck and crêpes suzette at 18 restaurants he ran or worked in between Cairns and Sydney and Melbourne.

THE FOOD IS SO GOOD IT COULD SPARK A DIVORCE

THE SPIRITS ARE STRONG AT THIS ICONIC DINER

I remember in the ’70s on the Gold Coast, Bonnet willingly cooked up witchetty grubs on toast, declaring: “I’ll do anything for the cameras.”

He usually travelled by motorcycle. He left his greatest imprint in Queensland at the Hi Ho on the Gold Coast, L’escargoterie in Townsville, Escargot in Toowoomba, Chevalier in Brisbane, Moulin Rouge in Ipswich, and Michel Bonnet on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane. And he was behind three restaurants around the country named C’est Bon, the most famous in Brisbane’s inner-southeast Woolloongabba. It’s still there. The French menu is still there.

C'est Bon in Woolloongabba. Picture: AAP/Steve Pohlner

However the building has had a radical makeover. Mercifully, the hard wooden school chairs from yesteryear have gone, the furnishings are also softer and there is a moody new bar adjoining the restaurant in a space next door that used to be a butcher’s shop.

Work has begun on a rooftop bar, a private dining room in the cellar and more tables in a garden setting out the back. It’s a major new addition to bustling Stanley St’s reputation as a bacchanalian hotspot.

Bonnet, now 75 and back in France, has gone, but his spirit lingers on the menu. After a glass of cremant in the bar, I opened the batting in the restaurant with the unique taste of a buttery duck liver pâté ($18) decorated with tiny flowers and served with crunchy, toasted brioche. The blonde quaffed her champagne with a tangy goat’s cheese tart ($16) and an onion compote with crispy baby lettuce leaves.

“I opened the batting with the unique taste of a buttery duck liver pâté ($18) decorated with tiny flowers and served with crunchy, toasted brioche.” Picture: AAP/Steve Pohlner

Current C’est Bon chef, Peter Roelfes, understands that French classics do not have to be wildly embellished or “reinvented”. And dare I say that Roelfes’ renditions have matched and perhaps surpassed those served up by Bonnet.

Sure enough, there was duck a l’orange ($38) on the menu and the blonde and I reckoned it was the best rendition we have yet tasted: a cracking feast with the crispy-skinned, but moist, organic, free-range bird with a willing orange and Grand Marnier sauce, and served with red cabbage and sweet potato mash on the side.

“There was duck a l’orange ($38) on the menu and the blonde and I reckoned it was the best rendition we have yet tasted.” Picture: AAP/Steve Pohlner

A Sydney friend who joined us went to the blackboard menu for pan-fried barramundi ($38) served in a prawn broth with black mussels, and declared it a triumph. Another visitor devoured the Brisbane Valley quail ($38) with gusto — and the roasted vegetables that came with it.

There were oodles of wines by the glass and many were Queenslanders under Steve and Jane Wilson’s Barambah label. We drank a bottle of delicious Barambah 2009 Shiraz Viognier ($50). More correctly, I drank half the red while the others ordered more champagne, leaving me with half a bottle to take home.

“The blonde and I shared an awesome crème brûlée ($16), which Bonnet himself would have been proud to deliver.” Picture: AAP/Steve Pohlner

The dessert menu was littered with more French classics such as bombe Alaska, tarte au chocolat, crêpes suzette and île flottante. Quail man jumped the border and had the affogato ($16), the Italian coffee and vanilla ice cream concoction he slurped alongside a small glass of Frangelico, the Piedmontese hazelnut liqueur. The blonde and I shared an awesome crème brûlée ($16), which Bonnet himself would have been proud to deliver.

C’EST BON

609-611 Stanley St, Woolloongabba

cestbon.com.au

BOOK: Ph [phone]

[e-mail]

OPEN:

Tuesday - Saturday dinner only

Bar open from 5pm and restaurant from 6pm.

MUST TRY: Duck a l’orange

VERDICT

Food 8

Ambience 7

Service 8

Value 8

OVERALL: 8/10