The Mouth: Cashed up with nowhere to go. Is Mosman a culinary desert?

It’s north shore polite, polished and a little too predictable. The Mouth found the fare at Bistro Mosman well-executed and elegant. But where’s the X factor?

The vibe at Bistro Mosman is relaxed country or beach club. Picture: AAP

Who says the north shore doesn’t know boo about diversity?

Just the other night we were having a beer up at The Buena, deep in the heart of Mosman, when within minutes of each other we spotted a famously conservative judge, a famously left wing newspaper columnist (who thought he was going incognito by NOT wearing a red towel on his head), and a former local candidate whom everyone at the bar was urging to have another go.

If only the food at the attached Bistro Mosman was as sparky and interesting.

OK, that’s not exactly fair.

But if you were looking for something to reinforce whatever your preconceived notions of the lower north shore might be, an evening out here would be just the ticket.

A sort of Bridgehampton by way of Balmoral Beach, it’s a place that actually achieves that overused real estate catch phrase, “casual Hamptons elegance”.

Bistro Mosman was briefly Bistro Moncur … when that venture folded, the kept the logo, the glasses and the BM signage. Picture: AAP

The vibe is relaxed country or beach club, though not so relaxed that we did not see a table of journos and lawyers told off by management for dropping F-bombs a little too loudly and liberally.

Oh well.

So what about the food?

Herein lies an interesting tale: The space used to be occupied by the northern outpost of Bistro Moncur, a short-lived venture that folded in 2018.

Yet they still use glasses and signage with the old “BM” logo, giving the place a bit of a feel of a Russian McDonald’s that’s been forced to rebadge.

Because the menu, too, is also very Bistro Moncur-ish still.

And while well-executed, it’s just not quite the same as the original in the eastern suburbs.

Yes there’s a French onion soup souffle, but it’s just a little denser.

There’s a pan seared duck breast, but the sauce is just a little more over the top and just too unctuous for our taste.

The night we went there was also a bouillabaisse on the specials board, but the whole thing came across just a bit too elegant and polite and polished, rather than the great pot of fish and broth it’s supposed to be.

There will be those who say this sort of polite restraint is entirely predictable for a place like Mosman, though that’s a bit unfair to the locals who as we saw above are in their way more diverse than you’d imagine.

Indeed more than one who lives in those parts has complained to this column about how little of interest there is to eat in the neighbourhood.

Local (and not so local) hospo people, take note.

— The Mouth is an anonymous critic and bon vivant who pays his own way around Sydney and beyond.