Bistro Moncur: Woollahra institution still a beast of a bistro with new owner and Guillaume Brahimi calling the shots

BISTRO Moncur has had a change of owner and a new head chef and still the famed Woollahra eatery but remains relatively unchanged from its heady days as the quintessential ’90s power joint.

• Machiavelli Ristorante: Delicious taste of power is always on the menu
• Jardin St James: Hot new bistro brings taste of Paris to Macquarie Street
• Ky-oto: Chippendale food precinct’s Spice Alley welcomes ramen joint
• Indu: Restaurateur Sam Prince adds a bit of spice to CBD

THE Bistro Moncur website pretty much sums it up — perennially consistent.

A change of owner and a new head chef and still the famed Woollahra eatery remains relatively unchanged from its heady days as the quintessential ’90s power joint under Damien Pignolet.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Particularly, one can assume, in the eastern suburbs where things like tradition are taken seriously.

Bistro Moncur’s head chef Daniel Menzies. Picture: Cameron Richardson

You wonder what might happen if new executive chef Guillaume Brahimi or chef Daniel Menzies (who has a year at Paris’s Guy Savoy under his belt) took the famed crab omelet or the sirloin Cafe de Paris off the menu. You’d hear monocles dropping into martini glasses from Picnic Point.

The restaurant itself hasn’t been tweaked either. The bistro chairs and papered tablecloths remain, along with the Michael Fitzjames mural that has adorned the wall since 1993.

Staff are friendly (if occasionally a little too unhurried) and the crowd gives off the same kind of old money vibe it always has.

No word on whether new owner Mitchell Waugh, who dropped a bomb to get Brahimi on board to oversee the menu here and at his newly acquired Four In Hand, plans on changing the ambience at all.

But even with the pressure from regulars to keep things just as they are, you would imagine there is room for some modernisation.

In the kitchen Brahimi has, so far, opted not to mess with the menu but has added a couple of new desserts and some seasonal specials.

Among them, tiger prawns from northern NSW, served grilled in the shell with simple garlic aioli and some charred lemon. It’s a nice starter but light on seafood for $24.

Grilled tiger prawns as a starter.

The famed crab omelet is glorious.

True value for money, however, is that omelet. Yes, it’s $36 but trust me, it’s worth double that.

Still the best in Sydney, Menzies serves it swimming in a light beurre noisette and filled with fresh sweet corn and feathery chunks of blue swimmer crab. I’m drooling just typing about it.

Ditto the duck cassoulet, that good old-fashioned French winter warhorse dish that it is. A generous leg of duck confit, jutting out of a crusty stew of white beans, crusty croutons, stewed carrot and delicious chunks of Toulouse sausage.

It’s finished with breadcrumbs and cheese and makes me hope that the French paradox “heavy on the animal fats but not that many heart attacks” rings true — or else I’m in big trouble.

The delicious duck cassoulet.

And of course the entrecote Cafe de Paris — that gleaming slab of sirloin steak is still there for those with a hardcore meat fetish.

Drowned in that famed French butter sauce and finished with a pile of exemplary frites, it must keep eastern Sydney’s cardiologists on their toes.

But hey, what a way to go!

The recently added lemon tart ($19) is definitely worth saving room for.

The pastry is crisp and delicate, the filling soft without going to liquid, and the flavour tart without a trace of sourness. And then the perfect crème fraîche dollop to cut through it all. Bliss.

The newly added lemon tart. Picture: Cameron Richardson

One aspect that could use an overhaul is the wine list — far too many with triple-figure numbers and not enough good, affordable drops for us peasants.

Things can be cheaper without being “cheap” and when the cheapest chardonnay tops out at just under $90, it takes some of the dew from the rose.

But aside from that, this cult classic is still a great, glossy beast.

BISTRO MONCUR

Where: 116 Queen St, Woollahra

Phone: [phone]

Web:woollahrahotel.com.au/index.php/bistro-moncur

Style: Classic French bistro

Open: Lunch: Every day noon-3pm, dinner Monday-Thursday from 6pm, Friday-Sunday from 5.30pm

Highlight: The lemon tart

Lowlight: The lofty wine prices

Rating: 8 out of 10

Like this, then try these:

● Glass Brasserie, CBD

● Pony, The Rocks

● One Penny Red, Summer Hill

All meals are paid for and visits unannounced.