Reading the menu at Bondi’s new ChouChou restaurant feels like thumbing through an old cookbook. How often do you spot baked camembert on a menu these days? And what’s that in the bons plats section? Quiche?

Quiche was already on its last restaurant legs when a character in the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally declared pesto “the quiche of the 1980s”. But what goes around comes around, and ChouChou, which landed in Bondi over summer, is part of a broader movement – deliberate or incidental – in dish nostalgia.

Across Sydney, the sorts of dishes your parents or grandparents might have served at a dinner party or on a Tuesday night are staging a rearguard action.

There’s a vol-au-vent plague sweeping the city.

“(Customers) go nuts for vol-au-vents,” says Porcine owner-chef Nicholas Hill. “Some people look at them in terms of nostalgia; others are looking at the filling. We’ll have them back on the menu when the truffle season starts.”

Hill says Sydneysiders are open-minded when it comes to looking in the rear-view mirror for dishes and technique – they’ve even embraced some of his throw-back creations with gelatin.

At smart CBD newcomer The Charles Grand Brasserie, chef Billy Hannigan has created a “sauce stroganoff” born from his childhood recollections, which he matches with pork cotoletta.

“My father made beef stroganoff so often I thought it was one of Australia’s national dishes,” he says. “I’ve tapped into my memories as an eight-year-old to create a sauce. A lot of what we talk about at The Charles is nostalgia, and I’m always going on about sauces.”

Back in Bondi, ChouChou owner Arthur Gruselle says he does a brisk rather than frenetic trade in quiche, a favourite of his growing up in Paris. He takes a seasonal approach, filling it with everything from asparagus to carrots and goat’s cheese.

Also popular at ChouChou are the baked camembert wrapped in prosciutto and raclette served in the accoutrement of the 1970s, a fondue pot.

“It’s pretty much what I like to eat,” he says.

Open Wed-Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4pm-10pm

13 O’Brien Street, Bondi Beach, barchouchou.au