Cafe Vue @ Heide - Bulleen - review

 Name: Cafe Vue at Heidi

Address: Café Vue at Heide
7 Templestowe Road
Bulleen

98522 2346

Food: ModOz, Cafe, French
Average price: $3.50 - $45

Complimentary: 1 slice of bread and butter.

We ordered: Two $55 three course menus

Textures of Heide Garden beetroot with goat’s curd

I have had many incarnations of beetroot and goats cheese salads from various restaurants, and until today it was always a 'sure choice' flavour-wise; without mincing words, this was the worst beet and cheese salad I have had.
There was none of that wonderful earthy sweetness you would expect from a beetroot, these beets were almost flavourless and the fried versions, just bitter. The goats cheese was chalky, bitter and without any sort of wonderful tang or creaminess. To top it all off the salad was heavy handed with the vinegar, so much so I felt as though my taste-buds had been burned off by the high acidity.

Such a shame too, as visually, it was so very beautiful, art on a plate.

Ox tongue with red wine jelly

Nowhere on the menu did it mention that the ox tongue was a pate - therefore when my husband received a pate and some bread he was slightly disappointed. That slight disappointment increased, when upon attempting to smear the pate onto his bread his knife did not slice gracefully in. The pate was completely cold and very solid. Coming straihgt from the fridge it crumbled under the knife's plunge and was completely adverse to being 'spread on the bread',rather my husband had to clump it on. Unfortunately, taste wise, it also failed to impress.

Pea and broad bean croquettes with marjoram pesto

Lovely, earthy presentation once again. Whilst I enjoyed the croquettes themselves, the green puree which I will assume is the pesto was bitter and added nothing to the dish. With only the fried croquettes this dish was quite one dimensional and un-spectacular.


Waygu steak with sweet corn purée

R found this to be rather average, although he did want to mention that the corn puree was rather nice. He also wanted to mention that he did not like the way the waygu was presented and also felt that the side component clashed flavour-wise and felt like it didn't belong.

Mango soufflé with yoghurt sorbet

The souffle had a nice texture but was a little eggy at first until the mango came in. The yoghurt sorbet was too strong for the delicate mango, I think perhaps it might have been a goat's yoghurt as my husband did not like it one bit.


Cherries and chocolate mousse

Whilst pretty to look at it was a huge let-down. I could have done this combination more justice with my very limited cooking skills. The mousse was nondescript, I have had better supermarket mousses. The cookie crumbs were cocoa-y and basically like a store-bought chocolate cookie pulverised. The cherries were decent but it just didn't feel like a 'complete' dessert to me. It left us unsatisfied.


Orange juice - $4

Cost: $114 for two entrees, two mains, two desserts and one juice.

Service: Terrible. It was the worst service I have ever experienced. When we arrived shortly after 6pm there was only one other couple in the restaurant. After being shown to our seats it took the waiter over 20minutes to return with our menus, despite the fact that we sat there watching him help the kitchen with prep work rather than give us the menus so we could order. After handing us our menus he took another 20minutes to return to take our orders. At this point there were still only two other patrons. After our orders were taken, 20mins in we still had not received neither bread nor food, my husband and I were starving and asked for the bread which arrived 10mins later with the food - we had been there for over an hour before receiving food despite being this waiters ONLY table. The service did not improve - needless to say our water or the bottle were never topped up and food was left sitting on our table for quite a while in between courses. If the restaurant had been busy I would have understood, but there were two wait staff and only two tables for an hour.

Atmosphere: Backyard dining. The restaurant is situated in the Heide gardens and has not only views of them but also plenty of potted plants indoors as well. The wire frame chairs also give the room a very casual, outdoor dining feel. The noise level got quite loud despite being only half full in the end and made the place feel a touch like a beer garden...

Parking: Good - there's a decent amount of on-site parking

Website: http://heide.com.au/

Hours: Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm
Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm
Thursday to Saturday 6pm-9pm

Would I return: Maybe - choices in my area are slim.