Lunch @ Koots Salle a Manger

Our morning meeting went longer than expected so we're rewarding ourselves with lunch at Koots.  For Lunch, two options are availble - a limited fixed price menu and a la carte. We've gone for a mix of the two.

For starters:


Salt cod brandade with grilled calamari, Mt Zero olives and rocket salad

Dinner @ Koots Salle a Manger

The last time we were both at Koots was around Bastille Day so we are well overdue for another visit. There's a new degustation menu on offer so ordering is a snap.

Lunch @ Koots Salle a Manger

Although Bastille Day is tomorrow, you can still celebrate at Koots with a special week long Bastille menu.

Dinner @ Koots Salle a Manger

Koots currently has a special 6 course degustation on offer for either lunch or dinner and being as we are, fond of this form of dining, we've toddled off to sample the fare.

It begins with

Lunch @ Koots Salle a Manger

Koots may not have been open for Monday lunch but it certainly is open for Tuesday lunch and Paalo and I have sneaked out for a little treat.

At lunch you have the option of a la carte or "Prix Fixe" which is a 2 courses for $30 special. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays they also offer a $25 Plat du Jour

To start:

Dinner @ Koots Salle A Manger

It's a last minute decision but we've managed to snare a booking at Koots Salle à Manger.

As usual we begin with a couple of glasses of 1999 Pol Roger - which proves to be an excellent match to the amuse



of Oyster with vodka, ginger and lime granita and salmon roe.


For starters:


Black angus beef tartare with condiments & a fried quail egg

Unlike the previous version Paalo enjoyed here, this one comes with the accompaniments mixed into the beef and is served as a large, flattish disc - for a change it is topped with a barely fried quail egg. It certainly gets those taste buds going.



Slow-cooked green lip abalone served with and crispy confit pork belly, raspberry vinegar glaze

My turn to enjoy this dish. Last time I didn't get to try the pork as it was Ash Wednesday so I didn't know what I was missing out on. This has to be one of the best examples of pork belly I've had in quite a while - the skin almost caramel like while the flesh just fell apart. While the abalone are fabulous, the pork is certainly just as good.

For mains:


Roasted Golden Plains pork fillet with braised Mt Zero green lentils, pomme fondante & stuffed pig’s trotter

The stuffed pig trotter is presented at the far right of the plate - a compact cylinder, the trotter skin is wrapped around the meat based stuffing. A wonderfully lickable, dense and sticky sauce is drizzled over the components.



Free range chicken leg cooked two ways with “poule au pot” vegetables

A rather plump leg stands in the center of the plate, underneath are thick slices of a stuffed chicken leg. A very honest dish where the quality of ingredients and their natural flavours are allowed to speak for themselves.

Cheese:


Pont l'Eveque at the front, Comté Gruyere to the right and at the back, a french goat cheese


Dessert:


Dessert Plate to share:
white chocolate sponge with strawberry salad; creme brulee; madeleine, chocolate ganache; panna cotta, sorbet



The details:

Koots Salle à Manger
479 Glenferrie Road
Kooyong

Phone: 9822 3809

Open:
Lunch - Tuesday to Friday
Dinner - Tuesday to Saturday

web:
www.koots.com.au

Dinner @ Koots Salle a Manger

We've been trying for a few weeks to get into the newly remodelled and renamed Koots Salle à Manger and we finally snagged a booking tonight.

The old hard wooden chairs are gone and been replaced with more comfortable, firmly padded seats. The walls are light and a much larger white marble topped bar offers extra dining options. All over, the space feels more relaxed.

With glasses of 99 Pol Roger we enjoy an amuse as we wait



a flavoursome, chilled Tomato Soup, with balsamic and chives

For entrees:


Slow-cooked green lip abalone served with and crispy confit pork belly, raspberry vinegar glaze

Paalo would eat this just for the abalone and having tried a little I can certainly understand. The pork belly was also very good but the abalone is certainly the star.


Smoked eel with a zucchini, celery & apple salad, truffle foam

I couldn't resist the siren call of truffle and it certainly wasn't overpowering or overpowed by the the smoked eel. The eel itself was wonderfully moist, the crisp salad of zucchini celery and apple an excellent match.

For mains:


Beef Tartar, with accompaniments and pommes frittes

Though it is smaller than the one Paalo recently had at The Brasserie, this is a better sized serving.


Grilled red mullet fillet with kipfler potato salad and slow cooked octopus, aioli

Good to see red mullet on the menu, it's an excellent fish that still seems to not get the recognition it deserves. A lovely dish with clean flavours.

Cheese:




Dessert:


Classic Vanilla Crème Brûlée
a delicious deep bowl of brulee


Plate of 3 petits fours of the day - white chocolate sponge, chocolate fondant, madeleine

The details:

Koots Salle à Manger
479 Glenferrie Road
Kooyong

Phone: 9822 3809

Open:
Lunch - Tuesday to Friday
Dinner - Tuesday to Saturday

Dinner @ Koots

We seem to be in a re-visiting mood and tonight we're off to Koots.

There's a caviar special on at the moment and well, while we're enjoying some lovely glasses of 1999 Pol Roger why not indulge...


The jar of Petrossian Alverta Caviar is served with its traditional accompaniments - absolutely fantastic chive blinis, sour cream, finely diced red onion, finely diced egg yolk and finely diced egg white



For our starter we decide to share the house platter - La terre, La mer et Le jardin. It's a selection of starters from "the earth, the sea and the garden", you'll find that some of these are offered as full sized entrees


On the top right we have assorted olives, a fantastic duck liver parfait, freshly shucked south australian oysters with salmon roe, rounds of seared tuna, a tomato salsa served with french sausages. There's also a few slices of hiramasa kingfish ceviche that you can't see in the photo. In the center, tempura zucchini flowers sitting atop a salad of roasted beetroot and goats curd.


For mains:


Paalo is intrigued by the Frenchified veal "burger" caillette style served with Pommes Maxim, crispy pancetta and spicy tomato syrup.

The Pommes Maxim is that wafer thin strap laying across the top of the burger - it almost looks like toffee.


I order the Tuna Tartare with confit tomato and white anchovy tart and served with smoked capsicum cream.

On the plate are two good sized domes of tuna tartare, one topped with a quails egg, very nicely flavoured with a fine dice of capers, gherkins and onions. The white anchovies are a great foil to the richly flavours of the confit tomatoes.

As we've shared most of the dishes tonight, dessert is no different


The Dessert Platter consists of - from bottom left and moving clockwise: Ille Flottantes with creme anglaise and pistachio, rectangle of chocolate sorbet, lime sorbet, fresh strawberry salad with almond crumble and cylinder of strawberry sorbet, creme brulee and in the center, strawberry shortcake.

The details:
Koots
479 Glenferrie Road
Kooyong
Phone: 9822 3809

Open:
Lunch: Tuesday - Friday
Dinner: Tuesday - Saturday
web:
www.koots.com.au

Dinner @ Koots

I am loving this "truffle war". There's truffle on the menu at Koots!

The approach is simple but classic - two egg omelette filled with truffle and served with a leaf salad


No guessing that this was my starter. This is such a good way of serving truffle and really helps to show the truffle at its best. There's truffle slices on the inside surrounded by that still soft egg and the ones on the top are warmed by the omelette to help release their aromas - the scent as it is placed before you just makes you want to smile.


Paalo opted for the twice-baked Fourme d’Ambert blue cheese soufflé with caramelized shallots. Fabulous flavour and feather light.

For mains


Paalo chose the Roasted barramundi fillet with a king brown mushroom carpaccio & celeriac purée. The mushrooms had been slightly pickled.


I had the slow braise of Milawa free-range chicken with autumn mushrooms, chestnuts, scallions and glazed carrots. Tender meat, excellent flavours - I was particularly enamoured with the chestnuts and how well they combined with the mushrooms. 

We decided that it had been too long between cheese platters so we indulged in the Cheese Platter to share

It is seriously one of the best cheese platters around.

With our coffees we also ordered the petit fours


which consisted of the traditional Cannelés Bordelais, paper thin tuilles and a still warm madeleine that was devilishly good.

The details:

Koots
479 Glenferrie Road
Kooyong

Phone: 9822 3809

Open:
Lunch: Tuesday - Friday
Dinner: Tuesday - Saturday

web

www.koots.com.au

Dinner @ Koots

We're in a re-visiting mood - this time we're back at Koots. The previous time we were here the Australian open was on!

For starters we opt for classic French bistro fare:


Chicken liver parfait with toasted sourdough and walnut salad


Rabbit terrine with corchicons, caramelised onions and salad

For mains:



Paalo has the 400 gram aged beef rib eye with pommes cocottes, bordelaise sauce and bone marrow - a very generous serving of both rib eye and bone marrow.




Roasted venison loin with a sweet corn flan, brussel sprout and lardon sauté, raspberry gastrique - there's a lovely sweetness in both the flan and the gastrique that just works well with the venison.

We probably didn't need dessert but we found some lighter options on the menu:


Panna cotta with coconut ice-cream




Pain perdu of brioche and pistachio with roasted pear

Food, wine and service are all consistently good and our positive impression continues.

The details:
Koots
479 Glenferrie Road
Kooyong
Phone: 9822 3809

Open:
Lunch: Tuesday - Friday
Dinner: Tuesday - Saturday

Dinner @ Koots

Koots is located within a ball-toss of the famous Kooyong Tennis Courts, one-time home of the Australian Open. As the Australian Open is currently underway, it's appropriate that we are here tonight.

First impression is that it is quite a small place - one room that seats around 40, although there is also an outside dining area.

As we do enjoy our bubble, we order a bottle of 1998 Pol Roger.



I think Elle would approve of these champagne flutes!

The menu is also rather compact - a choice of 6 starters, 6 mains and 4 side dishes.

To begin:



Paalo chooses the Hiramasa Kingfish, drizzled with a citrus sauce and topped with shredded wakame and flying fish roe.


My starter was char-grilled quail with balsamic reduction and a mille-feuile of eggplant purée and tomato concasse.

For mains:


Paalo orders the Lamb rack with Capscium Cannelloni - the cannelloni is quite clever, they use the flesh of a roasted red capsicum to take the place of pasta.


My Choice: 150 day grain-feed sirloin with bercy butter and hand cut fries. The bercy butter was excellent a mix of softened shallots, white wine and parsley and was solid enough that it was only starting to melt as I received the dish. The meat, though cooked closer to medium than rare was well flavoured and tender.



We chose a side of these simple green beans, arriving piping hot and still with a nice bite to them. They had obviously been flashed cooked in a really hot pan.

Since this is a French restaurant, cheese is next



Cheese platter for Two - Swiss Gruyere, Brie, Fourme and Milawa King River Gold

The cheese came out at the perfect temperature - it has obviously been sitting out of the fridge and so was at it's best. The last thing you want to have is cheese served cold.

As we have a problem with choosing, we also opt for the dessert platter for two:


Dessert Platter:
From top, going clockwise: Creme Brulee, Peach sorbet, Strawberry and Berries with Berry Foam, Apricots Mille-feuille - in the centre Almond Financier.

A much more reasonably sized dessert than that offered at Wildflower.

The only thing that was a bit off-putting was that the restaurant was empty by 10pm! The waiter, when serving the dessert, told us it was normal for them and that there was no rush for us to finish.

Overall, the food was enjoyable, the service efficient. We will probably return and see if we can make it to 11pm!

The details:
Koots
479 Glenferrie Road
Kooyong
Phone: 9822 3809

Open:
Lunch: Tuesday - Friday
Dinner: Tuesday - Saturday