[T2DMan]

Add your review of La Mousse Restaurant and be part of the fun .

Contact Details:
2 Memorial Square
Martinborough
Ph. 0-6-306 8224

[sumo]

I don't know how I feel about this restaurant, it's kinda like visiting a restaurant in the 70s, it's like your mum's cooking, my dilema is that a good thing or a bad thing? I've always liked my mum's cooking! Now the title, a once famous French dessert (now prepackaged in tiny tubs) meaning foam. For some reason I thought this was going to be ritzy French dining, you know a real treat wine regions usually have fantastic restaurants, maybe haute, maybe well done brasserie style, maybe a few regionals, please let there be cassoulet, maybe a nice bourguignon, salavating all day in anticipation. On arrival it was very clear this is not a French restaurant. The menu was an eclectic mix of all sorts. The host was excellent I do have to say, the best I've had for a while, but the food was just confusing, you can't serve potato bake, steak with sauce and chocolate mousse and call yourself a French restaurant, most of the pubs around Welli serve that these days. OK my partner had the Pumpkin Soup (very nicely flavoured with a rich chicken base) and this where the 70s kick in, I had a snails wrapped in bacon, battered and deep fried served with French salad dressing. Why would you combine the delicate nature of snail with overpowering combinations of bacon and batter. There was nothing refined or elegant about it, reminded me of mums Angels on Horseback she was cooking 15 years ago. The main menu is very small, perhaps 5 dishes from memory? I had a chicken breast stuffed with spinach, this was arranged on 1/3 of the plate, and just like mum, the next third was steamed broccoli and the next third 2 steamed baby potatoes, garnished with parsley. Now I'm not saying you have to be all pretenscious about food presentation but I looked at it and it looked like what I could and did last Monday at home. A chicken breast on a plate with 2 veg did not cost me $28 at home however, it really did look like something you get a home not a "French" restaurant. My partner had the miniture beef steak with Gratin Dauphinoise and veg. To the chefs credit they cooked the baby $28 steak to perfection, but again served on it's 1/3 of the plate, followed by the potato bake on the next 1/3 and then steamed veg. Yes it's great brasserie dish, but there was nothing special to it, it came across as mum's Monday steak and veg night. Other dishes included spinach filo with feta, lamb rack with capsicum, fried potatoes and pavlova. Other diners were out of towners too, perhaps 15 diners when the rest of the town was booked out. See I'm not sure, the food was nice, it might appeal to older palates who just want simple, old-fashioned food. I found it boring, visually and palate wise. Again the host and service was excellent and I particualy liked the "BYO Martinborough Wine Only" on the menu. We didn't feel we got $120 worth of "French food and dining pleasure".