Michel's Restaurant

Michel's Restaurant

Novotel Melbourne

270 Collins St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9669 8684

P's birthday! I wanted to take him to one of the Accor hotel's restaurants - high class restaurant at 50% off price! =D Was gonna go to Sofitel but the restaurant there seemed way too French for P's liking - decided to go to Novotel's Michel's Restaurant instead.

The restaurant wasn't as high class as I thought it would be, but we still got a window table so was quite nice. There weren't many customers so we chatted with the waiters for a bit =)

We decided to have an entree and a main each and be all out =) I got the Smoked salmon tartar on eggplant fritters with grilled asparagus and lime aioli $24

Surprisingly was quite tasty! P who usually hates eggplant thought the fritters were quite good too! The smoked salmon tartar was a bit sad though - such small bits couldn't even tell it was smoked salmon =( I'm not a fan of asparagus normally but I didn't mind these - went well with the lime aioli =)

P got the Blue cheese and fig compote tart paired with a radicchio salad and sherry vinagarette $18

The tart was super tasty too! I don't like figs normally but paired with the blue cheese and the crumbly tart was super delicious! Actually wish they gave more blue cheese =P I wasn't a fan of the salad but P thought it was alright =)

For main P got Roast pork belly and crackling accompanied by white bean and saffron Cassoulet $38

We actually asked the waiter what cassoulet is - she said she couldn't really explain it but from what we gathered we thought it was some form of mash - how wrong we were! It was some form of chickpea mush - really wasn't very tasty =/ The crackling was crunchy - actually a bit too crunchy and kinda hard to bite in lol. The pork belly was fatty and soft, but the cassoulet really ruined the dish =(

I got the Grain fed rib eye steak (300g) served with french fries and red wine jus $42

Steak was just steak, nothing too special - actually were some tendon pieces in it =/ There wasn't much red wine jus - the limited amount was soaked by the fries which made them soggy =__=

P also ordered the Pear, parmesan and wild rocket salad $8

This was the worst of it all! Some of the rocket was bad and old and there was no flavouring at all - not even worth $4 (half price food)

Food~
5/10 - entrees were good but the mains were so so - given the meal was so cheap guess it was alright =P

Service~
4/5 - very good given there were only 3 tables and 3 waiters =P

Atmosphere~
4/5 - very nice we watched the sky go dark right next to the window =)

Happy birthday P! <3<3<3

C.

xo