PM 24

While I've heard of Phillipe Mouchel's French fine dining restaurant before, I never expected our impromptu decision to eat out would eventually lead us there last Friday night. Originally aiming for a spot at Chin Chin's, our group arrived there at 10pm, hoping that there would be a spot for us but alas, we had no such luck. We were told we would have to wait for another hour and a half and so we begrudgingly left as we were way too hungry to wait around for that long. We decided to walk around and see where luck would take us and thankfully it led us straight into the warm arms of PM 24. Upon seeing the sign, I was extremely excited and insisted that we had to go in and try it out and thankfully they had a table just ready for us!

A sign from heaven, it literally started raining after we arrived

The interior had a very intimate and romantic feel to it thanks to the dimmed lighting and candles and oh boy, that service was absolutely exceptional. Our waiter had a rather heavy French accent but he more than made up for that as he was so attentive and accommodating!  Nothing makes you appreciate a dining experience more than having impeccable service and PM 24 really hit the mark for me with it's lovely staff. 

Look how fluffy the bread was!

 With the helpful assistance of our waiter, we all decided on our entree and mains. For the entree, I decided to try the snails as I've never tried them before and my friend (who had recently been to France) said she absolutely loved them and that I should give them a go. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we were served freshly baked bread with butter. I love love love the smell of fresh bread and when I pulled that bread apart, the smell was intoxicating. I've got to say, I've been served plenty of bread in my life time, but PM 24's bread was hands down the best I've ever had. Combined with their silky smooth butter, everyone just dug into their bread and collective sighs of contentment were heard from all round the table. 

Burgundy style snails served in garlic and parsley butter with mouillettes - $16.50 for 1/2 dozen

Before long our entree came out and I was filled with mixed feelings of anticipation and fear. I have a horrible fear of anything slimy and just bugs in general, so I was rather reluctant to try this dish out but since my friend had recommended it I decided to take the plunge and go for it anyway. The verdict? I should have stuck with my gut instinct and skipped out on it. The snails were really tasteless and rubbery in texture and I found the garlic and parsley butter that went with it to be really overwhelming in flavour. I suppose it was to make up for the lack of flavour in the snails but nothing about that dish impressed me and every time I chewed I could not stop thinking about the fact that I was chewing on a snail. If there was anything that let me down during my dining experience at PM 24, this dish would've been it.

Confit duck leg with leek salad, tamarind jus and sweet potato mousseline - $32.00

Luckily our mains came out really quickly and they blew away any thoughts or after tastes remaining from the entree! My duck leg was absolutely superb, the meat was so wonderfully tender, juicy and was practically falling off the bone. Combined with the tamarind jus and the leek salad, the dish had a very Asian spin to it which I really enjoyed. While I appreciate a good duck, the part that really won me over and had me picking this dish was the sweet potato mousseline. I love sweet potato and the sweet potato in the dish did not disappoint at all. It was SO smooth and creamy, I actually could not stop eating it or forcing my friends to try it out. The only quip I had with the dish overall though was that there wasn't enough duck! Not that I'm complaining about having too much sweet potato left over but I wish there could've been more of that crispy yet tender duck to go with it. 

From the duck leg going clockwise: Rotisserie chicken with lechefrite sauteed potatos and natural jus -$35.00

Hopkins River Black Angus Beef (Scotch Fillet 300g) with beef jus, Bearnaise and pommes frites - $37.00

Fish of the day (Grenadier fillet) - $37.50

The other mains were just as scrumptious as the duck and out of the three, my favourite was the fish of day that F had. I can't quite remember what the components of the dish were but it was divine, as all the other mains were! What PM 24 had in taste though, it didn't quite have in presentation.The presentation of the other mains were somewhat lacking when compared to the duck (which was quite lovely) and my godness, the presentation of that scotch fillet! K's face was actually so comical when they bought it out as it literally was just a fillet sitting in jus, the look on his face was just "you have got to be kidding me, that's it?". But thankfully for him, they soon bought out the Bearnaise and pomme frites and K demolished his dish just like everyone else did. 

K's Scotch fillet, how depressing does it look on the plate?

After those fantastic mains, I knew I had to have some of their desserts especially since I could see all the previous beautiful desserts coming out from their kitchen. After much deliberation, we settled on the crème brûlée and the chocolate soufflé, two of my top 5 favourite desserts! 

Tahiti vanilla crème brûlée with Grand Marnier - $16.00

My inner pyromaniac literally squealed with joy when they brought this out, how awesome does it look and that wasn't even the best part! When the fire finally died down, I eagerly cracked the crisp caramel layer on top and dug into the crème brûlée.  Everything and I really mean everything, was done right. From the perfectly thin and crisp caramel on top to the light and creamy vanilla custard underneath that melted in my mouth, I was legitimately in food heaven and even though it was meant to be a shared dish, I'm pretty sure I ate 80% of it.

Chocolate soufflé with coffee ice cream - $17.50

The soufflé was so incredibly fluffy and soft and when we dipped our spoons into its center  a river of chocolate flowed out from the center and oozed it's way down to the bottom of the ramekin. It was pure chocolate indulgence and every bite felt so good but oh so bad at the same time. If I had to choose between this and the crème brûlée though, I would probably still go for the crème brûlée because as good as it was, the soufflé was quite rich and even though it had ice cream to accompany it I know I would've passed out from sweetness overload if I had to eat the soufflé by itself. That being said though, it was honestly so delicious and the coffee ice cream that went with it had the perfect balance of sweet and bitter.

The chefs putting the finishing touches on the plates 

If you couldn't tell already by my crazed raving, PM 24 was an absolute pleasure to dine at and I would  definitely without a doubt come back here again. I find that the service at fine dining restaurants can be somewhat snobbish sometimes but PM 24 was nothing like that at all, it was welcoming, hearty and had such a homely feel to it. Honestly, even with that lackluster entree, PM 24 has still managed to convert me into a devout follower and that's really saying something. I highly recommend this place to anyone and if you're ever looking for way to impress someone, then take them on a date here. The food is phenomenal, authentic and worth every single dime, a huge thank you to Phillipe Mouchel for knocking our socks off!

PM 24

Location:

24 Russell St  Melbourne VIC 3000

Contact: (03) 9207 7424

Opening Hours:

Lunch

Sunday to Friday - 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Dinner

7 days - 6:00pm - late

Pricing: $$$$

 

What are your favourite desserts? Do you think presentation is important?