I tagged along to the launch of Buvette‘s Petit Feast as a guest of fellow blogger The Food Avenue (go check out her awesome site here). I had been to Buvette before and didn’t love their dinner but after reading FoodPornJournal’s blog (see her dinner experience here), I saw that within a few months there were stark differences between our visits and I was excited to give Buvette another chance.
We were quickly seated and asked what we wanted for drinks. There was complimentary rosé on arrival but the waitress said I could substitute it for a soft drink or a juice so I chose an apple juice. They also offer mimosas which are bottomless sparkling and orange juice topped up all afternoon for only $15.00 per person.
Petit Feast includes one glass of rosé on arrival ($65.00 pp). The Petit Feast is anything but petite. For me, it was essentially a unisex high tea served on slates that encourages all day grazing. The feast is served in two ‘courses’, starting off with savoury and then followed by sweets.
Chef’s selection of charcuterie, duck liver parfait, oysters, quiches, mini sandwiches, olives and cheese. I was impressed with the serving size. We each got a plate with two finger sandwiches, a vegetarian quiche, a delicious slice of marinated eggplant, a natural oyster, a medley of marinated olives, two wedges of cheese and a hot beef pie. And that was just the beginning. We then were given the most delicious bread and butter to share (even though I was full at the end, I was still tempted to order more bread and butter) as well as a charcuterie board consisting of salami, lavosh bread, prosciutto, rillettes and a duck liver parfait. Although I pretty much loved everything and finished all my cheese, my favourite shout outs would have to be: the eggplant (it looks simple but the flavours were oh so good), the cheese, the humble bread and butter, the salami, the proscuitto and I surprisingly didn’t mind the duck liver parfait. 
Mini tartlets, profiteroles, tiramisu, friands and macarons. Half way through our savoury, the slate of sweets arrive at our table and we are blown away. Not only was it visually stunning, it was BIG! There was one of everything for the both of us, which meant that Miss Avenue didn’t have to miss out. 😉 There was tiramisu, a profiterole, chocolate brownie, pistachio and raspberry friands, lemon meringue tartlet, a chocolate macaron and a very decadent chocolate tart topped with salted caramel popcorn (I couldn’t finish it all because it was so rich). My absolute favourites would include the tiramisu, lemon meringue tartlet and the moist friands.
I loved that the sweets came out half way through the savoury course because it meant that I could flick back and forth between the two and I usually like ending on savoury. Seriously, even though it is technically not a ‘high tea’, it has got to be one of the best high tea like objects in Canberra (and I’ve eaten a wide range). This all day grazing style food in addition to fabulous company really makes for a great day. I would happily encourage everyone to go and try it out for yourselves. I know I’ll be going back.
Venue: Buvette
Event: Petit Feast every Saturdays between 11:30am – 2:30am
$65.00 per person
Address: 18 National Circuit, Barton ACT
Phone: (02) 6163 1818
Appetisers~
Escargot a la bourguignonne snails cooked in garlic, herb butter (12 pieces $20.00). Being in a French restaurant, we thought it was only fitting that we ordered the escargots for our appetisers. Some snails were really hard to get out of the shell and the waiter then provided us with toothpicks to dig them out. We felt very refined as we sat there digging through the snail shell for our food with a toothpick. TimmyC came across a stubborn one that refused to come out and with the awkward bend of the shell it was really hard to poke at. Finally it was MacGyver boyfriend who saved the day and I eventually got a cold snail to eat. The sauce was nice but if you minus the novelty of eating escargots in a French restaurant, it really wasn’t worth ordering.
Grill~ served with pomme frites, mixed leaf salad and a choice of sauce.
To share~
Mains~
Desserts~ (all $17.00).
Vanilla creme brulee fresh berries, cat’s tongue biscuits. This was so unbelievably eggy, like ridiculously eggy with zero vanilla taste. Even though the texture was very smooth and the serving was very generous, I could not finish it because of its disappointing eggy-no vanilla- taste.
Crispy apple tart house-made vanilla ice cream, salted caramel. If this had sticky caramelised sugar over the apples or some extra sweetness in the pastry, it would have been perfect but I felt that it was missing something. It’s a shame because this was the dessert that made me choose this restaurant!
Overall, we shared the same views about Buvette; I wouldn’t call it a ‘French’ restaurant/bistro just because of some key dishes, it was very over priced for what it is (we spend just over $60 pp for shared appetisers, main and dessert with no drinks) and we didn’t really enjoyed the food all that much. I hope that they will improve in the future but for now we are not keen to return.
They have a detailed drinks list with an extensive range of sake, but I felt that this was wasted on us because none of us were drinking.
We were being lead to our table, I love the funky decor of this place. The large mobile panels reminds me of Lanterne rooms.
The table is set with all the utensils that you need to eat dinner.
Small~ small plates to share
Roast Umami vegetables with orange miso in orange pot ($11.50). I must admit I ordered this mainly based on looks but thankfully it was also really nice. A little orange is hollowed out to house uniformly cut vegetables which have a delicate miso flavour to them.
Sauteed Edamame with shichimi salt ($8.00). This is the quintessential Japanese dish to have while drinking or as an addictive snack. I really liked these and the shichimi salt took it to another level; the chilli heat slowly builds but you cannot stop yourself from eating more.
Chicken Namban-zuke with spicy tartar ($16.50). Not many people were a fan of cold chicken and it might seem like an odd description but when smothered into the creamy sauce, this dish reminded me of a potato and egg salad. That might not sound typically Asian or what you’re into but I really liked it, although it is a small bowl for that price.
There were more patrons hidden behind the walls, the place was filling up and the pace of the food became slower because of it.
Robata~ Everything comes in pairs
Chicken meat ball, creamy egg ($13.50). We were instructed to break the egg and use it to dip the chicken meatball. This dish has lots of yummy savoury flavours and I really enjoyed the onion chunks which gave the chicken meat ball more texture.
Dipping my chicken meat ball pieces into the lovely molten egg.
Pork belly, yuzu kosho miso ($9.50). I didn’t like the taste of the yuzu kosho miso by itself, you could taste the citrus flavours and something else that we couldn’t describe but when eaten all together it works well, although it was probably my least favourite yakitori comparatively.
Wagyu sirloin, wasabi soy ($16.50). We all saved this one for last on our plates. The Wagyu was ridiculously tender and the wasabi was subtle; the paired flavours work really well together. Despite the price, I was ready to order another serve.
Sweet corn ($8.50). There was a fair wait before our corn arrived which is unusual because it just looked and tasted like char grilled corn, not exciting at all, I wouldn’t bother (
Mains~ meant for sharing
Chargrilled Wagyu sirloin marinated in Japanese Herb miso ($48.00). I ran into some other friends who were at another table and they loved this dish so much that they ordered two more serves immediately, based on this I had high expectations of this dish before it arrived on our table. Watching my friends divide three pieces into four serves was interesting (yes only three pieces for that price), but it was only when I started to watch them cut so effortlessly with just a normal dinner knife did I start to comprehend why it was so expensive. This was a really good Wagyu sirloin! The meat was well marbled, it was tender and just lightly seasoned to not take anything away from its natural flavours. I know they encourage sharing the plates but I was tempted not to.
Oh my, so juicy! Check out that marbling.
Pork spare rib, black pepper balsamic soy ($30.50). I could really taste a strong Chinese wine flavour to this pork and not much of a black pepper balsamic soy that they claimed to have. Nothing really interesting here just a plate of meat, although they did offer steamed rice if we wanted some. My friends on the other table ordered lamb and they really enjoyed that, maybe I’ll try that next time.
There was a wooden motif throughout the restaurant which was carried on through to the bathrooms, btw mind your step!
Dessert~ You would think with only two dessert items on the menu that we would have this covered, but I couldn’t convince anyone to have a dessert with me. It took so long to arrive that one of my friends couldn’t wait any longer and left. In the end we waited 30 minutes for a dessert that was cold and looked like it pre-prepared already.
There were a few hiccups which is expected for the opening night but things ran seemingly smooth for most of the service. There were a few hit and misses between the dishes and between us there were mixed feelings about the restaurant. I personally thought there were enough ‘hits’ to warrant a return visit in the near future although it wouldn’t be cheap. At the end of the night it ended up being $70 pp without alcohol. That might sound expensive at first but I was reminded that we spent basically the same at 
Check out 
The dining room is separated into three areas, we were initially seated with a lot of the other patrons near the entrance but we asked to be moved to another table for better lighting and seating. I found towards the end of the night that the initial section almost looked like people were sitting in the dark, I’m glad that we moved.
Mojito ($18.00).
Complimentary and butter. It was a delicious sour dough bread accompanied by the cutest serves of pepe saya butter that I’ve ever seen.
Starters~
Seared Hervey Bay scallops shaved iberico de bellota paletila, jerusalem artichoke crisps, spring pea puree ($19.00). The flavours were really nice and there was a nice crunch to the crisps, I just didn’t think that the scallops had enough seared texture to them but TimmyC really liked this dish.
Steaks~
Tajima Wagyu Lidcome NSW
Sher Waygu F1 – Ballan, Vic
I’m usually a huge fan of peppercorn sauce (pictured) but after tasting the fresh perigord truffle jus, I just couldn’t go back.
David Blackmore Wagyu Alexandra, Vic
Sides~ (all sides are $8.00).
Pomme fries. Yes it is just a fancy way to say shoe string fries but they were served hot and well salted which is all you could ask for. A great side to dip into your sauce and accompany your steak.
Paris mash. Only every so slightly gritty in texture but it wasn’t buttery and delicious like I’m used to with most Paris mash, it must have been a healthier version.
Dessert~
Passionfruit souffle with passionfruit sorbet ($18.00). The passionfruit sorbet packed a punch and upon tasting it, we all made a face like we just sucked a lemon. It was intense and I thought the flavours would lend it self better to a vanilla based dessert rather than more passionfruit. The souffle itself was very light and had a distinct passionfruit taste, easily one of the nicest souffles I have ever eaten.
The souffle had a great airy light texture.
Vanilla panna cotta macerated strawberries and hazelnut tuiles ($16.00). Wow, if this dessert had a bum, it could twerk like mad! We spent the better half of 5 minutes watching our dessert hypnotically jiggling about on the plate. It had an incredible smooth texture with a distinct sweet vanilla flavour and I love how the vanilla beans are dispersed throughout and not just stuck on the top.
We received the bill and lucky we double check as some of the steaks were overcharged.
A break down of each tier:
I don’t know if you’ve ever had untoasted gluten free thick sliced bread, but it’s not good.
First Course~
Second Course~
TALES OF A CONFECTIONIST 