RESTAURANT REVIEW: TASTEVIN BISTRO & WINE BAR, DARLINGHURST

Tastevin and surroundings

For some reason, I picked another French restaurant to celebrate a milestone birthday this year.  Last year, I celebrated at L'etoile restaurant in Paddington.  The chef is Manu Feildel who you see sometimes on Masterchef.  I didn't even know it was awarded a one chef hat in 2010.  The  reviews invited me to book this restaurant.  This year, I wanted to try Four in Hand being a two chef hat restaurant but it couldn't take 12 invites and Bistro Papillon on Clarence Street Sydney wanted a $250 deposit for the booking.

So on a rainy Saturday night, we were at Tastevin in Darlinghurst.  Tastevin in French means "taste wine".  Indeed, it had a wine bar at the back of the restaurant but only 2 of us had a glass of wine.  This place didn't have any chef hats but I booked it because the reviews on eatability and urbanspoon were exceptionally high - 8.5 to 9/10.  Great food, service and ambience - basically it had all three elements.  However, I thought the food was nice but not the best I've had or it didn't wow me enough so that I will definitely remember this culinary experience.

The ambience of this restaurant was remarkable.  You walk upstairs to be welcomed by a set of comfortable couches and the tables were professionally laid with table clothes, wine glasses, plates and cutlery.  Mirrors, lovely shade lamps, romantically lit candles and funky wall frames surround the restaurant.  I think it may be the french style because Le'toile is very similiar in settings as well.  Tables were so closely aligned to each other.

Selection of Food - from entrees, mains to desserts

Having a party with 12 people was great because you get to try almost everything on the menu.  For starters, we had bread although they mistaken thought that we wanted french fries over bread rather than both but we didn't follow that up with the restaurant.  They didn't charge us for both so all is good.  The bread didn't taste as good as I'd hope to find at other restaurants.  It wasn't as crunchy and the butter was really salty.  The coriander oil was another complement with the bread and was better than the butter.  We also had gherkin and salami with the bread.  Some of the others ordered to share freshly shucked oysters with champagne and cracked pepper dressing - $3.50.  While two of my friends tried the Gnocchi a la parisenne with sauteed mushrooms and white truffle mornay ($19 entree size).  This is Tastevin's signature dish and I have to say it was the best dish for the night.  The gnocchi was very soft and I heart the truffle and mornay sauce too.

Entree - bread

Entree - salami and gherkin

Entree - freshly shucked oysters with champagne and cracked pepper dressing

We had all five main dishes on the night.  I only got to try two of the dishes so can only comment on them both.  The others are just pictures to show and tell but no sense of taste description.  I do know that the beef eye fillet is meant to be one of their best dishes because it tastes so good and tender.

Chargrilled beef eye fillet with pomme fondante, mushroom fricassée & red wine jus - $35

The two dishes I tried were the pork neck which was recommended by the waiter and the duck.  The duck was high spoken off from other blog and urbanspoon reviews.  Both my friend and I were disappointed by the mains we chose but only because the pork neck was really dry and the duck was a little dry too.  My other friend who also had the duck didn't know any better or had the better duck as he didn't experience the same dry pain.  I don't know what else this restaurant puts in their food either because by the end of the night, I was so thirsty, I drank almost drank a whole bottle of water in this freezing weather. I was thinking, French restaurants shouldn't be using MSG flavourings? That's found in asian cooking.  Either that or the food was so dry it left that dryness feeling in my throat so that I needed some liquid urgently!

The pork neck was slow cooked but maybe it was overcooked because it was dry and flaky.  The fennel was nice and crunchy and goes well with rosemary while the apple and onion tart was thankfully moist, sweet and soft.

Slow cooked pork neck, apple & onion tart Tatin with rosemary & fennel salad

The duck leg was a little dry but the red cabbage choucroute (French for dressed sauerkraut) was deliciously sweet and perfect with the parsnip puree.  I liked the duck sausage as it didn't have a strong duck smell and was quite tasty.

Confit duck leg with parsnip purée, red cabbage choucroute, duck sausage & jus gras 

The other two mains were the barramundi fillet and duo lamb.  The friends who ordered these dishes were impressed although the fish fillet wasn't as filling but had a ratatouille wrapped in a mini pancake as shown below (The french call it aumoniere).  Ratatouille are vegetables such as fried eggplant, zucchini, red capsicum, onions, thyme, garlic and tomatoes in baked tomato juice.

Pan seared barramundi fillet à la provençale with ratatouille aumonière & chorizo- $34

Duo of lamb; roast rump & braised shoulder with autumn vegetables, chestnut & lardon

Now for my favourite part of the meal, dessert.  However nothing I ate tasted as good as it sounded.  The special dessert of the day was a chestnut mini-cake that tasted so much like asian desserts and it was kind of mushy and claylike.  I didn't like it at all and neither did I like the chocolate cake because it was so rich and the alcohol from the cherry coulis was too overpowering.

Chestnut mini cake with meringue and coffee plus vanilla sorbet

Dark chocolate pavé with grillottes ice cream & cherry coulis (rectangle shape chocolate slice cake) - $15

I should have dipped my fork on the rhubarb and apple crumble because I really like rhubarb.  My friends who will be getting married in September this year loved their dessert.

Rhubarb and apple crumble with ice cream - $15

The last dessert was the crepes.  I'm glad this dish was ordered because we saw a bit of "magic".  The crepes were engulfed in flames and I think it's from the Grand Marnier that gave that exploding effect.  I prefer Kahlua or Baileys as I'm not particularly fond of Grand Marnier or Cointreau.  My friends didn't like the taste of the Grand Marnier either so couldn't finish all the crepes.

Flambéed Grand Marnier crêpes Suzette with vanilla ice cream - $14

So there you have it.  A lovely night with great company and decent food.  Overall I think Tastevin is good but not exceptional.  Not all chef hat restaurants are commendable either.

Summary Review of Tastevin

Food rating: 7/10


Service rating: 8/10


Ambience rating: 8/10


Price: $$ (affordable)


Overall rating: 7.7/10


Tastevin Bistro & Wine Bar (next to Spice I Am)
Level 1, 292-294 Victoria Road
Darlinghurst NSW 2010
PH: (02) 9356 3429
Website: Tastevin Website
Opening Hours:
Mon - Thurs (except Tues closed) - 5pm to late
Fri - Sun - 12pm to late