I didn’t know too much about Melbourne (and still don’t know as much as I’d like) so trying to figure out which restaurant to book was a little tricky. The only place I had really wanted to go to was Cumulus Inc/Cumulus Up, so after thinking and taking a stab in the dark, I chose Vue de Monde.

It sits in the Rialto tower and gets a view of the city, though not really a pretty view or anything. What was exciting though, was this was probably the most fun and interactive degustations I’ve had, especially considering I had Momofuku not even two weeks prior.

These were pre-meal snacks on our “Stonehenge” table – smoked eel with white chocolate candy and caviar, salt and vinegar chips with macadamia butter, truffle marshmallows, and oysters. The table decorations were amazing as the rocks formed part of the service, and cutlery was placed on pretty pieces of wood. Apparently there is a tea pairing at this place, however we didn’t realise until after we had finished. That means a re-visit is necessary!

Ox tongue, beetroot, creme fraiche

This was our first course, with confit ox tongue. It was very tender and had a saltiness that was offset by the beetroot and creme fraiche “snow”.

French onion soup

Like Momofuku, the chefs bring out the food for you – but this time there was a syphon! All my coffee related dreams have come true and now I have more reasons to buy a syphon! This was a french onion consomme that was heated to bring the liquid to the top chamber to infuse with the dry/who ingredients, before being poured onto the following:

Which was cheese two ways, picked onion, onion rings, grilled onion, macadamia gel, and croutons. When combined it was super tasty and very strong in flavour – I think I could recall the flavour for many days. I now need to make french onion soup again.

Butter poached marron, sweetbread puree, shredded lamb

It seems eating with hands is the norm now, indicated by warm hand towels presented during service. I also now cannot stop thinking that marron looks like some sort of Zerg creature ready to attack. Or a cybermat…. Marron is indeed the best shellfish ever, and every place cooks it so nicely that it’s sweet, juicy and tender – it went well with the sweetbread puree, though why it was sweetbread puree puzzled me.

Eggs on toast

Soft poached duck yolk was hiding underneath the pear circles, sitting on a bed of truffle sauce, and saltbush and thin toast lined the outside. Bread was also provided at this stage, perfect for soaking up extra yolky goodness.

This was a palate cleanser, and came with our own wooden pestles. The waitstaff warned us that there was tough work to be done! So lo and behold, we received a bowl of violets and leaves, then liquid nitrogen was poured over them. I love liquid nitrogen! We then received the privilege of crushing and smashing those plants with our pestle! I was also so eager to take this shot that the wait staff may have recommended that I was supposed to take a picture of the chef and then the food. In any case, this was then topped with a cucumber sorbet.

Barramundi, lemon, potato

This was a very pretty and tasty dish. The barramundi was perfectly cooked and had a slight charcoal flavour because it was cooked in charcoal I think, I can’t actually remember. The potato was delicious and in a way, this was fancy fish and chips, just as we previously had fancy eggs on toast.

Pigeon breast with jus, pear, and shaved truffle

Pigeon leg with buerre blanc

This was a two part dish, pigeon breast and pigeon leg. The waitress had asked us at the beginning if we were up for anything, including game, and we both were eager to eat everything! So we got some pigeon, which I was very happy about as I haven’t had pigeon in a very long time. Both were great, but I think I enjoyed the leg more simply because it’s much more satisfying to pick it up and devour it with hands.

Beef, pear, maraschino cherries

What an awesome looking dish, and what a tasty dish. Diced David Blackmoore’s full blood wagyu beef with pear and maraschino cherries – and it works! When the dish first came out I thought there might be a marrow element, but alas there wasn’t. That didn’t make the dish in any way disappointing though – it was fantastic.

There was then another palate cleanser as we were now moving into dessert. It was a shot of mint, kale and celery juice topped with coconut cream. A punchy shot but so cleansing!

Buttermilk sorbet

Sadly, I”ve forgotten what the different sauces that surrounded the sorbet were. It was a very pretty dish; reminding me of a bird nest.

White chocolate ganache, poached rhubarb, coffee ice cream, chocolate dirt

Obviously, I remembered this dish more! It was a pleasantly light ganache, so that it wasn’t heavy or overpowering, with poached rhubarb and chocolate malts. The coffee ice cream was also pretty awesome.

Chocolate souffle

LO AND BEHOLD, MY BELOVED SOUFFLE. I FINALLY GOT ONE. This was the best souffle I’ve had – fruit flavours just don’t do it. This was fluffy chocolatey heaven with a chocolate and anglaise sauce. Oh wow. This was the perfect last dessert! Now I am spoilt for all other souffles.

Petit fours

This was the most Australian set of petit fours I’ve ever had. Orange jelly two up; white chocolate, olive oil, seaweed seashells; cherries and lamington; and lastly, my favourite, the eucalyptus ice cream. THAT ICE CREAM! It reminded me of my primary school days with the eucalyptus drops as it tasted exactly like them. This was the best finish to a degustation, and alas we had demolished Stonehenge. But wait, there’s more! Even after all that food, we were escorted out via their wine cellar thing, which was cold and pretty, then we were presented with a morning after care package containing brioche, tea, honey and cookies. How fantastic!

Overall, I have no clue why this place doesn’t rank higher than it does – what amazing food, with a great level of interaction and hands-on experience. I’m also impressed by the fact that they can do any number of courses between 5-10 to cater for everyone, and far outdoes Momofuku (considering I’ve just had that too!) in terms of awesomeness, though that being said, nothing beats their wagyu, watermelon, black bean and radish dish paired with red rice sake. Oh, and their marron and their ocean trout roe, potato and parson’s nose.

Here, my top three out of EVERYTHING served would actually be the marron, souffle and eucalyptus ice cream.

This place is definitely worth a re-visit (in fact I need to for the tea pairing! They even have a dedicated tea sommelier!) and is my new benchmark for epic degustations. Oh, and did I mention they have the most adorable little pop-up book of cocktails? :D

As a side note, their bathroom is amazing. It was so trippy and fantastic because it was a proximity/weight activateddownward fountain tap thing that dispensed super saline water! I was so confused when I was using them as the solution was so concentrated that it felt soapy, so I had no idea how to “wash” off the soap. There was also additional soap and moisturiser, and in the end I figured that if the water was soapy feeling, it probably evaporated in the Dyson hand drier. Only then did I come across the sign that explained the hand washing system, and my hands did indeed feel normal once I’d dried them. This was an 11/10 restaurant bathroom!