PM24 – 24 Russell Street City - www.pm24.com.au 

It’s amazing how quiet the city can be on a Sunday afternoon, and how few restaurants are open for lunch - which makes Sunday afternoons the perfect time to try the reasonably new PM24.
The other reason to head on a Sunday is to take advantage of renowned chef Philippe Mouchel’s Sunday set lunch, a menu inspired by the Frenchman’s own family cooking. It’s also a great way to try this French bistro’s menu while knowing exactly what you’re up for in terms of cost. At $65 a head for 5 courses, it’s great value for quality food.

What does push the price of the meal up is the wine list, it’s an impressive 23 page tome with a huge collection of largely French and Australian wines. It’s worth knowing that the wine is around $12-20 a glass, with bottles at the cheaper end averaging $60-80. What you also have with the Sunday lunch, though, is the option to let the staff at PM24 take the guesswork out of it with the option of having the lunch menu with matching wines for $135 per person.

To the menu, and it was a mouthwatering list on paper and that continued when the finished product was presented - starting with a pumpkin soup with bacon lardons and crème fraiche.

The entrée platter consisted of a Chicken Liver Parfait with toasted brioche; grilled octopus atop a rich white bean ragout with roquette and parmesan; and Roasted Organic Beetroot with Yarra Valley Dairy goats cheese. My initial concern was with the size of the platter, it allowed for just one piece of roasted beet per person, and while the parfait jar was a generous serve, the halved single slice of brioche meant you had to slap it on pretty thick to get through it all. But, as you’ll see, we were thankful for the sensible size once we got to dessert. Flavours were fantastic – the parfait was rich and wonderfully smooth, and the brioche possibly the lightest, daintiest bread I’ve ever tasted.

Course three is fish, and this day it was a Poached Rockling with Mussels Moulade, on fishy potato and rockling mash. Very French – very subtle. These dishes really are about simple foods cooked well.
Onto the main and I believe this course is always something from the famous PM24 rotisserie. This big gleaming piece of red machinery really is the focal point of the open kitchen, it’s so very stylish but importantly churns out perfectly cooked meat of every description. I’d heard about the wonder that is the Philippe Mouchel rotisserie chook, but on this day we were treated to big thick slices of Wagyu bolar blade and roasted spring vegetables that had been part roasted, part basted at the bottom of the rotisserie in the rich meat juices – oh my!  Super soft chunks of pumpkin, zucchini, parsnip, kipfler potatoes, red onion, and cloves of soft roasted garlic – this truly did taste like the best of the family Sunday roast.
Dessert on the printed menu was a Chocolate Rasperry Tart, but for whatever reason on this day it was replaced with a large home made crème brulee that became a performance in itself. The sugary top was lit by the waiter at the table and left to burn off for at least a minute in a fiery display. This meant the top probably wasn’t as crisp and crunchy as if it had been burnt by hand with a torch, but the excitement of the flames pretty much made up for it.

Service at PM24 is second to none, efficient without being crowding, with professional, informative waiters, and you’ve got to love a venue where you can wander up and chat to the busy chefs over the counter about the snails they’re preparing for that night’s service. The interior is classy without being pretentious, it’s a joy to sit at one of the marble topped tables by the kitchen, face the busy staff and watch them at work . A collaboration of Mr Mouchel and George Calombaris’ Press Club Group, PM24 was probably always bound to be a class act, just nice to see the opportunity wasn’t squandered, and Melburnians have yet another fine CBD restaurant to enjoy.

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