Jacques Reymond

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  8     

One fish course was over cooked but very good all round. Service was outstanding.

Aug 21, 2011 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

We had not heard very much about Jacques Reymond before doing a little reading and planning for our Melbourne road trip. Looking over the menu and hearing of Jacques’ philosophies on food we knew we had to dine there. Being widely known as Melbourne’s best restaurant had us buzzing with anticipation to see if Melbourne’s best could knock Sydney’s best off the top of our list.

Read more on my blog

Feb 03, 2011 

7.8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  8     

Service was attentive but never too in our face. Kept getting offered more bread (a selection of 3 types, only tried 2 of them and they were delicious) and our glasses of water was kept getting filled throughout the night. My date and I had the degustation menu. My fave course was the first with the lemongrass soup. Delicious. I didn't really like the slow cooked pork, tasted and smelt porky? but all other courses were delightful.

Of course the portions were small but this is expected of fine dining and still my date and I were very full at the end of the meal. It was fantastic when Jacques Reymond himself came around to all the tables to ask how their meal was. How often would something like that happen when you fine dine anywhere else. I do agree with the previous comment saying that there seemed to be a lot happening on the plates.

The previous comment about not being asked how they would like their meat cooked was a bit bizarre. At other fine dining restaurants dishes such as those don't seem to get cooked to a customer's liking. It isn't a slab of steak. I would definitely go back again.

Dec 03, 2010 

4.3 Below Average

Food  7      Ambience  2      Service  4      Value  4     

We dined at Jacques, taking a guest as a special occasion venue, and to be honest, I don' think I'll be back. After being wait listed for some weeks, we finally had a call to confirm a table a few days prior to attending.

We were seated in the Wine Room and were subjected to continuous banter from the kitchen throughout the night as 'Yes Chef' rang out all night. The final straw was when an outbusrt from Jacques, screaming abuse at his staff with the 4 lettered word frequently issuing forth, dominated the dining room area.

A gentleman on a table nearby, looked in disbelief as I smiled at him in embarrassment. It had the tones of a Gordon Ramsay episode. I glared at the sommelier as he passed - no apologies were ever expressed for this outburst.

I am from a hospitality background and I understand that this does happen in restaurant kitchens, but hey, keep it in the kitchen - don't ruin your diners evening with such behaviour. Having paid over well over $700 - we felt truly short changed considering we had gone there for a relaxed dining experience.

I emailed the restaurant and the below was their reply:

"Thank you for your feedback, I am sorry that the noise from the kitchen distracted you and spoilt your evening. Our kitchen is a very busy passionate kitchen and when they are in the middle of service and have an average of 600 plates of food prepare each evening, it does tend to get loud and when the pressure is on unfortunately language does deteriorate rapidly. As you say this behavior in the kitchen has been publicized by Gordon Ramsey and it has not helped. This to a kitchen is general behavior and it is forgotten after service.

We tend to warn them to keep it down but sometimes it does become too much and the clients do overhear most people do not object and I apologise again that it spoilt your evening. If you dine again in our restaurant please request the front room and you will not be able to hear the kitchen."

Need I say anymore! I am afraid Jacques has hit the bottom of my dining list.

Sep 01, 2010 

6.5 Recommended

Food  6      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  4     

During Easter I attended the sold out agideas design conference in Melbourne and one of the speakers was Jacques Reymond who spoke on Day 1 of the 27th April. At first I thought it was a very unusual choice to see a chef on the speaker program but for me Jacques was one of the most well-spoken, entertaining and inspirational speakers of the whole 3 day conference.

He spoke with sincere passion and engaged the audience with his life long journey and inspiration of becoming a chef. His restaurant has achieved Three-hats and Restaurant Of the year in The Age Good Food Guide 2010 Awards and before the conference I had never heard of him but after his speech I was truly inspired to make a booking and dine in his restaurant two days after.

Upon arriving I was impressed with the size of grand Victorian mansion restaurant complete with landscaped gardens although in the dark I actually had trouble working out where to enter via the side entrance. The beautifully decorated red dining room was cosy and nicely lit. The service was professional and accommodating. The appetiser of cheese choux pastry was great, light, tasty and freshly cooked and the complimentary bread also nice and served warm.

The first degustation course of Lemongrass, spinach and rock lobster soup, fragrant Tiger prawn, sweet potato and turmeric ice cream was enjoyable, simple and worked well, especially the soup. The dishes after this though became a bit of a blur due to being, perhaps, a little overly designed on the plate. I usually find the best and most memorable dishes are the simplest in taste and presentation.

I can still remember some of Tetsuya's dishes from years ago like the beetroot sorbet, ocean trout confit and crab ravioli but I thought for many of Jacques degustation dishes there was so much happening on the plate that I think it lost focus for me, in terms of taste and simplicity in presentation. Some of the time I wasn't sure what I was tasting but, perhaps, that's just me.

With carrots and cauliflower cut down to the size of your finger nail in the Poached and roasted partridge, miniscule drips of unidentifiable sauces on the Western plains suckling pig and sometimes lots of different ingredients like on the Sandwich of spanner crab and Highland venison my taste buds were soon pretty confused on what I was eating and thus lacked enjoyment of the taste sensation. The special side dish of Pine mushrooms ($25) was quite meaty and actually one of the dish highlights, simple, basic and tasty.

With only a 7.0 (21 reviews) on Eatability I think the hyped media reviews and awards this restaurant has received might not be meeting the expectations of the restaurant punters that come to experience the food and it's been marked quite low on value for money. Personally I've found more enjoyment in the dishes I've had at other 2 and 3-hatted restaurants both in appreciation of taste and presentation.

So in design there's a golden rule 'Less is More' or 'Keep it Simple' and when this rule isn't followed the result can end up being confusing, overly designed and the message is lost or in terms of food, the taste buds get confused. I think Jacques definitely has a passion for food and using top quality ingredients but I found I couldn't really appreciate what he was trying to achieve with his dishes. I thought the wine selection was fairly good and desserts more clearly defined than the mains.

Food blog review: http://simonfoodfavourites.blogspot.com/2010/07/jacques-reymond-3-hatted-degustation.html

Jul 21, 2010 

3.3 Below Average

Food  3      Ambience  3      Service  6      Value  1     

I had an extremely bad experience with this restaurant, not just the food was average, so was the service and the attitude of the man Jacque Reymond himself. It feels like I was eating at someone's house with local ingredients. I vowed not to go back again. This was my feedback to Jacque Reymond:

Dear Jacques and Nathalie

Last night we dined at Jacques Reymond for the first time after hearing all the hype and mostly positive reviews from the media, to celebrate our 2 years wedding anniversary. We chose the Degustation Menu and were quite disappointed with our dining experience of the night and would like to provide some feedback.

The bread served (with the exception of the multigrain) were hard as a rock, I'm not certain if that's the normal standard of a french restaurant. The fragrant Tiger prawns were watery and tasteless, it lacks the "prawn" taste in it's usual form, suggesting it was frozen. The Ocean Trout (not the wild barramundi as suggested on the menu) was absolutely awful as it possessed strong fish smell and taste, suggesting it was far from fresh.

The highland venison were 90% rare, and because it was the first time I've eaten a rare venison, I felt disgusted by the texture when I chew the meat. The Pacific Rim martini, it was not possible for us to use the spoon provided to consume the pineapple at the bottom of the glassware.

The service was average, on 3 separate occasions, when we were served with the food, our cutleries and glasses were knocked when the plate was placed on the table. I would like to point out for a restaurant like Jacques Reymond, exceptional service is a necessity. Also, no straws for the lady when we were served with mocktails. After requesting the straws, it was 2 short straws combined to make a long one, causing us having a tough time consuming the drink (as there were air gaps at the joint). It is hard to imagine long straws are absent in any restaurant.

Lastly, we saw Jacques walking around in our dining area talking to every table, however, our table was never approached. Hopefully, you would find our feedback useful and I apologize if we have offended you in anyway. Thank you.

And this was his response: Thank you for your email. I also am disappointed that you did not enjoy your evening. I apologise that I missed speaking with you on the night, I would have appreciated answering your criticisms. Kind Regards
Jacques Reymond.

May 21, 2010 

6.8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  2     

There's no pretension here: This is extremely accomplished food served by extremely professional waiters in an extremely pleasant setting. Yet, there's something lacking, in the food in particular, to make the experience truly exciting or memorable. And there is nothing here to justify the extremely high prices ($525 for two, including wine and a pre-dinner drink each).

Our overall impression when talking about the food the day after was that it was "precious": Tiny drizzles of sauces, too small to really taste or enjoy, fussy presentations, combinations of flavours that seemed slightly affected and rather slavish to prevailing fashions (for these prices, I want food that sets the fashion!), and rather mincing little serves.

The two red meat courses were both served with the outside of the meat seared and the inside completely raw. This might be the fashion (again) but is not pleasant, or even edible, for many people. The fact that we weren't asked how we wanted our meat was a big black mark against the chef and the meal as a whole, since it meant that two of the courses were inedible for my dining partner. Is this arrogance on the kitchen stafff's part? "I am a great chef and this is how you should eat your meat"? It certainly doesn't strike me as respecting diners' tastes and preferences.

This review sounds very negative, and yet neither of us were disappointed with the experience of dining here. By the same token, however, neither of us has any interest in going back: We've had our JR experience. It was interesting and special but was simply not extraordinary. And the food is precious.

Mar 05, 2010 

6.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  8      Value  5     

We have been wanting to come here for a long time now and finally got around to securing a Saturday night booking. We totally agree with rps's comments below, food was good but we expected "wow" and we definitely didn't get it. With so many great places in Melbourne doing this type of degustation dining we will not be returning. Found the room pompous and dated, even uncomfortable (as were the chairs!). For a +$500 dining experience for two it certainly let us down. Staff were great though.

Jun 28, 2009 

6 Average

Food  6      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  5     

Okay, so this was the famous Jacques Reymond. Came here with 3 other friends, went for the degustation menu, two of us having matching wines. The food was definitely good, much better than average, sure. But it wasn't toe-curling, brain-tingling stuff, you know what I mean? I could get this quality grub at a number of other top melbourne restaurants, so why is Jacques any more special than these? Its not.

Service was very professional, but a little too much in my face, and on one occasion I dropped some food as I was about to eat it, being startled by a waiter who snuck up behind me! Oh well. Won't be going back, which for a restaurant thats got 3 chefs hats etc etc is a big let down. My friends liked it more, but then they like eating dumplings, so there you go.

Jun 21, 2009 

5.8 Average

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  3     

Underwhelmed! I was expecting a Vue de Monde degustation experience and instead, got decent familiar-tasting food with mistakes in orders and ok wine. Felt like I was in a glammed up RSL given the amount of seniors there that night. And what's with the matre d' who stands and walks as if he's leaning backwards the whole time? Unlike Vue de Monde, I wouldn't bother with a return trip unless someone else was paying.

Nov 17, 2008