How many more high-end restaurants does Melbourne really need?<\/p>\n
As families start subbing out beef for beans in the weekly shop, I wonder who\u2019s really bumping caviar or forking out almost $400 for steak on a weeknight.<\/p>\n
Yet plenty of restaurants still do this, including new kid on the block The Frog Club.<\/p>\n
This is the first restaurant by the team behind South Yarra\u2019s pleasant but pretentious cafe, Gilson. <\/p>\n
The Frog Club isn\u2019t quite this fussy, yet it\u2019s taking a page out of the Chris Lucas restaurant playbook with chest-beating prestige.<\/p>\n
Unlike its predecessor, Morris Jones, the Chapel St venue has an unassuming street facade, black curtains at the entry, a bouncer at the door, and not many favourable dinner reservation spots on weekends between 5pm and 9pm. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s certainly been cleaned up since its Morris Jones days, with three distinct eating spaces depending on your mood. <\/p>\n
The dapper main dining room, filled with cosy leather-booth nooks and a mix of long-reaching and smaller round tables, the courtyard with a red glow and retractable roof, and the sleek gold bar where I find myself tonight. There\u2019s also another bar upstairs to start or finish the meal.<\/p>\n
The restaurant doesn\u2019t seem as busy as you\u2019d expect, given how near impossible it was to nab a 6pm or 6.30pm booking, which is not a bad thing. <\/p>\n
Service is sharp and efficient, with some old hat hospo pros understanding the assignment for a restaurant at this price point. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m not waiting long for something in my glass, though I spend a while picking my jaw up from the floor when I see the prices. <\/p>\n
Of the 30 by-the-glass wines, only eight cost less than $20. The most expensive? $175. Yes, that is for red Burgundy. Champagne isn\u2019t far behind, with some bottles costing as much as a return ticket to France. <\/p>\n
Former Botswana Butchery and Victor Churchill chef Angel Fernandez is calling the shots here \u2013 drawing from his experience at New York\u2019s Dante with what\u2019s thrust over the woodfire grill. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s the showpony here, and boy oh boy will you pay for it. <\/p>\n
The snacks are also up there, with some better than others. Frog Club signature caviar tart ($26 each), brilliant. The lobster roll ($21), under seasoned. Clam empanada ($11), cheesy and chewy. <\/p>\n
On the other end of the scale, the gloriously salty and cheesy gougere puffs ($7 each), soft as a whisper, filled with luscious comte curd and topped with wagyu bresaola. More please. <\/p>\n
The crab gratin, for an eye-popping $42, was so light it reminded me of the Japanese savoury egg custard chawanmushi. Here sweet spanner crab does the work, in a creamy crab bisque topped with golden breadcrumb and parmesan gravel. Big yum. <\/p>\n
There are many ways to tackle the larger shares, but the main way is with money. Lots of it. It\u2019s 280 big ones for a cold seafood platter or $380 for 1kg of bone-in wagyu rib steak. <\/p>\n
Though the cheapish cheeseburger ($32) would suffice \u2013 it\u2019s seriously good and, while not the best I\u2019ve had around town, would go down a treat after a big night out. <\/p>\n
You must try the roasted duck ($60), with crisp and fine bubble-wrap skin, perfectly rendered fat and pink sunset sky centre. Easily one of my favourite things eaten this year.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re really looking to max the card, the DIY Frog Club sundae is charged by the scoop ($6 each), toppings ($4) and sauces ($4) \u2013 a financial recipe for disaster for big kids. <\/p>\n
The Frog Club shoots for the stars, but lands somewhere I can only define as Society lite. <\/p>\n
I had a blast, most of the food was great, but the price is something to croak about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How many more high-end restaurants does Melbourne really need? 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