Fine dining restaurants - are they worth it?

Cafe Society
1

I like food well enough but I’m not what you’d describe as a foodie. Fiance is even less so - he’s a spag bol, steak and potatoes kind of guy. When we have a special occasion meal I usually end up cooking it myself because we’ve been disappointed with almost every restaurant in the $20-50 a head range (mediocre pasta, giant plates and tiny portions). Our favourite restaurants tend to be hole-in-the-wall ethnic places.

But recently I’ve been interested in going to Vue de Monde, one of the best restaurants in Melbourne, which has been very highly recommended by a friend of mine. This is the sort of menu you get for $250 a person (wine not included):

AMUSE BOUCHE
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CRABE FARÇI
Soft shell crab stuffed with sautéed blue swimmer crab accompanied by a Mojo sauce
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GNOCCHI AUX CHAMPIGNONS
Liquid cep gnocchi with shimeji mushrooms, broad beans and tarragon emulsion, shaved white truffle
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BOUILLABAISSE ‘EN CINQ MINUTES’ ET TARTARE D’ECREVISSE
5 minute bouillabaisse with tartare of crayfish, buffalo milk skin, finished with aromatic herbs and a touch of theatre
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TERRINE DE LANGUE DE BOEUF
Terrine of ox tongue, foie gras and Puy lentils with a jelly of Pedro Ximenez sherry
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TRUITE FUMÉE
Ocean trout with horseradish and baby beets, served with black cabbage and smoked at the table
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CONSOMMÉ FROID À LA TOMATE
Delicate tomato consommé with gazpacho jelly
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TATAKI DE BŒUF WAGYU
Tataki of Wagyu beef with soya yuzu noodle and sweet corn purée
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RÔTI DE PORK
Roast Kurobuta pork belly with pork rillette pancake and panada stuffed baby apple
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FROMAGE
Baked brie parcels served with pear purée
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SUCETTE
Rolly Polly
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GÂTEAU DE RIZ A LA FRAMBOISE
Raspberry served with raspberry flavoured rice pudding encased in sugar
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SOUFFLÉ AU CHOCOLAT
Chocolate soufflé with cardomon ganache and milk ice cream
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NOTRE SÉLECTION DE CAFÉS, THÉS, INFUSIONS ET PETITS-FOURS
A selection of coffee, teas, infusions and miniature teacakes
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CHOCOLATS POUR SAVOURER A LA MAISON
Handmade chocolates to take home
$500 is far in excess of anything we’ve spent on a dinner (or even 10 dinners). Including wine and tip it’ll probably be closer to the $600 or $700 mark. I’m intrigued by the idea, but worried that it’s all a bit of a wank (especially since half those ingredients make me go “wha?!”), and that I’ll regret spending so much money.

Is this sort of meal something that your average diner could appreciate or do you need to be a serious foodie to justify spending that amount?

2

Looks like a big wank to me. :wink: (But you must consider I am from backwater Brisbane :stuck_out_tongue: )

$250 a head? seriously? How do they justify that price? (Even given the Foie Gras, and truffles on the menu).

I like my food, but also am not a foodie. My wife and I like to eat out upscale occasionally, but upscale to us is a place with mains (that’s entrees for the US’ains following this) in the $30-$40 range.

When you get into $250 a head, I personally think you’re into posh for posh’s sake territory. So the Business Executives can name drop on the golf course or the like.

Semi-related - why would you be tipping? No matter how swanky a restaurant is, I’m not tipping anyone at home in Aust.

3

Can you justify it? Depends how much you like food. If you love food and can see the thing as the whole package - a kind of performance art that you participate in, that tastes great - then it’s justifiable.

I go to a similar kind of restaurant about once a year. It’s a “save up and have a special treat” sort of thing. Think of it in the same category as a weekend away.

My fine dining experiences, while hellishly expensive, have been things I look back on, years later, often with amazement. I can remember individual dishes, vividly, because if you’re lucky, the food really is that good. The cherry tomatoes at Gordon Ramsay’s at Claridges - I can still taste them (it was a surprise - they’d been marinated in kirsch for a few weeks); the crab salad at le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons - the best crab I’ve ever had; the steak at Shanahan’s on the Green, melting on my tongue; the amuse bouche at Patrick Gibaud - maple syrup, savory meringue and whipped raw egg. All of these things I look back to fondly, and can taste and feel and see them again in my mind.

A few years ago, I treated my poor-as-a-church-mouse brother to a meal at Le Caprice, and in addition to being utterly blown away that stuff could possibly taste that amazing, he said a very interesting thing to me: “when you were younger, you used to look for extraordinary experiences by experimenting with drugs. Now I see you do the same thing through food.” How true.

YMMV.

4

Honestly, you probably wouldn’t like it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good, even great food but looking at the menu, it’s quite a bit of avant guarde cooking which is less… accessible than some other fine dining restaurants. In order to fully appreciate it, you would need to already have a significant education in food. There are quite a few other restaurants in Melbourne at that price point which you would probably be happier with.

Honestly, for me, I pretty much only ever go to cheap ethnic places and high end restaurants now. Everything in the middle, I could make far tastier at home for a third the price so why bother. When you consider how much you would spending eating out every weekend at a mid-range restaurant, a blow out meal twice a year is not a significant expense.

5

I don’t know anything about the quality of Aussie restaurants, but here in the States you can get some damn fine food anywhere from $5 to $100 a person (I haven’t eaten anywhere more expensive than that). You can also get crap at any price, though.

6

That menu sounds great, but $250 per person even with the inclusion of some shaved truffles and some foie gras without wine tastings paired with each course is WAY expensive IMHO.
I would seek out another chef-owned restaurant with a great reputation that has similar food and see if they can do a 5-7 course tasting menu for you with wine flights included for about $150 per person.
There’s a restaurant here in Cincinatti that’s owned and ran by a French chef who has adopted a prix fixe menu and it works out well, as it includes valet and gratuity.

7

I love eating out at good restaurants: Claridges, La Gavroche, Lindsay house and Hotel Du Vin being some of the most enjoyable but still cannot help but guffaw at this ridiculously pompous menu offering:

WTF?

I have recently aborted an attempt to eat at the legendary ‘Fat Duck’ as it’s is impossible to actually get through on the booking line (I had a table for 6 for the tasting menu booked just before winning the ‘best restaurant in the world’ award but one of the people going couldn’t eat the tasting menu so it fell through) and was prepared to pay the £115 a head for the tasting menu plus the £90 (minimum!!!) for wine to accompany the meal but food is my hobby and my primary interest. If you aren’t sure you will like it you quite possibly won’t, when I eat at a great restaurant I know I’m going to love it beforehand. The way I see it its like when my work colleague spent thousands on flying to Brazil for four days to watch the grand prix, I thought he was mental but it’s his passion and his hobby. I doubt he would have gone and paid all that money unless he knew he would love it…

8

I’m a Melbourne lad. Now I’ve got kids, we don’t get to go out as much, so we haven’t made it to Vue de Monde yet. But I’ve been to Jacques Reymond many times, and that’s still rated better by the Age Good Food Guide. And I’ve been to most of the one and two hat places in the guide.

The bottom line is it’s worth it if you like it. Try a couple of places at lunchtime - Jacques Reymond or Circa for example do slightly simpler and much cheaper things at lunch. Or eat at the bar at Pearl. Or during the week at Attica. Or The Press Club - which is great and much more modestly priced but hard to get in.

9

This is an excellent point. If the food style isn’t something you appreciate, even the greatest skill in preparation isn’t going to make you enjoy it.

10

One of the most expensive meals I’ve ever had was $150 Cdn per person - the Valentine’s Day tasting menu at Sen5es in Toronto.

That meal was almost three years ago now, and I can still remember exactly how everything tasted. So I’d argue I probably got my money’s worth, considering I definitely can’t remember much about any of the $20 meals I had three years ago.

The most important thing to remember when going out for a high-end meal is that your dollar isn’t paying for basic ingredients (I could make a damn good meal for than kind of cash). You’re paying for the whole package - the attentive but not overly solicitous waitstaff, the perfectly paired wines, the ingenious presentation, the original combinations of familiar and new flavours in bite-sized portions, the romantic atmosphere, the carefully selected soundtrack, etc etc etc. If you love food, this is one hell of a treat.

However, given that neither of you sounds like a particularly adventurous eater, I have a feeling this would be a memorable meal mostly due to how little you’d end up eating. Give it a pass and spend the money on another amazing experience you know you’d enjoy and remember for the rest of your lives.

11

I feel your pain.

12

From your description of your fiance, a trip to a top steakhouse might be a better choice. You can get the same kind of service, large portions of meat that melt in your mouth (probably not as nice as the wagyu in your menu, but that’s one or two bites) and let him go wild on the sides. Add a nice bottle of wine and you’re in the $100 - $150 per range.

Taking a person whose concept of a great steak is a $30 ribeye to a top notch steakhouse can be great fun. He will notice the difference, the only problem is that it’s hard to go back to cheap steaks afterwards.

13

I hear you. The wife and I splurge every Christmas in Vegas for one meal. The rest of the year we eat well but not fancy. Good home cooking and decent restaurants, but nothing that will Zagat sit up and take notice (except the little family-owned hole-in-the-wall, where you get the World’s Best Meal for $3.78). But I can remeber every bite of the last several expensive restaurants we went to. The wild boar at Olives in the Bellagio was fork-tender and succulent to a fault. But by far the best meal I have ever had was this last year at Mesa Grill. Bobby Flay may be an arrogant ass, but he’s created some wonderful dishes here. It ran about $150.00/person, but it was well worth it.
To the OP - that sounds rather overpriced for what you are looking for. I agree with the others - you probably don’t have the mental set-up and palate to really get the most out of that meal. Neither do I.

14

From your description of your fiance, a trip to a top steakhouse might be a better choice. You can get the same kind of service, large portions of meat that melt in your mouth (probably not as nice as the wagyu in your menu, but that’s one or two bites) and let him go wild on the sides. Add a nice bottle of wine and you’re in the $100 - $150 per range.

Taking a person whose concept of a great steak is a $30 ribeye to a top notch steakhouse can be great fun. He will notice the difference, the only problem is that it’s hard to go back to cheap steaks afterwards.

The menu you posted would appeal to a pretty sophisticated palate. I am a foodie, but I just don’t care for ox tongue, and white truffles would be a waste for me over gnocchi and broad beans.

15

Your fiance will probably hate it. You might like it, whether you’d consider it worth the price depends a little on how you feel about money, food and entertainment.

A meal like that is going to take hours, filling up your whole evening. If you think of it in terms of dinner and a show, where you might have $120pp theater tickets and $100pp dinner, it’s not as ridiculously expensive as if you’re comparing it just to the dinner.

In terms of whether the price you’re paying is justified in any practical sense, it’s hard to say. I’m sure there’s a significant luxury margin built into that price – the fact that it is $250 actually makes it more desirable than if it was $150 for many people. There’s a huge amount of staff and overhead expenses that go into running a luxury restaurant, though, so while the food cost multiplier on that meal is probably huge, the actual profit is likely slimmer than you’d think.

16

Man, I only tried for a month - you’ve been waiting a year to spend that voucher?!?! That must be very annoying. Can you use it at his pub? You could drown your sorrows over an awesome Sunday lunch perhaps? what makes me sick is the fact it was all booked for my birthday last year (or perhaps the year before) but my sistyer-in-law has a serious dairy intolerance so couldn’t have the tasting menu only problem is that you ALL have to have it or nobody gets it! I thought we could re-book later as it was easy to get the booking then he goes and get’s really high profile and buggers our plans up!

17

I think $250.00 is preposterous for that menu (mojo? tomato soup? brie? are they joking?), and tasting menus in general (like someone else pointed out) tend to try and go for a whole experience type of thing to justify the expense. I’d prefer a chef to hand me a blindfold and earplugs before experiencing one of these ‘tastings’…and the “with a touch of theater” indicates to me that you won’t be getting a $250.00 value in any event. At least not in food.

If you want theater take him skydiving then go for teppanyaki.

18

Exactly. I’m not a foodie either, but a couple of times a year I like to treat my wife and me to a really good dinner out. There are several expensive restaurants around that we like. She’s an excellent cook, but it’s a chance for us to get out of the house, let a babysitter mind the kids, and eat really well in a way we’d never do at home.

The prices in the place you’re considering sound pretty damn steep, but if it’s the kind of very rare treat you and your fiance would like to try, I’d say go for it. Live and learn.

19

I agree. I feel the same way about wine. I was trying ice wine, but I simply do not have a palate for it. I can’t really appreciate the difference between a $30/bottle ice wine and a $300/bottle ice wine. I was not able to appreicate the nuances, to me they both tasted like port. Unless my palate was better-schooled, a $300 ice wine would be completely wasted on me and not worth its price.

The best food I ever had ended up being $80 for the meal (not inlcuding the wine which was exquisite too).

20

The menu & prices you posted seem a bit “too” fine. Houston’s a pretty good food town with reasonable prices at many good restaurants & excellent ethnic food–often quite inexpensive.

Just at random, I found the menu for Mark’s American Cuisine–one of our top of the line places. You can pull it up here. It appears you could have an excellent dinner for two (including wine) for half the cost of your Melbourne place.

Vue De Monde does sound wonderful. The menu you posted is apparently a sample “Gastronome’s Menu”–at $250 a head. But the evening “Gourmand Menu” offers 5 courses for $150. Even plus wine, that’s a bit more reasonable. Considerlunch.

Perhaps you could start with a “cheaper” option?