Bistro Sousou — Restaurant in Melbourne

ORDERED: 🦪​ Oysters: Shucked to order with sauce mignonette ($27.00) 🐌 Escargot special ($28.50) 🐄 Steak Tartare special ($22.00)

🐓 Coq Au Vin: Chicken braised in an alsace riesling with lardons, shallots & mushroom ($36.00) 🦆​ Confit De Canard: Confit duck leg, choucroute, cherry jus ($38.00) ​🐟 Fish of the day: today's market fresh fish ($42.00)

🍮 Creme Brulee ($15.00) ​​🥧 Tarte Tatin ($19.00)

REVIEW: Loved the interior. It's like you've been transported to another city, and another time with its weathered wall paint, old school chandeliers and worn comfortable leather chairs. A basic menu (with tonnes of specials on offer) keeps things classic with a delicious bread and butter course to start.

For the entrees, really enjoyed the garlic and buttery escargot, surprisingly light and fresh steak tartare with its unique crispy waffle fries and the creamy oysters. It's a great start to any french meal with these 3 entrees, and I've never been let down.

From the mains, the duck was our favourite. As a confit, would've been nice if the duck was a little more tender but with its great balance of flavours from the cherry jus, sweetness and a little tartness from the citrus slice, it was a great dish. The Coq Au Vin felt like a hearty dish you'd have next to a open hearth on a cold winter night, while the fish was a let down compared to the other mains.

As others have mentioned, service at Bistro Sousou is great. Friendly people, and they were able to cater to my friend's diary-free allergy by placing the icecream of the tarte tatin on the side.

Why Bistro Sousou didn't get a 5 from me this time: They did not provide a spoon with the migonette sauce (oysters dish) and on request for a spoon - we ended up with a soup spoon. Made it really difficult for us to get the sauce out of its small ceramic plating, but we made do. Timing between the main and the dessert was extremely long, without any acknowledgement or explanation from the servers. Mains were a little lacklustre. The potatos in the fish of the day was bland, and the skin of the fish was missing some intrigue. Would've been a good opportunity to add some flavour, or some crisp to the skin to give it that satisfying crunch - especially when it's served dry and not...

Welcome feedback from the restaurant if my review of my experience appears unreasonable. I booked late through Opentable for an available time at 6pm for a New Years Eve Experience (4 course) for two at 150 per head. We were the first table seated. Experience started well however we first received the wrong entree and the time between each dish became longer and longer with the time between the entree and the main becoming over 55mins with other tables already finishing mains and some even receiving desserts before us and obvious left well ahead. We enquired about our mains to the male waiter at around the 45minute mark with a response coming 5mins later from another waitress with a short apology and no explanation as to why. We would have liked some sort of update to tell us that there is a delay prior to my enquiry. To be fair yes it was a busy night, but when you only allow a set price course meal, you need to be better prepared. You knew the number of tables you knew number of bookings.. You could clearly see other tables also checking their watches and looking over towards the kitchen while waiting for there respective dishes and one even being offered the dessert menu prior to them receiving the mains! We enquired about whether they keep track of what times the dishes come out, answer was no. Maybe something to consider! This level of service regardless of the quality of the food is not acceptable at any price level. We went down to the Builder Arms hotel down the road and honestly from the wine pouring to checking in on us, it was miles ahead....

We came here last year and absolutely adored this place; however, our experience last Friday could not have been more different. The food was very disappointing; overpriced and the service was poor. Not sure if the person waiting on our table was new but they seemed to have no knowledge of the wines and seemed generally aloof about the menu. There was no sommelier we could ask either. The decor is still charming and inviting but unfortunately the quality of the food and service does not warrant a return. We Ordered: chicken liver parfait- ok flavour but definitely not creamy enough to be a parfait and was much more a pate Baked camembert- ok by why put salad leaves on top of it? weird coq au vin- very small portion (like just a thigh?) for $39 confit de canard- flavour was ok but covered in a sauce that I wasn't fond of wagyu rump- again covered in a sauce which was not mentioned on the menu and which completely masked the flavour of the steak cauliflower gratin- probably the only dish we collectively enjoyed but given it's a side dish- hardly a reason to return creme brulee- ok. flavour was nice but a little grainy and dry. we ordered a bottle of the Barolo after lots of googling of the wines on offer and it was nice but really, at the prices they are charging, you would expect someone to be able to give you a run down of the wines and match something with what...