Frenchies Bistro and Brewery — Restaurant in Sydney

It took Bruce Dukes 25 years into his professional career in the wine industry to make his first wine under his own label, Domaine Naturaliste. You’ll find his Western Australian winery and cellar door about three hours drive south-west from Perth, just north of Margaret River and about seven clicks inland from the Indian Ocean. Being part of a peninsula and the interface with the Great Southern Ocean, the area is surrounded by ocean which gives it a huge amount of insulation and a long, gentle growing season that makes it perfect for cabernet sauvignon and Chardonnay. Earlier this week I joined him (and 32 other wine aficianados) at Frenchies Bistro and Brewery in Rosebery for a wine dinner ($110/head) to see why.

With Margaret River also well-known for its sauvignon blanc, we kicked off with two expressions of the grape, a 2021 Domaine Naturaliste Sauvignon Blanc Semillon ($24.99) and the 2021 ‘Sauvage’ Sauvignon Blanc ($32.99). While it’s not my grape, I appreciated the mostly (90%) sauvignon blend’s light, fragrant and grassy appeal with lime-like sharpness against buttered sourdough and a mud crab, cauliflower and citrus zest tartlet. Against my favourite Domaine Naturaliste wine, the 2021 ‘Artus’ Chardonnay ($54.99) made from the Gin Gin clone, we ate the dish of the night: hand-rolled prawn tortellini with saffron bisque. The perfectly formed and toothsome pasta showcased the toasted French oak, bright acidity and fresh nectarine notes this impressive chardonnay that has had a full secondary fermentation with Dukes trusting the microbiology and naturally occurring yeasts to do their thing.

Against a slab of ten-day duck that was brined, smoked then roasted until it had a ham-like salty intensity, we moved onto the cabernet sauvignons. Margaret River suits the grape because it ripens in mid-March where lower daytime and nighttime temperatures allow it to keep its perfumes and flavours. The mid-level 2018 ‘Rebus’ Cabernet Sauvignon ($29.99) gave me green stem, dark red fruit and pepper, while the flagship 2018 ‘Morus’ Cabernet Sauvignon ($84.99) had more softness with perfumed violets and the tart mulberries that are characteristic of the local heritage clone. While the duck breast ate well against parsnip and duck jus, the meal lacked balancing greens. While the dinner continued into cabernet francs and a well-executed chocolate entremet, being largely a white wine drinker, I walked away with the aforementioned ‘Artus ‘and a delightful bottle of the 2018 Domaine Naturaliste ‘Purus’ Chardonnay ($54.99). The latter is fine and delicate with lychee, white peach and mineral characters that Dukes described as like licking stalectites. Can’t say I have, but it sure painted a great picture as I drank the...

I rarely give negative reviews - this is only the second one out of many and I thought about it but decided to share my experience. I wouldn’t call myself a regular but have been to Frenchies at least 20 times in the last 5 years with my wife or father in law. The last 3 times the wife and I went for (the Cheeseburger) the accompanying fries were cold. The third time, I pointed this out to the waitress, who was very pleasant and agreed. It was 6.00pm, they weren’t busy and the fries had obviously been left far too long in a warmer rather than being cooked to order. My wife is a chef but this is a no brainer to work out. I told the waitress , I would rather give personal feedback than leave a bad Google review. Yesterday, Saturday 18th October 2025 I went for lunch with a mate. We ordered a Cheeseburger each. I politely asked the male waiter to ensure the fries were hot as it had not been my experience recently. I was very polite and didn’t make a big deal at all. He acted like I’d suggested something completely outrageous and went off with the order. A waitress whom I have not seen before, bought our meals and stated in a very smart arse way “he says if you want the fries hot you should eat them first”. She then went to the bar and had a laugh with the waiter. This was completely uncalled for; the implication being that I’m some sort of idiot that would eat everything before any fries and then complain. She returned later to ask if everything was okay in a rude fashion also. I don’t like to moan, if you Google me you will see that I’ve been a successful comedian for 40 years and still have a show streaming on Amazon. I raise a lot of money for sick children. I only mention this by way of hopefully showing I’m not some grouch with nothing better to do than complain, but this was a lousy experience and we won’t be back. Let me say that in the past, all the wait staff - in the evenings anyway, have been...

Wouldn’t usually leave a bad review but our experience of dining at Frenchies was sadly quite unenjoyable. My husband had surprised me for Valentines Day with dinner out (we have two very young children and no family here so it’s a rare treat!) and we arrived 10 minutes before booking to see no available tables but lots of couples sitting outside the venue having drinks. We were told that things were running late so a round of drinks were on them which was a nice touch. We sat down 30 minutes later at almost 9pm to a half made up table. We tried to shrug it off but the service got worse and worse. We had to constantly ask for things (napkins, drink menus, water) and as we were there for a set menu ($92) we assumed it would be relatively quick to get courses out but over the next two hours we were served 3 very small dishes (mixed quality, pasta was rubbery, I left half my two pieces of beef as one was inedible) and at no point did anyone check in on us or ask if we were ok, food ok etc. There seemed enough staff so it was hard to understand what had gone wrong. We actually only had our babysitter to 11pm so we had to leave without even having our desserts. It was Valentines, so it was busy of course but it just was such an unpleasant experience I would never go back, nor recommend. To spend $200 almost and then another $75 for a babysitter and to feel you might have been better off staying at home and ordering in is disappointing indeed. I’ve worked in hospitality before and things often don’t go to plan but this service was...