Bistro Terroir — Restaurant in Victoria

Disappointing experience, both FOH & BOH. Visited the town by driving from Melbourne and picked this top rated place for dinner. When we firstly sat down and offered menu, my partner asked a senior waiter that if you’ve got an a la carte menu instead of 2 or 3 courses set menu? The waiter rudely and impatiently said this is a la carte menu and you’ve to pick 2 or 3 courses out of it. The lack of professionalism and proper training shocked us as it claims to be a French restaurant but the staff doesn’t hold essential knowledge. It’s just a start. A junior waiter later served all tables with warm breads and butter but only us didn’t get butter so we asked the senior waiter for it after 10 mins, and a solid frozen quenelle of butter was served when a fork couldn’t even cut in.

I have tried a lot of ox tongue dishes processed by different cooking techniques in different levels of restaurants and this dish at Terroir is the worst as it just tastes like a few pieces of ham socked in warm consommé when it is too salty to taste anything else. Beef tartare is beautiful and flavoursome. Duck and Wagyu rumps were both over cooked - duck was so dry that every bite couldn’t be without the sauce. Wagyu has no big issues but a little overbooked but acceptable, the chips are a fiasco as one third of them had been deep fried a few times too hard and the oil has darkened them while all you can taste is oil in the deep fryer and unpleasant crispiness.

The serving speed was ridiculously slow and all the tables around us expressed disappointment as it wasn’t busy at all when almost half of the room was empty by 8:30 pm on a Tue night. The portion size and the quality of the food is not what we expected for the price and I believe the head chef could do better as they’re all basic and non-complicated French dishes...

🦆 Duck Leg 🦀 Crab Souffle 🍳 Steak Tartare 🥩 Sher Wagyu 6+ Rump, Café Paris Butter, Shoestring Fries 🥕 Dutch Carrots 🍏 Apple Tarte Tartin 🍮 Creme Brûlée

Bistro Terroir (pronounced “ter-wah”) is Daylesford’s friendly neighbourhood French bistro. Owner and Head Chef Matthew Carnell brings the town his skills and experience, including working at a 2 Michelin Star restaurant in France! Terroir means the complete natural environment in which a particular crop is produced, including things like soil, topography, and climate. 🇫🇷

You can either opt for their 2 ($70) or 3 ($85) course menu, where you can choose your preferred entree, main and dessert. Throughout the seating you will be offered as much fresh bread and butter as you like. The cocktails are carefully curated by their bar staff, I loved my cocktail with Thyme - not a usual herb you would see in a cocktail but it worked so well. 🌿

For entrees we found the Crab Souffle to be pillowy and light with a very prominant crab flavour. It was personally too much for my taste but for someone who loves a strong seafood taste would appreciate it. The Steak Tartare was a hit, lots of exploding flavours, tangy and spicy. 🌶

Both of our mains had us salivating. The Steak was perfectly cooked and seasoned it was impossible to fault. The Duck Leg had the crispiest skin and the best I’ve had to date. The Dutch Carrots were a great pairing. For dessert, the Creme Brûlée was beautifully light and the Apple Tarte Tartin was the perfect sweetness with a crisp pastry.

We really enjoyed our experience here, although the venue looks quite formal and fancy, the service is great, staff are very personable and have a great sense of humour. 3 courses wasn’t too much and we left completely satisfied. Happy Hour runs Friday-Sunday 4-6pm offering $5 Beer and...

We managed to get a table even though I booked a week off in error facepalm. The ambiance was good with impeccable staff service.

Entrees: i had the ox tongue which was delectable and an interesting concoction of flavours with the artichoke and myriad others. My wife had the pork belly and scallop which despite being a smaller portion was amazing as per her. She usually lets me take a nibble. For her to consume it before I could touch it says a fair bit about how it was. She said the crisp and juiciness were easily above the ones you can usually find locally. She noted it was so tender she initially thought they swapped the pork for fish based on how tender it was.

Mains: My wife had the Bourride and I had the Steak (sher wagyu 6+ rump) with fries. The bourride's rockling and mussels are so fresh (absence of any fishy undertone which is absurdly rare nowadays) it made me wonder how the heck they could source such fresh seafood in an inland location like Daylesford and my steak and fries were done to perfection. Medium rare, cooked enough to retain juiciness and remove the gaminess and the texture was simply an example of what a textbook steak should be like. The fries somehow went really went with the jus and sauce yet somehow retaining the crispiness.

Dessert: Both my wife and I ordered the mille-feuille. It was a bit different from what I expected and would admit am not a fan of apricot but the vanilla bean ice cream was beautiful and the pastry was a delight. Honestly would rather my desert me just those two components.

In summation the meal was a good one and easily worth the effort to try it out during our Daylesford trip. If we return to the area I will book again and try to get the dates...