Vue de Monde is a French bistro restaurant in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia.

Description

The restaurant is located in the observation deck on the 55th floor of the

Rialto Towers Rialto (often The Rialto, or Rialto Towers) is a skyscraper located at 525 Collins Street, Melbourne, Collins Street, in the western side of the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. It was the tallest office building in the ...

. The interior of the venue contains "fluffy kangaroo chairs, and table dressings of stretched black leather". It is decorated by street art from the Melbourne street artist Rone. , the price of the restaurant's tasting menu is $360 per person. Food served includes marron,

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

s, cheeses, and aged

wagyu Wagyu (, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ''wagyū'', ) is the collective name for the four principal List of Japanese cattle breeds, Japanese breeds of beef cattle. All wagyū cattle originate from early twentieth-century cross-breeding between ...

beef. Seafood served includes rock oysters, and Western Australian black sea snails. Penfolds Grange to match birthdays is also available.

History

Prior to its move to the Rialto in 2011, the restaurant was located for six years at Normanby Chambers. Founded by Shannon Bennett in 2000, it operated as "merely a very good" French bistro in Carlton. The grammatically incorrect name, Vue de Monde (it ought to use the partitive article 'du') resulted from an error by Bennett when registering the name. The current head chef Hugh Allen worked formerly at Noma in Copenhagen. Like Bennett before him, he has also made many appearances as a guest judge on the popular cooking show

MasterChef Australia ''MasterChef Australia'' is an Australian competitive cooking reality show based on the original British ''MasterChef (British TV series), MasterChef''. It is produced by Endemol Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and ch ...

. In 2023, the restaurant closed temporarily for renovations.

Reception

Reviewer Gemima Cody of ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' rated the venue an 18/20 in her 2021 review. Dishes that received particular praise in the review included the marron in native Australian curry broth. However, she said that the Shepherd avocado in a ginger and lemon aspen broth "fell flat". Cody described the restaurant as one with considerable "star power and history" in Melbourne, with the "best ingredients that money can buy".

References

{{Portal bar, Food, Australia Restaurants in Melbourne 2000 establishments in Australia Collins Street, Melbourne French restaurants French-Australian culture European restaurants in Australia