12.5 / 20 How we score French $$ $$ What is the thing trying to do? How well does it do it? These should be criticism’s primary concerns, whether directed at a restaurant, the oeuvre of Yahoo Serious or an eight-hour-long piece of Laurie Anderson performance art dissecting the soul of a nation through polyphonic subtractive synthesiser. Sometimes the intent will take a bit of effort to whittle down.
Sometimes the maker puts it right up front. “I want it to be better food than you can cook at home,” says Manu Feildel to a nearby table at his new Rozelle pub bistro , “but not too good.” Perfect.
Love that. Half my job’s done. Manu (because writing “Feildel” feels weird, like using “Winfrey” or “Starr”) rose to first-name status through television programs such as Ready Steady Cook and My Kitchen Rules .
Every so often, the chef will also open a restaurant, and Sydney readers may recall Duck In Duck Out spruiking Quack Daddy burgers at World Square in 2018. It lasted a year. In 2014, Manu launched Melbourne’s Le Grand Cirque in partnership with George Calombaris.
That one lasted four months. Speaking to Good Food ahead of his new place opening in July, Manu said he wasn’t doing it “for the accolades or hats”. That’s fair enough.
No tweezered borage, no problem. But when main courses hover around $40, a restaurant still has to get the basics right. Basics such as serving cutlery for the share plates, or the seasoning (there’s almost none) for a.
