Parisien fever dream is a must-visit destination diner

It’s an impressive entry. Wander inside Maison Bâtard and you’re welcomed by an exquisitely dressed maître d’ enquiring as to where you’re headed across Chris Lucas’s four-level Melbourne flagship.

Would it be downstairs to a private function in the Supper Club or the main dining room at street level or maybe the first-floor dining room or then again, the rooftop terrace. This is Lucas’s masterpiece to go along with his other city ventures including Chin Chin, Kisume, Society and more although they were the warm-up acts in many ways for this sprawling multi-venue fine diner and bar.

Our allotted waiter Katrina picks us up at the door and walks us into the grand street-level dining room. A stylish room with dark wood-panelling and smoky wall mirrors that blur your reflection just enough to make you feel you’ve wandered into a moving trompe l’œil with a title like “The Patrons”.

This is Chris Lucas’s love letter to French cuisine and style.

It’s a French brasserie feel but still exudes something quintessentially Melbourne. It could be the slightly overweening style or the collection of patrons on the day we dined – ranging from an office birthday lunch to ladies who were seriously lunching to tables of preternaturally tall chaps with ruddy complexions talking footballing days past and ultimate fighting or both.

It was AFL Grand Final eve in Melbourne so the weather was cold and wet and Maison Bâtard’ s interior felt like a very comfortable home for the afternoon. The big dining room with its velvet chairs and banquettes sprawled across a large space was filled with an excited and happy crowd who seemed energised by the season’s footballing finale.

Facing us as we entered was the huge open kitchen with the heady aromas of freshly baked bread and slow-roasting rotisserie chicken immediately reminding me I hadn’t eaten breakfast. An icy mountain of the freshest of seafood also took a centre-stage position.

According to Lucas, the restaurant is his love letter to French cuisine and style and put bluntly, the interiors right across the four floors are obviously a no-expense spared vision of a Francophile’s fevered dream.

Pacific and pasture. Brittany and Bordeaux.

As for the food we dove right in with gravlax salmon and a gorgeous tuna nicoise. Both delicately flavoured and ultimately supremely fresh. If anything, the tuna nicoise lacked a little kick but it was magnificently allied with a 2018 Levantine Hill Katherine’s Paddock Chardonnay so all was pretty much forgiven.

While the main menu is extensive and does cover nearly every brasserie favourite it is actually quite balanced rather than big sauce-heavy French showstoppers. It’s a nod to where we are which is Melbourne where the influence is more the lighter olive oil-influenced part of the Mediterranean than a Parisien arrondissement.

My colleague and I share mains of King George whiting that has been lightly pan fried and delicately seasoned to preserve the sweet fresh flavours of the fish as well as a nice big sirloin.

Yep, it was surf and turf, Pacific and Pasture or Brittany and Bordeaux.

A no-expense-spared Francophile’s fevered dream.

The sirloin was beautifully grilled with the fat rendered gorgeously throughout the meat. A full range of condiments was on offer as was some wonderful thin-cut fries. I tried to take them all but failed.

All matched with a 2021 Stefano Lubiana Il Giardino Pinot Noir. I’ll admit I was in a very happy place. The wine list itself is rather extensive and covers some of Australia’s finest but is slightly dominated by a sizeable proportion of Gallic drops.

For dessert we again shared. My colleague always insists on sharing so he can take the moral high ground if I dare to go beyond 50/50 although he often protests too much. I spy him digging away at the crème brulee with a gold prospector’s gusto.

To finish an herbaceous Braulio Riserva Amaro. Sure, it’s Italian but this is a French restaurant more closely aligned to its Mediterranean roots anyway. It’s super flash and a tad expensive considering the service was a little patchy but well-worth sampling.

There’s a certain clubbiness to the vibe which could be slightly grating for some but overall, it’s a grand statement restaurant crowning Bourke Street hill. All that has to be done now is for someone to finally renovate The Windsor Hotel and we can forget about the Paris end of Collins Street (a very Melbourne reference).

Did I love it? Not quite but as my colleague will testify, I had to be virtually rolled out of there after one too many Dirty Bâtard Martinis on the rooftop La Terrasse, so what could possibly be wrong?