Other Published Opinions
The Age Good Food Guide 2013 Score: 15/20
Gourmet Traveller 2012 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: One Star "Refined, subtle, restrained. These are Embrasse words. It starts in the dining room, a monochromatic blend of hard and upholstered surfaces, linen-draped tables, quality stemware and service that's sharper and more focused than in the past"
Age Good Food Guide 2012 Score: 15/20, 1 Hat
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 15/20, One Hat
Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011
Gourmet Traveller 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "When he's not in the kitchen, or making a circuit of the sophisticated dining room. Embrasse owner/chef Nicolas Poelaert is likely to be found tending his garden. He grows many of the vegetables, herbs and flowers that wind up in dishes that sit as lightly on the land as they do on the stomach"
Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 15/20, One Hat "15/20
Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "That owner/chef Nicolas Poelaert is as keen about his garden as his kitchen is obvious the moment his food appears, adorned with tiny leaves, petals, shoots and stems. But the charm of Embrasse is not about the garnishes"
The Australian Food Eating Out, John Lethlean, 24-10-09 Score: 3/5 "Unfortunately Embrasse is proof, if any were needed, that fine chefs don't always make fine restaurateurs. Well not immediately, anyway. While not particularly expensive (unless, of course, you were hoping to drink wine with your dinner, in which case the selection is both limited and not particularly value-focused), Embrasse mixes a cocktail of relatively green service and a vibe that hovers just above funereal to produce an experience falling a few edible flowers short of a bouquet. I know the intentions of the front-of-house staff are good, but from the table, you cannot help but sense the enthusiasm and joy of the chef has been blunted somewhere between kitchen and dining room."
Herald Sun "The modern French restaurant, which has moved in where Three, One, Two left off, certainly looks the goods with smart chandeliers, flickering candles and sumptuous leather banquette. And the menu by chef/ owner Nicolas Poelaert is replete with such luxe ingredients as venison and wagyu"
Herald Sun Stephen Downes, 21-04-09 Score: 32/50 "EMBRASSE'S food is up to the moment, striving for exalted eating. Someone in London. Spain or Paris does foam and smears and chefs the world over want to follow. So we had a brilliant white-onion froth with two pieces of roasted lamb rump, a kind of loose potato "coulis", said the list, of light flavour with a chunk of calf's liver poached in milk, and a smear of sweet butternut pumpkin puree (and cubes of the vegetable) with slow-cooked beef cheek"
Age Larissa Dubecki, 24-3-2009 Score: 14.5/20