I’ve been to FRED’S in Paddington a couple of times now. It’s always been good, but not that great. I suppose I had pretty high expectations. Merivale restaurants, in my experience, are always excellent – in terms of the fit-out, atmosphere as well as the food. I can’t fault the atmosphere or decor at FRED’S though. It’s like you’ve literally stepped into Danielle Alvarez’s home, with the big open kitchen where the staff are all quietly and peacefully chopping or cooking away. No one seems stressed, there are no huge steaming pots or sweaty chefs. It all feels calm and welcoming.
We went most recently for DS’s birthday. We’d already had a big day of eating, so by the time we got to our 5:45pm booking (book ahead, or you’ll get stuck with an unfavourable time like ours!) we weren’t really feeling hungry yet. We decided to start with a simple snack of the Wood oven fougasse with butter and olive oil ($6). It’s a type of french bread that is very tasty and quite dense. I like that they give you both butter and olive oil options!
We skipped proper starters and went straight for the mains. As you can see from the pictures, the presentation isn’t particularly ‘fine dining’ – it’s all quite rustic, which I don’t mind! However, the prices are a bit more ‘fine dining’. All mains are in their $40s, except the vegetarian option which I went for.
I really couldn’t go past the Galette of celeriac, pumpkin & potato, with comte & cime di rapa ($32). Celeriac is on my list of underrated vegetables and so every time it’s on the menu, I feel a huge compulsion to order it. It’s just so rare to see it on a menu! (On a side note, I made a potato and celeriac soup the other day and it was delicious.) Comte is a type of cheese (the white sauce you see on top of the dish) and cime di rapa is a leafy vegetable. This was a pretty creative and tasty vegetarian option!
DS had the Grilled veal loin chop, chestnut puree, roasted onion, sage & jus ($45). It’s the perfect, hearty winter meal so I hope it stays on the menu for the rest of the season. No complaints here but also, it’s a pretty basic dish that can’t really go wrong.
We were worried we wouldn’t have enough greens in our meal (feeling very conscious about this sort of ‘balanced diet’ thing at the moment!) so we also ordered some of Grandma’s roman beans ($12). I’m not actually sure what this involved but I think it was broad beans and a tomato-y sauce.
We did save some room for dessert! Well, dessert for DS – cheese for me! He had the Apple & poached quince crumble tart with vanilla anglaise ($15) which again, is a perfect dessert for winter. It has all the right things and who doesn’t love a little bit of vanilla sauce to smother your tart with!? I am trying to cut down on sugar where I can so I had a soft cow’s cheese with honeycomb, sourdough & lavosh ($10 per cheese).
All in all, a pretty good meal but nothing outstanding. It makes me wonder whether I’ll come back again, especially with such steep prices. Have you tried FRED’S?
FRED’S
380 OXFORD STREET
PADDINGTON, SYDNEY
https://merivale.com/venues/freds
