Caveau is Wollongong’s only hatted restaurant. Peter Sheppard the chef/owner cooks & serves modern french cuisine, he trained under Liam Tomlin at Banc. Banc produced a great pedigree of chefs, a great writeup on banc alumni is here. The restaurant is located on Wollongong’s main restaurant strip. Asian & a few Italian restaurants dominate Wollongong’s food scene, this has let Caveau carve its own niche in Wollongong with its french food. The decor is very tasteful & restrained, it is a very comfortable & welcoming fine dining establishment. It is a great place for intimate dinner with friends.

On thursday & friday, Caveau is open for lunch. Along with its a’la carte menu, a two course $45 lunch menu is available. I went over to Caveau for lunch, since it was my first time there I decided to try out the $45 two course lunch menu. My routine with restaurants is to take smallest option available during my first visit, If I like the place i’ll return for a splurge.

The first course was a prawn bisque with sauteed prawns and croutons. The bisque was presented beautifully, the contrast of the saffron orange colour of the bisque against the brilliant green dots of herb oil, green broad beans & watercress sprigs.

To say the bisque was amazing is an understatement, the prawn flavour was intense. If you are a prawn lover, you probably eat the prawn meat then suck the amazing juices off the prawn head. This bisque was like concentrating the flavour of 1000 prawn heads into this small bowl. The sauteed prawns and croutons add flavour & textural contrast to the overall dish.

Second course was a chicken ballotine with potato puree, mushrooms, buttered spinach and cepe sauce. The chicken was roasted to perfection and the spinach was buttery beautiful. The potato puree which was not enriched with cream or butter was great. The sauteed prawns & cepe sauce completed this great dish.

At the end of lunch, coffee & biscotti was served. The service at Caveau was very attentive, it is a great place to eat.