I have a food & wine crush – Meet Fillaudeau’s Cafe, Swan Valley

Guilty as charged! This is not my first time blogging about Fillaudeau’s, it’s actually my 3rd.. I seem to have a bit of a weakness for this lovely little foodie and wino delight in the Swan Valley.

Fillaudeau’s is located at Pinelli Wines, across from Ironbark Brewery on Benara Road, about a 5 minute drive from Guildford, or 5km walk from Guildford train station if you’re super keen (it’s actually a very pleasant, very flat walk past all the vines, I’d definitely recommend it!). Beats someone being the sober driver at least!

It’s been nearly a year since Mr. Spittoon and I visited. Since then it has had a bit of a refurb with a lovely red, white and black theme seducing you with its romance. It’s a beautiful spot as is, I love the little outside terrace bit with it’s pretty vintage furniture overlooking the vines a mere hop, skip and jump away. Pinelli wines is a stunning spot, I love their affection for roses, the cascading vines and the old rustic pieces of vineyard equipment. There’s a lot of love in this paragraph!

I never had any qualms about the service at Fillaudeau’s however when we visited last weekend it was superb, every single member of staff was super friendly, chirpy and what I have always loved about this spot is that they explain those tricky foodie terms without any snobbery. It was actually Fillaudeau’s who taught Mr. Spittoon and I what EVOO is!

The menu has since had a makeover as well, it’s a shame Manu’s Floating Pie and the dessert platter are no longer on the menu as they still stick out in my mind as the best dishes I had on our previous visit (read my July 2013 post here). However  on this visit I really only had eyes for one dish and that was the pork belly, I don’t know what it is with the world and pork belly at the moment but everyone can’t seem to get enough of it, me included!

So to start we opted for the French Dipping Plate with homemade whole meal bread, baguette (I would have per refers double the amount of the homemade bread, as it was so delicious!), marinated olives (big, juicy and delicious), homemade dukkah, Cooladera Farm extra Virgin Olive oil from Frankland River in WA, balsamique reduction and French Celtic sea salt butter – Mr Spittoon couldn’t get enough of the latter two! All up it was a nice start to the meal for $19.

While we were nibbling French style we sipped on a glass each of the Pinelli Wines Sparkling Juliet NV. It was refreshing and the creamy palate married well with that tasty homemade bread. I just don’t know why restaurants still use those clunky generic wine glasses. The wines would be so much nicer out of a Riedel or Plumm glass in my opinion, and they look so much nicer.

As we were nearly the first people in the restaurant (yep 5pm, I know I’m getting old!) the chef was ready to get started on our mains however the waiter asked if we would like a little break,which we agreed too and it was such a lovely idea as we had time to order another glass of wine each and extend this lovely meal out. It was this point I was thinking I probably shouldn’t have filled up on all that bread! Actually being out early for dinner was so gorgeously beautiful as we got to watch the sunset behind the Pinelli vines, über romance! 10 points Mr. Spittoon.

So for the mains, I of course went for the 3 hour braised Linley Valley free range pork belly and it’s crackling topped with homemade honeycomb, Swan Valley green asparagus in espellette pepper purée, buttery mash and port jus for $39. I matched this gluten-free dish with a glass of the 2012 Pinelli Reserve Merlot for approximately $9 per glass, I was hoping for a nice Pinot Noir however they didn’t have any available by the glass. The soft, fruity Merlot matched this spectacular dish rather well however. I loved the flavours of this pork belly dish, finally something a little different and absolutely delightful!

Mr. Spittoon went for the 350 gram gin gin free range grass-fed baby beef rib eye served with homemade French fries, garlic and butter French beans, drizzled with black pepper sauce. This gluten-free option was $45 and Mr. Spittoon opted for a glass of the 2012 Reserve Shiraz for about $9. I must admit as soon as I saw the fries I thought they were underdone as they didn’t have much colour however they were cooked to perfection, crispy and melt in your mouth delicious. Other than stealing a chip off Mr. Spittoon’s plate I didn’t get a chance to try anything else or even his wine, he scoffed it in what seemed like 2 seconds. I believe him when he said it was awesome!

By this stage I really wanted to do dessert as the Belgian chocolate fondant and the papaya crumble sound so delectable however I couldn’t have rammed another mouthful in even if I tried. I was perfectly satisfied and not in stretchy pants so I stopped myself there!

All up it was a beautiful meal at Filladeau’s. For $138 for a lovely romantic fine dining meal for 2 people it was just perfect. This is definitely one of my top spots in the Valley, however I would love to see that floating pie back on the menu!

For more information please check out Filladeau’s Cafe website or connect with them on Facebook or Twitter.