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Chocolate tart: one of the sweet delights on offer at Moulin Noir

Moulin Noir, a little French café/restaurant tucked off Bay St, is a great casual dining experience. It’s perfect for lunch, with sandwiches large enough to silence even the most talkative of ladies. As I found out recently, dinner was pretty good too.

The café is cloaked in hues of chocolate: a warm yet sophisticated palette of browns that ooze warmth and French elegance. The most comfortable seat in the house is the leather couch at the back of the café, particularly if you’re just settling down for coffee.

Rosemary-infused chips

You’ll find the dinner menu scrawled on the back wall, featuring a range of tasting plates and mains with a French bent. Last night, I chose a pan-seared duck breast, served with garlic and spring onion sweet-potato mash, asparagus, and a fig and peppercorn sauce. The duck was sliced and drizzled with the sticky sauce, sitting alongside a generous pile of vibrant orange mash. It all worked well together: the duck was tender and full of flavour, complimented by the sweetness of the fig and mash.

If you prefer your meat red, go for the melt-in-your-mouth Margaret River eye fillet. It’s perched atop a bed of crispy fat chips, and accompanied by a gorgeous-looking salad of roquette, pear and walnut. Not quite in the same league as Bistro Guillaume’s tenderloin, but close.

Need evidence of how Moulin Noir has evolved? Here is the roast beef sandwich, which has changed in looks and size since the cafe’s inception.

The roast beef sandwich, as eaten in March 2009

Roast beef sandwich, as eaten in February 2010

Positioned amongst a concrete jungle of apartment buildings, Moulin Noir is inviting and exceedingly French. The food is consistently good, and the atmosphere is comfortable: perfect for a date, a quiet breakfast or lunch with your girlfriends.

IN A NUTSHELL: punches above its weight