Liberte restaurant review: Albany boudoir of food and booze is a French-Vietnamese masterpiece

Liberte, egalite, fraternite! Not quite. A massive mural of Eugene Delacroix’s romantic-era masterpiece Liberty Leading The People, featuring the titular bare-breasted heroine, adorns the wall leading into the dining room of Parisian-inspired bar and French-Vietnamese restaurant, Liberte. Stepping inside this boudoir of food and booze is to enter an absinthe fever dream. One wall is covered with the foliage of a Henri Rousseau primitive work, an art nouveau light-stand perches above mismatched wooden thrones doubling as dining chairs, while a garish chandelier dangles above a roaring fire. There’s more mirrors than a spiegeltent. An all-women floor team runs the show. Boys in the kitchen. There’s serious feminine energy at work in Liberte, which chef and owner Amy Hamilton opened a decade ago in the London Hotel. Liberte, egalite, sororite! That’s better. Liberte is an institution in Albany, and WA. Ask anyone for recommendations of where to dine in the port city and they won’t even mention Liberte. It’s a given, and rightly so. On a recent Saturday night, my Francophile wife Myra and I wandered from our accommodation to Liberte. I won’t even mention it was freezing cold. It’s a given in Albany in late June. We entered through the gift shop, I mean, the corner bar. Random bric-a-brac was everywhere, and posters for Gallic booze and local pride events plastered the walls. Still reeling from the previous day’s drive and hauling two children around Albany all day, Myra ordered the Corpse Reviver No. 2 ($23). The blend of dry gin, Lillet Blanc, Cointreau and absinthe did what it said, and Myra was suddenly perkier than lady Liberty’s right boob in the mural. I had a La Boheme ($24), basically a French margarita and one of 16 house cocktails. Both cocktails were top shelf. If you’re visiting Albany and can’t get a booking, still pop into the bar for a drink. One of the boys from the kitchen ventured into the bar and commented that it was “very chill” tonight. “Such a weird weekend,” a bartender mused. If Liberte was quiet, I’d love to see it busy as the dining room was buzzing when we entered. Maybe it was the cocktails. We were shown to our table with high-backed, padded wooden chairs. Our lovely waiter walked us through the menu, told us their favourites and grabbed us a bottle of the “feature wine”, a 2018 syrah grenache from L’Enclos du Tertre. “I want to come back here already,” Myra said. We hadn’t had a bite yet. Once we had, so did I. The Vietnamese beef carpaccio ($24) was marinated in five-spice seasoning, fish sauce, ginger and lime, with peanuts, scallion oil, perilla leaves and piquant green chilli. Nutty, spicy and chewy, this dish had flavour forever. You could take a mouthful in Albany, start walking north on the Bibbulmun Track and still be savouring it in Kalamunda. Similarly, the umami notes of the warm mushroom and celeriac salad with hazelnuts and black garlic cream ($24) were built to last. The crunchy nuts and tender mushrooms proved that Hamilton equally considers flavour and texture. Next came the garlic chilli crab noodles ($32), also known as “crack noodles”. Liberte knows the narcotic effects of its tucker. What these noodles lacked in spice they made up for in moreishness. Is that a word? Who cares! These were beyond delicious. The garlic oil and XO sauce clung to the noodles like the French cling to their paid leave. So far, we’d had three excellent dishes, with two fabulous cocktails and a ripper bottle of wine. Tres magnifique! Us: Nothing could top this. I’m confident in this assessment of the meal to this point. One hundred per cent sure. Confit rabbit noodles ($32): hold my absinthe. Us: (silent eating, occasionally moaning in delight). All rabbit should be shredded confit and dressed in mustard and cream sauce, then served with knife-cut noodles (well, pasta), parsley and garlic crumb, plus more mustard oil. Dish of the year. Which year? Pick one. I don’t care, I love it! This was like messy bunny lasagne. Lapine lasagnes! Heaven on a big bistro plate. Even the waiter gave us a nod, like we’d just entered a secret club — the Eaters of Shredded Confit Rabbit at Liberte. IYKYK. Given the quality so far, and the fact a third of the crab noodles were coming back to our accommodation to go under eggs the next morning, we had to try a dessert. Liberte has three, all cost $18. There’s ginger creme brulet, steamed lemongrass and golden syrup pudding and profiteroles. We went for the profiteroles, which were filled with Vietnamese coffee ice-cream and covered with nuts and other yummy stuff. By this stage, I was numb with joy. Full as an ouef. Happier than a cochon dans la merde. So was Myra, and we weren’t alone. The place was still buzzing, and Albanians and tourists were still trickling in to start dinner when most other venues in town were mopping the floor. Liberte is the sort of restaurant were laughs grow louder, conversation deepens, elevates and escalates, and staff become confidants. Hamilton the Musical would be a massive hit if it ever came to Perth. Same goes for Hamilton the Restaurant. Liberte 162 Stirling Terrace, Albany OPEN Tuesday-Saturday, 11.30am-2.30pm, 5pm-late. CONTACT 9847 4797, libertealbany.com.au BOOKINGS Yes THE VERDICT Wonderful queer-friendly bar and French-Vietnamese diner in historic Albany. Amy Hamilton’s creation would kick derriere anywhere and everywhere. Extravagant dining room, super service, great drinks and flavour-packed food. Unique. 17.5/20