Rob Broadfield review: A little bit of France in Albany at Majuba Bistro on York Street

Mon dieu! A French bistro in Australia’s most French city, Albany. It’s owned and run by a couple, she from South Africa, he from Germany. They are respectively Andrea Love and (chef) Johann Prins-Gurtel. They took over a heritage-listed shop in Albany’s York Street last year and started a full back-to-bricks renovation. They opened in January this year. COVID arrived a month later. Tough times. The doughty couple kept their cool, battened the hatches and survived. Just. Majuba could be a generations-old Rive Gauche bistro. Its interiors, bric-a-brac and objet trouve are as French as a farmers’ strike, and yet, brilliantly the interior is neither a twee Disneyland version of an ancient Parisienne bistro nor a sugar-coated cliche with Gauloises posters. It has been embraced by locals and travellers alike. And they get it. People, yes Albany people, eat at the long bar. Bar dining is a hard sell in WA and yet, here, at the edge of the Southern Ocean in a small regional city, the localhaut monde are sipping chablis and eating grilled prawns on bar stools. “Bistro” is in the title, but it’s much more, with a surprisingly large menu (14 starters and entrees, 17 mains, seven sides) offering tapas (think Serrano gammon — their misspelling, not ours), pasta dishes, arancini and pork ribs. But then it is also French because it offers three potato dishes, roast duck with pear and calvados, a bouillabaisse and prawns with Pernod. The cooking is a little rough around the edges. An entrecote could have been better bought and better trimmed, prawns should have been less cooked, and a moules mariniere sauce could have been more reduced, more flavoured with wine, more garlicky, but this is a bistro, not a Michelin-starred fine diner and its rough edges — let’s call it rusticity — are part of the bistro experience. Just as long as rough edges don’t translate to bad or lazy cookery, of course. Roasted quail, $25, was generous: a whole jumbo. “Perfectly cooked, incredibly juicy” was the judgment of the table. Better still was the lentils and mushroom garnish on which the pink roasted bird perched. They were of the French lentils Le Puy variety, braised in vegetable stock and finished with an emulsion of butter and a perky jab of acid from white wine. Entrecote, $47, was a sirloin steak, chargrilled and well rested. It was a little too chewy, but better that than a bland steak without texture. It was served with perfectly cooked Albany asparagus poached in vegetable stock. The sauce was a corker: housemade demi-glace reduction made with beef bones and red wine. Albany sardines, $18, were a lesson in well-crafted simplicity. The fish had been marinated in chilli, olive oil, garlic and thyme before being pan-seared briefly and mounted on small, sardine-sized toasts with tomato concasse and a little fetta. Mussels, $29, were served with fries. The bivalves were the only real disappointment. While they had been properly cooked — plump, just opened and sweet — the broth was insipid and lacked flavour. A backbeat of fresh bay and caraway seed scented the sauce. The fries were outstanding. “Sizzling” garlic prawns, $27, were notable for their lack of sizzle. The Noilly Prat emulsion sauce was, however, punchy, salty and plate lickable. A tickle of chilli and chopped parsley added depth. Service at Majuba is up to scratch. We discovered WA’s hardest working waiter at Majuba, the aptly named Sam Champion. He was everywhere, serving with pace but not panic; anticipating, upselling, on the ball, enquiring about quality without being supercilious or in your face. He’s got more moves than a Rolex. There was none of the gormless bumpkin approach one often gets from underskilled and overcompensating country waiters. Mr Champion makes a good cocktail, too. The unexpected and delightful discovery at Majuba is that it is also a bar, which makes it easy to eat and drink how you choose. You could, for instance, chow down on chorizo and chickpeas, $17, with a glass of wine — a good idea for the cinq a sept hours. Cinq a sept is a very French euphemism for that time between 5pm and 7pm when one meets one’s lover before heading home to family responsibilities. In recent times, it has come to mean happy hour.Almost exactly 200 years ago, the French hoisted the tricolor over what would become Albany on behalf of Napoleon. The British kicked them out in quick time. And now, a little bit of France called Majuba has returned to Albany and it’s a reason to make the drive. 132 York Street, Albany 9841 1852 Open Tuesday, 5pm-10pm; Wednesday-Saturday, noon-10pm; Sunday and Monday, closed. Prices Tapas and entrees, $9-$26 Mains and pasta, $26-$49 Sides, $10-$12 The Buzz Solid, accomplished bistro cooking, French-style decor, pan-European dishes, good wine list, excellent service and well-made aperitivi and cocktails. 15/20