30 December 2017

Le Fare ~ Meridian Resort ~ Noumea, New Caledonia


Over our many trips to Noumea we've been avoiding resort restaurants, but the Meridian's beach-side location and the non-hotel vibe made it worth a stab. plus there were rumours of good food and pussycats.





You can waddle along the road to get there but it's nicer to waddle along the beach. This little strip of beach is a real locals' hangout too.



...stop when you get to Gilligan's hut.




Nice spot for a feed, eh?




This place has the vibe of a Thai beach resort. The Kanak staff are awesome, our waitress (Deborah) was especially lovely and really made the atmosphere.



We want to say there were some locals eating here, they were speaking French but may have been French tourists, who knows, but we do know the beach is very popular with locals and the food price/quality is consistent with other restaurants around town.



Did we mention there was bonus pussycat action?



Poulet marine coco... a filling feed of grilled chicken and veggies with coconut sauce on the side, sauce tasted like coconut cream, we missed any citrus flavour though.



Beef tartare - this comes in classic (raw) or lightly pan fried, we chose the latter and it worked a treat. The ground beef has barely hit the pan, so you get a good balance of raw and cooked flavours.



The cheeseburger looked average but was a seriously good burger. The patty is not too thick and not too thin, and it's perfectly cooked with a touch of pink in the middle. The French really know how to cook a burger just-so - one of the best burgers we've ever had was in some nondescript bistro in Paris. While it was delicious this was a thirty buck cheeseburger - and no cheeseburger is worth thirty bucks.



Tuna tartare - cubes of salmon sashimi with soy dressing and lime on the side. This is so Noumea.



Octopus salad - Shawn ordered this because we saw some droolworthy octopus changing hands at the market - so there's a fair bet it's fresh and local. The octopus was griilled and cut into small nibble-sized pieces and tossed with lettuce, skinned mandarin segments, red onion, slightly grilled capsicum and a drizzle of sauce similar to ketchup (we wonder if this is a local taste as it was similar to the ketchupy sauce we had with tuna at le marmite earlier in the week). While not a killer french salad it is good - light yet plentiful and healthy. Mr Shawn felt a bit shit before lunch and great after it, thanks Mr Octopus.



Cafe gourmand - espresso with mini desserts. This is one of the better cafe gourmands we've had. The desserts were saw going to other tables also looked fancypants, we reckon dessert may be a thing at the Meridian.



We told that cats that if they gave out pats they might get even more food thrown their way. They didn't listen. Never do.






Le fare is at 7 Promenade Pierre Vernier, Noumea. We reckon the main restaurants must be worth a crack too.




As we walk back to our hotel we see the coconut man -  and grinning blokes walking off with lovely bunches of coconuts. Alison loitered around and got a free coconut, complete with straw.

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