Le Grand Cafe by Becasse

This is as close as you will get to experience French food that you find in France. especially their delicious baguettes. Great atmosphere too, with a really wonderful Joan Miro inspired carpet hanging above the reception desk as you enter.

Every now and then I go there for lunch.
The food is good — love the croque monsieur and the terrine.
Food might look a bit limited for some…

How do you know your sandwich has been made by a Frenchman? When it’s been toasted in a griddle pan, encasing the bread in a film of butter, warming its shaved ham filling and melting its cheesy innards to perfection. This is no ordinary ham and cheese sambo — this is a croque monsieur.
And that is just what you’ll get during lunch stops at Le Grand Café. Their duck liver parfait with cornichons and slices of toasted, slightly sweet brioche is another delicious option, as is the daily changing quiche (featuring the butteriest, flakiest pastry base ever) with a little side salad. They used to do a delicious apple tarte tatin topped with vanilla bean ice cream — the perfect size to share between two for a sweet finish to your meal — but since Becasse (the restaurant that supplies food to this café, once located across the road) has moved, many of the desserts are the same as those served in the restaurant’s new bakery in the city’s Westfield complex — like the Bolivian chocolate petit pot and the pear frangipane tart.
Housed on the bottom floor of the Alliance Francaise, animated French chatter is to be expected from students practising their new tongue and teachers hosting one-​on-​one conversation lessons over coffee. This modern diner is a favourite of mine for indulgent, fast meals that leave you feeling just that little bit more cultured.

‘Another bakery’, I hear you groan… more pastries and shiny tarts, how many does Sydney need? A lot, it would seem. But then, there are only a few who can claim immunity from this pastry-​induced bakery fatigue because they are so darn delicious. Becasse is one of them. Its black and glossy exterior stands out among the other eating emporiums on Level 5 in Westfield like a black stallion amongst a collection of ponies. The glass cabinets display a symphony of beautifully presented and artfully positioned pastries, breads, tarts and cakes. Oh heaven.
Pistachio and raspberry friands rub shoulders with vanilla bean and passion fruit cheescakes. The ‘petit dessert du jour’ is enough to send me in to orbit, and the flaky croissants taste delicious when dunked into mugs of steaming coffee. These cakes and tarts are so beautiful they’re almost too good to eat. But, with Becasse’s elegant packaging, they do make excellent presents.
With the cabinets laden with incredible edibles, it is almost impossible to make a choice. I often like to judge a restaurant/​bakery by how well they cook the simplest things. These are the items most likely to be overlooked or rushed, and so offer a good indication as to the true quality of the establishment. Armed with this theory, I decided to try a chocolate muffin as one of the most common (and frequently disgusting) cakes found on the bakery shelves. The graveyard of the muffin is strewn with disastrous attempts — too dry, too moist, fake-​tasting, not chocolatey enough, gross icing, too big, too small — the list goes on. And so, it was with sheer delight that I tucked in to my chocolate muffin, its top brittle with a thin layer of melted chocolate and lightly dusted with icing sugar. The sponge was wonderful — light but still squidgy and fresh, very chocolatey and of quite considerable size. I enjoyed every last crumb. Now that the litmus test has been done, I can spend hours agonizing over what to choose next time I go back. I can’t wait.

You know that dream you’ve had — after watching Colin Firth profess his love for the European woman at the restaurant in Love Actually — where you meet a handsome bilingual stranger at an airport and, after much anguish, 12 months later get married? Well you can have that fantasy happen here! How cool is that?
This café, owned by the Becasse group, and in the Alliance Francaise building (Bonjour Mansour. wait, that’s my dad. Bonjour Monsieur!) is like being inside a popular Airport. There are multiple languages being spoken by different people and all of this happens within a few feet from where you’re sitting. The café patrons (some associated in some capacity with the French school upstairs and accessible by elevator or beautiful spiral stairs) are mostly all on the stylish side as well.
The café offers baked goods like quiches (with salad, $ 8), muffins, ham and cheese croissants ($ 8), well as sandwiches and baguettes. The quiche lorraine is delicious and coffee here is wonderful also. Dress nicely. to quote Curtis Stone in his show Take Home Chef, «you never know who you’re going to meet!»