Melbourne’s Kooyong Tennis Club is steeped in history.  So let’s lob into the club’s restaurant for lunch on a freezing winter day, as the guest of a mate who is a long-time member.

Coq au vin, Kooyong Tennis Club restaurant

On the specials list is a choice of French cuisine…including Coq au vin, $32. I’ve seen it on many a French restaurant menu during my travels, but I’ve not tried it.  So this is a first. Today it comes with French mashed potato,  and I confess that’s what swayed me away from the regular menu’s house-made gnocchi ($22).

Served in a cast iron pan, the small, “boned” chicken, I think, should’ve been cooked slower and longer as mine requires some effort with a knife to slice the flesh off the leg bone. Quite some effort, in fact, that a slip sends a puny poultry piece whizzing away to my left, towards the lap of the statuesque blonde at the next table. Fortunately, she has eyes only for her male dining companion and my fowl faux pas goes unnoticed.

And “sawing” at a piece of meat is just not the done thing when one is dining at Kooyong Tennis Club…

But the delicious red wine jus, with champignons and small onions, saves the day. And the generous side-dish of mashed potato! I admit I don’t know what makes it French mashed spud rather than ordinary old Aussie mashed spud, but anyway it hits the mark.

Good winter food.