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De Graves Espresso Bar

30/1/2013

De Graves Street is always a fun laneway on a warm afternoon or evening. I love the feeling of being on holiday when seated beneath the canopy of umbrellas watching the people pass by.

My colleague Kristianna suggested a post work wine and a chinwag so we settled here and after a tumbler of wine decided to stay for dinner.

We ordered the bread and dips to share expecting it to come as a starter. As it turned out everything arrived at the same time but that wasn't a huge issue. The bread was crispy flatbread with a hint of garlic and the dips were beetroot, hummus and I think a sort of sour cream, creme fraiche one. Nothing that changed the World but nice enough to munch on.

I ordered the roast pork belly which camed with lots of vegetables (sugar snaps, courgettes, red peppers, aubergine and topped with apple sauce. I liked the tang of the apple that cut through the rich and fatty meat. It was a generous serve and was robust and comforting.

Kristianna had the chicken risotto which also had mushrooms, tomato, Parmesan. Again a big portion and like the dips not out of this World but acceptable enough for dinner. It was such a big serve though I can imagine getting halfway through and getting bored.

Service was friendly enough, pretty prompt. I guess De Graves is not really about stellar food but the ambience and the location make it a fun place to dine. The draw to return is not the food but the convenience, the relaxed feel and the fact that the grub is going to be okay.

Degraves Espresso Bar on Urbanspoon

Vue de Monde

28/1/2013

Excitement, exhilaration, anticipation...that was my birthday present from Steve. Actually it was lunch at Vue de Monde but it made me feel all those things.

The welcome is professional and slick and we're shown to our table which is between the kitchen and the huge windows. There's so much going on, I'm not sure where to look and it's hard to focus!

Food begins to arrive quite quickly as do our aperitifs and our culinary journey begins. First to arrive is a little pot of potato crisps, salt and vinegar apparently (my preferred flavour) and a macadamia dip. Pretty more ish and very bar snack like. A tray of what looks like rocks arrive with two oysters nestled inside. The various rocks and logs on our table are moved around and used as plates or the tops come off to reveal salt and pepper.

A morsel of smoked eel, whit Peas, pistachio, strawberry on a little glass dish and is interestingly sweet and naturally smoky. Reminscent of the sweet teriyaki unagi of Japan I guess white chocolate isn't so weird after all as it gives it that same sweetness.

A waiter brings over a plate with two slivers of scarlet wallaby with a dollop of green mousse which he expertly rolls up and puts on a rock for us. It's salty and savoury and again moreish.

The last amuse bouche is peas, pistachio, strawberry. Some wasabu snow is spooned onto a tuile which is effectively a sugar disc much like the top of a creme brulee. Hiding beneath that are some frozen strawberry pieces and peas. The snow kind of melts and the whole thing is a little weird. There are crispy sugar shards, cold bits and a hit of wasabi. Not really delicious...more a bit strange and uncertain.

Our table gets quite busy what with the amuse bouches arriving, a waiter explaining how it works and the sommelier arriving with the wine list and an explanation of the wine matching options. It's a manic few minutes.

So we take the easy way out. We tell them we're all in for the food so just give us what they've got and as for the wine, just keep on bringing it! I feel I need a seat belt to strap me in for the long haul!

Spanner crab, kohlrabi, avocado, beach herbs; green and white on a plate with a hint of pink and a touch of black from the caviar. Strikingly fresh this was a good start. I thought the serves of crab were generous and enjoyed the textural contrast of the crunchy kohlrabi and the soft sweet crab.

The next dish, also seafood, sounds so simple; roasted marron, tarragon butter but my goodness it was amazing, One plump marron, one smear of tarragon butter, one pile of salty powder and a crispy wafer. The marron was just so fresh and firm and creamy and sweet and the butter just so rich. Eating it with no cutlery just added to the greedy and naughty experience. More marron please.

Melbourne onion soup; a little bit of dimer table theatre. A plate of different textured onions arrive with a cheese foam, cubes of bread and some grated Gruyere. There are crispy onion rings, caramelised onion, pickled onion, onion gel. A coffee percolator also makes an appearance with a coffee like liquid in it but it's actually onion soup and it's heated from beneath and when the flame is cut out the vacuum means it the liquid is sucked up to infuse with more onions and herbs before comes back down and poured into our dishes.

Undoubtedly it's good onion soup and the melting cheese and bread cubes evoke memories of Paris. The pickled onion stops the soup from being too sweet. And whilst it's yummy, taste wise I'm not sure it's a huge amount better than French Onion soup in Paris. But what I do like is that the onion doesn't become the sludgy, slurry, slimey mess that is usually found in the bottom of the bowl of French Onion soup.

Another simply described dish; duck egg, asparagus but so much more that. There's bacon and crispy bits and green peas or are they beans (?). Whatever they are the whole thing just tastes amazing. I need a spoon to get all the yolk and I want to mop it all up.

We enjoyed a glass of 2003 Dom Perignon along with this so utterly decadent but the bubbles went so well with the egg - both rich and indulgent.

And now for some interaction. We were presented with a bowl of herbs and flowers which were frozen with the addition of liquid nitrogen. With a pestle as part of this courses cutlery we turned the herbs into a powder and a quennelle of grapefruit and lime sorbet placed on top.

Interesting concept and delivery but unfortunately the combination of flavours made it taste like handsoap! Maybe next time we can grind fruit or something less herbaceous and floral.

Our next dish of barramundi, nettle, young garlic, prawn, lettuce came in two parts. The prawn arrived first, shelled and ready to be eaten with a garlic sauce and barramundi foam. The prawn had been cooked on a BBQ grill so the sweetness of the prawn also had a hint of smoky char to it too.

After the prawn came the barramundi head atop a bed of herbs. The chef extracted the cheeks and placed them on a lettuce cup with a drizzle of spiced butter. Delicious san choi bao. And the chef was happy to leave the head for me to poke around and extract more delicious shred of fish meat.

A sign of the meat to come - sword in the stone! I guess steak knife in a rock is more the reality.

We are served lamb from Flinders Island - breast topped with sunflower seeds and rump with a mustard sauce and a dollop of something I can't quite remember. It's very tasty and the saltiness is sweetened by the slice of pear on the plate.

Blackmore Wagyu, beetroot, pear, truffle is servied in parts. The plate arrives with some braised beef, a barbecue sauce and bush apples. A chef chargrills some of the beef which has been cooked sous vide so the chargrilling is to add some flavour and caramelisation. He spoons some beetroot jus on the plate and a waitress shaves some truffle before we tuck in.

We progress to the cheese course and the trolley is wheeled towards us. We discuss our preferences and I enjoy some mild and creamy and some hard and salty. Steve rejoices in mouldy and ripe, mature and stinky. The accompanying breads, crispbreads, jams and pastes are generous and make the whole cheese course very enjoyable. I discover a gorgeous red onion jam that goes so well with the harder salty cheeses but also the mild fatty one.

We move to dessert and the first one is sweetly entitled strawberries and cream. It's a beautiful berry blend with milk ice cream and some meringue held together with berry gels and compotes. It's reminiscent of an Eton Mess and it's my kind of dessert - fruity, creamy and light.

I appreciate for some dessert is about chocolate though and so does Vue de Monde as the second dish is chocolate soufflé, chocolate mousse, crème anglaise. The souffle arrives all plump and light, the waitress makes a hole and pours in the creme anglaise making it swell even more. We dig in and it's light and fluffy and sweet like chocolate. I can imagine just how well received this souffle would be amongst the chocolate lovers. For me it's just a bit too big and a bit too sugary but Steve has no problems. Accompanied by a glass of Pedro Ximenez the whole combo is just a touch too sweet.

As if cheese and two desserts weren't enough, some petit fours arrive. Gin and tonic jelly, lamington, a eucalyptus ice cream ball and a soap flavoured pink leaf. I leave the leaf and the ice cream ball as it's a bit odd. The jelly is ok but the lamington which is like a cube of coconut covered chocolate mousse with a sharp hit of raspberry is delicious and in spite of the chocolate souffle I've just eaten it tastes different to that chocolate - more intense and less sugary and I enjoy it with my cup of tea!

After all that food, the next meal is a distant thought but there's a cute touch from Vue de Monde as they present us with a breakfast bag of cereal, tea, some brioche, a little pot of honey and some cookies.

It's a lovely way of extending the memories of the meal for longer.

Our Vue de Monde experience was entertaining; deliciously sublime in places (marron, duck egg, meat) and weirdly curious in others. We thoroughly enjoyed it and had a great time. I can see that it is a notch above its competitors but that notch is a pricey one!

Vue de Monde on Urbanspoon

The Builders Arms

27/1/2013

Sunday lunch gathering with Shern and Jon, Andy and Stacey and Steve suggested and booked Builders Arms. We enjoyed a drink outside first as we assembled and then moved to our table, Service was efficient if not the most personal or personable but it was effective enough.

The special of the day appealed to the carnivores amongst us - deep fried duck drumsticks with mustard and a plum sauce and 5 were promptly ordered.

They came quickly and were devoured quickly with comments and mmms of appreciation and Shern and I agreed we could eat more!

The mustard just provided a little warm heat (I don't like mustard so this was perfect) and the duck itself was flavoursome, the crust was seasoned and the plum sauce was sweet and acidic enough to cut through. Yum!

Steve and I shared the NY strip steak served with a fried egg and Gentlemens Relish and the braised lamb with chickpea pancakes. As a table we ordered sides of roast potatoes, chips and the broccoli and freekah salad.

Gentlemens Relish was very much like BBQ sauce but with a spice tang to it. The egg was perfectly cooked and the steak tender and juicy with minimal fat. Certainly a good hunk of meat.

The braised lamb shoulder (recommended to us by Rachel and Tim who had been a few weeks ago) was amazing. Fell of the bone, put in a chickpea pancake with the picked courgette and eggplant, some lemon juice and yoghurt. Hints of India coming through. We didn't have enough pancakes though so had to ask for some more which were happily brought out to us after a short wait.

Shern and Jon had the same main dishes as Steve and I. Stacey had the parmesan tart which she described as a very good cheese quiche with some great leek and almonds on the side. It looked like a custard tart with a smooth and silky filling. Mr Demery went with the pork schnitzel with a coleslaw and Bulldog sauce which was described to us as sweet and sour ish type Japanese sauce. The schnitzel was all golden and pretty hefty in size. Demery declared it juicy and tasty.

Desserts certainly sounded tempting but too much for us after the generous lamb serving so we continued to chit and chat and had coffees and the boys drank more beer. Great place for a lazy Sunday. Why did we leave it so long before returning?

Builders Arms Hotel Bar and Bistro on Urbanspoon

Man Tong Kitchen

25/1/2013

Steve and I had a date at the cinema and on our way we noticed Man Tong. We decided to stop after the film for a late dinner of dumplings.

Obviously being a sister of Hu Tong, comparisons had to be made.

Man Tong also has abalone, shark fin, fish maw, birds nest and all those expensive Chinese delicacies. The decor is decadent and comfortable - brightly lit, hints of red and all new and shiny.

Service is a little friendlier than its CBD counterpart and not as rushed but prices are more expensive. $8.80 for 4 xiao long bao. They are exactly like Hu Tong so the premium price is for the location I guess.

Pan fried dumplings were tasty but the steamed xiao long bao are better. Chilli wantons had lots of heat - more than what there usually is at Hu Tong but still good.

Good to know there's somewhere close by for dumplings for us but a little reticent to pay more for the same thing...

Man Tong Kitchen on Urbanspoon

City Wine Shop

24/1/2013

I met up with Charlotte, Lucy and Claire this week on Thursday for a post work dinner and I chose City Wine Shop as I thought it would be nice to sit outside for some bistro food.

Claire arrived first and it was pretty busy so there was no table available. By the time Lucy and I joined her we found a corner at the big communal table at the back of the shop and put our names down for a table outside. Charlotte arrived soon after and before her wine could make an appearance we could move outside. Great result.

Perhaps it wasn't the best choice of venue for pregnant Lucy and dry January Claire...

I forgot to take pictures of our main courses. I had braised beef with Asian flavours and a veggie salad which was exactly that. Tender braised beef, notes of star anise, soy, ginger and garlic and a veggie salad to cut through the richness. At $27 it wasn't bad.

Others had the gnocchi, the meatballs, and I think Claire had polenta chips and chorizo croquettes. Dishes were well priced and we seemed to enjoy what we had.

We did indulge in dessert. A rolled berry pavlova for Claire which looked beautiful and not like the wallpaper paste meringue that sometimes makes an appearance. I had a pang of food envy.

Charlotte had the stone fruit crumble with vanilla ice cream, Lucy went with chocolate fondant with hazelnut ice cream and I had the tiramisu. There were definitely noises and documents of approval more so for the desserts than main courses.

My tiramisu had the right balance of being light yet creamy, fluffy yet with texture, boozy yet not overpowering.

City Wine Shop on Urbanspoon

The Press Club

20/1/2013

My birthday week of celebrations couldn't really bypass a Press Club visit. Kat and Emma (friends from Sydney) were in town and the four of us enjoyed a Sunday night at the Chef's Table.

As always we were so well looked after and I received a birthday card from George and the team and there was bubbly all round as we settled in.

This is a tomato and olive cocktail - a clear consomme that was cold with dehydrated olive and a skewer of halloumi and a slug of gin. Pretty interesting and tasty.

Deconstructed Greek salad with a capsicum terrine, tomato jelly, dehydrated olive and fetta cheese sorbet. We remembered the capsicum terrine from a Masterchef pressure test. Clean flavours and no complaints.

Next was a crab dish with charred corn and a LOT of butter. Incredibly rich, sweet, intense and naturally buttery. A standout for Kat and Steve.

Spring Bay mussed "spanakopita" ie stuffed with cheese and spinach with braised chickpeas. This was Emma's favourite but enjoyed by everyone.

Salmon poaced in olive oil with squid ink prawn cracker; delicately cooked salmon tasting just the way salmon should. Pure flavours, no fancy stuff.

Quail dolmades - always love quail.

Pasta cooked in a mushroom broth with black truffle - oh this was my favourite dish and was matched with a slightly sweet amontillado sherry. So homely yet decadent. So savoury and with dense textures and intense earthy flavours. And then a note of sweetness cutting through the savoury flavours from the sherry. Genius! Well done Spanish sommelier Marc. I dream about eating this again.

No Greek meal is complete without lamb and we had tender tender lamb with mashed potato. Simple and delicious.

Dessert was incredible decadent. We had the usual blackcurrant meringue, lime gel and lychee sorbet refresher which is so incredibly good at cleansing the palette and removing those feeling of bloatedness just enough that dessert cam be conquered.

Our first dessert was berries and cherries with some chocolate soil and a raspberry dome. I tend to prefer a fruit based dessert especially with berries and this was perfect for me.

As if that wasn't enough we were served the mastic panna cotta with Greek donuts, berries and strawberry ice cream. Another winning fruit based dessert. Admittedly the panna cotta by itself wasn't my favourite with the mastic aniseedy taste but mixed with the honeyed donuts and berries and ice cream it was delicious.

Our two berry dessert were quite similar and Emma is a chocolate dessert girl so a brief conversation later and she had her chocolate fix. Well we all had it - salted caramel, chocolate and banana bread. In spite of all that we had eaten, it was still demolished.

Three espresso martinis and a port later, our last petit fours dish arrived with a well meaning candle to blow out. This time the meal was a lot simpler and traditional in flavours and styles of the dishes. All still very enjoyable still of course. I'm definitely sad that the Press Club will soon be no more but excited to support whatever happens next.

The Press Club on Urbanspoon

Sake

19/1/2013

I've actually been to Sake twice in the last week. One time was post tennis with Steve on the way home and the other was post work with Stef as a birthday celebration.

Both times were fun. During the visit with Steve one of our dishes was forgotten and took a long time to arrive so it was complimentary and rightly so but well done for fixing it. The second time, with Stef, we were busy chatting and one of the chefs tries to stack a dish on a shelf above us (we were sat at the sushi bar) and it falls through clattering down and upsetting our basket of dumplings. Cue free dumplings!

I've enjoyed the service at Sake. There's a Restaurant Manager there called Anthony who is friendly, fun and good at his job.

Kingfish jalapeno and a selection of seared nigiri. Both delicious.

Wagyu beef dumplings and Wagyu steak tartare with an egg puree and truffle oil. The beef dumpling were ok - the prawn ones are far superior. They were good when I came with Steve but dry and the wrapper thicker when I came with Stef so not so good. Good thing they were free huh?

The steak tartare is delicious - rich, truffley and decadent.

This is the braised belly pork with daikon and an egg. I love the intense flavours here and the dish which could so easily be heavy and rich is actually very light and homely. The broth mixed with rice is so tasty and the flavours are familiar and comforting. Like going home to grandma.

There's a special menu of salmon running at the moment and we went for the caramelised salmon fillet with spicy miso and pickled cucumber salad. I loved the soft and buttery fish, perfectly cooked so it's still so juicy inside and the pickled cucumber cuts through the oiliness of the fish. I loved this as a salmon fan and could tell it was superior salmon.

As non salmon lovers both Stef and Steve were less impressed. Steve just thought it was too salmony and it's not his kind of fish anyway. Stef thought the fish fillet was just too oily for her.

Stef let out it was my birthday and lovely Anthony provided us with a smorgasbord of dessert to work through which was a lovely gesture.

We worked our way through a milk and tapioca trifle, little pear pastry puffs, chocolate muffin, buttermilk panna cotta (amazing), sticky date and ginger pudding and a trio of ice creams (vanilla, watermelon, black sesame).

Sake is not cheap nor is it value for money but it is an enjoyable place to eat that is always fun. The ambience is buzzy, the location is great, the decor attractive, the wait staff welcoming and the food good.

Sake Restaurant & Bar (Hamer Hall) on Urbanspoon

Tusk

16/1/2013

Lucky me! Spoilt by my friend Tanya for my birthday. She took me to Tusk for dinner one sunny evening.

The welcome was warm and friendly and service continued like this during the course of our meal. We shared an antipasto plate and a risotto.

The share plate had a good variety of dips, cheese, grilled veggies, charcuterie and bread. We didn't need any more bread but were offered it when the plate was delivered which was nice.

The risotto was rich and unctuous and the asparagus and rocket cut through the fattiness of the goats cheese. I think it would have been too rich for one person so glad I shared.

Very pleasant meal that was served quickly and with a smile. Hit the spot.

Tusk on Urbanspoon

Saint Peter's Trattoria

11/1/2013

Friday night and Steve and I really needed somewhere fairly quick, unstressful and satisfying. He booked Saint Peter and I was pleased as I'd heard good things like it's homely and good value unpretentious so it sounded like exactly what we needed.

It's down an alleyway off Russell Street and we had a quick drink at James Squire's before our reservation.

So many delicious sounding dishes on the menu made it hard to choose. And Steve really struggled to say no to an entree of lasagne but did so fearing it would be too heavy. We chose to start with:

Hand-cut lemon tagliatelle tossed with Balmain bugs, chilli & garlic, in a white wine sauce
Gnocchi di casa, tomato & crustacean reduction, pan-tossed with Southern Rock lobster

The lemon tagliatelle was light on the lemon but the pasta was delicate and almost Chinese egg noodle like which I loved. Flavours were fresh and the heat of the chilli delightfully tongue tingling. The sauce was light and more broth like which the pasta soaked up.

The gnocchi were perfect pillows of perfection. The tomato reduction was so deep and flavourful and intense. Steve and I swapped plated halfway through so we could enjoy the pleasure of both and yes, both were so pleasureable.

We decided to do the plate swapping thing again for our main courses as we both wanted the quail:

Grilled jumbo quail, deboned, stuffed with porcini & funghi risotto, wrapped pancetta & sage, served on radicchio treviso & vin cotto
Eye fillet minute steak, rocket, Maria’s sun-dried tomatoes, olio d’oliva & limone dressing

Our waiter was friendly enough but wasn't particularly helpful about portion size and ordering side orders and we had to flag it up to him afterwards and ask whether we should indulge.

The quail was tasty and the risotto was earthy and yummy. Could have done with more The bitter radicchio leaves were a great contrast to the sweet bird meat and vin cotto reduction.

I didn't really have expectations of the steak but we were so pleasantly surprised. I thought it would just be a flattened piece of meat and usually quite rough in texture but this was juicy and succulent with a great intensity of flavour. Cooked so simply but with superior quality ingredients was the essence of this plate of food.

I really wanted the panna cotta with peaches that was on the specials menu but to my sadness it hadn't set!!! So no panna cotta for me. I went with the baked ricotta cheesecake
with salted walnut caramel and strawberries instead. Steve had the spiced bread pudding with vanilla ice cream.

The salted caramel was definitely salted and the ricotta mellowed it out and the strawberries cut through all the richness. Having said that I found the ricotta a little cloying and it sticky in the mouth, Steve seemed to enjoy his bread pudding but made a comment that it was a little heavy. Dessert was probably the weakest course out of the three but not so bad as to cause distress.

The trattoria was a little quiet - maybe something to do with the holiday season and this was a bit of a shame but given the level of fatigue Steve and I were suffering from the calm and far from frenetic place probably suited us. The food was good quality, genuine and honest - no fan fare but cooked with love. Totally enjoyable.

Saint Peter's Trattoria on Urbanspoon