The croquettes were crispy on the outside with a well flavoured oozy centre. They were generous blocks and plenty for two to share. I enjoyed the shnitzel. The meat was a good thickness - I'm not a fan of paper thin shnitzel when there's more crumb than meat but this was a good ratio. The meat was not at all dry and the mash and gravy was comfort food at its best.

Steve enjoyed the burger; it was decent enough. The onion rings were dusted in a vinegar powder which was stingingly sharp but I loved that. Probably not a good choice if you have a mouth ulcer though.

Reviews of The Rose have been negative since the renovations. Admittedly, although we are Fitzroy residents, we were never hugely attached to The Rose. It was another decent pub but we weren't regulars and we don't watch AFL art the pub. In all honesty, we probably had a slight preference for The Marquis of Lorne, The Rainbow or The Napier if we had to choose. But I don't think it deserves the negative reviews which seem to come from those who didn't want their stalwart to change. As an infrequent previous punter, I like the new Rose and I think the food is good pub food. It's not as gastro or gourmet as The Town Hall Fitzroy (another favourite) but it is cheaper and more "traditional" so we can certainly make room for it in our hearts.

Our last visit to Saint Crispin was shamefully a long time ago and with it being so close to home we really have no excuse! And with Saint Crispin offering one course, three course, five course and seven course options there really is a feast for all occasions. And this occasion was a long, lazy Saturday lunch.

We are warmly welcomed and take a seat at a table for two. The mood is relaxed and the pace is exactly how it should be for a weekend lunch. We deliberate over whether we're in for something light and easy or strapped in for the long haul. And the result is we fasten our seatbelts and go seven courses with matched wines. And of course we're enjoying pre lunch aperitifs too!

We're not left waiting for long before some sustenance arrives and it's split pea soup in a shot glass with pancetta crumb. There's also a Gruyere filled profiterole, some sourdough bread with butter and a caramelised onion and cream cheese spread too.

The soup is hearty and obviously anything with bacon is going to capture and win hearts! It's a little thick to come out of the shot glass so there's some uncouth scraping out with the knife. The profiterole oozes out a snowy white filling that is a yummy cheese sauce and the sweet oniony cheesy spread is delicious on the soft white bread.

The wine match is an orange wine made from the sauvignon blanc grape but it tastes nothing like a sauvignon blanc. There's no sourness; it's very well rounded and its gentleness just kisses the flavours from the food without overpowering them.

The pork was the first of the meat dishes and it was so pretty on the plate with shades of pink and lilac and purple on the plate. There's a big piece of pork jowl with a crispy layer and a cut of pork neck providing a leaner, denser contrast to the slippery fattiness of the jowl. 

I haven't had great experiences with jowl as it is so fatty but this piece and I get on pretty well. I do scrape out the layer of fat in between the crispy bit and the meat as I don't like the texture but the flavour of the meat is delicious. The red cabbage puree and beetroot enhance the sweetness of the meat. I like the blend of a fatty and a lean cut of meat. Some of the beetroot cubes are pretty salty so a slightly lighter touch might have been welcome. Its just on the edge of being ok. Steve eats everything on the platen with gusto; fat and all!

Head chef Joe Grbac serves us our next meat course and he kindly tells us we've been upgraded to the Sher wagyu instead of the chicken. As he tells us about the dish, I can smell an almost tobacco smokiness come through and I almost wonder if Joe has been out for a sneaky ciggy! But I realise as I dig in, it comes from the charred broccoli and anchovy mayo. There almost steely like charred flavours contrast the fresh green veggie notes but the jewel in the crown is obviously the beef.

There's a sticky, sinewy beef check marinaded for a week that just gives with the gentlest of pushes. It's tender and beefy and everything beef cheek should be. That heavy richness is then contrasted by the rump cap and with it being Wagyu it leaves that layer of delicious beefiness in the mouth. I don't need all the anchovy mayonnaise on the plate but that's a personal preference because Steve's plate is another clean round!

• Cheese: Roquefort Papillon, salt baked celeriac, celery panna cotta and rye
• ​​Granny Smith apple sponge, caramel, Calvados ice cream and vanilla

I don't eat blue cheese so I skip on the Roquefort and am presented with the apple option. I love that the apples are al dente and not over stewed like in a crumble. The sponge is golden and light and the ice cream is not sweet because the caramel provides the sugar hit. The little cubes of jelly add some concentrated hits of flavour. I was pretty full after the meat dishes but this manages to give me a second wind and I fell good in spite of having ingested so much deliciousness!

Steve loves the creativity of the blue cheese dish. The celery panna cotta hits the spot and he demolishes it. The dish is polarising; I would not touch it with a barge pole but it's another clean plate round from Steve. 

It was such a great lunch; finished with cups of tea and madeleines. The pace was perfect, the food fabulous and the service slick. I can't believe we've not been back for so long when it's this good! I think we've always had in our minds it's a bit fancy but really after this lunch, and the warm embrace we've experienced, we are resuming this friendship pronto!

Called in on Saturday just after 6pm after a cinema date with my girlfriend Kirsty. It was a belated birthday get together and we thought we'd have a couple of drinks and some food.

Sake was pretty empty and we were given a choice of sushi bar or table and opted for the comfort of a table.

A quick peruse of the menu and cocktails were chosen:

Pink Blossom - served short
Choya umeshu, fresh strawberries and cranberry juice shaken with passionfruit and lime

Miss Wednesday- served over ice
Japanese shochu, rose and lychees shaken with vanilla and fresh lime. Our twist on a lychee Caiprioska

They were delicious - fresh, fruity, fun and exactly what we were looking for. Service was pretty prompt and quick although they brought us still mineral water when we just wanted Victoria's finest vintage. Our waiter was knowledgeable and proficient and really aside from the water and an attempted delivery of a dish we hadn't order, it was a pretty slick set up.

The dishes we ordered come out pretty quickly so it's a good place if you're wanting something pacey. If you want a longer leisurely meal then perhaps ask them to go slow.​​

• Prawn shumai | ponzu sauce
• Wing | vintage soy | mandarin

I've had the prawn shumai at the Hamer Hall premises and I like the noodle casing and prawn filling. Definitely a crowd pleaser.

We ordered two yakitori, the wings and the fillet (unpictured). Both were delicious. The wings had a sticky sweetness whereas the fillet was smoky with a hint of citrus.

Again the rest of our dishes arrive quickly and it's fun to be able to pick and nibble Asian tapas style.

• Rice cracker crusted tuna | pink grapefruit | vintage soy
• Kingfish jalapeño | yuzu soy | jalapeño | coriander
• Spider maki | soft shell crab | sudachi | shiso
• Crispy duck | green tomato | hassaku | nasturtium 

The sashimi is all spankingly fresh. I don't taste the pink grapefruit in the tuna so it makes it fairly standard tuna sashimi. Tasty but not necessarily creative and the pink grapefruit could have made it more than ordinary.

The duck was a bit difficult to eat as it was two big pieces so easy to share but with just chopsticks we couldn't cut it and I tried to bite it but it was just a bit too tough to do that. 

It was all executed well and everything tasted good so it hit the expectations but it wasn't mind blowing but I'd happily eat it all again.

• Chocolate aero | crystalized violets | Madagascan vanilla 
  

We share dessert and it was a very good dessert, Chocolate, honeycomb ice cream - really it's a true crowdpleaser and a delicious way to end things.

Our bill came to $275 and it did include all the food plus 4 cocktails. It's a pricey evening and I've always thought Sake to be expensive but enjoyable and little sister Sake is definitely from the same genepool. It's a slick operation but it's also pretty slick on the wallet.

Last time we were at The Town Mouse was a few years ago so it was time for a revisit and we found ourselves seated at the bar for second sitting. It's a fun and quirky dining room and I do like the vibe. There was a moment of confusion as they tried to locate our booking but that was soon resolved as we discovered it was in our first name not our surname so it's that kind of place where we're known by first names and I welcome that. Friendly familiarity and hospitality from a capable and confident front line crew.

​We start off with some small bites:

• Smoked duck liver parfait, pickled cucumber & crisp potato
• Fried school prawns, tarragon & juniper

The school prawns are salty and crispy. The tarragon and juniper dip is quite strong in flavour so we go easy on that and I think a plain or simpler mayo would have worked just as well as the prawns were so well seasoned with spice, salt and freshly squeezed lemon.

The smoked duck liver parfait is like a canape. The crispy potato works and the pickled cucumber much needed to cut through the intensity of the parfait. The textures are complementary; crispy and creamy but we find the parfait almost cloying. The flavours are so strong and it's so creamy and rich. I can understand concentrating the flavours given it is only a small bite but even so in it's miniature state it's pretty heavy.

​Again it's another intensely flavoured dish and I don't think the rouille is necessary as the crab sauce is rich enough. Flavours are classic seafood and the fish is cooked well but it doesn't help with the richness and heavy feeling of everything we've had so far.

The side dishes we have our:​

• Creamed corn, pickled garlic, creme fraiche & watercress
• ​Fried chat potatoes, yuzu mayonnaise

We did question whether to have the creamed corn as we thought it might be too heavy and were going to go with some of the lighter options but our waitress recommended the corn as the way to go.

The corn is delicious but again it's a delicious dish in isolation but after all the creaminess we've had so far in pretty much every dish it really is too much. As is yuzu mayo with the potatoes. The potatoes themselves are lovely; golden and salted and without the mayo, the simple and clean flavour of potato is a very welcome guest amidst all the richness of the other dishes.

Steve and I agreed that we like the feel of The Town Mouse and there's definitely some creativity in the food. But as a collection of dishes we didn't enjoy them and just found it all too intense and too rich. Maybe we selected the wrong combination of dishes.

The front of house staff are extremely capable and experienced; we enjoyed their hospitality. There was a glass smash by our neighbouring diner and the team came together and unobtrusively and efficiently cleaned up the bar, calmly and politely asked the diner not to pick up the glass, threw out any open dishes and re set the working area as if nothing had happened.

The Town Mouse scores pretty high up on the AFR top restaurants in Australia; higher than many much lauded places. Our humble opinion is that it is original and it's worthy of the hats it has achieved but it's not as great as some of the places it has superseded. We weren't blown away by the food and didn't enjoy it enough to want to return. Also the seats at the bar are just so uncomfortable I can't imagine having to sit there again for a meal. Our neighbour at the bar actually ended up standing at the bar to eat and I was pretty close to that too!

Steve and I spent last Saturday night on a bit of an exciting culinary mystery tour - no menu, no choices to make and therefore identifying what goes into the mouth isn't always obvious. Nora offers two sittings and proceedings start when everyone is seated and ready so it's a bit like being at a dinner party except everyone is seated with their own dining companions in different areas. Steve and I enjoy a view up at the bar where the tabletop decorations consists of some tamarind pods, pandan leaf, coconut, lemons and birds eye chillis; an homage to our Thai adventure.

Sarin Rojanametin and  Jean Thamthanakorn are the chefs and they calmly work the whole evening delivering course after course with a focus and precision that makes us feel like we are in safe hands. The cool calm delivery is occasionally interrupted by a warm smile on the odd ocassion when they come over to serve and it's very evident that they take pleasure in their hard graft and their creative craft. 

Kentaro is the ever polite but always accommodating sommelier and he pairs our dishes with the same commitment and creativity that comes from the kitchen. In fact the whole team along with the wait staff and I don't doubt even the pot washer have that unwavering, steely passion. It's not flamboyant or brash but it's constant, relentless and almost zen like saved from being robotic by genuine smiles and understated warmth.

Individual dishes are brought to us and the pace is pleasantly pacey. Not rushed but no long drawn gaps of boredom either. And as each dish arrives there's always a muted giggle at the cryptic moniker.

When the dishes are delivered, the actual ingredients that I've provided are not actually divulged so a game of guess what I've just eaten ensues and when the dishes are cleared, we get to ask and find out. If you're more patient than I am, you could even wait till the end when you're given the menu.

What looks like two mangetout arrive on a cylinder of astro turf and we're informed it's:

• What Goes Up Must Come Down - sorrel, egg yolk, durian

There's a fresh flabour, some creamy richness and some sweetness. I swear I tasted meat but in the big ingredient reveal, there's no meat. Amazing what egg yolk can do!

• Beneath the Ground - dirt, root, sardine

The green astroturf lifts up and "beneath the ground" is literally our next dish. Less attractive than the green leaf, it's a while fish bone each that looks very dead and decayed. The whole beneath the ground thing is taken pretty far! There's also something mousse like in what would have been in the fishes head, like its brain...pretty confronting so I make Steve go first! 

It's actually really tasty and the fish brain is fresh and not fishy or offal like at all. And the specks of dirt are like dried cuttlefish so very reminiscent of the Asian snack food of my childhood.

• Childhood Bread - freshly milled toasted rice bread sourdough with fermented shrimp butter
  

​I'd been intrigued by the lovely looking terracotta clay pots in the kitchen and now one was coming towards us. As the lid lifted a smoky aroma escaped and revealed a humble looking brown bun.

I found the flavours muted in this dish. The theatre was fun and the bread was tasty but it was just bread with a flavoured butter. I think the creativity in this dish is in the presentation rather than flavours.

Now I'm not a huge bone marrow fan; more so because of the slippery, fatty texture but I don't mind the flavour. So I give it a go. The marrow almost melts into the rice and the leaf offers some freshness.There's also some lemongrass flavours wafting through which lifts the heaviness of the marrow and rice. I actually really enjoy this; meaty marrow and toasty rice, But I want more rice and another leaf to see out the rest of the marrow.

• Thai Cupcake Wanting to Become Western - King Edward potato, chive

​The sweet stuff continues and a little rustic, home made style foil packet arrives revealing what looks like a mini baked potato. Turn the potato over and there's an ooozy gooeyness that looks like melted cheese. But it's a dessert and the ooziness is coconutty eggy custardy filling similar to the fillings in the custard buns at yum cha. But instead of fluffy bun there's a baked potato. Definitely East meets West in a foil packet!

And that was our Saturday night trip. Definitely trippy! They call it "progressive Thai". Sarin and Jean have a mission statement:

"We want culinary adventure to be accessible with a menu that pleases the palette and challenges the mind; cooking food simply, but interestingly, leaving people with something to remember without the formality. We want our diners to be excited, for there to be a sense of discovery and also find warm familiarity in our food."

And definitely all those thing happened in the 3 hours we were there. For all the creativity, it's not Vue de Monde and that's not a bad thing. It's humble but innovative; thought provoking but with tones of familiarity.

Given the menu restrictions, it's not a place I'd tell everyone to go but for those open minded enough to give anything a go and that enjoy pushing those food boundaries then this a true gem.
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