I started off with a delicious berry bellini. Not quite authentic but tasty enough with cassis so more of a Kir Royale served in a martini glass. Bread came with butter, home made ricotta and balsamic and olive oil. Nice touch.

Steve's duck was generous in size and heavily smoked. The spring roll was crispy with a soft, savoury filling and probably the tasties aspect of the dish, The balance between pickled plum and smoky meat was a little off kilter but still enjoyable.

I enjoyed the salmon. However, when it first arrived there was a small green fly on the corner of one of the Champagne jelly cubes so I told the waitress and she brought out a new dish in a matter of minutes. The quick turnaround is a good thing but I couldn't help but feel maybe it wasn't a brand new dish but just a new jelly cube...

I had asked for the salmon to be rare and this fishy on my dishy wasn't really rare but it wasn't over dried and given I'd already sent the dish back once, decided to go with it. The dressing was like a shallot vinegar similar to what would accompany oysters. I liked the tang against the fish. The Champagne jelly cubes didn't really do it for me. I don't like savoury jellies and wasn't expecting them. I liked the freshness and lightness of the dish and it was enjoyable but not perfect.

Service was functional. It was busy and whilst we never really needed to wait for anything excessively it was all quite impersonal and lacked warmth. Although my greenfly dish was swapped, the apology came quite late on and whilst it was there was more perfunctory than personal. We received complimentary tea with dessert for the mishap. I think I'd have preferred a free dish but I wasn't going to make demands.

Dessert was custard donuts with passionfruit and it came with warm birthday wishes. Covered in crunchy sugar they were cheery bites of goodness although I did feel 3 donuts for the price charged was a bit cheeky, even if it did come with a shard of white chocolate!

Lunch here was pleasant. I find lunch at wineries in the Yarra Valley can be disappointing and expensive which is why we tend to stick to pizzas and truffle fries at Innocent Bystander but sometimes, it's nice to do something a little fancier. I'd give Coombe another go for that special occasion time. The food on the whole was tasty and the place is picturesque so it does deliver in most aspects.

As appetisingly tasty dumplings are, they don't always agree with me and I think it's down to the quality of the meat in the filling but because these are such delightful morsels fo joy, the discomfort afterwards doesn't stop me from eating them but it just means I don't always return to the place from whence they came.


So with the hype of Din Tai Fung, it was only a matter of time before I dropped in for a visit and Stef kindly joined me as we had a whizz quick bang catch up over a mid week lunch.


Knowing in advance there would be queues, we planned to get there just before midday. I was slightly delayed by a last minute phone call (why did I pick up the phone?) and a lack of directions. I knew it was L4 but the lift in Emporium tookk me to L4 and it the Myer store. Stef rescued me with a message directing me to L3 and to take the escalator at one end of the Food Court by Jimmy Grants so I found myself there and she'd already taken a ticket and was reviewing the tick sheet where we place our order.

It's pretty efficient in spite of queues and people. We were told 10 minutes but in reality it was less than that and we were guided through to find our table. The dining room is vast and we walk past table after table of dumpling diners. There are also some private dining rooms with large table so I wonder if bookings are taken; likely for large groups I'd imagine.

A plastic chair cover is slipped over the back of Stef's chair to protect her coat, our order slip is whisked away and our cutlery arrives and is arranged with the efficiency of a Swiss train guard. There's no real personal interaction but who needs a smile when all we want are dumplings!

The Hot and Sour Soup arrives first and it looks appetising with lots of content. The white pepper is on one side so it does need a good stir to balance everything. Less sour and not that spicy, it still manages to be flavoursome and there's plenty of egg, fungus, bits of meat. It's pretty good and comforting for the Melbourne Winter.

Our lunch consists of:

• Shrimp and Pork Wonton with Tangy Sauce
  
• Shrimp and Pork Shao Mai
  
• Pork Dumpling / Xiao Long Bao 
  
• Cha Jiang Noodle with Minced Pork
  
• Water Spinach with Garlic - unpictured
  

Have to say we were impressed with it all from the snowy white xiao long bao, dainty and pretty to the unusually shaped funnel like shao mai. Our dish of water spinach was green and fresh with a hefty dose of garlic just how I like it. The noodles were springy in texture and the minced pork topping nicely seasoned.


The only thing we didn't like were the wontons in the tangy sauce. The wantons themselves were good but the sauce had a note of Sichuan pepper and neither Stef or I like that flavour so I'd forget them next time but would try something else - perhaps something fried or some jiao zhi.


And the good news - no bad meat filling side effects for me! Was that TMI?

An invitation to have Breakfast on the Mountain is just too good to turn down so Steve and I found ourselves there on Sunday morning. Lucky there's no mountain to climb and it's quiet enough that we can choose a table in the corner.


The menu is Asian with interesting descriptions and uses of fragrant spices. Not your average bacon and eggs but there's definitely eggs and piggy pork present just not interpreted in the usual breakfast way. It's not quite the easy approachable (predictable even?) breakfast menu. There's a little thought readjustment required to give up on the usual brekkie fayre and to get into the Asian spirit.


The friendly waiter advises that dishes are spicy so to be prepared but that the baked eggs are a great hangover cure - hangover or no hangover!

• Sticky Pork & Shrimp Rice, Green Apple, Omelette, Coriander, Ginger & Chilli 
  
• Baked Eggs, Pork Belly, Smoked Eggplant, Tomato, Chilli & Basil 
  

We choose the previously bigged up Baked Eggs and Steve selects fried rice. We actually want to be able to try a third dish but the waitress pretty much slams the idea and tells us not to. I like it when wait staff advise that we've over ordered as I think they're doing their job but there's a way to do it and having a wee on my bonfire is not the way. I prefer it when it's suggested that I've ordered a lot which is great to try things but chances are we won't finish it and to make sure I'm comfortable with that. At which point, I and my friendly co diners will have a think and make the final decision.

Unfortunately in this case, I feel like I've been invited to the party but not allowed to join in the games! Steve, sensing my deflation suggests that we review the situation after the first two dishes and the waitress says that we can do that as the kitchen turns things round pretty quickly. I'm appeased but still the waitress is a spoilsport and doesn't understand people like to try things. 

Anyway it's all about the food and that spicy chilli chases any ill feeling I have. The baked eggs dish is not what I expected as the egg is actually a layer on the top as opposed to being baked whole eggs. I should have known really as my Chinese roots mean that steamed eggs much like the eggs here is a homely family favourite. The crispy, almost stained glass like panes of fried basil is pretty but more like garnish for me so I sweep them to one side. The spicy tomato sauce, eggplant and chunky slices of pork are truly yummy. To me, I can't quite taste the smokiness of smoked eggplant but I do like the soft creaminess of the vegetable. And the the thick, doorstop slice of fluffy bread, buttered on both sides is just so comforting and delicious dunked into the sauce. This is more than a hangover cure; it has life restoring properties!

The fried rice is presented with a fluffy omelette with dried shrimps, a border of chopped green beans and a little side dish of caramel, sticky pork already to be mixed together. Flavours are strong, there's definitely some heat there probably more so than the baked eggs which is surprising and it's tasty enough. It doesn't quite have the smokiness that comes from a really hot wok though but I'm grateful that it's not greasy as no wok hei can mean grease.

And after those two dishes, I can do a third and we discuss sweet vs. savoury before going with the one we had planned to have before my party was cancelled by the waitress!

The Coddled Egg & Chicken Ball Congee comes with a beautiful soft egg, my much loved coriander and spring onion garnish and a little tray of condiments including white pepper, more greenery, some pickled veg, chilli, dried shrimp, ginger and some chopped salted egg.

This is mellow and soothing after all the spice and salty and flavoursome. I love the salted egg and add all of it and we take joy in the runny egg. There are about 5 or so chicken mince meatballs which are tasty and not too dense or heavy. Close call for favourite dish between the baked eggs and this but boy am I glad we ordered this. Even Steve who is a bit unconvinced by congee delights in the warmth and savouriness of this homely dish.

All in all, for an alternative kind of breakfast the mountain is the place to be! One last thing that impressed me was the retro stripey paper straw which looks good and on trend, but isn't always the most practical is made so much more functional because there's a plastic straw inserted inside! So this little hack means we have style and substance! Good work mountain crew and not just for the straw but for the tasty breakfast we had in spite of a touch of party pooping!

Morris Jones is one of those restaurants that is better known as a bar and when brought up in conversation people know of it but don't know how great the food is!

Steve and I have been fans since Matthew Butcher has been doing his thing there from around 18 months ago but admittedly because of various things, we'd not revisited since before Christmas. We couldn't get into their Christmas Food Society dinner which is a monthly mid week gathering that is fun and interesting and then we never really made the effort from then. 

Anyway July being Steve's birthday month, he was kindly sent an invitation to enjoy the 4 course Chef's Dinner as long as we paid for me! So we decided to take advantage and went on Friday.

Last week was the first week back at work after 5 weeks off so Friday had been very illusive and a long time coming and I have to admit, by the time we got to Morris Jones, I was pretty tired and enthusiasm was hard to muster up. The beautifully sweet and fragrant lychee martini helped though!

The first things to come out were some canape like bites:

• Mad Cow Shots - Beef and Dashi
  
• Salt and Vinegar Saltbush Crisps
  

The mad cow shots were very playful and all about getting involved with a mix and a squirt and then down the hatch! Salty, tasty and with a sharp tang from the sour spheres at the bottom of the shot glass, this was a fun start.

The saltbush crisps were slightly warm and a bit like the crispy seaweed stuff you get at Chinese restaurants in texture. The flavours of salt and vinegar were very powerful though. Think super strength salt and vinegar crisps. Very moreish!

The official starter was:

• Kingfish Sashimi, Coconut and Yuzu, Avocado Puree, LSA
  

We've had this one before but it is a favourite. It's all very dramatic as a smoke filled glass cloche arrives at the table and once the cloche is lifted the smoke escapes triggering the sense of smell as well as delighting the sense of sight.

Once the smoke disperses there is a very pretty and clean dish of fish fillets with some pale green avocado and accents of brown and black. There's also a modern looking pipette to squeeze the yuzu onto the fish. This is a very classic dish in appearance and flavour - bar the pipette and I love the textures of soft fish, silky puree and crunchy LSA (linseed, sunflower seeds and almonds) and then there's the salt of the black beads of caviar and the citrus hit of yuzu. Timeless and elegant yet with a flair of theatre it's a very well thought out and clever number.

Steve caught sight of another table receiving this dish for what must have been the first time and awe on their faces was quite a picture apparently!

The Green Pea Risotto, Marjoram, WA Truffle was nicely flavoured and balanced; a little claggy in texture and didn't quite have the silkiness of the risottos at Tipo 00 but we still managed to clean our plates and lick our lips!

We weren't expecting the next dish but it came with compliments and we're so glad it did! It was the Wild Barramundi, Ginger Sauce, Broccoli Couscous, Spring Onion and Coriander. The ginger sauce came in a test tube to be poured out as preferred. It was so delicious. I'm not a huge ginger fan but this was salty and savoury and deep in flavour and seasoned the delicate fish so well which had a crispy skin and soft white flesh. The green veg was dressed in some lemon juice and had just enough acidity to cut through the salty richness of the sauce and bring out those fishy flavours of the barra. So excited by this fishy on my dishy!

The meat course was the 12 Hour Braised Lamb Shoulder, Yoghurt Tahini, Carrot Foam, Braised Carrots. I don't like carrots but didn't think to mention this but it was fine as it was more about sweetness and cumin and the lamb that was soft and tender. I was pretty full by this point but have to concede that it was a dish executed well. Rich braised meats don't do it for me but on a chef's menu and done well, I can see where the enjoyment is!

As if the barramundi wasn't enough generosity, dessert was an artist's creation! Out come a platter of delights and the token candle! Visually stunning pretty much every dessert available was on it:

• Sticky Toffee Pudding and Burnt Banana
  
• Frozen Grapes, Chambord Jelly and Popping Candy
  
• Violet Crumble - Honeycomb, Chocolate, Violet Ice Cream
  
• Chocolate Ganache and Passionfruit
  

I couldn't say I contributed much to the destruction of such a beautiful plate as pretty darn full but Steve did an incredibly good job! The frozen grapes were a great palette cleanser and the popping candy sure did pop. Sometimes I've had it on a dessert and it's gone soggy so popability is very low.

The honeycomb and chocolate appeals to everyone and not a bad word can be said about it. I loved the passionfruit ice cream as it was fresh and sharp and those citrussy fruit flavours are my kind of dessert.

We had a ball at Morris Jones. Great, creative food; attentive service all round in spite of a lively and busy bar, plenty of restaurant customers and a private function upstairs make for a wonderful birthday celebration. We had no idea how much a hole it had left by not revisiting in the last 6 months and it was made so obvious after this dinner!

A fan of Belleville promised me amazing rotisserie chicken so it found its place on my "Must Visit List" and that opportunity came via a mid week, post UK trip and catch up with my friend Kirsty. And just as I was due to set off from work, my friend and colleague Spinners had an hour to kill so decided to join us for a drink. As it turned out she ordered a dish of $7 fried rice to see her through and it arrived quickly and was just what she needed.

After Spinners leaves, Kirsty and I moved tables to somewhere more comfortable than the high stools we were perched on and ended up underneath a speaker with a really wonky table but it was less of squeeze than the high stools.

Belleville is up one of the Chinatown laneways and has the ubiquitous dodge cobblestones and stinky rubbish bins. It's inconspicuous and up some urban scary, industrial concrete stairs painted rust red and then there's a door slightly ajar. All very Melbourne grunge. Inside it's a large space, dark and understated with different sized tables including some high communal ones as well as intimate corners for dates.

Orders are taken at the bar and it's a good blend of drinking and eating space.

Kirsty and I choose two half chickens and go with the:

• Coriander, Ginger and Chilli (Medium)
  
• House Chicken Gravy (Mild)
  

When both chicken arrive, they look very similar and a dip of the fork in the sauces don't seem that promising. However once the sauce is poured out over the chicken the flavours come out. Maybe it's because the sauces are quite thin so they don't cling onto the prongs of the fork hence the initial dip doesn't taste of much.

Anyway the gravy is tasty and there's just not quite enough to cover chips and chicken so order extra if you like sauce. And the coriander, ginger and chilli has a nice zinginess to it but is light on the chilli. The chicken meat is nicely cooked so it's not dry and the two halves are pretty generous in size.

We also have the kimchi and apple coleslaw which is well balanced between creaminess and tartness so it's refreshing and palette cleansing. It's a big dish though.

We can't resist the sound of the rotisserie corn with lime butter, macadamia and wattle dukkah. They were a little disappointing as the dukkah is quite dusty in texture and the corn is cold but it's still corn and it's not inoffensive so we eat it.

Beer battered fries with house chicken salt are tasty and they do half serves so other sides can be ordered. The fries are my favourite side especially dipped in that salty gravy. They're crunchy and well seasoned. Yum.

The table is quite small for all our food and it seats 3 so we end up stacking things on the third chair. I'm not a fan of places that do share food and then the tables are too small to share food on! Not very sensible but it happens so often, have to live with it!

The bill comes to $50 each and that includes a couple of g&ts and a couple of wines so pretty well priced. The chicken is good and the place is very "Melbourne" so it's not a bad choice to hang out.

Oh the long awaited Broadsheet restaurant. Great concept to showcase some of Melbourne's cult followings all under the one roof.

It was the Huxtable mac and cheese and the yellow duck curry from Coda that had us at hello! That mac and cheese is the stuff dreams are made of and it's not been on the menu for a while is spite of my pleading requests to Daniel Wilson! And as for Coda, for some reason, I can never get a table there when I want to so I've only had it once or twice and we've never quite been able to get the relationship off the ground but not for want of trying. It's the duck curry that plays hard to get!

So we arrive just before 6pm to avoid the Saturday night crowds and shown to the bar as the dining room isn't quite ready for 6pm opening just yet. The gin and tonic I have enhanced with a slice of pink grapefruit and grapefruit bitters is such a great welcome drink and one of the best g&ts I have had and trust me, I've had a few! The grapefruit just adds a zesty zing and the bitters this touch of sweetness at the back of the throat. 

We're shown to our table just after 6pm and all tables are full so anyone arriving now will have to wait for the first tables to turn around. Well if that's the case they can soften the wait with a g&t. Not a bad way to kill time!

So the roasted yellow duck curry with jasmine rice and the sweetcorn and macaroni cheese, smoked mozzarella and chipotle are a given for our order.

The curry is just how I remember it; sunny yellow, thick and rich, It's warm with black pepper rather than hot with chilli and that's why I love this curry. That and roast duck that falls off the bone of course! 

And the mac and cheese. It arrives in a shallow ceramic dish which is a little different to the deeper, high sided bowl I've seen it come in at Huxtable. And I think the shallow dish means it's more susceptible to drying out and getting a congealed top whereas in a deeper dish the bottom layers can remain saucy and silky. And that's the flaw with the version here. The flavour notes are there - warm chipotle, sweet sweetcorn, oozy cheese. The textures are almost there with the stringy cheese but the pasta is a little mushy and the topping just has that congealed stickiness I mentioned before. Steve also thinks it could be better mixed together as is first spoonful was a little unbalanced with no stringy cheesiness!

So this version is from the same family but it's a bit of a poor cousin to the real deal. Nevertheless, there wasn't much left. Lineage in a family runs thick after all!

We also choose to try a new dish and go with Estelle Bistro's pork jowl and loin, cider and boudin noir although it's a tough decision between piggy and fishy as the whole baked flathead, clam, green olive and basil from The Town Mouse is also appealing. We're advised the fish is pretty big so piggy it is.


I'm not a huge fan of pork jowl as my previous experiences with it mean it's pretty much all fat and to be honest it's the same here. You can see it it in the picture but as pure fat goes, I guess it at least has porky flavour and the crispy crackling helps a lot! The pork loin is very tasty although the boudin noir crumbs and not an actual piece of it is a little disappointing for a black pudding fan. Undoubtedly though, the pig is the prize and the meat is tasty and enhanced by a yummy savoury drizzle of cider sauce with a hint of mustard seed.

We had room for dessert; two desserts even so went with the first two on the menu:

• Vanilla, orange, dulce de leche, hazelnut - Pierre Roelofs
  
• Apple and quince macadamia crumble with truffled honey ice cream - Philippa Sibley

The vanilla one was my choice and the meringue shards were an unexpected bonus. Who doesn't love piece of crispy, snowy white meringue? The parfait was smooth, airy and silky; the texture of icecream but with no heaviness and the orange flavour cut through the sweetness. The orange cream was quite custard like so heavy and my preference for a lighter dessert meant I may have preferred some actual fresh fruit to provide those citrussy notes but not add any richness.

Steve enjoyed his deconstructed crumble and the truffled honey ice cream was the talking point. 

The concept of the Broadsheet restaurant is a good one - a showcase of what different restaurants can offer and a rotating menu would be good idea. It's not around permanently but I feel it's a concept that could be permanent with different collaborations. Long live Broadsheet.

We returned to Melbourne after 4.5 weeks away in the UK and really needed a warm welcome back having left the the love filled happiness of home. Plus the cold and wet of Melbourne meant we were in need of comfort for the tummies and not just for the heart!

We had a reconnaissance trip of our neighbourhood and although Archie's opened earlier in the year, we never had the chance to pay a trip. This Saturday morning it was pretty busy but we thought we'd give it a go and a 10 minute wait outside resulted in a table outside. 

A wee bit chilly but a pot of tea helped.

Hmm choices of breakfast dishes...

I went with the baked eggs topped with gremolata and a side of bacon and Steve had the huevos sucios (dirty eggs) which were tater tots (mini hash browns for non Aussies), jalapeno spiked Monterrey Jack, avocado and tomatillo salsa, black beans, fried eggs, chipotle mayo and chorizo.


For both dishes the eggs were cooked really well with oozy yolks. I thought I needed my butter for my toast as the thin smear looked a little meagre but actually with the heady tomato sugo of the baked eggs enriched with feta it was the perfect amount. The gremolata crumb was a little overwhelming, slightly anaemic on colour it could have been toastier and was just a bit too thick as a layer and less crunch and more sawdusty. If there'd been a bit more sauce it could have been better as would have soaked it up like bread.


Steve compared the dirty eggs to the panko crusted eggs benedict at Sir Charles as that also has those spicy Mexican flavour notes and whilst Archie's version is good, the roti bread at Sir Charles just helps edge its win.


Archie's was busy and it was good enough but I'm not sure I'd queue for a long long time for my breakfast. There are other options just as good close by.