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Stillwater

17/12/2011

We had the pleasure of dining here during our Tasmania trip. It was pleasant walk from our hotel in the Seaport area. Upon arrival we were shown to our table which was next to a window and our waitress came to take our drinks order. She was a very sweet young lady with a childish enthusiasm and delight for her work which was good to see.

I did find the sommelier and part owner of the business, James Welsh to be a little aloof and offhand and pre occupied with other customers other than us. However the rest of the team made up for it and as front of house manager I guess he has to spread his time across all diners.

We opened the night's dining with:

Slow cooked crispy skin pork belly, red apple sauce, green chilli caramel and pickled apple salad
Steamed Vietnamese style local flathead, cucumber noodles, fragrant herbs, miso aioli and tomato nam-jim

Steve enjoyed the belly pork and the crispy skin was thin and crackly. I did think that the red apple sauce and the green chilli caramel on the plate together side by side looked a bit like a frog caught in an accident!

The Vietnamese style flathead was not what I was expecting. In my mind it was more fish fillets in a salad but the fish was actually made into little fish cakes. I loved the Vietnamese flavours and the coriander notes coming through. Delicious and light; a great start.

It was good to see Lease 65 oysters on the menu. We did not order them as we'd indulged in them straight from the lease earlier that day as we visited the oyster farm and met Anthony the owner.

Our main course choices were:

Twice roasted duck,braised lettuce, cucumber and carrot with mandarin and tamarind broth
Fourteen day dry aged Lenah wallaby (North East, Tas), green spring garlic, smoked tomato, green raisins and tomato beurre blanc

Both were beautifully presented. The duck was tender and meaty with a deep broth flavours coming hrough. The little balls of cucumber and carrot were so cute.

I really enjoyed the wallaby. It was lean and meaty with a slight hint of game to it. The spring garlic added a hint of mellow garlic but not overpoweringly so and the smokey tones enhanced the flavour of the meat.

Dessert was shared as we were very full. We were pleased we had opted for the a la carter menu and not the degustation. Mandarin semifreddo,glace ginger, mandarin jelly and ginger snap biscuit was an intense yet fresh finish to our meal. The incredibly thin ginger snap was a great flavour and texture contrast to the creamy coolness of the semi freddo.

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal here and if Stillwater was situated in Melbourne it would certainly give the restaurants here a run for their money. I can understand why it's considered the best in Launceston as the standard and quality of the food is excellent.

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Fish Frenzy

14/12/2011

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Our first meal in Tasmania had to be fish and chips! Too many choices in the Hobart waterfront area and we blindly chose Fish Frenzy. We were quite early so getting a table was easy.

We started off with Oysters Kilpatrick and seafood chowder. The oysters were very yummy and fresh. Not too hot that they burnt the roof of the mouth either. We could have eaten another 6 of these babies!

The seafood chowder was thick and rich with different shellfish and white fish. Deeply satisfying it came with some garlicky bread which was a delicious accompaniment. There were some strong herby flavours coming through the soup too; mainly dill giving it a some fresher tones and lifting the heavy creaminess.

Onto the main event. I had a brief chat with the lady behind the counter and she recommended the blue eye beer batter and the flathead in tempura. The fish was beautiful and both batters were crispy and light with little hint of grease. The fish tasted fresh and both the fishes had distinct flavour. The tempura batter is a little lighter with bubbles and the beer batter has a denser thicker crunch.

The chips were also good. Not the type of chips we get in UK which tend to be a little soggier. These are Aussie chips with a crispier coating. It'd be too good to be true if they did British chips!

After we ate we took the rest of the bottle of wine and sat outside as the sun had come out and we were still made to feel very welcome in spite of spending a much longer time there.

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The Atlantic

10/12/2011

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Steve was lucky enough to enjoy a client lunch at The Atlantic on Friday and was convinced enough to try it with me the next day! We'd always intended on trying this new addition to Crown but had wanted to wait till the teething problems had ceased and the reviews improved.

So a sunny Saturday in December seemed to be the best time and in spite of lunch specials at Number 8 and Bistro Guillaume we were still lured into The Atlantic. We were shown to the last table for two on the terrace and enjoyed wonderful viewss from our table.

I started with the Moreton Bay Bug spaghettini with olive oil, garlic, chilli and parsley. Six or so beautifully sweet and tender bugs on top of al dente pasta seasoned so well with garlic and chilli. Oh this was a delight and one of the best seafood pasta dishes I've had in a long term. What a treat.

Steve opted for pan seared scallops with white asparagus puree, green aspargus and blood orange which looked so pretty on a piece of gray slate. I was lucky enough to try a mouthful and loved the sweet scallop with the palette cleansing citrus burst of blood orange.

The starters had set a high standard for the main courses. I went for the citrus marinated olive oil confit King Salmon with spring vegetables, confit lemon, blood orange chip, lemongrass foam. The salmon came out looking so rare and unctuous; all glossy and shiny agains the white plate and bright green vegetables. The candied orange and rich salmon were delicious. The texture of the salmon against the crunch of the vegetables was perfect and the sweetness of the peas against the rich salmon was sublime. Loved this.

Steve went for fish and chips. The tartare sauce that came with us was very good and the fish batter remained crispy. The quality and sweetness of the white fish came throught the batter which is hard and rare to find.

Our greedy guts made us go for two side dishes - mashed Bintje potatoes and Caesar salad. The salad was beautiful to look at with pink pancetta, slow cooked egg, little golden crouton cubes, large meaty Ortiz anchovies and crisp green Cos lettuce. The salad tasted amazing. I could just eat that salad now. So crisp and so tasty.

The mash didn't disappoint either all creamy and smooth and rich. So much better than what we'd had two days ago at The Waterfront. The mash there wasn't bad but I'd happily pay more for here.

So with stellar starters and magnificent main courses how could we not indulge in dessert? We opted for the fresh raspberry tart with vanilla custard and raspberry sorbet although it was hard to decide between that or the vanilla panna cotta with pina colada salad and pineapple granita.

I loved the raspberry tart. Once again it was a visual delight with plump raspberries and a dark pink quennelle of sorbet. This dish was light and fruity and so enjoyable. Steve said he would have liked thicker pastry but I loved the delicate crisp shell of this tart.

The Atlantic has a special place in my heart because of the wonderful plates of food we had. The service was efficient and attentive; it wasn't the most personal and when I asked whether to go for the spaghettini or a risotto special they had on, the waiter wasn't able to give an opinion but our glasses were kept topped up, we didn't have to wait long for anything and generally felt looked after unlike our experience at the night before at The Kitchen Cat and the night before that at The Waterfront.

Steve did say that what we had for lunch was better than what he'd had the day before so perhaps we made the right choices and chose the best dishes.

This is an expensive place to eat and we spent $250 for the two of us including a bottle of wine but the extra $50 or so more it costs over somewhere like The Waterfront or The Kitchen Cat goes a long long way and I'd rather save up to come here. I can't wait to return!

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The Kitchen Cat

9/12/2011

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Friday night fun and Steve made plans and booked a table at The Kitchen Cat for the two of us. Formerly Fifteen, I'd read it stays true to the Italian influences of Fifteen so I expected charcuterie, cheeses, pastas, risottos and general yumminess.

We arrived and were shown to our table in the dining area by a friendly hostess. We walked past a couple of large parties, we assumed they were Christmas parties, saw the prosciutto slicer, hams hanging, cheeses in cabinets and a very nice looking custard tart. This was exciting and we looked forward to a good feed.

We had to wait a while to order drinks and get menus. I opted for a refreshing apple sangria which was yummy and Steve had a beer.

The basement dining hall is made brighter with white walls. There's a red pipe running through the room. The banquette I sat on was comfortable. I'm not sure about the mirror behind me. I always wonder about mirrors in restaurants; I don't like watching myself eat so am a bit anti them. It does get noisy maybe because the hall is a bit cavernous. I found the chatter quite loud in spite of the the dining area not being completely full.

We started off with grilled Caciocavallo cheese with parsley and lemon and also some house cured salami with burrata.

We really enjoyed the fried cheese although admittedly it's not a technically demanding dish but it's about the produce rather than the culinary skill. The salami was also tasty with a good chew to it and not overly salty. The burrata was a pleasant milky background to the strongly flavoured salami although it was also rather watery. A decent start to the meal more about produce of good quality than cookery but still good.

Steve had had long and late lunch so decided to go with the risotto of prosciutto, white asparagus, thyme,lemon, pecorino whilst I chose the rolled pork belly from the rôtisserie, Mount Zero lentils and salsa verde.

The portion of risotto wasn't large and was just on the cooked side. I think it could have done with a minute or so longer but I guess they got it out to us as quickly as they could given we had to wait 40 minutes for our mains. The waitresses apologised for the delay and informed us it was because they were really busy. They didn't seem all that busy to me so either the kitchen was really understaffed or they just can't cope with large parties. At times the wait staff looked like they had nothing to do as they waited for the dishes to come out so perhaps the ratio of wait staff and kitchen staff needs to be looked at.

The rolled pork was average sadly. It looked good but there wasn't much pork flavour, the salsa verde was merely dark green mush. There was no crispy skin but Steve informs me that having watched Great British Menu he knows it's very hard to get a crispy skin on rolled pork so we forgave the Kitchen Cat chef for not making this happen. Unfortunately the fat didn't render down enough and I had to leave a chunk of greasy, soggy skin and gelatinous, globby fat. The lentils were pretty tasty but I can't just have good lentils.

Anyway after our main course I was so ready to go home having had a long week and a long wait for food. The kitchen decided to apologise for the wait by giving us some chocolate ice cream. Although I appreciate the effort, I think I'd rather they have asked us what free dessert we wanted or just taken off something from the bill. The ice cream was dark, rich and fudgey but three balls is too much and we were sharing. The pastry biscuit think it came with wasn't impressive.

Sadly our visit to the Kitchen Cat wasn't good enough. We really wanted to like it but service and food were below par.

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The Waterfront

8/12/2011

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This place has been under construction since our move to Melbourne more than 12 months ago. We're currently in that about to go on holiday so no food in the house phase which means we're eating out a whole lot! A warm and sunny Thursday evening and a late finish at work for me meant that Steve suggested dinner at a restaurant with good outdoor seating so we decided to try out The Waterfront.

Given its prime location and the beautiful balmy evening it was certainly busy. We were greeted warmly though by the maitre d' and he said an outdoor table would be available soon or we could sit side by side at a narrow bar on the terrace. We were quite happy with the bar and made our way there. As soon as we sat down, we were informed a table was ready so we got up and moved there.

After a promising start service wise, sadly it seemed to deteriorate as we weren't given menus for a while and then had to wait a long time to place an order. One of the waiters that was in our area was always very smiley but never available and not really all that attentive. The maitre d' obviously noticed we were waiting for a while so he came to give us menus.

We decided to go with a seafood chowder and the belly pork and had a bit of each. The seafood chowder was quite thin but had a good flavour to it and the mussels were cooked perfectly so didn't get chewy as can be the case in a soup. The belly pork was also pretty tasty and the fat rendered down nicely. The pumpkin puree was a bit grainy though.

Steve fancied steak and I went for a whole flounder in a paprika and lemon butter. We also shared some olive oil mash and a beetroot, goats cheese and walnut salad.
The steak was pretty good and the bearnaise sauce had a good tang to it. On it's own the sauce tasted a bit odd but with the char of the steak it came into its own.

The whole flounder was of an impressive size and the accompanying garlic roast potatoes were tasty although looked a bit ugly. The fish sadly was bland in flavour leading me to suspect it may have been frozen rather than fresh.

The olive oil mash was tasty; a little grey in colour and like the pumpkin puree looked a bit grainy.

I think for the prices they charge there are other places serving better food and with slicker service. We enjoyed our meal enough; probably not enough to return regularly. I don't think it was good enough to recommend this place but I liked it enough that if someone else suggested it, I'd go along.

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Quan 88

6/12/2011

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We decide to have a pre Christmas dinner with Ling and Noah before they get busy with Noah's parents visiting and we go off on our holiday. Victoria Street is kind of middle ground for us and we are keen to try somewhere new.

Quan 88 has decent reviews so we decide to make it our meeting place.

Service was warm and friendly and Steve did the ordering. The waitress was full of smiles although she couldn't really answer our questions and Steve wasn't convinced she'd taken our order fully as she seemed to write some dishes down but not others so we left our dining fate in the hands of the gods!

We started off with the ever favourite spring rolls and go for duck and pork. They come out crisp and golden with a dish of lettuce and the tasty dipping sauce. It's a pretty good start as these are yummy. My personal preference is the pork whereas Steve prefers the denser duck.

Main course we chose:

Crispy chicken wings in a special chilli sauce
Five spice beef hot pot
Fish in chilli and basil
Lemongrass and chilli chicken
Flaming pork Cantonese style

I am pleased to say there were no hiccups with the order in spite of our lack of faith. Smiling friendly waitress lady is a pro and is at the top of her game!

We liked the chicken wings as they were crispy and tasty. The hotpot wasn't bad either with lots of pieces of beef and a savoury gravy. The fish was ok; I quite liked it but Steve felt there wasn't enough fish and it was all carrot and other veg. Lemongrass chicken was too similar to the fish and way too mushy. Obviously not a popular dish as half of it was left. The flaming pork was essentially sweet and sour pork in a tin foil package that had been set alight. The waiter split the package open. I felt the battered pieces of pork were too soggy and the batter too thick. It was a little like sweet and sour pork that has been left overnight when the the batter and sauce coating it melds together and goes a bit grainy.

I have to be honest and say I think there was a substantial sprinkling of MSG used as I suffered from late night thirst. I enjoyed Quan 88 enough at the time but in retrospect it's not on my list of must repeats.

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Jalan Alor

5/12/2011

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The lovely Salsa Stefanie introduced me to Jalan Alor. It's one of her favourites and knowing that she knows her food, I was looking forward to trying it.

It's in an arcade off Bourke Street and looks quite café in nature with wooden stools and chairs painted pale blue. It's bright and airy with a painted floor. In spite of pretty pastel colours, the staff were a drab brown uniform which looks a little out of place but aesthetics aside, this rendezvous is about the tastebuds!

Stefanie is greeted by the owner and she says this is due to her unwavering custom! I leave it to her to take control and order.

We decide to share a few things:

Hainanese chicken rice
Char kway teow
Water spinach with belacan
Roti with chicken curry

They also offer a wide choice of Asian drinks such as the cendol and kacang. Not my thing but I'm sure many Malaysians will like this. Food comes quickly and the chicken rice arrives first. The rice is in three little scoops like balls of ice cream and the chicken and broth come in separate dishes. I'm pleased to say it's good chicken rice. The rice is flavoursome and the chicken soft and slippery.
The water spinach dish is full of belacan (shrimp paste) flavour and it's cooked well as it's not too watery and the veg isn't floating in a load of liquid as can be the case with water spinach.

The roti comes out piping hot, It's golden and flaky. It's quite thin but it tastes good with the curry sauce.

The char kway teow is pretty spicy. I find the noodles a little too mushy for my taste.

Service is friendly. Communication can be a little stilted as waitresses struggle with English a little but they are keen and friendly. Looking around at other diners there are lots of other things to try; soup noodles, Ipoh style rice noodles so I look forward to another visit.

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Noodle Kingdom

3/12/2011

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Rainy Saturday so Steve and I opted for some warming noodles to nourish the damp soul. I had noticed this place was relatively new on the Swanston Street strip; so new the congratulatory bouquets were still adorning the entrance. I wondered if it was related to the Noodle Kingdom I went with my mum and sister and when I saw the crockery it looked the same so they probably are.

Anyway we were shown to a table for two. The place looks new. It's airy and bright but the tables are pretty close together. It doesn't really stand out from any of the other cheap and cheerful Asian joints in the CBD. There is a window at the back of the room where you can see some ladies in hairnets making something but you can't see what as they are too high up. My guess is they're making dumplings. There's also another "glass cage" at the front of the restaurante facing the street where the noodle man makes his noodles. Always a crowd puller so I expect this place will get busy.

Anyway we order a small tapas like dish of jelly fish to begin which I ate because it isn't Steve's thing. It's ok flavour wise but lacks the bounce and chew that I like. It's a bit too mushy and comes with too much liquid.

Steve goes for the stewed beef noodles and I choose the Shanghai rice cakes in chicken soup. We also order some pork dumplings. Steve's bowl is pretty good. Noodles are bouncy, beef is flavoursome enough as is the broth. My rice cakes are pretty bland and there's not much meat in the dish so it's just ok. I wouldn't order it again. The pork dumplings take a while to arrive and they're a different style to the xiao long bao but pretty enjoyable. We struggle to finish them though so take them home and I'm pleased to say they were still good re steamed later on in the day.

I think Noodle Kingdom is not a bad choice on the Swanston Street strip. If in the area I'd happily return but I'd stick to noodle dishes and not the rice cakes.

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Stillwater

Fish Frenzy

The Atlantic

The Kitchen Cat

The Waterfront

Quan 88

Jalan Alor

Noodle Kingdom

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