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Truman Cafe

5/4/2014

Saturday mid morning brunch date with Lorna, Rob and the handsome new addition to their family, baby Austin. Lorna suggested Truman Cafe and so Steve and I headed there. We were a little earlier and hung around but before long an outside table became free with plenty of room for Austin's wheels.

It's a popular place for families with prams and cyclists with bikes and with the spaciousness of the outside tables, it's easy to see why. Lovely to sit in the Autumn sunshine.

The menu has lots to offer for breakfast, brunch and lunch. I went with Eggs Benedict which was done with bacon instead of ham. This may be wrong to the traditionalists but a very welcome subsitution for this bacon lover. A side of mushrooms made this a satisfying brunch.

Steve had the chorizo and poached eggs topped with spicy tomato and he added a hash brown which was appetisingly golden and deep fried although somewhat reminscent of fried bread than hash brown.

Coffees, teas and orange juices all arrived quickly and cheerfully. Food took a while longer so by the time it came we were really ready for it. Any longer and I think we'd have been pretty despondent.

Truman Cafe is another good Melbourne cafe. I'm so lucky to live in a place that loves eggs and serving eggs on a weekend.

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Lord Cardigan

29/11/2013

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This week's Friday feed took place in Albert Park and Steve selected Lord Cardigan. I thought it was going to be a pub but was pleasantly surprised when it appeared as a cute and cosy little neighbourhood bistro that was intimate and buzzy.

We had a table towards the back of the dining room and had a good view of everyone else. Everyone seemed to be having a good time which lifted the atmosphere.

Our choice of starter were the:

Blue swimmer crab with asparagus, corn and caper, poached quail egg and dill pollen
Mushroom ravioli served on sauteed mushrooms with truffle butter

I had the crab and I liked the sweetness of the crab and corn, the touch of zestiness from some citrus, the iron flavour of the asparagus and then some herbaceous notes from the dill and other greenery. Light and appetite inducing it was a good starter.

Steve's pasta was also a solid performer, Thin pasta and a rich filling with a buttery sauce. Delicious.

And then we had waited and it was a good hour before our main courses arrived. I think that's a bit too long really especially on a Friday night when a hard day of toil has taken place.

Hickory-smoked duck breast served with house gnocchi, chorizo and fresh peas
Prime aged Gippsland Black Angus beef sirloin served with a gruyere cheese and onion tart, red wine jus
House chips with rosemary salt
Roasted beetroot, orange, walnut, cherry tomato, witlof and Yarra Valley fetta salad

This was a our feast for our main course. Dishes were attractively presented and appetisingly so. The steak was soft especially for a sirloin and the meat tasty. The gruyere and onion tart was extremely delicious and I loved the jus absorbing pastry. The house chips were lovely and golden with a crispy outer and the salad was just so fresh and delicious with the creamy decadence of feta.eg

I have to begrudgingly admit that the wait was worth it. It was good food. And that meant I willingly waited for dessert...

We shared the terrine of ices – mascarpone, passionfruit and berry, topped with Italian meringue, finished with a strawberry and orange salad.

Pretty colours - creamy marscapone on the bottom, sweet foamy meringue on the top and then jaw zappingly, sharp but in a good way raspberry and passionfruit notes screaming of their fruitiness.

Lord Cardigan is a lovely neighbourhood restaurant that is producing great food. My only quibble was the delay in our main course and not much of an acknowledgement of this lengthy wait but the good cooking outweighed the inconvenience of waiting.

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The Point at Albert Park

26/5/2013

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Fancy Pants Sunday came about following Grumpy Pants Steve's 2 weeks of grumpiness! In his quest for redemption he booked at able at The Point at Albert Park. A touch more swish than our usual Sunday lunches, we enjoyed the view from our table on this grey and drizzly Sunday.

Our welcome was efficient and over the course of the meal we got to know our waiter better and he provided a personal and likeable standard of service. We started with an amuse bouche of smoked salmon with a little crumb and it was a delicious morsel.

I chose the Western Australian marron, linguine, edamame and ice plant to begin with and it was so beautifully presented. The flavours were delicate and so fresh and the colours so vibrant.

Steve started with the parsnip veloute, pine mushrooms, hazelnut and poached quail egg. Again beautifully presented, it was a good combination.

Our main courses were all about meat. I had the Yarra Valley pasture fed lamb, sweetbreads, pommes Anna and red cabbage salad. Beautiful pieces of pink lamb with crumbed morsels of sweetbread, delicious earth mushrooms and a zingy cabbage salad - it was a symphony of delight! Totally delicious.

Steve decided to go with steak and the Tasting Plate consisting of 100g Cape Grim Eye fillet, pasture fed 100g Sher F1 Wagyu Porterhouse and 350+ days grain fed 100g Hopkins River Eye Fillet 120+ days grain fed. Amazing how steak can be so different. He declared is favourite to be the Wagyu whereas when I sampled them I preferred the cleaner and leaner flavour of the Cape Grim eye fillet. Well, it seems there is a steak for everyone!

Side dishes of beef fat potatoes and brussel sprouts and bacon lardons complete the Sunday spread.

Delicious meats and delicious vegetables. Nothing really could be faulted. We were even warned in advance of the impractical plate Steve's steaks were served on so we couldn't even find fault with that!

We enjoyed a beautiful bottle of Bass Phillip Crown Prince which was so elegant and silky smooth with virtually no rough tannin. Our waiter even brought out the fancy pants decanter which required a lot of twisting and twirling! Good thing the waiter took charge because if Steve and I did it, there probably would only be half a decanter left!

We rounded off the meal with an apricot souffle with a yoghurt ice cream. I enjoyed the sweetness of the souffle and the tang of the yoghurt ice cream. It wasn't the lightest of souffles I've had and wasn't quite as good as the pistachio version at Virginia Plain but it was still pretty good.

The Point at Albert Park feels like a special occasion kind of place. Ambience is quite conservative and hence quite subdued. Possibly a touch too refined for an easy Sunday lunch every week but every girl wants a frock occasion once in a while.

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Truman Cafe

Lord Cardigan

The Point at Albert Park

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