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Dandelion

9/2/2013

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Dandelion has been on the must try list since we arrived in Melbourne but Elwood seemed so far and it always seemed to be a place to go in a group.

Anyway the opportunity presented itself and 6 of us had dinner there on Saturday. Shern made the booking and could only get the 6pm sitting so we 6pm it was.

I find it intriguing that it gets such a good write up from critics yet such a low score from Urbanspoon voters and yet is always incredibly busy and difficult to get a booking. What experience would we have?

First impressions - it's a pleasant place to sit - open air ish, light and airy. Our table gave us lots of room and our drinks orders taken quickly.

The menu can be daunting as there's so much to choose from and as always when in a group it can be hard to decide hence we thought Feed Me options would be great. We were then informed that they couldn't accommodate a vegetarian and our time constraint as they needed the table back meant it wouldn't be done. This put a dampener on things really and we accepted it and worked through the a la carte menu to piece together and our waitress enthusiastically told us this would be better as we'd save heaps of money (not true and not really the point as money wasn't the issue).

Anyway we didn't make a fuss but mentally I formed the opinion that this was pretty inflexible; other busy places that turn tables round can do banquets and put together something for vegetarians and omnivores easily. It shouldn't be difficult to come up with something everyone can have especially given the vastness of the menu. I feel chef and the kitchen and the waitstaff who know the menu just didn't try hard enough, weren't willing to give us their time to assist or didn't have the ability to do that because they're too busy just churning out what's on the menu.
Green rice fried tiger prawns, nuoc cham came first and we each had one of these green scaled prawns and did the wrapping and rolling and dipping. Yummy. Crunchy, sweet and vinegary - great balance of Asian flavours.

We also tried the soft shell crab and avocado with Mrs T’s magical sauce and Buddha rolls, with tofu, shiitake and jimica, peanut sauce. Fresh rolls with unsoggy wraps. I find rice paper rolls can get soggy and slimy so I liked the chewiness of the wrap and the crunch of the veg here.We w

We chose to share a couple of curries - fish and goat as well as the grilled ribs. I wanted pho but was told it was too difficult to share. Again I found this a little inflexible as I've shared soup noodles at Chinese restaurants lots of times - all we need are some little bowls...anyway never mind.

The curries were flavoursome and both very different which is good. They came with a small bowl of rice, a crusty roll and some salad. The ribs were tender and fell off the bone and again like the prawns were meant to be rolled in some lettuce with some rice noodles and other accompaniments. Unfortunately our wedge of lettuce wasn't great so by the time it got to me there wasn't much to roll but I enjoyed the ribs and the dipping sauce and rice noodles regardless. Kind of like a deconstructed version.
We stuck around for dessert - we wanted the deep fried ice cream but were told not possible as run out so between us we enjoyed the Viet coffee crème caramel, cashew nut praline, honeycomb, banana spring rolls and passionfruit sorbet and little coconut pancakes with red bean puree, black sesame ice cream.

Unusual but enjoyable. I loved the passionfruit sorbet that was incredibly intense.

General verdict was that the food was flavoursome and I can see why it gets the critics' thumbs up and it definitely deserves that kudos. I think it's pricing that the Urbanspooners don't like especially as Vietnamese food is traditionally cheap. I don't mind the prices but high prices mean as well as good food there also has to be good service and whilst our enthusiastic waitress did her best, it's really the inflexible nature and structure of Dandelion that tainted our experience.

There were also too occasions when one of our party would order a drink but rather than ask the rest of the table if they also wanted to order anything the waitress or waiter would run off neglecting the rest of the order! I think front of house needs to calm down, take stock and look at the two sittings turnaround and how to best deliver an all round positive customer experience and once that has improved I might venture all the way to Elwood again.

Dandelion on Urbanspoon
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Lezzet

14/8/2011

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We first came across Lezzet last month when we attended a mezze cookery class which was a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. We had lunch plans then so didn't stay so when dessert class came up we decided to stay.

Attending dessert class was touch and go and right up until 8am that morning we were set to cancel given how I was feeling. I'm sick of mentioning it now but I'm ill with flu or something like that. Anyway after a shower and knowing how much Steve wanted to learn how to make baklava I summoned all energy and decided to go. It is just a two hour class and it's not really strenuous so I thought I'd be ok. I figured I could alway recuperate and sleep for the remainder of the afternoon especially as Steve planned to watch the Richmond game on TV. And true to my word that I did!

Unlike the previous class which took place on a portable work bench in the bar area, dessert class took place in the kitchen and the ever friendly owner / chef Kemal had his elbow deep in filo pastry, melted butter and nuts in no time.

We made baklava and raspberry flavoured Turkish delight. Not being a Turkish delight fan, this stuff was actually quite pleasant although still too sweet for me. The baklava also very sweet was really good though and the sweetness cut through by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. We got to take some home with us too.

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So we started our lunch with dessert! And then moved onto a mezze plate comprising of mussels in a cream sauce, slow cooked oxtail, lamb ribs and prawn and scallop mousse in ketafai pastry. The flatbread that came with this was delicious dipped in the cream sauce and although it was all good, I particularly enjoyed the bread. This was the first meal I'd had since Friday night so I was diggin in alright!

Main course was their famous Anatolian lamb slow cooked for 18 hours. By this stage, given my loss in apetite I was already full but it was very good lamb. It came with some tomato couscous and was served with a date jus to give it a little sweetness.

We really enjoyed the food so much so Steve suggested ordering a pizza (they've won prizes for their pizza) to take home and then we wouldn't have to cook dinner! I'm all for not cooking so that we did. Appetite hasn't quite returned in spite of the amazing smelling pizza so have left that for Steve who has chomped his way through it with occasional bouts of "very good". He's also got through the baklava we brought home so that's also a positive sign.

Lezzet Modern Turkish Cuisine on Urbanspoon
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    For those that know us, this section will probably come with no surprise! Steve and I love eating out so this is our record of our time in Australia.

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