Taste of Melbourne
27-30th August
Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton
Tickets: From $30
Crowns (Food Money): From $8

If you thought about going to Taste of Melbourne, but don’t know what you should eat, fear not!  I have tasted a number of dishes, some good, some not so good, so you don’t have to make the same mistake when it comes to you.

(Please note: Unfortunately I can’t taste every single dish, I can only taste selectively, so please feel free to taste other ones and let me know how you go!)

Dishes we recommend:-

Savoury

Jacques Raymond- Seared scallops, Thai style Sher Wagyu Beef, crispy Asian salad (scallops are cooked to perfection with a tiny tinge of ginger flavour)

Maha- Lamb Kustilji: crisp lamb ribs, roast nuts & spices, lemon & yoghurt (succulent lamb with big flavours- yum!)
Fifteen- Slow roasted “Berkshire” pork belly, with lentil & salsa verde (flavoursome porchetta styled pork- one of the dishes with larger portions)
Silks- Baked crab shell served with Portuguese sauce (Although I haven’t tried this, both my dining companions told me that it’s the best savoury dish they have tried)

The Court House-Spiced cinnamon donuts

Sweet

Circa, The Prince- Chocolate, honeycomb & salted caramel crunch (not only was this a large portion, but it has different flavours and textures that complemented with each other.  Be warned though, it’s VERY rich!)

The Court House- Spiced cinnamon doughnuts served with a warm chocolate sauce (these are really fresh, not oily at all, soft pillows of doughnuts with vanilla bean custard & dark chocolate sauce… yummmmm)
Maggie Beer- We also tasted the Maggie Beer icecream with Quince & Bitter Almond.  It was sensational and they gave us a large portion- for free!  (they may have forgotten to charge)

Recommended Cocktails:

Lemon Z Limoncello- Limoncello with pineapple & coconut cream (it’s delicious- like Pina Colada but much more refreshing.  It made me very very happy too!)

Dishes we recommend avoiding:-

Jacques Reymond- Tempura of Quail’s breast- I admittedly did not try this, but my dining companion did not like it one bit, try the seared scallops instead!
Botanical- Botanical Wagyu Beef burger.  It’s nothing special, hard to eat and the burger tasted a bit weird.
Nobu- Yellowtail jalapeno w/Yuzu soy.  Eat this at the restaurant, cos it wasn’t as fresh at the Taste of Melbourne.

Overall, I thought Taste of Melbourne is a fantastic way to try all the gourmet restaurants food in one place, like a mini degustation tasting menu of different things you want.  However, Taste of Melbourne is not cheap.  You’ve gotta pay the entry fee, plus money for food.  It’s best when 3-4 friends go to Taste of Melbourne together, so you can share the dishes and try different things.

Other than restaurants, there are also a lot of other tiny stalls with free tasting, it’s like food and wine show but with gourmet stuff… Mmmmm