October 29, 2011 | 
Author Ten Minutes by Tractor
1333 Mornington Flinders Road, Main Ridge, Victoria 3928 Australia
03 5989 6080
I am so excited to be able to get a booking at Ten Minutes by Tractor- everytime we would like to go there for a spontaneous lunch on a weekend, it would be fully booked. So this time I booked a few weeks in advance and finally we got in.
We all have consensus about what to have for entree: the seared scallops with smoked ocean trout broth and quinoa $22 sounds too good to resist.
When it arrived, there was another device which looks like an hourglass
with the smoked ocean trout on top and the broth in the bottom.
The waiter lit up this little gas stove and all the broth is suctioned
up to the top and the infused broth slowly drains back to the bottom
part of the glass container. I am sure there’s a name for it so
please let me know if you know 
We wondered how much of that smoked trout can be infused into that broth in such short period of time, but nonetheless when we tried it we can taste a hint of smoky flavours, just enough not to overpower the scallops. That being said we found the scallops a little overcooked for our liking, with the outside of the scallops a little bit tough.
Having eaten so much meat in
the past few days and heading off to the hot springs later, I thought I
might have something not as filling. There is a vegetarian option
avaliable so I thought I might have that, especially when the waiter
assured me that the vegetarian option, while not on the menu, is
delicious.
And god he was right. My vegies are arranged beautifully like a wreath of flowers, with some deep fried crunchy bits such as enoki mushrooms, some raw herbs, some cooked baby carrots, turnips, peas, zuchini, potatoes and lentils. The different textures and flavours creates depth to this gorgeous dish, and it is truly one of the best vegetarian dish I have ever tried.
Things took a bit of an
awkward turn when Hubby and Esky both ordered the Cape Grim eye fillet,
medium rare. Hubby’s one turned out beautifully cooked, whereas
Esky’s one was more medium than medium rare. For $43, we decided
to send Esky’s back and while the waiter wasn’t exactly rude, and did
replace the dish, it felt as if he was a little bit reluctant to return
the dish for us. There just doesn’t seemed to be the graciousness
we would expect when a dish is returned to the point where Esky had to
apologise about returning the dish when really, they should be
apologising to us.
That aside the beef actually tasted fantastic and tender when it was cooked right, and the parsley aioli and red wine jus complements awesomely to this dish (and Hubby doesn’t even like parsley! But he tried to mop it all up with the steak!)
I was DYING for dessert but unfortunately the dishes take so so so long to arrive- those two courses took more than 2 hours so unfortunately we ran out of time for dessert. If I had a chance I would have eaten the Lemon Curd crispy creme or the mandarin cheesecake or the rhubarb cake or chocolate tart. SIGH. Maybe next time. I just wish their service is more efficient- we were the first ones to arrive and yet our dishes took so long- we were starving by the time that our dishes arrived.
Given a chance I think I will still go back. I really wanted to try those desserts. 7/10
Posted in 
Foxey’s Hangout
795 White Hill Rd, Red Hill, 3937
03 5989 2022
On our Mornington Peninsula trip we went to Foxey’s Hangout for brunch after numerous blog and GT recommendations. When we walked in the kitchen is just starting up- we were greeted warmly and escorted to our seats with canteen styled table and a beautiful view of the greenery outside. I love their open kitchen, everything feels a little homely there and truth be told I wish I have a kitchen (and space) like that so I can entertain friends.
The food is mostly sharing
plates, $11 each. We started off with a plate of quail,
which was pan fried. They are succulent and delicious.
These corn cakes are
just awesome. We are so dubious about them at first, but these are
full of sweet corns and just a small dollop of yoghurt (not needed I
reckon), it’s a wonder how they stick together… although we didn’t think
too much of it cos we gobble it down quite quickly.
This tuna mojama (dried
salted tuna) and pear slices didn’t really taste as good as it sounds,
and it’s probably one of our least favourite dish.
The spiced meatballs with
yoghurt is juicy and flavoursome, although it looks a bit too pink in
the middle for my liking. I just closed my eyes and hope that the
meat is fresh (well, I didn’t get sick so phew!). The yoghurt,
once again, is not needed in my opinion, although some might like it to
cut the fat in the meat.
Overall, while I like the flavours of most dishes, I find that $11 for each dish is a bit expensive for what we get. Sure, it’s fresh and it tasted quite good, but for the skills it takes to make these home cooked dishes I am not too sure whether it’s worth $11 each plate. 6/10
Vue de Monde
Level 55, Rialto, 525 Collins St, Melbourne
03 9691 3888
Having been to the Vue de Monde One-Hr lunch with Shoe Queen previously, I know Hubby and I will be in for a treat for our 3- yr wedding anniversary. Booking Vue de Monde was difficult if you are not super organised, we were on the Saturday waiting list for ages and then I found out that they do Sunday lunch as well- and there are vacancies! YES!
I love the atmosphere of Vue de Monde from boarding that cool black lift that seemed to transport you to the different time and space to walking through their wine cellar into the dining area, to the very zen rocks strategically placed on the table. Those are not just rocks, mind you, they are there for a purpose. As the dining experience progressed, these rocks become plates, knife holder, butter/salt/pepper holder and the branch becomes fork and knife rests.
On Monday to Friday lunch
time you get to choose the one hour lunch ($60), A la Carte menu ($150)
and of course their signature Degustation menu ($250), but on Sunday
lunch time, you don’t get to choose A la Carte and Degustation. No
matter, the A La Carte is what I would liked to try anyway.
First up some complimentary dishes, which includes: chips and vegetable
dips, vension that is salted cured on the table, carrot/pinenuts/chives,
ravioli and eel with white chocolate and black caviar.
Hubby who loves potato naturally loved the chips, and I bet he won’t refuse if he was offered more.
I am slightly intrigued by the eel with white chocolate, as I personally don’t like white chocolate and don’t really see how it would go well with the eel. But of course, I need not to worry. The white chocolate is only there to add a subtle sweetness as well as crunchiness to the eel and it was awesome.
With the a la carte menu you get to select 4 dishes. There are 4 entrees, 4 mains and 4 desserts (coincidence?) to choose from as well as cheese, which is optional. Whilst I love love love cheese, being lactose intolerant we both decided to choose 2 entrees, 1 main and 1 dessert (you can also choose 1 entrees, 1 main and 2 desserts if you have a sweet tooth!)
Our first entree is the
rabbit- rabbit belly and legs, with smoked mashed potatoes, onions in a
rabbit jus. The thing with Vue de Monde is that depending on the
combination you eat on your plate, you get different combination of
textures and flavours, which are so hard to describe, and that’s the
beauty of it.
I love this dish, the rabbit is so tender and it goes really well with the smokiness of the potato. The onions, made two ways, either added texture (deep fried like onion rings) or flavour (pickled) to the dish. I wish I had a spoon to scoop up the delicious jus also, and hubby just mop the jus up with the sourdough bread they provided.
Our second entree was ox
tongue hidden underneath a bed of spring baby vegies with Gascony
butter. Can I just say don’t be afraid of ox tongue!! I
mean, look at this dish- you won’t even notice that it’s ox tongue if
they didn’t tell you!
It’s actually a very very yummie dish, a little bit salty but it really compliments the fresh vegies that comes with it!
It said on the menu Gascony butter but I couldn’t taste any butter… maybe they cooked the ox tongue with it?? (maybe my palette needs to be more refined =_=)
We had a little bit
of a break in between the entrees and main and the waiter brought out an
interactive palette cleanser. Interactive? You asked.
You will see
In the little bowl there are all these fresh herbs and flowers, then Mr Shannon Bennett himself came out and pour some liquid nitrogen (-190 degrees he said) into the bowl to freeze dry them, then we were handed a pestle to crush the dried herbs and flowers into tiny pieces, and a cucumber sorbet was placed on these to create our palette cleanser. Ta da!
Needless to say it was very refreshing and delicious and really prepared us for our mains.
Our mains of wagyu beef does
not require the question, how would you like your steak cooked?
Cos it should only be cooked one way: very medium rare, bordering on
rare. I love my steak that way, but I am not really sure how other
people who liked their steak really really dead would react, since they
never actually asked the question of how they wanted their steak
cooked. I guess that’s where you stipulate that in your dietary
requirement? (and if your waiter is snobby he would turn his nose up at
you- thankfully it seems the waiters in Vue de Monde are pretty cool)
Anywayz, back to the dish. As I was just admiring the pretty flowers that was foraged by the staff each morning, I noticed that hubby’s steak has a very VERY wriggly worm on the flowers!! It was dead by the time we flagged the waiter over, and he got the chef which good naturedly replaced BOTH of our plates (sans wriggly worm). The Wagyu was really tender, the dried apricot really cuts the fattiness of the dish. There are cubes of Jersualem artichokes which I liked less and the bone marrow sauce is a little bit too salty for my liking. This dish is super filling but I love it nonetheless.
After another palette
cleanser, our dessert arrived- chocolate souffle with chocolate mousse
and vanilla bean sauce.
I find this chocolate souffle to be way too sweet. It was so sweet that it lost the chocolate flavours. I ate maybe 2 mouthfuls and gave the rest to Hubby. I usually love souffles, especially chocolate souffles so this was definitely a disappointment for me. I think next time if I am here I will choose their lemon meringue…or maybe the carrot, pineapple… which sounded weird but hey, at Vue de Monde weird should be good right?
We ordered some peppermint tea to aid digestion (at a hefty price of $10 each!) and they gave us some petit fours to go with. There were a stick of Gaytime icecream (Vue de Monde made of course); marshmallow with rosemary which helps reduce the sweetness; tangy lemon jubes and some mousse-like chocolate lamingtons (also wayyyy too sweet).
Overall, I love Vue de Monde. While this time round I am not 100% satisfied with the food we ordered, the food was overall outstanding, the service was attentive and even though this is fine dining we felt quite at ease. Would definitely visit again. 8/10
The Commoner
122 Johnston St, Fitzroy
03 9415 6876
Spring has finally
SPRUNG!!!!! (Well, at times at least) and not only the flowers are
blossoming, but restaurants are taking this opportunity to get us out of
hibernation too, by bringing these awesome “Spring events” to us.
In the next few weeks I will blog about a few of these events, but the
first cab off the rank is The Commoner, a contemporary Brit restaurant
with a homely setting.
So until 30th Sept, for lunch and dinner, you pay $55, sit back and enjoy a feast! Now the website has a menu of the Spring Graze event, however, what they bring out was a little bit different so don’t rely on the menu.
Here’s what we had that night:-
White anchovies with peppers and crostini- I never like anchovies… they
are slimey and salty and someone told me that they are like wet
eyelashes? I like it all mashed up but not lay out like
that. 
That being said it worked
really well with the sweetness of the peppers and the crunchiness of the
crostini to counteract the slimeness… WIN!
Next up is the deep fried cheesy potato balls! Hubby eyes lit up- POTATOES! His Favourite! They are cheesy and creamy, crunchy and melt in your mouth. Perfect little morsels that makes you smile.
We also got some green
peppers! Okies… that was interesting… we poked at it and hummmmed
and ahhhhed about it for a while then hubby finally took the plunge and
ate one. Then he just kept eating it. Dr. B and I managed to
get a few too and it was awesome- simply dressed with olive oil and
salt, the peppers were crunchy, fresh, not too chilli but scarily
addictive.
Welsh Rarebit with a
really cute egg yolk sitting prettily on top of grilled cheddar cheese
and smoked eel.
This is more like a healthy breakfast than a dinner dish but I quite like it. To be honest the eel is a bit rubbery, nonetheless the eel is very fresh and so is the egg. There’s a kind of sweetness on the egg that really complements the eel.
Shellfish stew! It can be a disaster if the seafood wasn’t fresh but of course, this is The Commoner and their food is not common at all. Delightful mussels, clams and fish happily swam in a seafood broth, which I think I tried to scoop up every single drop. YUM!
The much touted Spring Lamb
arrived, dressed with baby vegies, chickpea dumplings and home made ewes
milk yoghurt.
I actually like this dish the least, the deep fried chickpea dumplings is just too oily and doesn’t seem to match the rest of the dish. The spring lamb is a bit chewy. That being said I love the tender asparagus and the glaze was beautiful.
To accompany the spring lamb
was some golden fried potato- the joy in my hubby’s eyes was
unmistakable. Indeed the potatoes were perfectly cooked and
seasoned. Crispy on the outside and floury on the inside, my mouth
just water thinking about it.
What I love about The Commoner is that the dishes are true to their flavours. There are no gimmicks about it, just good, honest food that is served in a homely environment.
Dessert time!
Woot! Is this chocolate?!?!?! *excited* Actually it wasn’t
It’s Abbotsford Stout pudding
with salted caramel sauce. We all made a what the? face. But
once again we are pleasantly surprised- this must be chocolatey
stout! Moist and sweet, I even like the salted caramel sauce- it’s
such a perfect match! I think I could have eaten all three of them
if I had a chance!
Of course the second dessert
is everyone’s favourite- DONUTS! Dusted with almond sugar, you
have an option of drizzling it with a white chocolate and pistachio
sauce.
What a perfect end to a perfect night. Only one little thing is that they didn’t really offer us tea or coffee afterwards… not too sure why not, but I would have happily paid for a cup of peppermint tea after all these food.
Either way I highly recommend you all to take advantage of this month’s
yummilicious offer and try it out for yourself! 8.5/10
Abla’s
109 Elgin St, Carlton
03 9347 0006
Shoe Queen loves Lebanese food and the chance to sample a number of Lebanese dishes Ablas have to offer is too hard to pass up, even when she has a 10K run the next day. If you haven’t heard of Abla and Abla’s by now, it might be because you are not from Melbourne AND haven’t watch Masterchef. Abla is the matriarch of this restaurant. Born in 1935, she is still at the restaurant greeting guests these days. A peek into the kitchen revealed a group of women working to make the banquet we are having tonight- this is truly what you called mum’s home cooking.
On weekdays you would be
able to order from the a la carte menu, but on a weekend like tonight,
there’s a banquet for approx $55, where you get served a share plates of
dips, starters, entrees, mains and dessert. If this is your first
time to Ablas and you can try everything and then next time you can pick
and choose the food that you like.
We had some dips to start with, babaganoush, hummus and labne. The babaganoush had a nice smoky flavour but I thought the hummus needs a bit more garlic and the labne is a little bit too sour. That being said the Labne is actually quite nice with the “lady fingers” mince lamb filo pastry cigars that was our entree.
Also in the entrees were silverbeet rolls stuffed with rice. I don’t know about the silverbeet… it tasted a little bit bitter and it was otherwise quite bland. Hubby actually tried to give his to me and I think I refused to eat it, which is rare considering I love those vine leaves wraps and cabbage rolls so I thought I would like this one.
The mince lamb and beef sausages was alright with a nice mixture of spices but it was a little bit dry.
I must say the highlight of the entrees were the broad beans -Everyone liked it.
The next set of entrees were
kibbee, falafel, chicken wings and tabbouleh. I didn’t think the
kibbee was that special (>.< Sorry!)- I couldn’t help but compare
this with the Chinese Harm Shui Gork you get in Yum Cha, deep fried
glutinous rice ball shaped like a kibbee, with a crunchy chewy
texture on the outside and nice succulent meat and mushrooms on the
inside. Kibbee wasn’t like that at all. It has a crunchy
outer layer but the meat was once again a bit dry.
I don’t know why but I am telling you these is a recurring theme here- all the meat we got are very dry. Do people in Lebanon like dry meat? But then when I go to Tibas THEIR meat wasn’t dry?
Our falafel here looked like
a dirty porn shot (balls with white stuff all over it… sorry…).
It’s not that it’s not great but I would really prefer the sauce to be
on the side, so we can decide how much we wanted.
Still the falafel was crispy, which means that they didn’t leave it drowning in the sauce for too long before bringing it out to us, which is good.
The chicken wings were baked for hours. it must have been HOURS cos it is VERY dry and a bit shrivelled. I love chicken wings. They are my favourite part of the chicken and one of my favourite food. But I really, really didn’t like that chicken wing.
We were getting a little bit
bored at this point. Why are the meat so dry? Where are all
these yummy food that people keep talking about? The chicken and
rice dish arrived, which looked pretty enough, but once again to our
frustration the chicken is dry. Sigh. I didn’t mind the rice
pilaf inside with the minced lamb mixed with a little bit of
almond and cinnamon. The rice was moist and flavoursome. But
hubby didn’t like this at all.
Needless to say, the grills are dry. The chicken breast is the worst. At least while the lamb was overcooked it still retained a tiny bit of juiciness.
Dessert time: Both hubby and
I didn’t actually think that we would like the desserts. We don’t
like baklawa and we most certainly don’t like turkish delight.
But, to our surprise we actually loved the desserts. I think
Baklawa is my favourite thing out of the banquet- the pastry was light,
yet it tasted so buttery with a subtle, not too sweet hint of
honey. I likey and I still dream about it. Shoe Queen had
the run and refused all her desserts, so I took the initiative to help
her out and ate hers too. Esky gave me a death stare cos he wanted
it too. You Snooze You Lose Dude 
The Turkish delight is also surprisingly subtle and awesome. I hate eating a weird fragrant lump of rose but this is only very very lightly scented. NOICE.
Coffee time! I think everyone is a bit scared of the coffee. It was dark and it looks as if we would bounce off the walls after that. But I reckon it probably aids digestion. I was probably right because this coffee has a subtle cardamon seed flavour, and cardamon seed is supposed to aid digestion.
Overall, I think we were a bit disappointed with Ablas. Whilst the service was great and Abla even came out to say Hi and see how everything is going, unfortunately the meat REALLY let the whole meal down. And when the whole banquet is made up of a LOT of meat, that’s a huge letdown for everybody. 5/10
Tags: France Soir
11 Toorak Road, South Yarra
(03) 9866 8569
France Soir is one of
Melbourne’s “institutions”- open since 1986, it
apparently has fans from all round the world, from rock stars to
politicans. The problem with “institutions” are
that patrons seemed to be a bit more forgiving if something doesn’t
quite hit the mark.
Stepping into this bustling Brasserie, we were immediately directed to the bar- the waiter did not even bother asking whether we have a booking and we had to fight out way through the narrow corridor only to be waved back down the aisle where our table near the door is. In saying that the service is not too bad, just a little too brisk for my liking.
Food is a little less consistent. The entree of onion soup $14.50 was to die for, served piping hot and rich with cheesy goodness. The dumpling of sea perch with prawn sauce ($20) is equally fantastic, 2 pillows of cannelloni like “dumplings” sitting prettily on a intensely creamy prawn sauce full of flavours of the sea. The boys couldn’t help but mop the plates clean with the fresh baguettes provided.
The duck confit pate $15.5
got us a little bit confused- now we are not saying we are expert in
french cuisine but we expected duck pate to be quite smooth, yet this
has a texture of a rillette. On further inspection of the menu,
the french name of this dish was indeed rillettes de canard.
Either way the duck rillette/confit is very bland and I don’t think
anyone would order it again. Oysters open to order ($17/6, $31/12)
was very disappointing- it wasn’t very fresh at all. Thank god we
only ordered 6.
The mains rated better
amoungst our group- the fish of the day (market price) was John Dory,
simply grilled and served with a wedge of lemon and a bunch of dill was
very fresh and cooked to perfection. The rabbit of the day ($37)
stewed in a creamy mushroom sauce manages to remain tender and
succulent, although I must say the meat was not as flavoursome as I
would like.
Saute scallops with King
Brown Mushrooms (this is a mains size) is huge. The scallops are
perfectly cooked however I found that the mushrooms are a bit bland- it
just made the whole dish a bit boring. It would have been great if
it was wrapped in a bit of speck (OK, once again NOT a French food
connoisseur) or the mushroom cooked with a bit more cream and herbs
perhaps.
The highlight of the mains
would be the half roasted duckling with orange sauce ($36). The
flavours of this dish really pops and balance each other out, there’s an
intense orange flavour and yet it never masks the flavours of the
duck. The duck is also surprisingly tender-I would
definitely order this dish next time I visit.
Dessert, in my opinion is one of the most important part of the meal- it should provide a perfect finish to a dinner. Sadly, dessert (all $13.50) in France Soir was nothing to go nuts about. If LuxBite is open, which on this occassion it was not, I would highly recommend you to simply cross the road and enjoy some desserts there.
Why don’t they make their dessert fresh in France Soir? Is it really that hard? Our tarte tartin and crepe suzette was luke warm… one suspects that they microwaved it. I have the pleasure of trying freshly made tarte tartin and crepe suzette before and it’s simply world’s apart from what I am tasting here. Disappointment and empty calories does not make me a happy piggy.
If you must have dessert, creme brulee and the icecream/sorbets are a better choice. But once again, why not just cross the road? Luxbite is open till 9.
Overall, you just gotta be
really selective in what you order in France Soir and you will probably
have a good meal. As for whether it’s value for money… well, $98
including wine for an inconsistent meal is quite an expensive experience
I must say. Will I go back? Probably only if I really have
to. 6/10
P.S. Thank you Esky for all the wonderful food porn pics
The Grand Hotel Richmond Dining Room
333 Burnley st, Richmond
03 9429 2530
We were house hunting around
Richmond area and so we decided to try to gauge the local scene. Feeling
tired and cold from the horrible rain, we ducked into a dark, tired
looking pub with had a Good Food Guide 2011 sign stuck on the door. What
we discovered later was that there is actually a pretty decent looking
dining room hidden behind next door, and THAT’s where the award winning
meals are cooked.
We chose a 2-course lunch express menu with a glass of wine ($35). Whenever I have these 2 course lunch express I am always in a dilemma: should I choose entree + main or main+ dessert? Most of the time I feel like the entree + dessert, but everyone will think that I am nuts if I ask whether I can order that! Since I was with hubby I pulled a sneaky and asked him to order entree+main and I order main + dessert. Hee hee.
A nice surprise was that after the meals were ordered, the waitress promptly gave us really beautiful crusty bread with a big plate of olives and butter. Since I was starving (and actually when was I EVER not starving?), it was very much appreciated. Alan’s steamed mussels and clams entree arrived fairly quickly. The sauce was beautiful and it has a kick of tomatoey spiciness that we both love. Thank goodness those breads are apparently limitless refills, because we had to mop up almost every drop of the yummy sauce.
The mussels were also extremely plump and fresh. Sadly, we can’t say the same for the clams. For one, it’s extremely gritty. Have they soaked the clams long enough to make sure that all the sand are eliminated? Eating one of those was like eating a mouthful of sand. YUCK. The clams were the freshest either, which is quite a disappointment because I do love clams.
Hubby’s main is Minute steak with porcini butter, rocket & shoe-string fries. I wasn’t allowed to try too much of his meat, but from what I tried the steak tasted great, it was a nice and tender piece of meat and it was seasoned well. Hubby had it with mustard, but really, there was really no need to add anything cos it was beautiful on its own. The fries are also awesome, it wasn’t oily at all and I believe the particular type of potato they use makes the difference. YUM
Hrm, sadly I can’t say the
same with my pasta ragu. First off, it was slightly underseasoned,
but nothing a little pinch of Murray River Pink salt that was on offer
can’t fix. What they can’t fix was the temperature of this
dish. Did they just left the dish sitting there while making
hubby’s dish? The top of the pasta was a bit cold, that being said
the layers below were at least fairly warm. The last
disappointment was the pasta itself. Some were nicely al dente,
but some are so overcooked that it’s falling apart. It’s just so
disappointing, especially when it is in the Good Food Guide.
The dessert was a bit disasterous too. Italian doughnut filled with cinnamon & honey mascarpone served with custard apple ice cream sounded so delicious, but somehow the flavours just didn’t really mix. The doughnut was oily and the honey that is drizzled all over the plate tasted wayyyyyyyy too strong.
Overall it was quite a mediocre lunch. That being said I really wanted to try the other bits of the menu cos it looks so good on the other table and the other guests seemed to be enjoying it. Maybe I will think about it next time I am in that area. 5.5/10
Shiranui
247 Springvale Road Glen Waverley VIC 3150
03 9886 7755
Last May, we went to Tokyo
and experienced Sushi Dai at the Tsukiji fish market. We ordered
the Omakase sushi set and leave it up to the chef to give us the best
seafood of the day, complete with instructions: “Soy.” “no soy” “wasabi
and soy” “wasabi”. Oh how I missed that experience! When one
of my friend heard me whinging, he asked me “Have you tried
Shiranui? I reckon they have the best sushi in town! ”
So here I am, at Shiranui. At the counter that seats about 13 people, we ordered the Omakase menu. For approximately $90 you get 9 types of different sushi. You get two per serve and you can order more if you like.
First comes the King Dory with subtle citrus flavour and served with a mound of fish roe. Fantastic texture, really REALLY fresh fish.
Next, the chefs went
blowtorch happy and presented us with seared salmon, sprinkled with
Shichimi tagarashi (7 flavoured chilli pepper). Don’t worry it’s
not that chilli but it certainly added another dimension of flavour to
that salmon.
Mackerel was next, and I am
honestly wanting that blow torch right now cos it seemed to make
everything taste charcoaly and awesome
We were then presented with this fatty piece of beef that is so succulent, so full of flavour of soy and sake, that I instantly decided that this would be my favourite dish.
However more dishes are
coming, like this ark shell that has amazing crunchy texture, my mind
went blank with pleasure.
Tuna steak sushi was lightly seared also, and Chef Hiro happily told us that as the tuna today is quite fatty, it was taste good. Good, no. Spectacular- that’s more like it.
As I previously said, the chefs are pretty much trigger happy tonight and the ocean trout is also blow torched and seasoned with a bit of pepper and lemon to cut the fat. However I find this fish wayyyy too fatty and my stomach is starting to protest.
King fish belly was next,
and although I expected this to be really fatty, it was surprisingly
mild and sweet. The king fish belly was served raw and it is
extremely fresh also.
The oyster sushi is the grand finale under the 9 course omakase, deep fried with mayo, the meat was then pulled out to make into a “ship”. Whilst everyone raved about this dish on blogs, I find one of the oysters not very fresh, however the other was fine and it was oozing with Japanese mayo goodness.
The boys are still hungry so we told them to bring on another dish- seared scallops with river fish sauce made into a “ship”. I like the flavour of this sushi but unfortunately the scallops were overcooked.
They gave us a bit of sobet
and fruit for dessert, which was also a fantastic palate cleanser.
We felt like a more substantial dessert, so hubby ordered cream cheese
crepes and I ordered Japanese fruit salad with icecream and rice cakes.
The cream cheese crepes were fantastic. Soft pillowy parcels of crepes, not very sweet though quite rich of creamy cheesy flavours. It came with a bowl of small fruit salad and cubes of sesame icecream which cuts the richness. The seasame icecream was a highlight, it has a strong toasted nutty flavour just burst out, demanding my full attention. YUM.
My Japanese fruit salad is
really just strawberries and melons cut into small chunks, sweetened
with red bean paste and cubes of vanilla and green tea icecream.
It’s nothing special but I do like rice cakes which is why I ordered it
in the first place.
Overall, the food was great. Whether it’s value for money on the other hand, well… I don’t know…the bill came to $107 per person and that’s a LOT of money for 20 pieces of sushi and dessert. The service is a bit iffy also… it started off well, we got greeted enthusiastically, but then when the food got served, one bit of the seared salmon broke off from one of the sushi, they took it away and I thought they are going to make a new one for hubby, but they just kinda pick up the broken piece and shove it back on to the sushi and tie it with a piece of seaweed. Sadness.
Also as there’s 2 seating they started reminding us from 7:45pm onwards that we have 15 mins, then we have 10 mins, then we have 5 mins left. It just felt a bit stressful considering we paid so much for a meal. I would give 8/10 for food, 5/10 for value and 4/10 for service. Overall, a 6/10.
Thanks you Esky for providing the food porn photos. He came to our house and went “I’ve got porn for you” and I got a bit shocked LOL then I quickly realised what he was talking about.
Proud Mary
172 Oxford St, Collingwood
(03) 9417 5930
Proud Mary, oh why have I not been here earlier? I am officially declaring my undying love for you, all because of one, orgasmic ricotta hotcake that made me weak at my knees every time I think about it. I am in love… or in lust… or both.
God… I think I just drooled at the screen for 5 mins staring at the pic I put up. OK I gotta snap outta it but this ricotta pancake is seriously good. It might not be as fluffy as other pancakes, this was easily overlooked by other quality, like how it was served with a beautiful tangy orange blossom sauce, crunchy walnut, and a slice of chocolate fudge that melts everywhere to create this yummylicious Jaffa like experience… drools… double drools…. I think I seriously moaned the whole way through my brekkie, causing my brekkie companion Esky and Hubby to look at my strangely- until they try it themselves. I reckon if I wasn’t so overprotective of my food they will eat all my brekkie! The best thing about it is that it is served hot, scaldingly hot actually but hey I am not complaining there. There are many places that by the time the pancakes comes to the table it’s either hot but dry or cold, but these ricotta pancakes remained hot throughout. So glad I ordered this instead of my usual savoury brekkie.
Here is another food porn that you all can drool on and be envious about:-
Phew I just gotta fan myself
a litte here and also talk about the other brekkie that Hubby and Esky
had.
Hubby had a potato hash with poached eggs, bacon and bagna cauda, which is like an anchovies and garlic sauce. Hubby doesn’t like anchovies and I wondered how he coped with it, but he said that it was good and ate the whole thing. The eggs were perfectly poached and the bacon was not too fatty. I got one tiny mouthful and thought that the potato hash was a tad bit oily. But hey, hubby seemed to like it, and he ain’t gonna let me have another mouthful so it must be good!
Esky had the baked beans
with poached egg which he said it was a perfect winter dish. He
was a bit sick and baked beans make you fart so I didn’t try any But he seemed pretty impressed by
it and ate everything.
On the side note, Dr. B has also recommended the cured salmon brekkie item that I really wanted to try, IF I ever get past the ricotta hotcakes. Perhaps I need to convince Hubby and Esky next time to share the ricotta hotcakes as a dessert… Mmmmm
I had a hot mocha here and normally I don’t rate coffees but I thought my hot mocha was fantastic. Perhaps not as good as St Ali which is one of my favourites, but this is still seriously good mocha!
The service in Proud Mary was very efficient, and it can be ever so slightly borderline brisk but we did really enjoyed our food and would definitely return very very soon. 9/10
Tom Phat
184 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
(03) 9381 2374
Man, I’ve been eating out lots lately, especially going out for breakfast every weekend seemed to be a tradition now. This weekend we went to Tom Phat, a place that many people have raved about.
Tom Phat had a really nice big space which doesn’t make you feel cramped at all. The service is friendly and laid back- the guy simply pulled up a chair to take our orders, enthusiastically explaining everything and patiently waited for us when we couldn’t decide. I love this laid back vibe instantly.
Asian inspired brekkie is hard to find in Melbourne, and with an array of tempting Asian brekkie like black rice pudding w/ mango and yoghurt, scrambled eggs with roti, Uncle Ho’s grilled pork chop with fried egg and rice, coconut bread with grilled banana & coconut lime jam I was dizzy with choices. What to do?
In the end I gave into temptation and ordered 2 things (all for myself!): black sticky rice w mango & jaggery yoghurt $9 and wok kingfish w rice eggs curry leaves, cherry tomatoes & lime $15.9.
The black rice pudding
looks awesome but it was a bit too sweet for my liking. Thanks
goodness the mango and yoghurt are actually quite sour so it kind of
balanced the flavour a bit better. Dr. Hot Guns said that Birdman
Eating’s Black rice pudding is way better. Mmmmm I guess I will
need to check them out soon.
To be honest I reckon Black Rice Pudding is quite hard to stuff up (I mean how hard can it be if even I can make it?) so maybe I should have ordered something a little bit different, like the coconut bread w/ grilled banana and coconut lime jam $9 that Dr. B ordered. While the texture of the coconut bread is quite crumbly I still really love the combination of flavours. The dish doesn’t seemed to be too sweet and the fragrant of the coconut made my mouth water. It was a serious case of food envy there!
My wok kingfish w rice eggs
curry leaves cherry tomatoes & lime came. This dish is
basically fried rice with fish, atopped with cabbage and rocket. I
wasn’t sure whether they did have cherry tomatoes in the fried rice cos
I couldn’t see any, but the flavour of the fried rice itself was good,
with just the right amount of saltiness of fish sauce and lovely curry
leaves to make the flavours pop. The cabbage and rocket mixture
had some of the palm sugar dressing, and while I like their idea of
using the palm sugar to balance out the saltiness of the fried rice and
the bitterness of the rocket, the chef was a little bit heavy handed on
the sugar and it overpowered the whole dish a little bit. But the
biggest issue with this dish is actually the kingfish itself, which was
overcooked and a bit tough. Overall I would say this dish was
better than average but it does have some room for improvement.
Hubby is an unadventurous
soul so he ordered the Tom Phat brekkie with fried (instead of the
normal poached) eggs, bacon, mushies, tomatoes, avocado… you get the
idea $16.9.
I looked on with disdain as he tucked into a normal big breakkie which you can get anywhere but that’s kinda the good thing about Tom Phat- it caters for people like Hubby. That said however I think hubby is a bit sad it didn’t come with hash brown, like, you know, the normal big brekkie. *rolls eyes*
I asked him how it was and he shrugged and said it was alright, nothing extra special about it (I mean, how special can a boring big brekkie be?) but did say that the toast is a bit hard.
Overall, I would say this is an above average experience but since I am still intrigued by their menu I wouldn’t mind coming back to try some more. I shall report back afterwards! 6.5/10
