Author Archive
August 31, 2011 | 
Author 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
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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
Cicciolina
130 Acland St, St Kilda
(03) 9525 3333
We were meant to go to Claypots. When we got there, there was a sign saying that it was closed and that the owner or someone have to play for a band(!). We walked past Cicciolina beforehand and I thought it looked quite packed and interesting, so I Urbanspooned it to quickly see what the reviews said. Well it seemed 83% liked it, so off we went.
We were greeted by a friendly guy who told us that there would be a bit of a wait (we got there at 6:45pm and it was a school night), but there’s a bar next door we can sit and wait. There are food at the bar also and we excitedly ordered Spicy MeatBalls ($9.50) and Lamb ribs ($12.50) cos we were STARVING!
The spicy meatballs were fantastic- there is a definitive kick to it and it was succulent. The serving was generous, I think there was 6-7 meatballs and also bread to soak all the yummie sauce. (They even said we can have as much of their gorgeous bread as we wanted). Pure awesomeness.
The lamb ribs came and unfortunately the portion is on the small side… we had four people and had to share 3 ribs…
Although that’s the case the lamb is so succulent. It’s not surprising though cosidering it’s Saltbush lamb, the flavours and textures are definitely superior. The side of quinoa, pomergrante and almond salad is very nice also, although the Spanish onion gave us embarassing onion breath and sitting in an initimate booth it is a little bit uncomfortable.
After waiting for an hour and a half our friendly waiter escorted us to our table. This is not a complain though as we did fully enjoyed ourselves at the bar and the waiter keep giving us half hourly progress on our table (“the group has just ordered coffee so they will hopefully be finished shortly, thanks for your patience”).
Sadly. Yes. Sadly, this is where things slowly went downhill. We were assigned a grumpy waitress who seemed to brush us off all the time and forgetting our requests for more water.
With such promising pre-dinner nibbles next door, we were looking forward to our entrees. The Urbanspooners keep screaming “crab souffle crab souffle!” so here I am, ordering Crab Souffle. Can’t exactly remember how much it was, but it was quite nice. I am not sure what to expect from a savoury souffle…is it suppose to puff up like a sweet souffle? Cos I felt this looks like a little crab quiche more than a souffle. That being said, it was nice and we got the bread to soak up all the very very rich but tasty sauce.
Dr. B had an Oxtail Raviolo with bay scallops as an entree ($20.50), which is on the special board that night. Note the raviolo: there is only one.
The price is a bit steep for one, but I love the flavours. The raviolo is cooked to al dente, the oxtail was flavoursome and tender. I didn’t try the scallops, but Dr. B seemed to like this dish also.
We then waited, waited and WAITED for our mains….I was starving and we had to order 2 rounds of bread. Our dish finally arrived, about 40 mins later and if it wasn’t for the fantastic company I would have either fallen asleep or chucked a hissy fit.
Hubby and Dr B both had the duck risotto from the specials board ($31.50). Both were not impressed with their risotto at all. They both left quite a bit of their risotto untouched, Hubby just tried to pick out all the meat and left the risotto. Whilst the duck is tender enough, the flavours were all over the place and were just too intense for Hubby. Thank goodness the trusty old bread saved the day or else they would both be hungry!
Esky’s main did not fare better either. After waiting for that long his dish was at best, lukewarm. Bollito Misto, at $36.50 was a boiled dish of pork hock, chicken and lentils.
I did WARNED Esky that it’s gonna be a boiled, tasteless dish and whether he’s SURE he wanted to order it, cos if he wanted boiled soup bits I have plenty in my house. We had made that horrible, horrible mistake in France and I really didn’t want him to pay $36.50 to make the same mistake. Alas he did not take my advice and here he is, with tough bits of chicken breast and apparently meat that tasted like “nice spam”. I would like to say I told you so but I was too busy laughing.
Dr. Hot Guns and I ordered Spaghettini with Smoked eel, fennel and soy beans $29.50. I think our mains was the best out of all the mains but that ain’t say much. It seemed that they were trying to use all the garlic at the end of the night. It was soooo garlicky that it keeps repeating on me the WHOLE night and no breath mints can make it any better even the next day. *Shudder*. The flavours of the smoked eel was also wayyyyy too much, everytime I took a bite of the bits with smoked eel it overpowers everything (yes, even the garlic). What I do like was the crunchiness of the fennel and the soy bean. The spaghettini was cooked well and if they tone down the garlic and lose the eel I think it would have been a nicer dish.
We skipped dessert cos we are all tired by the end of it- it WAS a school night (wednesday) and it was about 10pm. We are not willling to wait another 45mins for a dessert that may or may not be yummy, so we left. Our bill comes to $70 per person (with a bottle of wine).
After such a promising start to the night we were very disappointed with Cicciolina. Will we go back? Probably not. Or maybe we’ll just stick to the bar and bar food instead. 4.5/10
Note: Special thanks to Thanh Do for advising me to use my iPhone torch to take food photos in dark restaurants. I am still figuring out the best lighting but it made my pics a whole lot less grainy and better looking. Visit his blog here
Guhng (The Palace)
19 McKillop Street, Melbourne
03 9041 2192
We were heading towards Red Spice Road one day when we saw this gorgeous multilevel Korean BBQ restaurant, fittingly named “Guhng (The Palace)”. We decided then and there that next time we will try this place and I made a booking for the following month.
Upon arriving at the restaurant they told us that we didn’t have a booking (which I was annoyed about) but they will try to fit us in. Sadly trying to fit us in means we get to sit on the top level, where there are no exhaust fan to suck all the air up and away from our clothes. We had to have the windows open on a very cold night then ask them to crank up the heaters to feel a slight bit of warmth.
Enough whinging though because what happened next was an onslaught of dishes. We ordered a 4 person menu and for $120 we got a ton of food that was prepared and cooked for us at the table.
First we got the small appetitsers of pickled carrot (in pink), kimchi, cooked onions and coleslaw. We were hungry and ate most of those before the food arrived. It was alright, the kimchi wasn’t spicy enough.
Then a very strong Korean man put a bunch of hot coals on our table and off we go.
Our set menu consist of scotch fillet, some sort of steak, beef brisket and beef ribs, which are all nicely marinated and very very tender.
I would say though this set meal is definitely more for a beef lover than anything and I would have loved to try their chicken and seafood, which sadly was not on their 2 person or 4 person menu
While some of our meat are cooking we also got pan fried dumplings. I think they are vegetarian dumplings because I can’t taste a trace of meat in them at all. The dumpling skin is a bit dry and felt as if it came out of a packet instead of freshly made, which is a bit disappointing. The dipping sauce was quite nice though, and had a vinegary, soy and seasame combo.
We also had a choice of kimchi or soy bean hot pot and thank goodness we chose the kimchi one because from my research on other blogs the soy bean hot pot tasted like chinese medicine.
The kimchi hotpot is quite small but it has a nice, slightly seafoody flavour to it. I wouldn’t say it’s one of the best hot pots I’ve eaten, but it wasn’t bad.
Our set menu comes with 4 desserts but looking at the “dessert” menu it’s got icecream, something rice flour, cold noodles and pumpkin soup?!?!?! Alternatively we can get two of the “deluxe” new desserts, which we eventually decided to have.
Not too sure why green tea/ seasame icecream is considered a “deluxe” dessert, but I suppose it’s preddy big. The green tea icecream was wrapped in a chocolate nests with scraps of dark chocolate at the bottom and a little bit of red bean on the side. I love the red bean and green tea combo and this one is no exception, although my Caucasian friends stayed well away from red beans-yay more for me
The other deluxe dessert is the plum/blackberry panna cotta… we chose the blackberry pannacotta. Remember when Matt Preston said “A pannacotta should wobble like a rubenesque woman wearing 5 inch heels”? Well this rubenesque woman might have gone on to Biggest Loser because the pannacotta we had was firm… more like a pudding than a pannacotta. The frozen berries on top does not do it any favours either and I gave up after 2 bites.
Overall, let’s just say at the Guhng, BBQ meats are their forte… but for the price we paid $30 pp (we also have an entertainment book discount so it’s about $100 all up with 2 glasses of wine) it was not bad.
Would I come back? Mmm maybe next year if they are still on the Entertainment Book. 5.5/10
Miss Chu
297 Exhibition St, Melbourne
03 9077 1097
After hearing so much about Miss Chu, especially about one woman waiting years for Miss Chu to come down to Melbourne from Sydney and the twitterings of wagyu beef pho, my curiosity got better of my supposedly healthy eating regime and head off to Miss Chu.
Looking at the menu I was a bit unsure. Whilst the menu are mostly Vietnamese, there are a smattering of Chinese and Thai (som tum)- is it going to be like Duck Duck Goose- Jack of all trades and Master of none?
I tentatively ordered a Peking duck pancake ($2.5). It came out almost instantaneously. The pancake is slightly warm to touch, the duck is juicy but not fatty- one of the better Peking Duck pancake I have in ages. The fact that they bothered to warm the pancake was impressive, and for that price, I felt like ordering 3 more.
Another thing that caught my eyes were the warm Vietnamese salad- I ordered the Traditional Hanoi pork springroll salad ($12). Warm rice vermicelli noodles is atopped with crispy pork springrolls and a smattering of chilli that packs a huge punch- they are not shying away from hot chillis here in Miss Chu! There are some sort of crunchy roasted ground rice and crispy ground fishy stuff on top which adds to the texture and flavour. Where are the vegetables I wonder… this IS a salad right? Don’t worry, they are hidden in the bottom- super fresh herbs like perilla leaves are hidden that huge bed of vermicelli, and the delicately fragrant fish sauce is also at the bottom. I would recommend digging down to the bottom and slightly mix the vermicelli, sauce and greens so you can get all the flavours. YUM!
Another must try is the Seared Salmon vermicelli- the salmon was perfectly cooked and flavours were well balanced. This time the greens were coriander and lettuce.
Another time I ordered the Vegan sautéed shitake, enoki & shimeji mushrooms. Whist I don’t mind it, it looks less pretty than the springroll one and it’s a bit too salty. Must say I probably won’t order this one again any time soon.
Asian Vegetables with garlic chives dumplings and English Spinach and tofu dumplings $5 each. I just love the glutinous chewiness of the dumpling skin, the lip smacking goodness of these succulent dumplings. Strictly speaking the presentation wasn’t that great because a few of the dumpling skins are broken, but it’s probably the one of the dumplings around the city.
In terms of springrolls, the crab and prawn net is definitely the yummiest. Lightly coated with a fluffy “nest”, it’s crunchy and not overtly oily.
I am also very impressed with their duck and banana flower rice paper rolls $8, although less so with their satay chicken and young coconut version because I couldn’t taste any coconut. Sadly I didn’t take any photos, it’s always in my gob before I remembered!
Last but not least, the famous wagyu beef pho ($13). Miss Chu promised that they don’t use MSG and if that is the case $13 for a wagyu beef pho is probably worth it. A few things I would like to improve about the pho though. I wish they would give us plenty of basil, chilli and bean sprouts for us so we can decide how much to put in our soup, instead of giving us only a smattering. The beef can be sliced a little bit thinner – not that I am complaining since it’s wagyu beef 
By now I have been to Miss Chu a number of times and have tried a lot of stuff on their menu- I am really impressed with the fresh food they have on offer. They also have so many healthy or vegetarian choices to suit a variety of clientele. They have managed to keep the quality of their food very consistent and whilst they may be slightly haphazard during crazy peak periods, I am gonna keep coming back, at least once a week! 8/10
Shimbashi Soba So Good
2/54 Thomas Dr. Chevron Island, Surfers Paradise
07 5504 6404
I’ve always like soba noodles because of its health benefits and it wasn’t until I tried Shimbashi Soba So Good that I fell in love with it. You see, 3SG’s (I am abbreviating here) soba is different because it is made by one of Japan’s very few soba masters, Yoshi Shibazaki.
The great things about 3SG are their noodles, their broth/ dipping sauce and the beautiful staff. The noodles are always cooked consistently to perfection, “al dente”, to maintain the chewy texture.
With a variety of broths/dipping sauce to choose from each one is carefully made to ensure that each broth is unique and as intense as the next. Dreading the boringness of the flavours but because I am watching my weight, on one occasion I had the vegetable soba soup $14. Surprisingly although the whole dish looked simple the flavour of the broth really complemented the thinly julienne vegetables and noodles and I was happily slurping away without having too much of a food envy whilst looking at people digging into the curry soba and duck soba noodles.
On another occasion I went and this time I cannot resist ordering the yummy sounding cold soba with warm duck dipping sauce $19. The broth in this is simply mind blowing- it has the essence of the duck without being overly fatty, and a small amount of dipping sauce really goes a long way for this dish. The broth also comes with several slices of duck and leek, but really the broth is the star here. I find the slices of duck a bit tough and would have prefered it to be medium rare instead of well done.
Hubby ordered the Beef curry soba $18 and was given a bib. Yes, this dish can be messy with sauce and noodles flying everywhere!
A word of warning here, other than this dish being super messy it is also super rich, so you make sure that you are hungry before ordering this dish! Hubby was a bit hungry but we did have entree and by half way through this massive curry dish he had to surrender.
Expect a huge thick saucey kinda “soup”, tender beef and leek stew. Coupled with the chewy noodles it’s so yummy and moreish.
Whilst this is the case, I still love the simple uncomplicated broth of the vegies soba… I could definitely eat that every single day. *drools*
Soba so Good also do entrees such as fried school prawns, deep fried soba chips, edamame beans, deep fried tofu, chicken wings, roast duck fillet with shallots and soft shell crabs. To be honest I think their expertise is soba and I would recommend you not to deviate from that. But if you really wanted to try some of their entrees, I love their eggplant with miso sauce or their roast duck fillet with shallots.
Lastly I love their staff, smiley and enthusisastic, everyone (even the chef in the kitchen) bowed and thank you as you leave. Would definitely go there if I am in the GC again! 8/10
