eating out

July 20, 2008

Cafe Vue: Christmas in July cocktail night

Agnes cafe, cuisine, degustation, dinner, eating out, melbourne, mod aus, suburb

Reading Claire’s and Cindy and Michael’s posts on the Cafe Vue cocktail evening finally spurred me into making a booking! On Friday evenings, Cafe Vue hosts a cocktail evening, where you get five small dishes paired with five cocktails for $75. There is a different theme each month, and this month’s theme is Christmas in July.

Before I start, let me just say that I tried very hard to remember the ingredients of the cocktails and the food that we were served. Despite my best efforts, I may have got some details incorrect. So if I’m wrong about something – please excuse my terrible memory! I did note things down, but by the time the waiters had given their spiel and walked away, I had already forgotten most of what they had said. Doh.

The first cocktail was the Alfons, a cocktail made of Dubonnet, sparkling wine and a twist of lemon peel to add a citrus note. It was sweet and refreshing – a tasty aperitif to kick off the evening.

It was paired with two spiced duck and rye cookies. Layers of duck and pea pate were sandwiched between pumpernickel biscuits. There was a nice contrast between the smooth, soft pate and the soft crumbly biscuit. Very, very yummy.

The next cocktail was the Christmas Punch, made of apple juice, vodka (I think) and a cranberry, cardamom reduction (the red syrup at the bottom). It was sweet, and seriously tasted just like an apple turnover – very uncanny!

The food dish that it was paired with was a prawn cocktail. At the bottom of the glass was a mixture of mayo, tomato sauce and Worcester sauce, then avocado puree, cos lettuce and a couple of fresh prawns on top. You could taste the quality of the prawns, which were absolutely gorgeous, and the tangy sauce was so moreish. We all loved this. I’m thinking that prawn cocktails should make a comeback!

Next up was the Flight of the Silver Fizz. This one was a change from the two previous cocktails that had been quite sweet. The Flight of the Silver Fizz was made with gin, maraschino cherry liqueur, lemon juice and topped with foamed egg whites. It was sour with a hint of lavender.

It was paired with a turkey and vegetable broth. The turkey had been cooked for 12 hours before being cubed and served in the savoury broth with diced vegetables and a couple of mint leaves. On top was a lid of pastry. We were advised to break the pastry into the broth and make it all bready.

Next was a Port Cobbler, made of port, cab sav, bitters and topped with a foam of clove syrup. It had a strong port flavour scented with cloves. We were advised not to eat the clove foam as it was quite bitter and just there for the aroma. This drink felt like something you should be drinking on a snowy evening while sitting next to a roaring fire.

The dish with the Port Cobbler was a ham croque monsieur. Some of us had been hoping for bread, to soak up some of the alcohol, but instead it was a deconstructed version of a ham croque monsieur. On the bottom was cheese foam, then lettuce, gruyere cheese and ham sandwiched in a pistachio tuile. Unfortunate that there was no bread, but it was delicious! The crispy tuile, the cheese foam, good quality ham – yum!

Naturally, we couldn’t finish the evening without egg nog. Very apt for the theme. The bottom layer was made from brandy and egg yolks while the top, white layer was rum, vanilla sugar syrup, and egg whites foamed up and topped with a bit of grated nutmeg. We all started by tasting the top layer, which was sweet and light. Then we tasted the bottom layer – “heeeellooo brandy!!”. The egg nog had a pretty strong kick!

The last dish was dessert – a plum pudding souffle. It came in two parts, a tube of creme anglaise (thanks to the lovely Dany for holding it) and the main souffle.

We were instructed to poke a hole in the souffle and pour in the creme anglaise. Look! Here’s me pouring in the anglaise AND taking a photo at the same time. After four cocktails! Hopefully you’re as impressed as I was. The souffle tasted just like a plum pudding, but as light and fluffy as you’d expect a souffle to be. It was delectable and sweet, and rather boozy by the end of it.

Ah, it was a fun evening. The theme was great, and I felt that the cocktails were particularly good for Christmas in July. Some cocktails an
d dishes stood out more than others, but there wasn’t anything that I really disliked. We will definitely go again in the future!

Cafe Vue
430 Little Collins St, Melbourne
Phone: 9691 3888

July 16, 2008

ecpot

Agnes cheap eats, chinese, cuisine, dinner, eating out, melbourne, restaurant, suburb

It’s good to have friends who go with the flow. We know people who, when we’ve taken them out for a meal and start walking through a food court, haven’t batted an eye.

Now normally, I wouldn’t be recommending that you take your friends to a food court (not in Australia anyway). But there is always the exception and ecpot is it.

ecpot is a little restaurant that opens out to the food court in the QV building (it’s next to Officeworks and across from Dan Murphys). If you’re lucky, you get to sit in the restaurant. If you’re unlucky, then you sit in the food court! Despite the location, it’s not food court food.

There’s quite an extensive menu, but we go mostly for the clay pots. Clay pot cooking is a traditional Chinese way of cooking where clay pots are lined with raw rice and then ingredients are added on top. These are then cooked on a low heat. They take a bit of time to cook (a minimum of 15 minutes) but are well worth the wait. And if you order a couple of non clay pot dishes, you can request for these to come out first.

On our last meal there, we had several clay pots, plus other dishes off the menu.

This was the stir fried rockling fillet with chinese broccoli ($15.80). The fish was tender and flakey, and the chinese broccoli still had a pleasing crunch.

The stir fried kung po chicken ($15.80) was packed full of dried chilli and onions. With all the chillies, it looked like this dish was going to blow our heads off. Fortunately, it wasn’t too spicy and gave the chicken a slight kick.

The chinese sausage on glutinous rice clay pot ($10.80) is one of my favourites. Chinese sausage (lap cheung) is a dried, hard sausage that is normally made from pork. It has a high fat content, is normally smoked and is sweeter than a normal sausage. This dish does benefit from some soy sauce. Sometimes the staff will automatically bring soy sauce, but sometimes you have to ask.

The curry beef on rice clay pot ($10.10) is beef and potatoes on top of rice in a mild Japanese style curry. It’s so fragrant and moreish.

This is the clay pot with beef in black pepper sauce ($10.10). The tender slices of beef and snow peas come covered in a peppery sauce on top of the rice.

The best part about clay pots is the layer of rice that cooks on the very bottom. It crisps up and becomes a crunchy rice cake. When you’ve reached the bottom, you must pry off the crunchy rice – it’s delicious!

This was the deep fried calamari and scallops in spicy salt ($18.80). It’s hard to go wrong with anything deep fried and covered with a spicy salt! The calamari and scallops were tender and with a right amount of salt – not too much, not too little.

Char kway teoh ($9.20) is one of my favourite things to eat. The version at ecpot is full of chinese sausage, prawns, fish cake, squid and bean shoots and normally it’s a fairly decent version. The one we had on this occasion wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. I found it a bit lacking in spice and seasoning when normally it’s pretty spicy and tasty with the smokiness from the wok.

There’s no desserts, but there are some fancy (or odd) drinks (pictures of them are above the counter). We always finish off the meal with a mango sago drink, which is made with mango nectar, coconut milk/cream and sago which is a better combination than it sounds. Although, it has been remarked by others that it resembles frog spawn, so I think you need to like bubble drinks. Or else you enjoy sucking down frog spawn after a meal!

ecpot
QV Urban Market, Shop 7, Level 1, 210 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne
Phone: 9663 8319

June 9, 2008

Cafe Plum 5 (under changed management)

Agnes breakfast/brunch, cafe, eating out, north melbourne, suburb

Do you find that sometimes you get bored with things that you enjoy? Fortunately that hasn’t happened so far with our favourite café – Plum. The boys and I went there for brunch (again) the other weekend, and I wasn’t intending to blog about it since I’ve already raved about here, here, here AND here. And really, how many different ways can you find of saying, “this place is great”?

Me, being me, I took photos of the food anyway, even though I wasn’t going to blog the meal. Yeah, I know, I think it might be a compulsion.

Alastair ordered the French toast with bacon and (real) maple syrup (about $13 from memory). His meal came out first, and I snuck a bite after taking a quick photo. I’m glad I took a photo because:

Oh. My. God. Best French Toast Ever.

The inside of the bread was perfectly cooked and soft, but the outer edge was crispy. It was fragrant with just the right amount of cinnamon, and the sweetness was perfectly judged. So good!

It was lunch time by the time we arrived (we slept in!) so Bro and I ordered off the lunch specials board. I had the potato and ricotta fritters with smoked salmon, horse radish, creme fraiche and tomato and chive salsa ($16.50). Bro had the rigatoni with meatballs in a rich tomato sauce ($16.50).

Our meals were good, but Bro and I had food envy after we tasted Alastair’s French toast. Normally neither of us would order a sweet brunch, but when Alastair couldn’t finish his French toast, we polished it off for him!

After we finished, Franco (the owner/chef) came up for a chat and – get this – asked us if we had a blog. And, what’s more, asked if it was this one. Totally found out! 🙂

On the last Sunday of the colder months, Cafe Plum does a roast dinner. We always intended to go, but never got around to it. It just so happened that the following night was the May roast dinner. Franco started telling us what was on the menu – duck. As soon as the Boys heard duck they were sold (they love it).

So the next evening, we went back to Plum for dinner! It was a three course set menu ($38). There was a vegetarian option, which we didn’t try.

The first course was a beetroot soup with goats cheese crostini. Look at the beautiful colour in that soup! The soup was thick with a bit of sweetness and perfect for a cold Sunday evening.

The main course was a roast duck confit with marsala glaze and served with a parsnip gratin. Everyone received a large maryland and the small drumstick pictured. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a big fan of duck, but I really enjoyed this. The duck wasn’t very gamey, with the hint of marsala complementing the slight gaminess, and the flesh was moist and tender.

The parsnip gratin was eggy and cheesy with the flavour of the parsnip fairly subtle. It was a large slab and very filling!

There was also some crunchy, dressed greens – snow peas, green beans and spinach.

Dessert was a choice between cheese or a pannetone pudding with chocolate ice cream and custard. I had the pudding. A posh bread and butter pudding, it was sweet and rich, plus soft and almost gooey in the middle. There were occasional bits of glorious crunchy toffeed crust.

The cheese was a Gorgonzola with spiced walnuts and crackers. The Gorgonzola was very tingly and pungent!

I think the next roast dinner is on Sunday 29 June. Call to check (and book). We had a great time, and will definitely go again.

Cafe Plum
193 Flemington Rd, North Melbourne 3051
Ph: (03) 9329 8867

June 9, 2008

Ichipan Crepes

Agnes cheap eats, eating out, melbourne, suburb

On one of the laneways down to the Melbourne Central train station (off Swanston Street) is Ichipan Crepes. Brightly lit, with a red colour scheme and plastic food in the window, they sell crepes – savoury crepes, sweet crepes; hot crepes, cold crepes.

If you’re feeling adventurous, there’s a number of savoury crepes – tuna, ham, or curry chicken might appeal (or not). I reckon that the sweet crepes are far more worthy of stomach space. The sweet crepes are divided into hot and cold, with a selection of fillings such as fruit, custard, ice cream, whipped cream or nutella.

Crepes range in price from about $4.50-$7.00. There always seems to be many people loitering around in the small shop, so after you order, you get a number and wait a couple of minutes while they make the crepes to order. The crepes are made, filled, and then wrapped up tightly in a paper cone.

My favourite fillings are ice cream, custard, and fruit – normally banana (which is, out of interest, priced higher than the other fruit fillings). I really like the cold sharpness of the ice cream in the soft crepe. The crepes are sweet and spongey and quite large. The size, plus the fact that they’re quite junky, make them good to share (unless you’re feeling particularly hungry!). They’re a good occasional, guilty treat on the way home.

Ichipan Crepes
L1, Shop 148 Knox Place,
Melbourne Central, Melbourne

May 30, 2008

Simply Spanish

Agnes breakfast/brunch, cafe, cuisine, eating out, south melbourne, spanish, suburb

It’s Friday, and I’m home today! This is not a fun at home day, this is more I’m home because there’s tradies on my roof and WHAT THE HELL IS THAT NOISE? Are they fixing the roof or whacking pigeons with a baseball bat? It sounds like the roof is going to cave in. Hopefully a spot of food blogging will take my mind off it…

I think I may have mentioned this previously, but South Melbourne Market is my favourite place to go for fruit and veg. It started operating in 1867, and went through a refurbishment and upgrade over the past couple of years. As part of the upgrade, new food stalls opened up on the Cecil Street frontage.

We popped into one of those newish ones, Simply Spanish, for brunch a few weeks back. The brunch menu had all the usual favourites, but with a little twist. For example, bacon and eggs came with a caramelised onion and tomato relish, scrambled eggs were served with sliced chorizo and eggs benedict had a saffron lime hollandaise.

Unfortunately we arrived too early for paella – a massive pan had just started cooking when we were seated. The smells kept wafting our way as we had our brunch, making me wish we had shown up just a little bit later!

Instead of paella, I had the Gypsy Eggs – soft poached eggs rolled in a Middle Eastern dukkah served with wilted spinach on grilled sourdough and a romesco spread ($15.50).

The eggs were perfectly poached – check out that oozy goodness! The sprinkled dukkah helped lift the eggs and complemented the capsciumish tasting spread on the toast.

Both of the boys had the Spanish claypot eggs with smoked chorizo ($16.50). This was a poached egg in a tomato and herb salsa, served in a claypot with toasted sour dough. This looked rich and full of flavour, although I noticed that the salsa seemed quite watery.

Unfortunately the coffee was a little lacking – I found it too sour to drink, much less enjoy! But the food was fine, and I’m sure that we will visit again. Perhaps next time we’ll time it right and try the paella!

Simply Spanish
116 Cecil Street,
South Melbourne 3205
Phone: 03 9682 6100

May 28, 2008

Buffs – Apollo Bay + the 12 Apostles

Agnes eating out, lunch, regional victoria, restaurant, suburb

Loch Ard Gorge

When my parents were here for a visit, we did the drive down the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles. The weather was lovely when we set out in the morning, and also when we stopped in Apollo Bay for lunch. However, by the time we got to the Twelve Apostles, it was pissing down and bitterly cold. We hadn’t been expecting the weather, so hadn’t bought heavy coats with us. The wind and rain meant that we piled out of the car, quickly walked to the look out, took a couple of photos and then high tailed it back to the warmth of the vehicle!

The Twelve Apostles (or however many are left)

On the way to the Twelve Apostles, we stopped in Apollo Bay to stretch our legs and have some lunch. Normally when we’re in an unfamiliar place we wander around looking at the cafes/restaurants for a while – and then end up back at the first one we looked at! Strangely, on this occasion we were very decisive and stepped into the first cafe we came across – Buffs.

As it was still early for lunch, we got a table without any problems. The cafe/restaurant looked comfortable rather than stylish, with lots of wood panelling, a few funky lamps, and strange art on the walls.

For my meal I had the spinach and ricotta gnocchi with roasted tomato, baby spinach, pinenuts and black olives ($15.50). Oh. My. God. Who spewed on my plate? Yes, that was my thought when the plate arrived at the table. Fortunately, while the presentation left a lot to be desired, it tasted much better than it looked. While the gnocchi wasn’t the best I’ve ever eaten, it was perfectly acceptable – relatively light and the topping had strong flavours that helped balance out all that cheese.

Bro had the seafood chowder with fresh local seafood cooked in a bacon and potato soup ($23). It looks great – I think he would’ve preferred it to be a little less watery, but it was full of tasty seafood and flavour.

Alastair had the fish and chips – fish fillets in a beer batter with chips and greek salad ($17.50). The fish looked crispy but I didn’t have a taste.

Mum had the warm chicken salad with a spicy plum dressing ($14.50) and my aunt had the open steak sandwich ($15). While they were visiting, my aunt and my mum kept encouraging me to take food photos. I think they thought it was a harmless exercise that kept me happy so they were keen to play along! Dad, on the other hand, was feeling contrary that day and wouldn’t let me take a photo of his food.

We finished off lunch with a round of coffees. I was expecting the coffee to be terrible. I have no idea why (maybe because I’m a city snob??) but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Buffs
51 Great Ocean Rd
Apollo Bay VIC 3233
Australia
Phone: (03) 5237 6403

May 23, 2008

Journal Canteen: Ladies who Lunch

Agnes cuisine, eating out, italian, ladies who lunch, lunch, melbourne, restaurant, suburb

Isn’t it annoying how life always gets in the way? When I first started working in the city, my friend Emily and I had the intention of having lunch about once a month. With lots of stuff happening in both our lives, it was difficult to set a date and we skipped a couple of months. In April, we finally managed to get together again, and headed to Journal Canteen.

Journal Canteen is located in the Centre for Adult Education building, and used to be a vacant first floor classroom. The menu, written on a couple of blackboards around the room, changes often but generally comprises antipasto, a couple of main courses and a dessert.

On our visit, the main choices were orrechiette with peas, pancetta and fresh ricotta, chicken coletta with cucumber and tomato, stuffed peppers with green beans, and spaghetti with three meat ragu.

I had the spaghetti with three meat ragu ($18). The braised, shredded meat in the rich, tomato based sauce was nothing fancy, but it sure hit the spot.

Em had the stuffed pepper with green beans ($18). I’m not sure what the pepper was filled with – we were too busy yakking for me to find out!

And we got a wee salad.

To finish off, we each had a freshly filled ricotta cannoli ($4.50 each) and a complimentary stovetop espresso. The cannoli was perfect – the fat tubes, dusted with icing sugar, were wonderfully crunchy with just a touch of sweetness. A lovely end to a long overdue lunch.

Journal Canteen
253 Flinders Lane
Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9650 4399

May 17, 2008

Hong Kong BBQ & Seafood Chinese Restaurant

Agnes chinese, cuisine, eating out, footscray, restaurant, suburb

The Nobbies – Phillip Island

As mentioned in an earlier post, my mum and dad were over for a visit recently. Mum did manage to find the three surfaces that I had neglected to clean, but since she cleaned up as she complained, that was a-okay! Along with cleaning my poor neglected house, mum and dad also did our laundry… and the vacuuming… and took us out for meals… so I was sad when they left!

The Nobbies – Phillip Island

They entertained themselves most of the time, but we did a couple of touristy things with them. One of those things was driving down to Phillip Island to see the Penguin Parade. We got there quite early, and sat on the cold, hard, wet steps for an hour in the intermittent drizzle. Fortunately it didn’t rain too heavily, and because the sky was quite overcast the penguins came clambering out of the water on schedule. They were gorgeous little things, and it was very amusing watching them waddling up the beach.

And, of course, we ate. One evening we all headed down to Chinatown and ended up having a very uninspiring Chinese meal. The food was boring and cliché (think sweet and sour pork, and lemon chicken), prices were expensive for what was received, and service was disjointed and forgetful. Fortunately, mum and dad picked the restaurant, so we didn’t have to bear the complaints about how terrible it was. We only ate there because mum was fixated on eating lobster. After entering the restaurant, we realised that the lobster in the tank was too small, and decided not to have it after all! Goodness!

A different evening found us stopping in Footscray for dinner. Pat and I choose the Hong Kong BBQ & Seafood Chinese Restaurant merely because we have driven past many times and admired the roast ducks hanging in the window.

The bustling, brightly lit room painted with large murals won’t win any interior design awards, and there was a touch of griminess about the place. But there was a Chinese version of the menu, and the wait staff spoke Chinese, so Pat and I hoped that we had made a good choice. The fact that the restaurant was completely full was also a good sign.

Mum noticed a large lobster in the tank as we walked in. She hadn’t satisfied her lobster fixation yet, so we had to have it. The 3 pound lobster was cooked in XO sauce and noodles were $3 extra ($101.40 all up). My mum’s a smartie – before we ordered we had agreed that Alastair and I would pay for the meal!

We also had to try the roast pork ($19) and roast duck ($11.80). I didn’t eat any of the duck, but the roast pork was good! The skin was very crispy and the meat was flavoursome and porky.

Another dish was the deep fried flounder with spicy salt and chilli ($13.80). Oh boy, this was good. The entire fish was battered, deep fried and then covered in chilli laden salt and coriander.

We had a plate of stir fried water spinach (around $12 I think). Pretty simple, but tasty.

And our last dish was a plate of pickled duck’s feet and jellyfish ($14.80). The duck’s feet (at the bottom of the plate in the photo above) were deboned and pickled and I must admit that they were kind of strange. The feet were firm and chewy, and pretty tasteless. I found the webbing between the toes odd too – perhaps because most of my bird feet eating experience is with chicken’s feet, which obviously doesn’t have webbing. Still, the jellyfish and the pickled vegetables were good!

Even with the lobster, the total cost of the meal was still less than the dull one we had in Chinatown. There was a touch too much msg for my liking though, as I had the worst msg thirst that evening – it was like all the moisture had been sucked out of my mouth. Gak.

Hong Kong BBQ & Seafood Chinese Restaurant
118 Hopkins Street
Footscray VIC
(03) 9687 8488

May 7, 2008

Money Order Office (MOO)

Agnes cuisine, eating out, fine dining, melbourne, mod aus, restaurant, suburb

In the middle of a long article in Epicure last Tuesday about what’s cutting-edge in haute cuisine, was this intriguing quote:

“Blumenthal has a PHD student at Nottingham university researching taste perception.

‘She’s found that when we are excited we taste far more acutely – this is good for the dining experience. Conversely if stressed chefs taste salt and sweet up to 50% less clearly they could easily over season.’ ‘”

Perhaps this could explain the rather salty experience that we had at Money Order Office (MOO) recently?

Alastair’s mother, Annette, and her husband, Terry, came for a visit a few weeks ago. Not only did we get the pleasure of their company, but they also insisted on taking us out to dinner before they left. Annette’s only requests were for a place with a view – perhaps by the river or the ocean. We took that into account… and ended up going to a restaurant that could not have any less of a view if it tried. Whoops!

MOO, is located in a laneway off Little Bourke Street, and occupies a basement area of the Old Money Order Office. The dining area is separated from the bar by wrought-iron gates, and despite the fact that the restaurant is down in a basement, it doesn’t feel small or claustrophobic. The decorator obviously knew the tricks of preventing the room from being a dim, enclosed space. There is a large mirror on the far wall of the restaurant, and rather clever rectangles in the booths against the walls are painted alternating stripes of a dark and gold/yellow colour, which creates an illusion of blinds covering a window.

For my entree, I ordered the scallops, which were seared and presented with Chinese whitebait and onion bhaji, hummus and shaved fennel ($20). There was rather a lot going on with this dish! The scallops were cooked nicely, but I wasn’t sure about them with the onion bhaji and hummus AND fennel. It was also a touch too salty.

Alastair had one of the specials that evening – fresh oysters. There were two different types – Sydney rock oysters and the other was Pacific oysters from Tasmania. I can’t remember which one was which now (Sydney large, Tassie small or was it the other way around?), but Alastair said that the smaller ones were tastier.

Everyone else had either the scallops or the pork belly. The pork belly was braised and seasoned with cumin, and served with a pea pannacotta, crackling and pork jelly ($18). The long, thin stick in the picture was the crackling – rather novel, I thought! I’m not a big fan of peas, but I tasted some of the pannacotta and it was smooth and silky. The others mentioned that the pork belly was also a bit salty but otherwise good.

For my main, I ordered the rabbit – a braised leg and loin of rabbit, brioche, leek and field mushroom puree ($36). Like the scallops, there was a lot going on with the meal and again, it was just a bit too salty. But the rabbit was cooked well, and although the mushroom puree looked a bit… um… gross… it had a strong, pleasant flavour.

Alastair had the roast lamb cutlet with lamb hotpot and curly kale ($38).

Annette had the gnocchi – and received rather large pan fried potato gnocchi with parmesan roast root vegetables ($32). This looked really interesting, although someone was rather generous with the salad garnish! You can just see a piece of gnocchi peeking out from under the greens in the left of the picture.

My Bro had the quail – a boneless quail wrapped in proscuitto with grilled cotechino sausage, quail egg and pedro ximenz jus ($35).

And last, Terry had one of the specials of the evening – a confit of rabbit leg. Again, someone was rather generous with the salad leaves. I can’t even see any rabbit in this picture!

Across the board, everyone found that their food was a bit too salty. Alastair and I have eaten at MOO before (about a year ago now) and didn’t have a problem with over seasoning at our previous meal, so I’m not sure if the saltiness was just a problem on this night. And let me clarify – it wasn’t salty to the point where the food was inedible, it was just enough for everyone to say, “This is a bit salty!” We still had a good meal, but it could’ve been a really good meal if the seasoning had been toned down.

For dessert, I had a fig tart tartin with red wine ice cream and muscat reduction ($14). When the dessert came out, the waiter advised me that they didn’t have any red wine ice cream and substituted it with coconut. That was fine by me, and I rather enjoyed the coconut ice cream. The fig tart tartin was slightly too caramelised, and damn hard to eat with a spoon!

Alastair and Pat both went for chocolate – a rich chocolate and expresso marquise with fresh raspberries and raspberry sauce ($14). It looked very decadent. I don’t know why I didn’t try any since I normally steal a bite from what Alastair’s eating. Perhaps I was kept busy by trying to cut my fig tart tartin with a spoon!

Annette and Terry skipped the sweet stuff and shared some cheese instead. With the selection of cheeses, came fresh grapes, quince paste and apricot and walnut bread ($22).

Apart from the glitches mentioned, we did have a wonderful time. The ambiance there is great – not too dark, not too bright, not too loud, and not too quiet. Service was friendly without being overbearing or too casual. Oh, and I almost can’t believe that I’ve gone the whole post without mentioning the wine list. The menu is 4 pages long but the wine list stretches to something like 18 pages. It would help to go to MOO with someone who knows something about wine!

Money Order Office (MOO)
Basement 318, Lt. Bourke Street, Melbourne
Phone: 03 9639 3020

May 1, 2008

Hako

Agnes cuisine, eating out, japanese, melbourne, restaurant, suburb

I’m one of those people who like lists. I like writing them, and ticking items gives me a little frisson of satisfaction. I’ll even add completed items to my lists so I get the pleasure of marking them off!

So it’s no surprise that I have a list of restaurants that I’d like to eat at. Due to lack of time, money, and lack of energy to organise a meal out, I tend to add more and hardly ever cross ones off! The fact that I don’t have strict criteria for places to make The List doesn’t help. Do other people like it? On The List. Does the food sound interesting? On The List. Do I like the name? On The List.

Okay, so that last statement isn’t true, but you get the general idea.

Hako was one of the restaurants on The List, and I’m happy to say that I’ve managed to tick it off! Alastair and I went for dinner several weeks ago, after a few hours wandering around a home ideas show (how terribly domestic and rather tragic for a Friday night!).

It was a rather chilly evening, and I was happy to see that there were free tables. The split-level premises is quite impressive, being a rather large and roomy space. The room’s white walls are offset with a very high matte black ceiling and dark floorboards. It all seems rather simple, but very cool.

(Terrible photos courtesy of my mobile, as my Bro borrowed my little camera when he went to Vegas!)

We started off with a plate of sashimi ($17.80 entrée size, $27.80 main size). We received salmon belly, tuna and some white fish…. We weren’t told what the fish was, and I neglected to ask! Nevertheless, the mystery fish, as well as the salmon and tuna was lovely and fresh. We could’ve happily eaten the main size (even with more food to come).

Our other starter was a plate of chargrilled chicken wings with plum paste ($10.88). The plate of 3 juicy wings were perfectly grilled and had a hint of sweetness along with a lot of smokiness. In fact, they had quite a distinctive taste…. Think smokey, sweet and grassy…..

For mains, Alastair had the ebi tempura ($17.80) which was soba buckwheat noodles in soup served with prawn tempura. The prawns had been stretched out before being battered and deep fried, which I thought made them resemble worms! They were served separately to the soup, which kept them crisp. However, Alastair dunked them in his soup as he ate them – heathen!

I had the unagi don – char grilled eel with rice and miso soup ($22.80). A generous portion of eel came to the table on top of rice. The eel was rich and tasty, with the fillets glazed in a sticky, sweet, dark sauce. I was rather satisfied with my meal and hunted down every last piece of rice and eel.

Service was charming. It wasn’t perfect, but the wait staff were likable and eager to please. We had such a pleasant evening that it made me wonder why it took me so long to get there. Hopefully I won’t wait so long to go back!

Hako
310 Flinders Lane, Melbourne,
Phone: (03) 9620 1881

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