Cafe Vue: 430 Little Collins Street Melbourne

This place is exactly the kind of place my former boss (a barrister) would have taken me. Even on a Friday the place was packed with solicitors and business types, which figures as it is within easy walking distance of three courts and the Law Institute.

The menu is dominated by smoked trout, confit duck, wagyu beef and classics such as curried egg and watercress sandwiches, homemade pies, chicken salad and grilled barramundi, you get the picture.

I feel bad for saying this is definitely not the place for me, as they clearly try hard to cater for fussy eaters, but their clientele is clearly above all suits and their strange food preferences that I will never understand.

Feeling uninspired, I ordered a salad, which was $14 for a bunch of leaves, cucumber shavings and a mild dressing. The waitress did warn me but I didn't want a salad sandwich (the clearly marked vegan option) or meat minus everything that adds flavour (mayo, cheese and cream were on everything else).

Senor Gringo ordered a lunch box with a bite sized wagyu beef burger, dahl, a sliver of stiff roti, Indian dip and a tiny cake. Everything was cold. Stone cold. Not just it has been left sitting there for five minutes while the waiter rushed about but we never intended for this to be warm. Weird. Senor Gringo didn't enjoy his food and he was still hungry so we both headed off to work disappointed and in search of something quick before we got on with work.

I wondered how they made it into the Good Food Guide.

If you do go here, the wait staff are lovely and you will be well taken care of.

One tick.  

Touche Hombre: 233 Lonsdale Street Melbourne

Senor Gringo and I visited Touche Hombre during lunch on a bright sunny Monday. The outdoor tables were full but the indoor tables were empty. I put this down to the after work/lazy Sunday vibe of the place - it looks like a cross between a trendy bar and hipster café, with waiters to match.

The menu is interesting. It is clearly not your standard pork/beef/vegetarian place. You can order blue swimmer crab tostadas with pickled chilli and lime pearls; crumbed haloumi tacos with pickled beetroot aioli, herb, pear and pistachio salsa, duck carnitas or chimichurri chicken burritos. Lots of options! To me, this shows the chefs have put some thought into their food and are not here to deliver the same as everyone else. Vegetarians and gluten free eaters are well catered for and if you don’t eat dairy your options aren’t limited but vegans would be left eating the guacamole. Sorry guys!

I ordered the guacamole with slow cooked beef rib. This is exactly what I felt like on the day but if I wanted to order else I would have to do some serious altering to find food to suit - damn aioli everywhere. The guacamole was advertised as an entrée but it was very filling for a lunch option. The chips were great, not the same rubbish as you find on most supermarket shelves; the guacamole was zesty, more-ish and very flavoursome. It was topped off with pomegranate seeds and pickled radish - clearly someone here understands the importance of fermented foods! And my slow cooked beef rib was off the bone, nicely spiced and quickly devoured. I did not have room for anything else.

Senor Gringo ordered the sirloin steak burrito with truffled fried egg, habanero cream, pico de gallo black beans and rice. He said the flavours were very mild and it was nice but it could have benefited from some fresh veg, lemon or extra spice to counteract the cream and egg. If you care about vegetables, I would recommend you keep this in mind and make your choices to suit.

I’ll head back to this place on a summer afternoon.  

The Premises: 202 Bellair Street Kensington

After bagels with vegan cream cheese at the Flemington Farmers Market, Senor Gringo and I walked to Kensington for coffee. Since that took us a while and included a little detour to the art markets, we thought sharing breakfast was justified :)

Good choice. Our brunch was great and the menu had so many non standard options to tantalise my taste buds. We chose Lebanese flat bread with hummus, felafel, walnuts, bacon and a poached egg. Unexpectedly it came with yoghurt too but that was easily solved by scraping it onto Senor Gringo's plate. Look how pretty this food is. I eat with my eyes first and my eyes were happy. Plus, bonus, some sort of pickled veg. Nice and tangy to add to these warm flavours. I'm going back. Expect more posts about food at the The Premises. They even know how to cook bacon without being asked!

Three ticks (although full disclosure, Senor Gringo gives it two as the breakfast menu is short. I defend the short menu as it is a selection of yummy inventive options ;0)

 This dish was amazing! Salt beef with veggies. OMG, food goodness

Shanghai Street Dumpling - take three

You know what I love about this place, apart from the delicious pan fried pork dumplings that is? I love that you can turn up drunk at 9pm for some late night nibbles or at 4pm on a Sunday for an early dinner/late lunch and no-one bats an eye lid. I also love the sleepy teenagers sitting in the back and the army of older women at the front making my dumplings from scratch. It all gives it that homely feel. 

Tonight I ordered pork in tofu skins with vermicelli in a hot pot. It came out in a steamy broth with mushrooms and Asian greens. The broth was lovely and it all had that fresh, crisp, clean home made taste to it. You could pick out each of the individual components and it was so very well done. 

It reminded me of an early episode of the Naked Chef where Jamie Oliver went off to Italy to cook at a restaurant that had been round for centuries. The place had no menu and the chefs just cooked two dishes every night, with the locals trusting the family to cook something good. When Jamie had his chance he made the diners pesto pasta with locally caught fish and while many gave him positive reviews quite a few told him his food was too complicated and had too many flavours going on. Those diners were on to something and they would not have been disappointed with Shanghai Street Dumpling. 

My only disappointment is that there aren't more options on the menu but I guess that is what happens when you specialise.

Before you go, check out my dumplings. This is how I do it, poke holes in the bottom, dip them in a mix of soy sauce, vinegar and chilli oil and try not to burn my tongue devouring them while they are still hot. Mmm yum. Good stuff.  

Proof that even the views of a fussy eater can be shared by the majority

Red Door Corner Store: 70 Mitchell Street Northcote

I'm going to start this post off by saying - this place should be in the Good Food Guide. What are you guys doing? This is way better than other brunch places I have tried (West 48 aside).

My boss recommended I visit this place and she has not led me astray so far (well, not in a food sense anyway *wink*). Lots of vegan friendly options, local produce and organic choices. As food should be in my humble opinion. This is my dish: 

I wanted to give you a picture before I talked you through it. Those are corn, zucchini and quinoa fritters, otherwise known as little balls of fried goodness, sitting on piles of guacamole and topped off with super tasty red pepper sauce. In the centre is a charred corn and purple cabbage salad, with fresh dill and lime. The poached egg went to Senor Gringo who satisfied himself with a Gippsland grass fed flat iron open steak sandwich, with haloumi, sauteed kale, charred corn, chimicurri, lime and green tomato relish. His silence and closed eyes told me all I needed to know about how much he was enjoying his food.

Everything about this place was right. I loved it. My faith in cafes was raised once again. They even serve salad for breakfast, what a great idea!

Not only was the food amazing but I left with a jar of local honey from a bee keeper in Northcote. Apparently if you eat local honey regularly it can reduce your hay fever symptoms. No idea if that thought has any credence but as I like honey and have awful hay fever every year I'm more than willing to give it a try - what do I have to lose? Nothing!

Try this place. Make it your local if you have to. I want to. Thank you Red Door Corner Store.

 

More pics: 

Bomba: 103 Lonsdale Street Melbourne

After posting about Bar Nacional last week, I was reminded of my quest for patatas bravas with sauce that I can actually eat - so much food, so little time, it's easy to get distracted!

I scoured the Good Food Guide and found Bomba, conveniently located a couple of blocks from work. I emailed Senor Gringo directions and we were off. I was particularly enticed by the idea of a workers lunch where you could choose three sample sized dishes to try, who wants one when you can have three? For $15 we each got one tapas (snack), one raciones (portion) and one verduras (vegetable).

On the way in I had a quick peek at the food on the tables around us and I assured myself I could definitely eat the patatas bravas - it appeared they served the aioli on the side in true fussy eater style (although as I would discover later, they had specially requested it that way).

We were seated at the bar where we waited and waited and waited to be served. Eventually, while in the midst of mixing someone else's drink, the bar tender asked us if we were ready to order. I assured him we were and gave him the opportunity to finish what he was doing. He then just stared at us. Oh, he wanted to take our order while he was otherwise occupied. Fine, plenty of people have better memories than I do and are capable of such a task. I was willing to give it a go. He took our order but as he was walking away he double checked it and realised he made two mistakes. It made me think seriously, is it trendy these days to bypass the trusty notepad and pen? I won't be offended if you have to be write it down. Anyway, as long as it was all correct at the end of the day, he can do whatever he wants.

I chose tomato rubbed bread with serano jamon, braised lamb and chickpeas with mojo verde and freekah salad with cauliflower, almonds, barberries, sumac and mint. Senor Gringo ordered a spiced lamb cutlet, braised oxtail bocadillo (sandwich) with guindilla pepper and patatas bravas for me to try and him to enjoy - I couldn't resist the freekah salad and he was happy to oblige.

Our tapas items came out quickly. My bread with jamon was freaking delicious. Nice, subtle, fresh flavours that made my mouth sing. Mmm yum. Thank you Bomba. Off to a good start. Once I extracted myself from my food bliss moment I turned my attention to Senor Gringo who was not so impressed. When he cut into his lamb cutlet it looked, for want of a better word, soggy and was apparently pretty flavourless - it was covered in yogurt so I didn't give it a go. Senor Gringo does make fantastic lamb at home so his expectations were high but  this dish definitely looked disappointing. Poor Senor Gringo.

I was ready for more but I was perhaps a little naive in expecting to have a quick meal at a Spanish bar, especially on a Friday. We waited close to an hour for our next dishes - so did the tables around us as there wasn't much food in sight. The couple at the bar next to us complained they had waited 20 minutes for their drinks. The bar tender said, in a surly voice, they take a long time to pour you know. This caused me to have a giggling fit which was shyly encouraged by the couple beside us but earned me a dirty look from the bar tender. Sorry!

Apart from the fact that our lunch took over an hour and thirty minutes, which I had to apologise to my boss for, the food was worth the wait. My freekah salad was divine with all the right combinations. The fresh herbs worked well with the berries, the dressing was zesty and the roasted cauliflower brought it all back to earth with a mellow buttery flavour without any butter in sight (I double checked). For my raciones, the chickpeas just tasted like cumin and overpowered the mojo verde, which was a little sad, but the lamb by itself was well cooked and satisfying.

Senor Gringo's oxtail sandwich was bland again, poor thing, but the patatas bravas gave him at least one happy food moment and I shared my dishes with him. I will definitely go back but not at lunch time when I have things to do, you can't enjoy your meal here if you are watching the clock. Overall, I am glad that I had the workers lunch as it gave me the opportunity to try a few things and figure out what I want to order next time. Well done folks.

Two ticks, just leave it for the evening or your day off.

 

Fomo Thai: 171 Bourke Street Melbourne

Conveniently located near my work, this is my lunch time food favourite. I have never had anything here that isn't above average. In my humble opinion the stand outs are the duck curry with lean roasted duck and crisp vegetables, the perfectly spiced eggplant and tofu curry and the absolutely divine pork belly fried rice. They must fry the pork belly as you just get ultra crisp bite size pork pieces and none of that nasty rubbery fat that most (sane) people scrape away. So many tasty things to choose from, so little belly space!

I always try to remember to take a picture but as soon as my food arrives I forget as I'm just so excited and eager to tuck in!!! I'll try to rectify that in future. Food bliss without fail.

Coconut House: 449 Elizabeth Street Melbourne

I have been here twice. The first time just by chance as I was headed to the Queen Victoria Markets. The second time with a group of 20. The first time the laksa was pretty damn fantastic - hot, spicy, creamy and very filling. I was pleasantly satisfied.

The second time my laksa was too creamy, luke warm and had hardly any veggies. I asked for extra spice - maybe some fresh chilli or chilli oil but the waitress (who clearly heard me) walked away and didn't come back. My friends meals were hit and miss, some great, some below average and oily.

Overall message, you may go and be very satisfied or disappointed. Probably depends on the night and how busy it is. Large groups never helps matters either.

One tick

Bar Nacional: 727 Collins Street Docklands

Early on in our Melbourne journey we visited Bar Nacional on a Friday night. There was a live band, lots of people and a really good vibe. We ordered cocktails and a bunch of tapas items as from other tables it was evident the dishes were small.

I took the risky road and made assumptions about what was/was not safe for me to eat as the wait staff were really busy and we had already waited 25 minutes to be served, meaning I didn't want to mess around with questions about the menu (I had tried to order at the counter and see if staff close to the kitchen could help me but I was told to go back and someone would come to take my order shortly).

We ordered olives, marinated pickles, patatas bravas, a charcutrie plate and chorizo with octopus for Senor Gringo. I ate the proscuitto and bresaola but the bread was clearly the Barossa bread 'bark' with lots of yummy things that leave me feeling awful. Therefore, just the meat for me (tiny portion for $16 may I add). The patatas bravas were covered in aoili, not a spicy tomato sauce like I was expecting and the marinated pickles were just pickled garlic cloves, weird. Senor Gringo liked his food a lot, said my patatas bravas were excellent and his octopus was divine but alas we will not be going back to eat there.

If you have food intolerances like me, save this place for the cocktails, music and the atmosphere. Its best on Friday nights as like a lot of places in the Docklands, it can be very quiet on weekends.

One tick. Sad result. I will get my patatas bravas somewhere, I'm sure of it!

I left hungry but I googled 'best souvlaki docklands' and I wound up at King Jon's near Southern Cross Station: 175 King St. The place looks really dodgy and King Jon is slow and ancient but it is the best damn souvlaki I've had yet - the meat was so flavoursome even without the garlic sauce and he had bread with no dairy. King Jon saved my evening, for which I am forever grateful. Plus, Senor Gringo got to go home with a partner that wasn't hangry, of which I'm sure he was relieved :)