Abbotsford: Three Bags Full

Three Bags Full
60 Nicholson St, Abbotsford VIC 3067

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Tel: (03) 9421 2732
Menu link – here

I would have to say Three Bags Full is one of the best brunch cafes in Melbourne. Good coffee, obviously great baristas, and consistently great food.

We ordered two of the Cajun Soft Shell Crab Burgers this time around and the Chilli Scrambled Eggs.

Chilli Scrambled Eggs – fried chilli and soybean scrambled on toast, pickled mixed mushrooms, crispy shallots, chilli threads, coriander shoots & chilli oil. Boy is this tasty. This goes beyond the normal chilli scrambled eggs dished up by other cafes and leaves your taste buds singing, working out all the elements in the scrambled egg as you eat each mouthful.

The cajun soft shell crab burger – with white cabbage and green chilli slaw, tabasco aioli & fresh lime with sweet potato fries is again everything you’d expect from a soft shell crab burger. crispy on the outside and succulent on the inside the crab is cooked well, and all the elements go together on the plate.

Do come here, it’s well worth it!

Food: 9/10
Value for money: 7.5/10
Ambience: 7.5/10
Service: 7.5/10
Overall Score: 31.5/40
$$

Brunswick: Misoya Sake Bar

Misoya Sake Bar
165A Sydney Rd, Brunswick VIC 3056
(03) 8589 3685

This is my ‘go to’ ramen place in Brunswick. I am here quite often. So one of the first things I love about Misoya Sake Bar is that there is no MSG. Frequently a lot of Japanese restaurants are loaded with MSG.

They focus on toriro – Japanese chicken broth and have a vegetarian broth option as well. I guess my point is, don’t come in thinking that you’re in for a tonkotsu (pork) broth. Their toriro is indeed very thick, creamy and gelatinous chicken stock. I mainly go in and order the misoya special ramen, which is the thick gelatinous broth with miso added. There are normally two pieces of very tender pork belly, one 6 minute egg, and spring onions and seaweed in every bowl. The noodles are decent but probably not the best noodle I’ve tasted. However it is still a very decent and satifying meal. Misoya Sake Bar provide a very generous serving, and for the price point $16, not a bad place when you’re too lazy to cook at home on a cold winter’s Melbourne night.

Misoya special ramen:

Vege miso ramen: Decent, and very tomato and corn based. Not a bad vegetarian option, but lacks the depth of flavour and moorish nature of the chicken broth ramen options.

Food: 7.5/10
Value for money: 8/10
Ambience: 7/10
Service: 7.5/10
Overall Score: 30/40
$

Tasmania: Dandy Lane

Dandy Lane
10/138 Collins St, Hobart TAS 7000
http://dandy-lane.com/

Dandy Lane is located in the Hobart CBD. It is tucked away from the main CBD foot-traffic, and quite unassuming. Great clean, calm atmosphere once you walk in, and friendly staff. I loved firstly that they used Bonsoy soy milk and Milklab almond milk. The coffee is decent.

Dandy Lane’s menu can be found here. 

We ordered the:

• Zucchini, Fetta & Mint Fritters with grilled haloumi, poached eggs, pickled cucumber, harissa labna, soft herbs
• Herb & Parmesan Rosti with spinach, poached egg, hollandaise, avocado & haloumi

I asked for hollandaise on the side, as I’m not a great fan of hollandaise sauce in general. Both were exceptionally yummy, well-cooked and well balanced dishes. The zucchini, fetta and mint fritters had a middle eastern influence and were delicious. The herb and parmesan rosti was more like a well cooked mash mix inside rather than the grated potato kind of rosti, but still delicious. Dandy Lane is well worth a repeat visit.

I would highly recommend going here for brunch.

 

Food: 8/10
Value for money: 7.5/10
Ambience: 7.5/10
Service: 7.5/10
Overall Score: 30.5/40
$$

Tasmania: Urban Greek

Urban Greek
103 Murray St, Hobart TAS 7000
Tel: (03) 6109 4712
http://www.urbangreekhobart.com/

Urban Greek looks small from the sidewalk, but is quite spacious inside.

The menu is much more extensive when you arrive in person, than on their website. Pages and pages long.

We started with the house red by the carafe, which was pretty decent.

We choose the chargrilled octopus for the entree. Delicious. As good as something that you’d get in Greece. The octopus was tender and had a beautiful char. There was already some vinaigrette on top. They give you another shot glass filled with vinaigrette, and the good thing is the waitress warned us that we might not need it. It was true, the dish didn’t need anymore vinaigrette. Great start to the night.

Next we picked one of the specials for the day, pork hock with salad and roasted potatoes. The dish was very generous and actually could have fed two people quite easily. The pork hock was well cooked, and very substantial. The sauce was not bad. The potatoes weren’t the most tender. Had a bit of a chewy taste to them, so I didn’t really enjoy it that much. The salad accompaniment was again, okay but not great.

The second main we choose was again, a very generous serving size. Salmon with a herb crust, cauliflower risotto and a herb oil dressing. Honestly this dish was not great. It doesn’t warn you on the menu that the cauliflower risotto has such a strong blue cheese through it, and is too creamy. You just feel like you’re being smacked in the face with blue cheese and just eating a spoon full of dairy. The cauliflower gets so lost in the mix. The salmon was cooked well, and actually if you picked out the salmon meat, that was quite pleasant. The herb crust though was over fried, and had a strong bitter taste to it which I didn’t find too pleasant to eat either. So because it had so many over powering flavours, I tasted but didn’t touch the herb oil. There were just too many strong flavours, and overall a very poorly executed dish.

Perhaps if we had chosen another two mains we might have felt differently about this restaurant. Very friendly and attentive wait staff.

Food: 6/10
Value for money: 7/10
Ambience: 7/10
Service: 7.5/10
Overall Score: 27.5/40
$$

Tasmania: Peacock and Jones

Peacock and Jones
33 Hunter St, Hobart TAS 7000
1800 375 692

Homepage

Peacock and Jones, intriguing building. Loved the modernised decor to an historic building.

The staff are warm and seem to be very family oriented to each other.

So on to the food. We ordered:

• chicken liver parfait | preserves | madeira jelly |  house brioche
• market fish | vadouvan | honey bug | fried curry leaves
• huon valley berkshire pork chop | pomme puree | crackle | sauce perigueux

I guess I want to make mention of the bread and butter that came out first. I would have liked the bread to have been warmed potentially. The butter just seemed pretty standard, nothing to write home about. Even the bread basket can set an impression for the night.

So the house brioche was very well done. Lovely and toasted. The chicken liver parfait and madeira jelly was quite satisfying. Very rich however. Shared between two, we couldn’t eat it all. The radish and the blackcurrant preserve accompaniments paired well. The radish was crisp and fresh, and the blackcurrant gave it a sweet, sour note which both cut the richness of the liver parfait well. Unfortunately I still compare all chicken liver and foie gras parfaits to Heston Blumenthal’s Meat Fruit at Dinner… so in comparison this is fairly well executed but still can’t touch the awe I still have for the Meat Fruit.

Moving on to mains, I was a little disappointed there weren’t better vegetarian or white meat options. On their website, they seem to have more variety listed, than when we went in person and viewed their night’s menu.

The market fish was ling. Ling is probably not my favourite choice of fish, barramundi, perch, cod, kingfish, salmon all come to mind before Ling as a fine dining fish of choice.

Whilst the dish was cooked okay, I liked the honey bug element on the plate, the ling was okay, but I didn’t really enjoy the curry leaf jus.

The Huon valley berkshire pork chop though, was cooked very well. Beautiful crackling – I wanted more! The pork was cooked well, pomme puree was smooth, creamy and silky and sauce perigueux was delicious. A well executed fairly standard pairing.

Overall, I would say a decent dinner, and great service by our lovely and very entertaining waiter. Probably didn’t leave me morish for coming again and again though.

 

 

Food: 7/10
Value for money: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Overall Score: 30/40
$$$

Tasmania: Macq01

Macq01
18 Hunter St, Hobart TAS 7000
http://www.macq01.com.au/

We arrived at Macq01 coincidentally on their 1st birthday, happy birthday Macq01!

The rooms were lovely. Very stylish, clean, and well designed rooms. Great touch naming each individual room, and having a Tasmanian history and story-telling element throughout the hotel.

Lovely room amenities, tea and coffee were lovely. Perhaps coffee pods are not the most eco-friendly choice, but still the mini bar was well stocked.

Staff at the concierge and reception are lovely and well trained.

Potentially a little bit of work needed on their dinning experience. Wait staff have differing levels of training. Tea comes without a strainer, to leave you surprised when you have a cup full of tea leaves, forget to provide napkins, not very versed in the menu. Perhaps I just had a bad run of newbie wait staff.

The food is quite delicious, so the chefs know what they are doing.

The warm fireplace in the front sitting area is clearly well-loved by patrons. Great place to snuggle up and order a pinot noir or shiraz and cheese platter and just let time go by.

Breakfast though… if you’re looking for value, probably look else where. Apparently you can only order a-la-cart with the buffet for $38 per person. The buffet is just a continental buffet, and you can’t order off the a-la-cart menu without the buffet. Strange arrangement if you ask me. Perhaps they only want to cater to the guests who have booked breakfast with their accommodation, and don’t want to encourage outside patrons. Might I suggest Dandy Lane? 🙂

All in all though worth staying here for the view, location, and stylish room and amenities.

Room: 8.5/10
Hotel service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10

Food: 8/10
Food service: 7/10
Ambience: 9/10

Tasmania: Macq01 – Old Wharf Restaurant – dessert

Old Wharf Restaurant at the Macq01 Hotel
18 Hunter St, Hobart TAS 7000
Phone: (03) 6210 7600
http://www.macq01.com.au/eat-and-drink-en.html

As we were staying at the Macq01, we thought we would fit in a sneaky dessert. Downstairs is the Old Wharf Restaurant. We ordered the Bitter chocolate tart, yuzu sorbet and sesame crisp; and an Apple tarte tatin with double cream.

Both were pleasing desserts. The bitter chocolate tart delivered in flavour, it was quite a small portioning, not that deep or generous in the filling, but still quite nice. The yuzu sorbet is well done, and does cleanse the palate and cut richness and bitterness of the tart, but I’m not convinced it goes together. The sesame crisp is again quite well done… but again I’m not convinced the flavours all marry together. Not a bad dessert, but not the best.

The Apple Tart Tatin, was lovely and caramelised, the pastry was cooked well. Quite a thin dessert, again their desserts are very small portioned and not generous feeling, it’s probably just a nice ending to a full three course meal.

Not bad, not outstanding though.

 

Food: 7/10
Value for money: 7/10
Ambience: 7.5/10
Service: 7/10
Overall Score: 28.5/40
$$

Tasmania: The Glass House

Brooke Street Pier, Franklin Wharf
Hobart TAS 7000
Tel:(03) 6223 1032
https://www.theglass.house/

The Glass House, what a lovely experience. David Ball does the fresh Tasmanian produce proud.

Good wine list. Classy decor and ambience. The only issue is that at night, you might be facing the water, as we were at our table, but the lighting is such that all you see is the bar reflection in the window pane. It is a very beautiful bar though. But I probably would have loved a sea-view. Minor detail though.

Now, on to the food! In Tasmania, you can’t not try the oysters.  We had:

2 fresh
2 pickled rhubarb, parsley & dill
2 tomato, smoked tobasco, prosciutto dust

You could pick between 2 types of oysters, we choose the oysters they described as smaller and creamier. What a delight. Fresh with lemon was delicious. Then the rhubarb parsley and dill was light and refreshing the parsley and dill were reduced to a light oil, and gel bubbles. The tomato, smoked tobasco and prociutto dust was also delicious, very restrained and still had punch and flavour but showcased the oyster so well and wasn’t over-powering. So well done.

Next, onto the Scottsdale pork, slow cooked sticky belly, chilli glass noodle salad,
coriander, pickles, cos, chilli peanuts. The pork was so well cooked, infused with flavour and indeed sticky and caramelised, just as promised in it’s description. Yum.

For main we ordered:Grass fed Cape Grim beef – Coal River Valley pinot cooked cheek, Elphin Grove celeriac puree, local roast savoy, pickled green walnuts; with a side of Huon Valley potatoes – pink eye & russian bananas, pickled local shallots, flat
leaf kale, roast purple garlic. The beef was literally melt in the mouth. Tender and flavourful jus. The two different types of roasted potatoes were crispy, and so tender on the inside, the creamy sauce, shallots, garlic and kale made you want to keep eating this by the forkful.

Overall great dining experience. I would recommend booking in advance, as they can get quite booked up especially on weekends.

Food: 9/10
Value for money: 8/10
Ambience: 8.5/10
Service: 9/10
Overall Score: 34.5/40
$$$

Fitzroy: Smith & Daughters

Smith & Daughters
175 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
http://www.smithanddaughters.com/
Tel: (03) 9939 3293
Link to menu here
open table reservation link

So Smith and Daughters is Italian fare, and known for its vegan and vegetarian options, but it does still have plenty of options for carnivores as well. Nice hip ambience.

So we started with the meatballs, this was cooked in napoli sauce with 2 cheeses – housemade fresh buffalo mozzarella & parmesan with toasted bread. The cheese is so tasty and morish, and the meatballs were not bad.

We then ordered the Cheesy Gratin which was slow braised Jerusalem artichokes, leek and fennel. This was okay, but not as cheesy and creamy as I would have hoped. It not badly seasoned, but probably fit the description of just  ‘braised artichokes’ rather than a ‘gratin’.

Next for the main we had the baked eggplant involtini described as – chargrilled eggplant filled with basil ricotta, topped with napoli, fresh buffalo mozzarella and parmesan. This dish was great. Again the fresh buffalo mozzarella and parmesan mix on the top is so salty and morish. The eggplant was well cooked, and with the basil ricotta and napoli, I enjoyed every mouthful. The crushed cashews in the sauce add another flavourful layer to the sauce.

Lastly we had the Baked Vesuvius for dessert. This is Smith and Daughter’s take on a classic Bomb Alaska. It has Chocolate sable topped with whipped dark chocolate ganache, pureed poached spice quinces and black pepper vanilla ice cream, covered in amaretto and quince Italian meringue which is torched at your table. This was a nice dessert. It was a lovely touch that they torched it at your table. The amaretto and quince Italian meringue had good flavour and the amaretto came through. The vanilla and black pepper ice cream just tasted like good vanilla ice-cream, I couldn’t actually taste the black pepper. I did like the poached spice quince puree, this was rather delicious, and the biscuit base added a crunchy element and good contrast texture to the rest of the dish.

Food: 7.5/10
Value for money: 7.5/10
Ambience: 7.5/10
Service: 7.5/10
Overall Score: 30/40
$$

Melbourne CBD: The Press Club

The Press Club
72 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Reservation via Open Table

So, I must admit that I wasn’t desperate to try The Press Club. After looking at some photos on the web, I wasn’t sure what to expect from ‘fine dining Greek cuisine’, I’d only experienced the home style, generous and delicious more casual Greek fare, and to be honest, my experience of Greek desserts have been a bit sickly sweet, and rice dessert doesn’t thrill me either.

Having said all this, I was very pleasantly surprised.

Along Flinders Street we walked passed The Press Club’s ‘experimental kitchen’ which is designed as a special experience with a private chef for a minimum of 8 guests and a maximum of 16 guest. The prices seem very reasonable – Weekday lunch is $95pp, 5 courses $125 pp. Dinner consists of 6 courses for $170pp or 8 courses for $195 pp. After walking past this, we then continued to walk and found the tucked away entrance, which opens to a curtained off little concave, where the Maitre D greets you and asks for your reservation. You then hand over your coats away from the cold of the Melbourne streets, and the curtain opens to reveals a small number of dimly lit private booths, which are quite cosy but well spaced. To my surprise there are only a very small number of tables.

On to the food. We ordered the 5 course degustation for $125pp. Very reasonable for the reputation The Press Club has. All degustations are chef’s choice each evening, you just let them know if you have any dietary requirements before hand.

So first off the rank came the appetizers, an array of little tasting bites. This alone was worth coming to The Press Club for.

• Interpretation of Chicken Soup
• Salt and Vinegar loukoumades with a (I think it was trout) dip with fish roe
• Saganaki
• Jalapenos with hummus
• Lamb

The most impressive was their interpretation of chicken soup served in an eggshell cup. Wow. There was a clear consume jelly at the bottom, then a creamy flavourful creamier layer on top with crunchy bits of sage. Absolutely delightful on the tastebuds. We all scraped up every last drop. Second favourite was the salt and vinegar loukoumades with the salty (again I think it was trout) dip and fish roe. Very morish. The other three items were cooked very well too.

Now onto service. Great service. Interesting way to provide cutlery. They give you a ‘cutlery box’, and we’re told that they don’t want to dictate how diners enjoy their food, you are free to choose whatever cutlery you feel like using.

First degustation tasting dish was a lasagne interpretation. Instead of pasta, they used thin sheets of daikon, creamy bechamel, a mushroom sauce, and crispy mushrooms on the top. So delicious, I could eat this dish over and over again.

For the second dish, we were showed the technique of how eggplant was smoked in the olden days. The smoked eggplant was then the highlight in this dish, with wallaby tartare. Again so well cooked, another amazing dish.

The third dish was warm homemade bread with infused butter, served along-side octopus with lentils. Every element was lovely individually and then went so well together.

Prior to the fourth and last savoury dish, we were presented with a knife. Apparently the story is that George Calombaris was presented this knife by his friend as a present, and so he decided to purchase this for guests of his restaurant to demonstrate hospitality and friendship. Nice story. Obviously Greeks don’t have the same superstitions as Chinese. In Chinese culture, we never give knifes, scissors, or anything sharp, in Chinese culture it’s interpreted as severing ties and breaking a friendship. Not a great omen. So if you ever give a knife or pair of scissors, in Chinese custom we always ask the recipient to give us something in return, even it it’s a token $1 coin, so it’s not a ‘gift’ as such, it’s just a transaction. On to the food. The duck was absolutely perfectly cooked. There was a touch of citrus, the sauce was delicate and all paired well together on the plate.

The fifth and last dessert dish to the evening was the dessert. Little cakes which had an almond element to it, light delicious icecream with some other crunchy elements. Very good end to a great meal.

The Press Club chefs hard at work.

I was definitely impressed by the experience, and will be back.

Food: 9/10
Value for money: 8.5/10
Ambience: 8.5/10
Service: 8.5/10
Overall Score: 34.5/40
$$$