Stalactites

Location: 177-183 Lonsdale Street
Link: www.stalactites.com.au
Cuisine: Greek
Company: YC, Darren, Qiao-Lin, Anna

~Food~
The menu is quite extensive for a place that appears to only specialise in souvlakis. Actually, to be honest, they seem to pretty much make the same sorts of things, in varying setups and with different accompaniments. Regardless, I ordered the lamb giro and absolutely loved it. The was well marinated and grilled to perfection. YC's moussaka, Anna's souvlaki and Darren's mixed grill looked quite tasty too.

~Atmosphere and Service~
Given that the place is always packed, the service was quite commendable. The food took a little whlie to come out, which was somewhat annoying since the others only had one hour's break.

~Price~
Quite decent for the amount of food piled on each plate. Souvlakis cost around $12-$15, while the mains were about $20 each.

~Overall Impression: 8.5/10~
I'll be back next time I feel the need to eat more meat!

Eat Drink Bento

Location: 115 Hardware Street [between Lonsdale and Little Lonsdale Streets]
Cuisine: Japanese
Company: the law crew

This one was a while ago too...

~Food~
Typical Japanese meals. Most of us opted for bento boxes, which were a pretty good deal. Most notable part of the box was the deep-fried sushi. Not tempura on the inside, but the entire sushi piece dipped in tempura batter and then deep-fried!

~Atmosphere and Service~
Very quiet. When we first got there, there was no one in the restaurant but us. The service was quite good although there were some minor issues with the waitress's limited grasp of English. The food came out in average time, probably slower than expected given we were the only ones there for a while.

~Price~
The bentos were between $20 and $25 each. There was a range of other mains around the same price but with less variety.

~Overall Impression: 6/10~
Pretty stock-standard Japanese food at a slightly higher price than I would be happy to pay. For food like this, I would rather go to Yamamitzu or Yoyogi.

Bear Brass

Location: Southgate
Link: www.bearbrass.com.au
Cuisine: Modern Australian, Tapas
Company: law crew

We actually went to Bear Brass quite a few months ago. On checking the menu just then, it appears that some of the mains have changed.

~Food~
Having seen the menu the night before, I knew they had a dish called 'gumbo'... which seemed somewhat interesting at the time. After doing a bit of Wiki-ing and listening to YC's description of it, I decided that I would order a gumbo...

Basically it was a South American dish of thick soup and lots and lots of seafood. It even had a soft-shell crab, which was quite small, but still very tasty. The soup was full of flavour, and would even have gone well with rice. From memory it came with some crusty bread.

~Atmosphere and Service~
The atmosphere was very casual. Seating was quite open, although it did get a little cold as it got later as we were seated next to a gap in the tarpaulin used to block out the wind from the back courtyard. Service was minimal, and somewhat slow.

~Price~
Whilst the gumbo tasted fantastic, the serving was rather conservative and it cost $30! Quite a rip off for the amount fo food we got. On the other hand, the other mains didn't like quite as expsnsive. Must have been the seafood.

~Overall Impression: 7/10~
Although I loved the gumbo, it was just that little bit too expensive for the small bowl it was. Since they have now removed it from the menu, I don't think I'll be back there in much of a hurry.

Blue Train Cafe

Location: MRS Landing, Southgate Landing, Southbank
Link: www.bluetrain.com.au/
Cuisine: Modern Australian
Company: law crew & friends

~Food~
Pretty extensive menu ranging from steak to pizzas, pastas and burgers. Mel and I shared a pizza ('hot stone pizza w thinly sliced prosciutto over napoli & mozzarella w black olives & baby spinach, shaved parmesan and semi-dried tomatoes') and the pasta special of the day (fresh salmon pink peppercorns and white wine cream sauce). The pasta was pretty nice, the salmon tasted fresh and the sauce was just right. The peppercorns were one too many and we did tire of them quite easily. I found the pizza quite nice too, although Mel thought the prosciutto could have been fresher.

Dessert was limited to the cake window. We ended up with three slices (berry, toblerone and caramel) to share amongst the nine of us. Toblerone was the best in my opinion! The rest of the cakes were rather average.

~Atmosphere and Service~
The place was rather casual. Being nice weather, our semi-outdoor seating was cool and relaxing. The service was also friendly and quite fast. The waitresses had a no fuss attitude, took our orders and left us alone. Food came out quite quickly, especially for the latecomers who ordered after we had already gotten our food.

~Price~
The mains were relatively well-priced (most were between $15 and $25). The desserts on the other hand, were quite expensive, with each slice of cake being about $8 each!! Lesson to be learnt, eat mains there, then go elsewhere for dessert.

~Overall Impression: 8/10~
A great place for a random gathering to relax and just chill. We didn't book as we didn't know how many people would show up but we were able to score a decent table thanks to Stace who got there early!

Indochine

Location: Carrington Rd, Box Hill, opposite Centro
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Company: Mark (and other people on various occasions)

~Food~
Lovely, fresh, clean Vietnamese flavours. It's one of my fav viet restaurants in Melbourne. I love their Bun (rice vermicelli dish), spring rolls and fish sauce. Their pho is not THE best but it's very nice as well. I keep forgetting to try their broken rice but i'm sure I'll be going back there very soon.

~Atmosphere and Service~
Lovely place, very pretty and the service is quick and efficient. They have one waiter who is a bit of a laugh- he also makes sexually suggestive comments to the ladies but you can't hate him coz he's so lame!

~Price~
Very reasonable. Lunch for 2 is generally around $20. In fact, it's a stretch to order $30 of food and finish it all.

~Overall Impression~
Definitely one of the best Viet places around! Try it out!
9/10

Steak Out

Location: Crown
Link: Steakout
Cuisine: Steak

~Food~

Delicious.

Entree was the char-grilled calamari. The calamari was cooked perfectly- very tender and succulent but i do wish they had removed the sinew thing in the middle of the calamari. It came with a delicious ailoli. YUM!

Now the mains...

Mark had the porterhouse and I had the marinated ribs. Those ribs were soooo delicious. Slow roasted. Apparently they weighed 800g with the bone. The porterhouse was delicious too. Very well cooked with a yummy smokey taste. The portions were over generous and I couldn't finish my main. Both dishes came with a generous serve of fries.

~Atmosphere and Service~
Atmosphere was a bit blah. It had a sports bar and live band area attached which is great if you're into that sort of thing. Its a very bloke-y kinda place with a lot of, well blokes. The service was good, they were understanding about Fructose and offered to have the salad that came with the entree separate which was very nice.

~Price~
Not too bad. For the amount of food we got (especially the ribs) it was very reasonably priced.

~Overall Impression~
Lovely place. All the food tasted especially good coz we hadn't been out for dinner in a long long long time (thank you final year) and also coz it was one of the only meals we've had together that didn't involve any background stress. Seriously, go to steak out. It's pretty awesome.
9/10