Choix Creperie Café

Tucked into a little laneway of the western end of Collins Street, Choix Creperie is a 'hole in the wall' kind of cafe with a long wooden bar running the length of the place and small booths along the wall.

Specializing in crepes, the menu sports an extensive list of savoury crepes, and about half a dozen of sweet ones. I order the 'le chateau', which filled with ham, brie and asparagus.

The crepe itself is soft and delicate, and a little crispy on the very edge (which I like). My first mouthful is a little disappointing - the ham and asparagus are cold and the cheese hasn't melted yet. But by the second bite. The warmth of the crepe has heated up the filling and the brie is soft and oozy. Perfect.

Service is quick and the wait staff are attentive and friendly. Great for a quick lunch, but as seating is limited, it's not the best place for big group gatherings.

Overall impression: 7.5/10

Bergerac

A random but good find thanks to Teapot's craving for French food and Urbanspoon.

Service was top notch from the minute we stepped into the quaint French restaurant. The waitress led us in, gave us a choice of tables and brought over the specials board straight away. I must commend this place for having a couple of portable specials boards - it certainly makes it easier than craning necks around corners or over other people's heads to catch a glimpse of the daily specials.

moscato

bread & snail shaped butter

We order moscato to kick off the meal then start the difficult task of choosing dishes. We can't go pass the duck terrine from the board, and settle on a gravlax de saumon as our second shared entrée. Then it's ravioli de crabe for me, and confit de canard for Teapot.

duck terrine

What can I say, the duck terrine is perfect. The texture is smooth and holds it shape well. The sweet and slightly sour (cranberry?) jam pairs perfectly with the creaminess of the terrine and the crunch of the toasted baguette slices. My only qualm is that the baguette slices are a little thick and could have been split in two, but that doesn't stop us scoffing the lot down.

gravlax de saumon - gravlax of salmon on toasted brioche with roe salsa

The salmon gravlax is another hit. Slices of smoked salmon are dotted with orange fish roe which provide a cleansing 'pop' of flavour. The toasted brioche is sweet and charred on the outside, complimenting the cured salmon well.

confit de canard - confit of duck thighs with orange glaze & potatoes sarladaise

Teapot's duck confit is "delicious" and "melts in your mouth". The orange sauce is noticeably citrus-y but subtle enough to not be too intense.

ravioli de crabe - crab ravioli with blue swimmer bisque

My crab ravioli in blue swimmer bisque is also a delight to eat. Unlike the Italian variety, the ravioli is delicate and light, almost like a wonton wrapper. There's a generous filling of crab meat inside each one. The little parcels of shellfish goodness sit atop a rich crab bisque with an intense crab flavour and undertones of butter.

pan fried mushrooms

Our side of pan fried mushrooms is deserving of a much fancier name. Whatever the chef has done has brought out the deep earthy flavour of the mushrooms, which has also absorbed the garlicky butter sauce its been cooking in.

Onto dessert and we're both ridiculously full from eating too much bread at the start of the meal, but as all foodies know, you have a second stomach for dessert (just don't ask a doctor to confirm that). We decide to be slightly rational and choose the bombe alaska to share. Which is a fantastic choice if you like your dessert served with a side of theatre. A cute little ice cream gateau covered in meringue arrives, with faint caramelisation down the sides. Then the waitress lights a small pan of Grand Marnier on fire and douses the whole thing in flaming alcohol. Wow.

bombe alaska - ice-cream gâteau with dried fruits on almond biscuit,
covered in meringue & flambéed with Grand Marnier

It's quite a beautiful dessert although the Grand Marnier is very strong and gives you that slight 'burning' sensation. And you can't avoid it, because cutting into the bombe alaska means half the pieces gets dragged through the alcohol. The ice cream is smooth and spotted with 'dried fruits' which seem to have been reconstituted in water and are actually quite juicy. The meringue on the outside is soft on the inside and slightly crispy where it's been caramelised (twice, firstly by a blowtorch, then again by the flaming Grand Marnier).

The service is commendable, particularly from our main waitress of the night. Polite, friendly and happy to chat, she made the dining experience truly enjoyable.

Overall impression: 9.5/10

KoKo @ Crown - MFWF Restaurant Express Menu

I don't generally eat out on my own, and definitely not when it's fine dining. But a culmination of having a day off, being too lazy to organise anything with anyone and the fact that the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival has Restaurant Express menus at some of the city's top restaurants changed all that. So I headed down to KoKo's for a leisurely lunch.

The interior of the restaurant is classically Japanese. Polished wooden floorboards surround a shallow pond in the center of the room. And wait for it...there are smooth flat stepping stones so you can walk across the pond!

interior and the miniature pool

As an extrovert, I must confess I actually really enjoyed the experience. I was seated a table by the window, with a view of the Yarra and the Melbourne Aquarium, on a day where it was sunny and the sky was a pretty blue colour. Just sitting there with some amazing food, an endless supply of green tea and calming music while watching the water glistening and rippling, trains going past and the occasional water taxi cruising by.

just look at that view!

chicken meatball in teriyaki sauce

A small appetizer is brought out. Not expected, as it wasn't on the menu. And it's an interesting one. A single chicken meatball with teriyaki sauce served cold. Yes, cold. I've never eaten a cold meatball like that and I'm still trying to decide if I like it.

Eventually my Shokado bento arrives and the waitress carefully sets it down in front of me, and arranges the miso soup, pickles and tempura dipping sauce around it before taking the lid off the box and revealing four impeccably presented dishes.

from top left: grilled Wagyu with onion sauce, tempura
whitebait and vegetables, trio of sashimi, steamed rice

I start with the sashimi. Thinly sliced salmon, tuna and a white flesh fish I'm guessing to be swordfish. Fresh, delicate and just the right portion size. Can't ask for more.

The Wagyu is slightly chewier than I had anticipated but that is partly my fault - in retrospect I probably should have ordered it medium rare instead of medium. But the beef is nicely charred on the outside, tender on the inside. It's served with a fancy type of mushroom in a generous pool of onion sauce. Well seasoned, and the strong flavours of the sauce worked perfectly with the rice.

The tempura comes in a light crispy batter. The whitebait is soft and flakey, the zucchini and sweet potato are both as they should be. The standout for me is the eggplant, which has been cut to resemble a bit of a fan and then battered and fried. Perfectly soft and creamy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Creative and tasty!

 

miso soup | Japanese pickles

The accompanying miso soup is also a favorite. Not your typical $2 miso (actually, do they even exist anymore?). This one has a good earthy miso flavour, and is generously loaded with seaweed and tofu. Delicious! The pickles are a refreshing palate cleanser.

All this for $40 and I get to tick off yet another top restaurant in my Good Food Guide. A good way to spend a random mid-week day off!

Overall impression: 8.5/10

High Tea @ The Park Hyatt

At Taste of Melbourne last year, we picked up some discounted vouchers for high tea at the Park Hyatt. We finally got around to using the tickets last weekend.

Despite our booking having disappeared without a trace, the waiters quickly had a table set up for us, and we were soon treated to a wonderful afternoon tea of scones, finger sandwiches and an assortment of petit fours, sparkling wine and our choice of tea from a very extensive menu of jing loose leaf teas.

 

afternoon tea stand

flowering jasmine peach, green tea

plain scones & fruit scones  w/ orange marmalade, berry jam and vanilla Chantilly cream

We started at the bottom tier and worked our way up. The scones were well made and struck that balance between being soft and fluffy and a more solid crumbly texture. The orange marmalade was a bit too intense  - it had a good flavour but I'm not sure it worked with scones and cream. The berry jam, on the other hand, worked a treat with the smooth Chantilly cream. Sometimes, you just gotta stick with the classic flavour combinations.

finger sandwiches

The second tier was a selection of finger sandwiches: chicken and avocado, egg, smoked salmon and ham, with the smoked salmon being the favourite. 

petit fours 

And to top it off, five different miniature pastries. We didn't quite catch the names of all the items (too busy taking photos) but of particular note was the lemon meringue pie, which had a beautiful short pastry and a smooth and intense lemon curd filling, all topped with nicely caramelised meringue that was light and airy, almost marshmallow-y. The macaron was pretty average (but I may have been spoilt by Adriano Zumbo's macarons). The pecan pie had a good solid chocolate based, smooth chocolate filling and toasted pecans. 

The afternoon was definitely a very enjoyable one. And at $32.50 a head, there was more than enough food to delay eating dinner for a good couple of hours!

Overall impression: 8/10

Mr Huang Jin

This blog has been the topic of several conversations over the past few weeks, including a not-so-subtle hint from my manager suggesting I take leave to write! I guess it's a timely reminder that I should get my act together and start doing something productive with the backlog of photos on my phone.

So let's talk food.

Mr Huang Jin is a modern take on Chinese/Taiwanese/Cantonese street food, with the occasional twist of South East Asia (for example, the laksa themed xiao long bao). Located on the ground floor of the Rialto building, the restaurant is clean, elegant and a complete contrast to the hustle and bustle of the night markets that traditionally sport a number of these dishes. 

Taiwanese fried chicken (TFC) w/ sweet chilli mayonnaise

One of the things I miss most about Taiwan is the street food, so seeing a list of 'Taiwanese tapas' on the menu is automatically a hit for me. Just like the Taiwanese fried chicken, which has a crispy, perfectly seasoned coating. The chicken itself is still juicy and tender. Paired with a tangy sweet chilli mayo, this chicken trumps popcorn chicken any day!

steamed pork xiao long bao

Up until I tried this place, Hutong was the only restaurant in Melbourne that really nailed the xiao long bao for me. These delicately wrapped Shanghainese dumplings match, if not surpass, the good old XLB of Hutong. The wrappy is thin but robust enough to hold in the soupy deliciousness that is required in any good XLB. Just one word of warning - handle with care, because you don't want it to explode and free the soup before you put it in your mouth.

prawn & pork wontons w/ chilli sauce

Now for a hit of spicy Sichuan goodness. Traditional wontons plump with chopped prawns and pork mince sit atop a numbing soy chilli oil concoction. Some crisp lettuce and sprigs of coriander scattered around the wontons provides a contrasting 'cooling' element in typical Chinese yin and yang style cooking. 

fried tofu balls

Another fried dish - this time, soft balls of silken tofu are crumbed and then deep fried. Crispy on the outside, melt in the mouth tofu on the inside. On their own, the tofu seems to lack flavour, but when eaten with the sweet and sour sauce on the side, or even just a squeeze of lemon, the dish comes together nicely. And, the balls are served with miniature skewers to prevent any potential for embarrassing chopstick mishaps. 

It's a bit of a walk from Docklands, but it's well worth the trek (so worth it, I've had two work lunches out there in the past month). 

The service is polite and not your typical Chinese dumpling joint. Have a big crowd? No worries, you can pre-order so that the dishes start coming out on your arrival, making it ideal for a quick work lunch.

Also worth a mention is the existence of gluten free versions of their dishes. Both the Taiwanese fried chicken and the tofu balls were ordered as gluten free and tasted no different to the non-gluten free versions on my second visit. It's rare to find an Asian restaurant that is so accommodating and yet still so reasonably priced. 

Overall Impression: 9/10

Where to eat on Friday Night in Melbourne CBD?

TGIF!! But where to eat on a Friday Night (that does not require you to make an advance booking since like four weeks before or make you wait till 9PM to be seated) ?

I believe it is definitely one of the hardest tasks (I know my sister would comment and say “First World Problems”). 

Now to discuss the adventure we had in deciding where to eat...

A few weeks before the dinner date with the girls, we kick started this adventure with “Let’s do Korean” it’s easy, delicious and there’s an abundance of them (in no particular order Shinssi Hwaro, Oriental Spoon, Guhng, G2, Joo Mak, Cafe de Kikaku, Mook Ji Bar, the list could go on forever) – but this was short lived, we didn’t want to smell like BBQ after the meal – even if we didn’t eat BBQ.

Mamasita, Chin Chin, Meat Balls and Wine, Cumulus, Movida – in and around Flinders Lane – always gets a mentioned, but then reality comes and spoils the fun… “Are we really going to get a table?” or “Do we want to wait 2hrs to get a table?” I told them about my sister’s story; she got to Mamasita at 5.45pm on a Tuesday that week and still had to wait 30mins to get a table. There is hope though!! Yak Bar – this is always the fall back option, not a bad fall back option at all, it is one of the best pasta places in Melbourne and they’re so friendly.

We then set our minds on Movida Aqui, thinking it should be ok since it is on the quieter side of town. We were planning to make a booking (at some stage), but we totally forgot about it till the afternoon of the day and to our disappointment there was nothing for 6 till 8.30pm.

Then there are the New Kids on the Block – Sezar, Burma Lane, Gazi, Grain Store (not new new, but new for dinner) - if you go like right NOW, there is still a possibility you can get a table, but we've recently been, so our adventure continues…

*Time lapsed*

It ended up that we didn't actually have 6 people dinning, only 3 and hence managed to get a bar table at Movida Aqui. But as it turned out, we asked nicely to be seated at a proper table and they let us. A win for us. Here are some photos of the food we had.

In no particular order, here are some places to try out on a Friday if you ever get stuck (apologies in advance for those who don’t get a table at these places in the future, I would strongly advise giving them a call before you head there):

• Movida Aqui - Lvl 1, 500 Bourke St, NAB building, (via Lt Bourke St), Melbourne
• ShanDong Mama - this was a hidden gem, now there is slowly a crowd of regulars (like me) - Mid City Arcade, Shop 7, 200 Bourke St , Melbourne
• Sezar - newest Armenian restaurant in town - 6 Melbourne place , Melbourne
• Burma Lane - from Red Spice Road to Burma Lane, get it while its still not that hot - 118 Little Collins St, Melbourne
• Chick-In - another hidden gem and maybe the reason why you should be able to get a table! - G23/620 Collins Street (Laneway off Collins & Francis St), Melbourne
• Gami - there is a quieter store, find it
• Yak Bar - always my fav - 150 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
• Merrywell (downstairs) - Crown Towers/Clarendon St (Spencer Street end), Southbank
• Ramen Ya - the new-ish Bourke street store - Shop 9 The Paramount, 108 Bourke St, Melbourne
• Kokoro Ramen - 157 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
• Gazi - 2 Exhibition St, Melbourne - strongly recommend you give them a call

- jkl

MoVida Bar de Tapas

Being on leave when everyone else is back at work has its benefits. It means I'm actually available for an early dinner. Which makes walk-in restaurants an actual possibility. 

 

So a random Friday craving for Spanish food brings H and I to MoVida where we are lucky enough to secure two seats at the bar. Finally!

Barossa apple cider

Drink in hand, we tackle the menu. A couple of dished jump off the page. The smoked mackerel from the tapa side, and the quail from the list of raciones. For inspiration, we ask our waiter for recommendations and he kindly runs us through the signature dishes and the specials.

bread

As we're trying to decide on our dishes, our waiter places what we assumed to be complimentary bread on our table. What we find out upon getting the bill is that the bread comes at an opt-out $1 charge. The $1 goes to a good cause (Bread for Change) so we're happy to leave it be, but it would have been nicer to know upfront. 

anchoa - hand-filleted Cantabrian Artisan Anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet

One of MoVida's signature dishes, and it certainly lives up to it. The 'crouton' is more like a lavosh cracker - thin and crispy, but robust enough to hold the anchovy and the delightful smoked tomato sorbet. Icy and refreshing with a subtle sweetness and acidity to counteract the saltiness of the anchovy.

croqueta - chorizo and egg croquettes

One of the specials on the tapas menu for the night is the chorizo and egg croquette. This is different to the morcilla one on the standard menu. The outer casing is crunchy as a croquette should be, the filling is soft and gooey, resembling a thick bechamel. There's a hint of smokey chorizo but it was difficult to identify any actual chorizo pieces.

caballa ahumado - house cold smoked Spanish mackerel with pine nut gazpacho sorbet 

Our dish of the night. The little stone dishes are placed in front of us with their lids on but you can see wisps of smoke coming from the inside. Lift the lids, and what I think is trapped liquid nitrogen escapes in a plume of smoke. I'm loving the theatre that accentuates the fact that the mackerel is smoked. Excitement aside, the mackerel is beautifully smoked, with delicate flavours and the fish itself has a cured/sashimi texture. The pine nuts and the sorbet just really lift the dish up on so many levels.

Onto the raciones...

cordoniz con kikos - pan seared quail breast w/ quail sausage, jamon and toasted corn

The first of our larger dishes is the quail..The breast is perfectly cooked with a nice pink colour. I find the sausage a little odd and a little dry, not what I had expected at all. The dish is topped with a lonely slice of jamon and sprinkled with toasted corn (also not what I had expected). The corn is literally toasted corn - crunchy dried corn kernels - which is a bit of a disappointment as I had hoped for more of a grilled corn effect.

 

cecina - air-dried Wagyu with poached organic egg and truffle foam

Another signature dish and another hit for us. Thin slices of wagyu cover the plate in a circular fashion. On top is a perfectly poached egg sitting atop a bed of truffle foam. The waiter then breaks the egg and very swiftly cuts up the egg into the foam, mixing up all the eggy gooeyness with the rich white foam. He then methodically wraps the slices of waygy up and around the gooey centre. The salty dried meat works in perfect harmony with the rich truffle foam and runny egg yolk. A very clever (and rich) dish.

The waiters are patient and friendly and eager to engage with the customers and it's not hard to see why MoVida is ranked as one of Melbourne's best. For us, it was a nice dining experience, but in terms of menu choices, I think I have a preference for the sister restaurant, MoVida Aqui.

Overall Impression: 8.5/10