Dinner @ Co Do, Victoria St Richmond, Melbourne

After having a few not so successful ventures to Footscray eateries, we're now firmly committed to sticking with Victoria Street in Richmond for our Vietnamese fix. This commitment took us to the highly regarded Co Do. I met my friend B here, while M also tagged along for the conversation after already having dinner earlier.

I had heard good things about their pho, so was very keen to try it. I got a small bowl ($9.50?) since we were also sharing a banh xeo. The pho was pretty nice; I loved that it came with plenty of onions, coriander and pepper. The broth was probably more aromatic than usual but still not as much as I like. Additionally, the beef was probably also not as thin and tender than the ideal. However, it was still a very tasty bowl of pho and due to my hunger at the late dinner, I wolfed it down.

B got the spicy lemongrass beef stirfry with rice, which he said was very tasty and had some nice heat. He ended up taking half of it home, though, because we wanted to save our stomach for the centrepiece of the meal.

It's always a bit of a spectacle when a good banh xeo arrives at the table, partially due its enormous size, the bright yellow colour (due to turmeric) and the aroma imparted by the coconut milk in the batter. I had actually never finished a banh xeo before this, even when sharing, but on this occasion we polished it off in about five minutes flat. Again, part of it was the hunger for me but it was also a very nice banh xeo. There was a very strong and aromatic coconut flavour in the batter of the pancake and it was cooked to a very nice degree crispiness. The mountain of a variety of herbs we got with the dish was also a big plus.

#throwbackthursday roundup of a few quick photoless reviews (part II)

Melbourne

Seddon Deadly Sins
I was excited to try a brunch place that was located somewhere other than the city, inner North, South or East. Having rarely ventured into the west side of the city, it made for a nice change of scenery. The place itself was very charming, with a very cute little courtyard out the back where customers could dine alfresco. The menu also read nicely and the prices were reasonably, noticeably less expensive than many brunch places not in the west. I went for the chicken parma, which I rarely if ever order. This one was nice, a very generous serving with nicely crispy crumbed chicken and an abundance of ham, tomato sauce and cheese. However, as I cut towards the middle of the chicken, it was clear that it was fully cooked as it oozed blood and still had that undercooked chicken texture which is very distinctive.While I rarely send food back, on this occasion I made an exception since it was you know, raw chicken. What happened next convinced me never to return to this place. After a few minutes the dish was returned to me with the embarrassed looking waitress saying that the chef had taken a look and that it was in fact cooked. So if you're willing to go to a place with arrogant chefs willing to put their put their patrons' health at risk, try Seddon Deadly Sins.



Westlake
For some reason, I've found that the yum cha in Melbourne is not as good, and not as cheap, as those in Perth. For a city with such great food and a high population of Chinese immigrants, I've always found this odd. Westlake in Chinatown is no exception to the below-par yum cha experiences in Melbourne. The food was average and the prices were OK, but still more expensive than what you'd pay for the same stuff in Perth. The service, however, is terrible. The three of us were chatting at our table after finishing our food when the wait staff literally came up to us and told us to leave because other people were waiting. Still the rudest experience I've had in a restaurant.



Binh Minh
Of all the ridiculously busy and popular Vietnamese places along Victoria St, Binh Minh is definitely amongst the busiest and most popular. I can only put its popularity down to its prime location at the beginning of the street, because, hell, it can't be due to the food or service. On the night we went there was a ridiculously loud and raucous children's birthday party happening which while it made the experience unpleasant, wasn't exactly the fault of the restaurant. The setting, however, was bad enough on its own. The upstairs area where we were seated looked semi abandoned and like it hadn't been refurbished in yonks. This would have been forgiven if the food was any good but it was very mediocre. The pho that I ordered was bland, not to mention a small portion and more expensive than what you'd pay at many other places along Vic St. The service was also pretty non-existant. There are definitely much better places along Victoria Street.



Chimac
West Melbourne is positively a mini mecca for Korean food in the city and Chimac is no exception. Tucked away on Peel St near the Queen Vic Markets, you've probably passed it a number of times. Do yourself a favour though and walk in for a bite when you're next in the area. Walking in, the place is definitely hip and well thought out. Upon sitting, you get some complimentary fried spaghetti to nosh on while you wait for your food. The KFC served here is DELICIOUS and very flavoursome. The bulgogi we had here was also very tasty. The only slight complaint is that I don't think they offer unlimited banchan.



La Cantina
Staying with the Queen Vic Markets theme, inside the markets themselves you'll find a surprisingly good Mexican/Latin American eatery. La Cantina is only open on the days the market is open, so not on Mondays and Wednesdays and I believe only for lunch. We've been here a couple of times and enjoyed it. On the most recent visit, I went for a very tasty chicken borrito, having not been a fan of their beef (which I found too chewy). This burrito was nicely sized and the addition of the spicy sauce you can help yourself to really gave it that extra oomph. Prizes are also reasonable and the staff are friendly.



Canberra

Saigon Fresh
While banh mi is a common sight in the likes of Melbourne and Sydney, this is certainly not the case for Canberra. Unfortunately you have to the places like Gungahlin and Mawson to get a decent one. When work sent me to Gungahlin for the day, I took the opportunity to try Saigon Fresh. The little shop is sort of hidden away in one of the Gungahlin malls but it was worth the little search. The rolls are fresh and tasty and it was actually the first I had a cold pork roll, as I normally go for the grilled meats. It was surprisingly tasty though and at $6(?) it was good value for Canberra. Yes, yes, we all know you pay $4 for them in Melbourne but $6 for a nice sandwich is still good value, no? If you're a banh mi purist you might take issue with the fact they use red onion instead of spring onion, but I didn't mind, it still made for one might tasty sanga.



Pho Phu Quoc
I've said before that Vietnamese cuisine is actually pretty decent in Canberra and Pho Phu Quoc is no exception. I had first came here when I came up for the weekend to inspect apartments before my move over. You know, the good old days, before I actually had to live here. Anyway, I've seen been back here a few times as their they do a nice bowl of pho, nice chewy noodles and a very aromatic broth. Be warned though, it is a pretty small serving and I dislike the fact that it's served in a shallow bowl, which to me takes away from the experience of eating a bowl of pho.  I also always ask for less beef and extra noodles, because I'm weird like that. Service here is very variable. They were nice when I came here with colleagues but can often be rude and inattentive. You usually have to ask 3+ times for some water.



Griffith Vietnamese
M recently had a conversation where the gist of it was that when something is described as a *insert city here*  institution, it usually means the place isn't very good. However, I'm glad to say that this isn't true for Griffith Vietnamese. The place is partly famous for all the messages left on the wall by politicians. My personal favourite is the one from the Member for Isaacs, Mark Dreyfus, because he made the effort to write a bit in Vietnamese. The couple of times I've been here has been with a group and inevitably, as is the done thing here, we ask the kitchen to simply give us a few dishes and some rice to share. These tend to be Chinese-Vietnamese style stir fries which are mostly very tasty. Personally, though, I prefer more Vietnamese-Vietnamese fare. I've always found it odd that they don't serve pho. Do try the caramel pork, though, it's delicious.



Iori Plus
Came here for a celebration lunch with my team. I was in charge of booking and organising for the large group (25+) and the staff were very accommodating with my requests and all the back and forth. Service was very good, as is pretty typical of (Japanese run) Japanese restaurants. Most of us got the banquet, which although normally $60, was being promoted for half price. It was definitely worth the money in terms of quantity. Believe me, I eat a lot of food, and there was plenty of it on offer. The quality, though, was a bit lacking. The sashimi wasn't super fresh and the quality of the beef used for the tataki left a bit to be desired. However, I really enjoyed the grilled squid and the agadashi tofu. 



Parlour Wine Room
Came here for a lunch with my colleagues after one of us had seen the place recommended on another blog, especially recommending the pork pappardelle dish and their lunch set menu (I wanna say $16 for a dish plus a drink). The people who chose the pappardelle dish seemed to enjoy it but I went for something else, a dish of fried eggs with pepper and jamon. It wasn't the best choice. The eggs were nicely cooked but they were just eggs. The peppers weren't weren't as smokey sweet as I would've liked and I could barely find the jamon. As sorry as I felt for myself, I felt more pain for my colleague who chose the 'cassoulet'. I use the term very loosely because what arrived at the table was nothing resembling a proper cassoulet. The dish looked literally like a couple of sausages (I think they used chorizo which of course is not traditional) with a few beans swimming in a bright red sauce. Definitely no sign of the confit duck, pork belly chunk or toulouse which I'd expect in a good cassoulet. 

 

Up 2 U
I had wanted to try this place for while as they are one of the very few places in Canberra that does one of my favourite things in the world: hotpot. When my friend asked whether I wanted to come along as she had bought half priced Living Social vouchers, my answer was a resounding yes. With the voucher, I think it was $15 for all you can eat hotpot (normally $30). This made for good value even though the range of ingredients wasn't super extensive. We each got our own little pot to ourselves, which was nice and the food was better than the last hotpot place I'd been where we got individual pots. We also got to choose from a range of soup flavours and I went for the mushroom while others went for interesting ones like laksa. The only slightly annoying thing is that while the vegetables are free for you to take at a buffet table, you have to ask for the seafood and meat. They were strict with how much they gave you, making sure you'd finished what you had at the table before they would give you more. While it was a bit inconvenient, I didn't mind too much as I hate food wastage.



Broddogs
We came here when the little red food truck was still located in the carpack of the Belconnen mall. It's sinced moved on (to Braddon?) but it's fact we're not entirely cut up about. Being fans of Brodburger, we were keen to try out Broddogs, owned by the same people. However, while Broddogs do some of the best burgers in Canberra, I was less enamoured with the hotdogs. The issue wasn't that it was tasty, it was tasty enough. However the dogs are a pretty small serving for their price (mostly over $10) and the sausages in particular are very thin and small. While is was decently nice for a hotdog, it definitely doesn't match up to other gourmet dogs out there.

Quick Dinner @ Red Silks, Melbourne

Red Silks is one of those restaurants which I had been wanting to try for literally years and which we've passed numerous times but never eaten at. You've probably been past it too, it's the big bar/restaurant in the same arcade as where Sushi Hotaru is located.

The place is definitely well planned out to maximise the sale of drinks and therefore maximise profit. The drinks appear at the front of the menu, followed by the more expensive food items. And you feel like the empty alcohol bottles which decorate the space are there to encourage you to empty some bottles of your own. However, M and I are generally to immune to such sales tactics and went for some one dish meals and some softies. I went for something I had been craving, hofun noodles with egg sauce. Red Silks' version comes with beef and was a generous serving and very tasty. They were also generous in giving me my requested chilli, in the form of both very fragrant chilli oil and fresh cut chillies. Mark's Thai green vegetable curry was also very flavoursome with a nice amount of basil through it. I was quite amused by the giant quenelle of rice that came with it.

As for drinks, I had an iced lychee drink which seemed to just be the syrup from a can plus a few lychees and some chilled water. M's wasn't super impressed with his teh tarik either. The service was decent but our waitress seemed a bit inexperienced and nervous but that's definitely not a deal breaker. The setting is also nice, sitting on a large balcony alfresco area over Bourke St. I'd be keen to come back to try their other dishes.

Photo of the week: sashimi platter @ Kokoro, Canberra

Our pick for the best Japanese in Canberra. Unfortunately, you have to drive out to Gungahlin for it but it'd be a great semi regular haunt if I lived in the area. I had an udon soup here which was nice, albeit a little oily for my liking. M had a tasty curry don which he though was nice but not amazing. Sashimi was fresh, which is a mean feat for Canberra. All in all, mediocre by Melbourne standards but excellent by Canberra ones.

Dinner with friends @ Nieuw Amsterdam, Lt Lonsdale St Melbourne

M and I had been to Nieuw Amsterdam before and had a nice experience. On that occasion, we had the pork trotter and ham nuggets which were delicious and a generous portion. The mains we got, the pork chops and jerk chicken, as well as the side of mash were all delicious and great value. Thus we were keen to go back and when it came to choosing a dinner venue to meet some friends at, we came back here.

However, on this occasion, our experience was significantly less positive. Firstly the minor issues we had with the service on our first visit were amplified this time around. I've found that in general the waitstaff here are pretty lackadaisical. They also have a habit of getting orders and table numbers wrong. On our first visit they gave us the wrong side but were kind enough to comp it. This time, they twice tried to give us a drink that belonged to another table and we noticed they were also getting drinks orders wrong at other tables. This is definitely something NA has to improve on, but it would have been forgiven if the food was amazing.

To share we got the pimento cheese fritters. At $14.50 for three (we added an extra one so that everyone at the table could have one), these were definitely not worth the price. I expected something pretty amazing but they turned out to be pretty bland and standard cheese type croquettes which definitely needed more spice and flavour. Definitely not as good as their pork trotter & ham nuggets.


We then each got a main. Our friend L got the cheeseburger which he declared to be quite nice. I know others have complained about its size and I must say the pattie definitely looked to be too small for the (already small) bun. L's partner C went for the baked eggplant which she seemed to pick at. She did say she didn't enjoy the sauce, which she described as 'odd'. M went for the beef brisket which he rather enjoyed, saying it was nicely flavoured and well cooked. When I tried it, the meat was lovely and soft but I wasn't as crazy about the flavour. I also thought the BBQ sauce that accompanied it tasted quite artificial. I did, however, love that it came with kimchi. I made a bad choice with mains, having chosen the grits fritters. Firstly, it was a very small portion for a main, especially one with little protein. I also just found the flavour uninspiring. I liked the liberal use of corn and baby corn for texture and sweetness but I thought the dish overall was too sweet and needed more salt and acid to balance.

For dessert, M and I had wanted the pumpkin pie but were told that it was sold out that day. Thus we reluctantly chose something else in the form of the berry split. It turned out to be serendipitous because the dessert was very yummy: a great balance of the acid of the berry with the creaminess and sweetness of the mousse. Both M and I really enjoyed this.

Quick brunch @ Three Bags Full, Melbourne

For brunch with a friend I headed to Three Bags Full in Abbotsford. I'd heard amazing things about their coffee (and that they did an interesting breakfast) so I wanted to check it out.

The coffee lived up to expectations, I ordered two long blacks (the house blend and a Colombian single origin). Both were excellent. Well roasted, well expressed, perfect crema and you could taste the freshness of the beans in both cups. My friend had a soy flat white which she was very pleased with.

For breakfast I had the "Eggs from Hell" (two poached eggs on fried polenta cakes doused in a spicy tomato and capsicum sauce with slices of hot chorizo and fior di latte). It was nice, but didn't quite match up to the quality of the coffee. The sauce was tasty and the chorizo really added something special. The eggs were also very fresh and nicely poached. However the polenta cake was soggy and flavourless. It could have (and should have) been a nice slice of sourdough or wholegrain. It really took the whole dish down. Also, where was the fior di latte? I guess it could have been in the sauce but I didn't notice any and I really missed what a little fresh milkiness would have done to cut through the fire of the sauce.

My friend had already eaten and settled on a pistachio tea cake. She said it was alright, but I've had the exact same cake at The Bond Store on Southbank (it must be commercially sourced) and I wasn't impressed.

All in all, go to Three Bags Full for the great coffee and expect a reasonable but not amazing breakfast to go with it.

 

Thailander, Lonsdale St and Dessert Story, Lt Bourke St Melbourne

Thailander is a fairly new and fairly hip Thai place in the CBD. There are two on them in the city, one on Little Collins and the one we went to, on Lonsdale.

Walking in the fit out was quite nice and well thought out, obviously targeted at a Melbourne audience. We were initially a bit confused as to whether we would be getting table service or whether we were to order at the counter as there was someone serving the counter with a 'order here' sign but also a couple of service staff buzzing around serving the tables. We got our answer when one of them came to take our order.

Our table of four went for a main each and a couple of things to share. To share we got some roti and chicken satay sticks. The satay sticks were pretty nice, decently charry and a nice satay sauce to accompany it. I liked that sticky rice came with the satay sticks but thought they were a bit undercooked and hard. The, however, roti was just plain disappointing. A good roti should be flaky and frankly quite oily whereas this one was doughy and not all flaky, more like an unleavened bread than a flaky pastry.

For mains, M and I chose the crispy pork belly with red curry paste and the pad thai in an egg blanket ($15 each). We love Thai style crispy pork belly which is first deep fried then stir fried in various ways. This dish was very tasty with the aromatic curry paste and the beans which were the perfect accompaniment with rice. However, the pad thai in the egg blanket was a lot more disappointing. The omelette was oily and uninteresting and the pad thai had similar faults: greasy, soggy and not at all charry. As usual with my Thai meals, I got also got a milk tea. Although this one was more generous in size than other Thai iced teas out there, I felt it had a little too much milk and needed a bit more of the fragrant Ceylon tea flavour that makes Thai iced teas so amazing.

Dessert Story
After dinner, we wanted to kick on so headed nearby to Chinatown to get some dessert. While one of us went for a dessert, the rest of us went for just some liquid and icy. M, being the coffee fiend that he is, went for an iced coffee. He described it as 'terrible', saying that it somehow tasted worse than instant and exceedingly unpleasant. There was also no cream or ice cream in sight. I went for a some winter melon bubble tea, a great favourite of mine. It tasted pretty good, but the problem with both mine and M's drinks were that they were barely iced. I went up to the counter to ask for some ice, got a pregnant pause and a few strange looks, after which they gave me half a seemingly dirty bowl of shaved ice. Not exactly what we were looking for and the fineness of the shaved ice did little to cool our drinks on that hot night.

#throwbackthursday roundup of a dozen quick photoless reviews (part I)

Melbourne

Grain Store
This is definitely one of the most hyped brunch places in Melbourne and we were very much looking forward to our visit there. After a very long wait to get in, a possibly an even longer wait for the food, what arrived at the table certainly wasn't all worth the drawn out anticipation. I had the polenta corn fritter dish and added bacon while M went for something sweet. I was very unhappy with my dish which was bland bland bland; not even the bacon was enough to lift the dish. M was also pretty disappointed with his choice and was uninspired by the coffee, which he described as 'average, not terrible but definitely not great'. Worst of all, we both got sick (an upset stomach) afterwards, which we suspect may have been due to brunch. 


Hardware Societé
M very highly rates the coffee here, which I guess is half the appeal of these brunch places for a lot of people. However, when I came here with a friend we had a terrible time of it. After the inevitable (for these hyped brunch places) we were hastily seated. I had a disappointing iced coffee and baked eggs which were bland and overcooked. My poor friend T got a duck confit, a favourite dish of ours, which proved to be very dry. Honestly, you know you're not doing very well when you manage to make duck cooked in its own fat dry.


Bowery to Williamsburg
According to M, the coffee here isn't amazing: very American, well expressed with a lot of crema but not the best roast for a black coffee, much more suited to a sweet latte or the like. However, this is definitely one of our favourite brunch and sandwich places in Melbourne. The sandwiches here (including the meatball sub and reuben) are always very tasty and very good value at $10. The options sides you get are also great, particularly the ridiculously tasty mac n cheese. M also loves the Shashoukas here, which are only available at breakfast time. We've been here on several occasions and the only thing that's been a bit disappointing was a hot smoked salmon in a pumpernickel bagel.


Chez Dré 
Like other hyped brunch places, the way here is long and you can't book but unlike some of these other places, the wait is worth it.Pretty well everyone in town knows that this place does some of the best cakes in Melbourne. You can't come here without at least checking out their gorgeous cabinet full of beautiful cakes and macarons.  The savoury food here is also very good; the reuben sandwich I had here was very tasty, albeit overpriced at $19. The mushroom with polenta we had here was also amazing.
 

Hammer & Tong
Another very popular lunch place in inner city Melbourne, and another one not worth the hype in our opinion. The pork belly dish we had here had pork belly which was very fatty and poorly rendered, soggy 'crackling, and the promised 'chilli jam' legit looked and tasted just like sweet chilli sauce. M wasn't crazy about the coffee; he said it had a nice crema but the roast itself was too bitter for a black coffee. I hated the drink I had; their housemade orange fizz which tasted like it was made with oranges which weren't very fresh. You know when you eat an orange and part of all of it is very dry and its taste has distinctly musty overtones? This tasted like that in liquid form.
 

Shanghai Dynasty
This is one of Dad's favourite places to go to when he's in town and I follow along so I can get my fill of snow crab. The snow crab they do here isn't as great as many of the Chinese restaurants in Perth, possibly because they are more familiar with the WA ingredient. However, it and the other seafood they make is still pretty tasty and fresh. Prices are also not as steep as one might expect given the over the top (in a good way), gilded decor. They also do a nice, and not too pricey, yum cha where you generally don't have to book.
 

Dainty Sichuan, Box Hill
We came here with a few friends for their famous hotpot, which the Good Food Guide had said good things about. I've long since learned that the Guide isn't necessarily the best authority out there for good food. One of the apparent  points of difference for Dainty Sichuan is that you get your own little hotpot instead sharing one with the table. While this was pretty convenient for a big table like ours, it's certainly not the only restaurant out there that does this. It's also one of the few places out there were you pay for your hotpot by ordering a la carte, whereas most hotpot is an all-you-can-eat deal. Hotpot is probably the only scenario/cuisine in which I prefer the latter, because it usually provides much better value. On this occasion even though we didn't order loads, it came to about $35 per person. This would have been fine if the meal was great, but we didn't enjoy it very much.

Something the Good Food Guide raved about were the homemade fish (and other seafood balls). I'm actually a big fan of the processed MSG-laden kind you buy frozen from the Asian grocery and the ones here didn't taste anyway near as good. That's not to say home made fish balls can't be good, I've had ones before (usually made with mackerel) which were very tasty. The problem with Dainty's is that they make theirs with what I strongly suspect to be Basa, a rubbery and awful fish which makes equally awful fish balls. They also almost certainly made their prawn balls with those shiteous frozen Vietnamese imported prawns. I'll stick to my cheap, all-you-can-eat hotpot, thanks.


Peko Peko, Fitzroy
Peko Peko in Fitzroy, not to be confused with the restaurant of the same name in South Melbourne, is one of those restaurants where we had two very contrasting visits. The first time we came here, we loved it. The dishes we had here the first time around, including the chicken makizushi and salmon don thing were very tasty. However, on our most recent visit we had a very different experience. The miso soup I ordered was frankly awful and the tuna maki we got was very stingy with the tuna and just not very good. The chicken karaage was also gristly, cloying and not very crispy. The teriyaki don we had was pretty tasty but not enough to save the evening. We also found the service here ambivalent at best and at times, abrupt.


Canberra

Smoque
A very popular location for  Canberrans; I know plenty of people at work who love this place. However, if you come, be prepared for dry and bland pulled pork, the same deal for the brisket, wings which were far too 'wet', flavourless and not at all charry or crispy. The corn bread was disgustingly dry. The chicken. however, was pretty tasty, juice and flavoursome. The service here is of about the same standard as the food. I suppose the banquets are pretty cheap if you want a lot of (not very good) meat.


Sanur's Balinese
Came here on the recommendation of a friend and because it's close by to my sprawling ducal estate. Ordered the bebek butuku which was described as roast duck on the menu but ended up being much more like a braised duck, definitely no crispy skin. However, the half a bird was very tender and pretty flavoursome, albeit not as amazing as we'd hoped given that it was a house specialty. We also had a pretty average beef rendang and some mee goreng which again was tasty enough but not charry enough and too wet for my liking. All in all pretty tasty and a good choice if you feel like Indonesian in Canberra, but we won't be rushing to go back.


Asian Noodle House, Dickson 
Had a very plain and greasy kway teow here, no wok hey. The laksa that M got was alright, very average especially in light of the fact their pride themselves on their laksas. The second (and hopefully last) time I came here I was dragged kicking and screaming here by friends; seriously, I was so reluctant to eat here it nearly started a fight. That time I had a chicken crispy fried noodle which was was predictably very mediocre and laden with large strips of ginger which rendered it rather unpleasant to eat. I live close to the Belconnen Asian Noodle House and needless to say, I've never bothered to eat there.


Ka Sushi Ramen
Came here once with Mum on a Sunday when many other restaurants in the vicinity were closed. Mum ordered the tonkatsu ramen which, from the morsel I tried, didn't agree with my palette at all and she definitely wasn't crazy about it herself. I ordered the small beef rice bowl which didn't taste at all how a good Gyudon should; it didn't seem to use the right ingredients, resulting in a flavour imbalance. The resulting flavour, while not completely horrible, did taste rather odd and overtly acidic, as opposed to the lovely sweet flavour a good Gyudon ought to possess.