Photo of the week: dessert @ The Girl with the Gris Gris, Melbourne

Chocolate and walnut bread and butter pudding with brandy cream sauce at The Girl with the Gris Gris.

Dinner at  Gris Gris wasn't the raging Cajun sensation I was hoping for, at least until dessert arrived. 

Rich (but not too sweet), dense (but not too dry), bursting with flavour and doused in the most amazing boozy sauce, the bread and butter pudding makes a trip to Market lane well worth the trek.

Sadly they don't do coffee to go with it, however a nice glass of good Bourbon would really suit the dish and TGWTGG has cool Bourbons aplenty.

Melbourne's best Reuben sandwich @ Mason Dixon, Collins St

So it took a very long time, but the Reuben at Bowery to Williamsburg is no longer the best in town. That honour now goes to the wonderful people at Mason Dixon on Collins Street. They are a new outfit that has already generated big lunchtime crowds, and with very good reason.

I had their signature dish, the MD Reuben (grass fed corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing, on toasted rye) and a slice of their house made key lime pie.

The MD Ruben was perfect. The ratios of corned beef, to kraut, to cheese to dressing were all amazing. My big criticism of the Bowery Reuben over time has been the sheer volume of filling (often compensating for the quality of the inputs) as well as the fattiness of the meat. At Mason Dixon, the ratios are right, and the flavours and textures from each element just sing through. Nothing overwhelms anything else and the burst of flavour from each bite was truly excellent. The corned beef was also amazing, perfectly lean and flavoursome. It also came with a great pickle, mini pretzels on the side. They also (thoughtfully) included a mint for post lunch breath freshening. I've *never* had that before!

I am not generally the biggest sandwich fan, but the MD ones are well worth eating. I really enjoyed the key lime pie too, it was tart and the pastry was super short. However, great as it was, all I really wanted to do after finishing the MD Reuben was eat another MD Reuben. 

Photo of the week: chicken and waffles @ Mr Big Stuff

I'd heard good things about Mr Big Stuff from friends and colleagues so I decided to duck in for a quick dinner on my way home from work with a friend. On a Tuesday night it was relatively easy to get a table for two, but the warm, funky ambiance still made the place seem lively.

I ordered the Fried Chicken on Waffles (a generous serving of delicious, cajun spiced, fried chicken, on beautiful light fluffy waffles with a pot of spiced maple syrup to go with it) and really enjoyed myself. The chicken was super crisp on the outside, juicy on the inside and had a really nice kick to it. The waffle was cloud like and wonderful, a perfect recreation of the 'American' style waffles that tend to be lighter and fluffier than the ones we get here. Of special note though was the spiced maple syrup - it was the real deal and delicious, a perfect accompaniment to the dish. These days, too many places give you 'maple flavored syrup' a cheaper alternative that ought to remain where it started, with your hotcakes at McDonald's. I get that genuine maple syrup is expensive, but if you don't want to spring for it, or on-charge it to your customers, leave it off the menu! Props to Mr Big Stuff for getting something so awesome so right.

I would be back for the place, however, it is a bit overpriced for what it is and no matter how delicious the Mr. Big Stuff fried chicken waffles are, I think Bowery to Williamsburg (review to come) does it better.

Toasted cheese and smoked cola @ Boombap, Melbourne

Boombap has become one of my new favourites for a sandwich on the run. Though it takes some finding, the hunt is well worth the reward.

I ordered a Grilled Cheese Sandwich (American Cheddar Cheese, Dijon Mustard and Jalapeños on the most amazing sourdough toast) and a bottle of StrangeLove Smoked Cola.

The sandwich was fantastic, perfectly toasted and crunchy on the outside with a wonderfully gooey (and spicy) cheese filling. A toasted cheese is one of those things that either hits the spot or fails painfully, and Boombap was right on target. Not to mention that it came with amazing sliced pickle on the side and a generous serving of crinkle cut chips. Amazingly satisfying.

Also satisfyingly delicious was the StrangeLove Smoked Cola. I hadn’t heard of the brand before, but Boombap is proud to be one of the first places carrying the product. I am sure glad they do, and will be back for bottles of the stuff in future. Imagine a wonderfully citrusy and herby cola (almost a cinnoto) that in an of itself is the perfect balance of sour and sweet. Then infuse that with a rich hickory smoke. It was a revelation, and you really need to try it.

Boombap, your food is great, your staff are lovely, your little shop is super funky. You have a new convert, and I will be back. 

Burgers @ Dandenong Pavilion

After having a bad experience at Grand Trailer Park Taverna with R, I was reluctant to visit its progenitor, Dandenong Pavilion. My apprehensions were also deepened by its distance from the Melbourne CBD, a 45 minute drive in medium traffic didn’t exactly have me in the best spirits on arrival. However, I was very impressed.

In this case, the great Urbanspoon score and positive reviews were well justified, this place is great! I ordered the ‘Frank Underwood’ (three types of beef in a medium rare patty, two kinds of American cheese, a mac cheese and mash croquet, lashings of mustard, ketchup and specials sauce, with chips doused in cooked pickled onions, diced pickles and cheese sauce) and my dining companion got the beef burger (extra large patty, American cheese, salad, deli pickle, onion, mustard on a brioche bun, with fresh fries and house made ketchup).

The Frank Underwood was a sensation, I have not been as impressed with a burger for a good long time. The patty was perfectly cooked (well spiced, medium rare on the inside, crisp caramelised crust on the outside), the cheese mix was great, the special sauce definitely special. The croquet was a little bland, it was crisp, cheesy and had a nice texture inside, it just needed salt and something to give it a kick, but it certainly didn’t ruin the burger. Neither did the bun, which although a brioche variant, was just the right amount of sweet to cut through the beef and cheese mountain that was the Frank Underwood.

The chips were also an excellent accompaniment. The onions had been cooked in vinegar and were just divine combined with the diced pickle and the cheese sauce. The potato itself was crunchy and beautifully golden, with a nice peppery kick.

My dining companion generally likes his food a little more bland/conservative than I do, however he described the beef burger as delicious and beautifully flavoured. I stole one of his chips which were just as nice, despite lacking the elaborate topping of mine.

Sadly I only found out at the end that there was a ‘secret’ burger menu with a wider range of special burger treats, make sure to request this upfront when you go, they all looked great!

-M

Photo of the week: pulled pork and sides @ Meatmother, Richmond

Came here with my buddy H around this time last year prior to watching my perennially underperforming fave lose against Tommy Robredo at a night match on Hisense last year. M and I have been here and their sister restaurant, Meatmaiden, a couple of times now and have always been pleased with the food.

On this occasion we went very early, as soon as they opened, so that we could make the match in good time. The restaurant was empty when we went in and pretty much stayed that way while we were there but I was still impressed that they were very accommodating when we requested the food to be brought out as soon as possible.

I had the pulled pork with two sides, the mash & gravy and BBQ beans. The mash was very tasty and smooth and the gravy had a lovely flavour through it. The beans were also nice but I had a major case of order envy when I tried H's mac n cheese which was delicious. I was very happy with my choice of pulled pork, however, which was flavoursome, well-cooked, and importantly MOIST with plenty of saucy, meaty juices. The meat was placed atop something which resembled and a pale brioche but later I found out that it was something called Texas toast, something I wasn't a huge fan of and didn't finish (partly due to the size of the rest of the dish)

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.

#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.

Le Grill @ Nevermind Bar and Cones Gelato

Le Grill is definitely our pick for some of the best burgers and American style food in Melbourne. Somewhat hidden away in a pub on Burwood Rd in Hawthorn, it's worth the extra effort to find and get to. While the downstairs part has very little seating, upstairs there's a nice alfresco area, albeit exposing you to some drunk 18 year olds.

We came here on a weekday evening with a couple of friends and each got a burger and a few sides to share. I got the Le Grill cheeseburger with bacon and M got the double version of mine. The burgers were very tasty—juicy and flavoursome. They were a good size but not super big, so left a bit of space for the delicious sides. I also loved that the burgers came with some sides complimentary, in this case some slaw and what seemed like house-made pickles.

We all got the following sides to share: the poutine, the waffle-cut fries, and the buffalo wings; all were delicious. The poutine we were really looking forward to because we love the stuff; how can you go wrong with chips, cheese curds and gravy? Here they made their own curds and I wish you got more on the poutine, but that's my only real complaint about the dish. It was delicious and moreish and the table polished it off in little time. The waffle fries were also surprisingly good. I wasn't sure what to expect what these were super crispy and very nicely seasoned. The wings were also surprisingly good, not wet and tasteless like at some other places but sticky and moreish. The sauce (I wanna say blue cheese?) that accompanied them was also surprisingly tasty.

We'll definitely be back and next time we'd like to try their pulled pork and their other stuff from the grill.

Cones
After dinner we went to nearby Glenferrie Rd and Cones to grab a nice cream partially due to the warm evening and partially due to the fact that the coffee shop we wanted to go to had no more alfresco seating and the interior was ridiculously warm and muggy. Due to having been burnt by milky gelatos before I chose the strawberry sorbet. This had a pretty nice flavour but inevitably I found it too sweet and cloying. The texture was also too soft and melted for my liking. M thought the same about his lemon flavoured gelato but had less trouble with the sweetness. Our companions seem to enjoy their cones, however.