Baked goods @ Prospect Espresso

I stopped in for a quick coffee and a snack at Prospect Espresso while with a friend in Camberwell. I've been before and was generally impressed with their coffee so I was looking forward to my return.

I must say my long black was a bit disappointing. It had almost no crema (hence no photo) and the flavour was a bit sour and unpleasant.

The dark chocolate and orange muffin that I coupled it with was however more than enough to compensate. It was crisp on top and beautifully moist inside. I really enjoyed myself.

My friend's lemon and lime cupcake was also apparently quite delicious, and her long mac was apparently up to par.

I'd go back, but I might be a little less confident that I'll be satisfied with the coffee side of things.

Quick Review: Dessert and Coffee @ Meatballs & Sons‏

Many places have now hopped on the Meatballs bandwagon, and I feel we may be nearing the end of the trend, so it was with some trepidation that I went to Meatballs & Sons on Brunswick Street. However it was late and I needed a coffee to help decompress after a late flight.

Intending to only get a take away cup with a friend the grim weather outside persuaded us to stay in for it and also to get some dessert. In hindsight I'm really glad we did. I had a fresh baked chocolate brownie with blueberry sauce and chantilly cream.

It was wonderful, the bittersweet chocolate of the brownie was perfectly offset by the tart blueberries and the rich sweetness of the flavoured cream. My coffee was also excellent. As you'll know about me by now I am all about good crema and my cup at Meatballs had it in spades. So on the whole, recommended. I can't speak to their dinner but if it is anything like the dessert you will leave happy.

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.

Coffee and Dessert @ DOC Espresso, Lygon Street

Lygon Street is basically a theme park. It thrives off the fact that large numbers of people perceive it to be an accurate simulacrum of some dining district in Rome and that somehow, because of that, it is a classy place to go. So they dress up in their Armarni Exchange jeans, put on their best fake Gucci glasses and arrive to have overpriced rubbish at Brunetti, listen to idiots rev out their mid-90's Ferraris and bask in their own 'culture'. I was as guilty of this as anyone until R pointed out to me that the whole place was more Eastern European sleaze than it was high renaissance glory, and that the pushy touts out the front of every restaurant are about as authentically Italian as a McCafe Cappuccino. I have now repented.

However, there is a glimmer of the real Italy in the Lygon wasteland - DOC.

Both of the DOC outlets, the Pizzeria and Mozzarella bar and DOC espresso make excellent food with great Italian service.

I went with my friend J to Doc Espresso for a late night coffee and sweet treat. We were not disappointed.

I had a long black with a Nutella Pannacotta and J had a latte with a Goats Cheese Tiramisu.

My coffee was excellent, from the roast to the expression to the funky little cup and saucer set up. I really enjoyed it and it was the perfect nightime pick-me-up. J really liked his latte and the pattern in the foam had all the continental flair you might expect.

My Pannacotta was smooth and richly flavoured. You could taste the rich choc-hazelnut of the Nutella as well as the quality of the other ingredients. The crunch of toasted pine nuts sprinkled on top was also a nice touch.

J's Tiramisu was interesting and I am keen to try a full one. The single mouthful I had was rich and tangy, with a deep choc-coffee flavour permeating the delicate sponge at its heart. I'm not sure that I'd go for making a Tiramisu with Goat's Cheese myself, but it was an interesting deviation from the norm.

If you find yourself, by some strange misfortune, on Lygon Street in the near future, do yourself a favour and head to one of the DOCs, you won't be disappointed.

Coffee @ Snow Pony, Balwyn

I have wanted to try the coffee at Snow Pony for quite some time. It gets quite high praise for its hot drinks and pastries so I thought I would stop by for a quick morning coffee.

So, it was OK I guess, not amazing.

First, the coffee. There isn't a photo because it wasn't worth it - there was no crema and so it just looked like a black puddle. Crema is one of my favourite parts of the coffee experience, and a long black without any suggests that the crew manning the coffee machine was just too overworked. Not to mention it took ages to arrive, although I guess the place was pretty full.The flavour was up there though, so I would definitely like to check it out again sometime.

Or at least I would have, but for the pastry. So, I get that in cafe math, a pastry is automatically $4.50+. That's fine. It should cost more than my coffee. However, when it is the size of a postage stamp and tastes like... nothing, that's just criminal.

Anyway, if I happen to be passing by I might stop for another coffee. Otherwise, no dice.

Hugo's @ Kingsway, Glen Waverley

Let’s hear it for the little guy! Hugo’s Sweet and Dessert Bar on King’s Way in Glen Waverley was a breath of fresh air after the disappointingly lowest-common-denominator turn the food there has taken in the last few months.

I went for coffee and cake with a friend and we both had a great time. The service was super friendly right from the moment we got through the door. The coffee arrived quickly and was truly excellent. My long black was well expressed and richly flavored, making it possibly the only long black that I have properly enjoyed on King’s Way in about 3 years. My companion said her Latte was also similarly nice.

I ordered the flour-less Chocolate and Walnut cake and was really impressed. It was super rich – full of Belgian couverture chocolate apparently – and had a delicate brandy flavor running through it thanks to a splash of good Cognac. The walnuts cut through the richness very nicely and I was happy from start to finish. The serving size was perfect for a between-meals treat and for the price I don’t think there is better value dessert on the King’s Way strip.

The walnut cookie my friend sampled also tasted amazing. The small bite I had contained a burst of super fresh, super short pastry and a rich walnut filling that made me wish I had room for one myself.

I would highly recommend you making a trip to Hugo’s. It’s as good (if not better) than somewhere like Burch & Purchess – without the pretensions to being a haute patisserie or the pain in the hip pocket. I have a feeling it will be quite hard to get into once the word of mouth starts to spread.

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.

Double Thai boat noodle dinner and N2 in the CBD

Me Dee
I've become a relatively recent convert to boat noodles, after discovering it at Jinda Thai. I've yet to have one as good as Jinda's but have been on an ongoing quest to find one. The latest one I was itching to try was at Me Dee in the food court of the Paramount Centre. This outlet is an extension of the Me Dee restaurant in Springvale, which I'm yet to try.

I had a small beef boat noodle and as usual asked for no beef balls. We also got a Thai iced tea each, M the milk and I the lemon version ($3.50 each). These were alright but definitely not the best I've had. The boat noodles themselves were also not super impressive. While it was pretty tasty, I found the broth lacked the punch and extra dimension of flavour I've come to expect from boat noodles. It is however pretty good for food court food.

Rim Thang
Afterwards I still had a bit of a hankering for boat noodles so we headed out to Rim Thang on Elizabeth St, the sister restaurant to Thai Culinary. We've passed Rim Thang a number of times but before tonight had never actually pulled the trigger and gone in.

As previously discussed the boat noodles at TC aren't as good as they used to be. However, the version here are Rim Thang are like the TC boat noodles of old: a generous serving, nice quality meat and plenty of basil. You also get to choose your noodles here. I chose the egg noodles after being advised the fresh rice noodles were sold out. The broth was lovely and fragrant and with a few chilli flakes, it definitely makes for a delicious bowl of noodles. Also at $8.50, it's definitely excellent value. We'll definitely switch from TC to Rim Thang from now on; the decor, the service and the food seem to all be better.

N2 (CBD)
As if double boat noodles weren't enough gluttony for one evening, afterwards we headed out to the newly opened N2 in the city for some nitrogen ice cream. We've been to their original outlet in Fitzroy a few times and have found it inconsistent. Some of the flavours are delicious: creamy and not too sweet whereas others are more like standard Australian gelato (ridiculously sweet). Their latest menu seems to take their name from tennis players' names and we chose the Red Venus (velvet) Cheesecake to share. It was a great choice because this flavour fell squarely in the 'delicious' category. We both enjoyed every mouthful as the ice cream was tangy, well-balanced, creamy and not too sweet.

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.

Photo of the week: three flavours of gelato @ Il Dolce Freddo, Melbourne

On this occasion I got the vanilla, salted caramel and pandan coconut flavours. The pandan coconut was by far my favourite. The other two, particularly the caramel was sickly sweet and just not particularly nicely flavoured; I didn't finish those. The pandan coconut in contrast was really nicely flavoured; I'm a sucker for anything pandan coconut and this hit the spot. Still, the age-old problem I have with gelato persisted with this one: it was still far too sweet and not creamy enough for my liking.

Quick reviews: Flemington Kebab House, Coconut House, Rice Workshop, Somethin' Fishy & Cafe de Beaumarchais

Flemington Kebab House, Flemington
I had been meaning to try out this place since forever but never quite pulled the trigger until New Year's Day. We ended up coming here since a lot of other restaurants were closed on the day and M had lately been saying that he felt like something vaguely Middle Eastern.

We ended up just each getting a kebab (he the lamb/doner and I the chicken) with some chips. These chips were delicious, fresh and crunchy and doused with a tonne of chicken salt they tasted amazing...mmm...MSG. The kebabs were also delish and HUMONGOUS. I tried some of M's lamb and this lamb hater actually liked it! The lamb was flavoursome but not too musky. I was still happy with my chicken choice however and the generous garlic and chilli sauce made everything flavoursome to the max. The bread was also noteworthy, a great spongy but chewy turkish loaf cut in half and filled rendering more like a traditional sandwich than the rolled up shape we normally associate with kebabs.

Coconut House, CBD
I've been going to Coconut House for a while, partly due to the fact I used live very close by. I wouldn't exactly call it a favourite but it's definitely a top choice when I feel like something and cheap.

Their laksas are very good, and I personally really enjoy their meat and rice meals (e.g. BBQ pork/chicken with rice) although lots of people find their rice too garlicky. That said, I am a garlic fiend so I probably can't be trusted to be impartial when it comes to this. On this occasion, I had the pok mee, something I'd had before and enjoyed. It definitely hit the spot, especially with the mountains of chilli I put on it. They were also obliging in giving me extra chilli in the form of their garlic chilli sauce which normally accompanies their Hainan chicken meals. The BBQ was nice and lean, just how I like it. The minced pork was a bit problematic for me; although it was flavoursome, it was too fatty and grisly for my tastes.

Rice Workshop, CBD
Even after the monstrous kebab I had earlier the day I still felt I wanted something for dinner so we went for a quick one at Rice Workshop and shared a beef curry don. Rice Workshop is in a similar vein to Hainaichi in QV—very cheap quick Japanese meals served in paper bowls—but in my opinion does it better. This beef curry don was very tasty and I love that they have a little condiment station, including free Japanese pickles. I'll definitely be back to try more of their dons and their udon bowls.

 


Somethin' Fishy, CBD
We weren't entirely sure we were making a good decision to choose this newly opened joint when we felt like some Fish and Chips one evening due to the emptiness and the mixed urbanspoon reviews. However, as soon as we opened out cute brown cardboard packs I knew we'd made a good choice. We'd each gone for a something fishy pack ($10 with a free water/drink) and it was a perfectly generous portion for a hungry person. The fish was fresh and nicely crisp but the real stars of the show were the diamond cut chips, very similar to those served at Schnitz. Best of all there was a very well stocked condiment station at the restaurant, including Sriracha!!

 

Cafe de Beaumarchais, Sassafras
This was the only one of these five eateries that I didn't like. We chose it because it was the most promising looking place for lunch in Sassafras up on Mt Dandenong, where we headed one afternoon to visit a friend. First impressions were pretty positive, a cute little vaguely French-themed cafe in a nice location.

I ordered the breakfast tart while M went for a sandwich and our friend a quiche. M's sandwich was mediocre, I was very unimpressed with the quality of the baguette used—the sort of dry 'French Stick' you used to get at supermarkets back in the day. My breakfast tart was very average, a small slice of tart (which in itself was pretty bland and uninteresting) accompanied by a mountain of exciting and underdressed salad and some nice relish (out of a jar, as our waitress confessed). To take away, M also got a choc hazelnut cheesecake. As soon as he tried it he regretted his decision. It was sickly sweet and just not at all a quality cheesecake, especially for the price of $9. That was definitely a big complaint we shared about this place, that it was overpriced for what it was—very pedestrian food. Our biggest complaint, however, was reserved for the service. The place seemed to be staffed primarily by teenage girls, which of course, is not at all a problem in and of itself. It is however a problem when they seem completely disinterested in providing decent service and spend their time on the phone on a personal call while they are supposed to bagging up the $9 slice of very mediocre cheesecake you just ordered and paid for. Instead of getting off the phone, she struggled (unsuccessfully) to bag the cake with one hand, at which point we just indicated to her not to bother and that we'd just take it home sans bag.