Address: | Melbourne, |
Phone No: | 03 |
Web Site: | |
Description: | |
Comment: | General recommendations on Melbourne restaurants from contributors to the "Hobart Food For Thought" Blogsite. |
Rita Rating: |
Click links below (added on date shown) to read more . . .
Rita's Blog Comments(added 28-3-2008)
melbourne gastronome (Blog site)(added 15-6-2008)
1 comments:
Hi Rita,
Just thought I’d fill you in our trip to Melbourne. I tried to do it yesterday but my computer went stupid and
after spending ages on an email to you, I lost the lot.
So this time you’ll just be getting the short version if I can keep it that way. Your probably lucky you didn’t
get yesterday’s email.
So I’ll leave out all the boring bits and just fill you in on our food experiences.
I’ll have to thank every one who helped with all their tips on places to go.
We had an absolute ball, but if we’d eaten at every place I wanted to visit we would have had to stay for a month.
Anyway, a light lunch was had on Wednesday at The Portland Hotel. This was a hot tip from my folks,
but as we’d booked into Gingerboy for dinner at 6 I’m afraid all we could manage was a trio of dips. Lots of people
enjoying their great looking counter meals though.
Phil was more than happy with just sitting and trying all the varieties of James Squires beer he could manage
after taking a month off from beer drinking.
So we headed off to Gingerboy for dinner. Located in Cressley St. Just off Exhibition St.
Gingerboy
This place is so beautiful. The decor is gorgeous, soft lighting, funky interior. The plastic chairs worried me
a little. So much in fact I made Phil sit on them and I sat on the comfy booth side of the table. Thanks must go
to Sticky and The purple Goddess for this tip they left on Taste.com. I found it by checking out their
website.
Have a look if you get a chance. It’s fantastic.
So after being seated by the wonderful Nick, we ordered a lovely bottle of Mornington Peninsula pinot.
All was great but I was a little perturbed when after pouring our drinks he removed the bottle to the service area.
On his return to refill our glasses I think I know why. I’d say they have a temperature controlled area for the wine,
as every refill was just the right drinking temp. Maybe I’m just a ’Palestine’, because this happened again on
Friday night. I was used to it by then. Anyway food!!!!
This was our wonderful entree that we shared.
Gingerboy entree
As you can tell by the photo, we got a case of the Rita’s and actually started before we remembered to take a
photo. The dish closest was Steamed Prawn and Ginger Dumplings with peanut and chilli soy, $13. The dish furthest was
Steamed Pork and Garlic Chive Dumplings with coriander relish, $12. This relish was beautiful but quite hot.
Luckily Phil and I were up for it though. The dish we couldn’t wait for was our favourite. Oxtail Potsticker
Dumplings with Chinese black vinegar, $13.50. These were really divine.
Our mains were shared dishes as is the custom in this restaurant. At Nick’s suggestion we also had a side of
Fried Corn Cakes to mop up the juices.
This is our Penang Chicken Curry with turmeric, mint and garlic yoghurt,$29.50.
Penang Chicken Curry
This is one of the best dishes I’ve EVER had in life. So many flavours and they all matched perfectly.
The next day I still wanted to have this dish again.
Our next dish was Deep Fried Snapper with hot and sour salad and yellow bean dressing, $32.50.
Deep Fried Snapper
Absolutely delicious. You can see Phil’s hand waiting in anticipation for me to hurry and take the photo so he
could jump in and start.
I hope the photos are doing these dishes justice.
This place is a real treasure and we will definitely return. The service was excellent by the way.
Everything about Gingerboy was such an experience.
Thursday we spent just wandering around Melbourne and Phil shopped and shopped. I had to drag him from the shops
at 4pm as we’d been out since 9am and I’d had more than enough. We did enjoy Southbank for Brekky though. The
wonderful Wall Street Breakfast of Pancakes, Eggs, Bacon and maple syrup. Lunch was in Chinatown. Some wonderful
little place where their sticky pork and barbecue duck with steamed vegies and rice was sublime. Dinner was had at
the casino and even though we were tempted by Steakout, where Phil thought he could do some real damage to the 1kg
Pork Ribs on the menu, we decided against it and just had a really good, real lamb doner kebab from the food hall.
Friday we got up early and caught the tram to St. Kilda. We skipped brekky and found ourselves outside a place
called Greasey Joes right on lunch time, and just as it started to rain. Feeling a little worse for wear after a
night ending at 3am, I was dying for some vegies, so my choice was chicken in bbq sauce with mash and steamed vegies.
Phil loved his Fish and Chips. This is a great little place with a relaxed atmosphere and good music. Lucky we liked
it as we were stuck there for 2 hours while it rained, hailed and blew.
After walking the streets of St. Kilda all day with a quick stop at the cake shops, We finally arrived at our
destination of Sapore. A restaurant I found while entering a competition. Again the
website sold me. There was a reason for this as I was to find out later.
Another beautiful restaurant. We were welcomed by Dave, the owner. After being seated and choosing another
lovely bottle of red {which they again proceeded to remove from the table, to some secret place where it is turned
into perfection}, we nibbled on warm ciabatta and the most wonderful olives I’ve ever tasted.
Phil chose Salted Cod Croquettes with housemade tartare, $10.50 for his starter and I chose Duck Liver Parfait
with red onion confit and grilled ciabatta, $14.50 Phil declared his lovely. Mine was also lovely, but with such
strong flavours and quite a large serving for a starter I couldn’t finish it.
Because of our wonderful Oxtail experience the previous evening we wouldn’t share our entrees and chose
the same. Oxtail Ravioli with Pinot Noir and ham hock served with sage butter and toasted pinenuts with parmesan, $17.
This was absolutely delicious. For our mains Phil chose the Sapore signature dish of Linguine with prawns, calamari,
mussels, clams, fish, scallops, local olives, chilli and parsley, $27. I tried this and declared it superb.
A perfect balance of wonderful fresh flavours.
Sapore Signature Dish
Sorry about the harsh lighting.
As you know Rita I’m a bit of a duck fan, so my dish of choice was Duck, confit of Maryland and roasted
breast, with foie gras tortellini, mustard fruits, butternut puree, blackberry and walnut vinaigrette, $34.
Duck
This was really gorgeous. A wonderful dish.
This lovely place is a standout restaurant. Our waitress Anna was perfection personified, just like Nick from
Gingerboy. Needless to say that after these feasts Rita, no dessert could be had.
I didn’t like to just take photos at Sapore so I did ask permission first, explaining that I wanted to show a
friend who has a blog site. Luisa, Dave’s partner was so interested in all this. She happily gave permission and
then proceeded to find out all about your site and the gobblers. When I mentioned the great website and
Gingerboy’s she mentioned that the same company did both so I’d say they are very good at what they do. It got us
there all the way from little old Hobart.
Just have to mention, that on the way to Gingerboy, we stumbled across Fifteen.
Phil couldn’t resist a photo opportunity.
Our Phil at Fifteen
All in all we had a wonderful time. Lots of little places were visited but these were the main places we enjoyed.
Christina
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