Amici Trattoria

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

Amici Trattoria is a candlelit cozy restaurant serving Italian fare.  We went there for dinner on a Saturday night and it made for a great evening out - the staff were friendly, meal came quickly and food did not disappoint.

As an appetizer we ordered an antipasto plate to share and a few loaves of garlic bread.  The antipasto plate had an assortment of nibblies:  salami, olives, preserved veggies and pickles, a few solid wedges of parmesan and meatball.  The garlic bread, or rather rustic bread with garlic butter was a nice accompaniment to the antipasto.  Continue reading...

Malaysian Kitchen

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

I was introduced to Malaysian Kitchen by a friend who recommended it on the basis it cooked up consistent Hawker stall food at very reasonable prices.  On this occasion, I tried their special lunch menu which had several of their popular noodle and rice dishes to select from in addition to free drink for $12.50.

I was very happy with my choice of Chef Pan Mee.  I have never had this noodle dish before and was surprised by the thick cut noodles that came with it.  Continue reading...

Matteo's (Revisit)

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

To celebrate a milestone birthday recently, I made a booking at Matteo's for their Lazy Sunday Lunch.  Having been previously wowed at Matteo's , I knew it was a pretty safe bet to host my birthday lunch there.  It did not disappoint.  The service was attentive, the menu creative and even the kid's menu showed care and attention - in fact we begged scraps off Kiddo's meal, it looked so enticing.

The Lazy Lunch Menu is $79 per head, $109 per head with a glass of wine matched with each course.  As we were not big drinkers, we opted for the $79 option and ordered wines and drinks separately.  It was indeed a lazy lunch as we were very well fed and rolled on home for a nanna nap.

The entree consisted of four tastes to share:

Peking duck rillettes wrapped in a spring onion crepe

Panko crumbed goat's cheese

Scorched Mooloolaba cobia sashimi, shisho-ponzo dressing

Spicy veal, wombok and salted beef bresaola rolls

These little morsels looked so beautiful, particularly the Peking duck rillettes with the sliver of lotus roots on top.  The cobia sashimi was a stand out.  So light and delicate but smokey at the same time.

Course two, we had a choice of the following:

Spanner crab wonton ravioli, Asian coleslaw with bean shoots and choko, tom kha galangal sauce

Saikyo-yaki miso baked black cod fillet, broad beans, heirloom carrots, taramasalata

I had the baked cod which was juicily cooked and flavoursome.

Course three were meat mains and we had a choice of the two below.  I ordered the pork hock below.  It was melt in the mouth glory.  The surrounds were pretty yum too, eg the cabbage and cauliflower.

Roasted Golden Plains pork hock roulade, cider braised cabbage, macerated prunes, cauliflower, garlic cream, ginger wine glaze

Pan seared spatchcock chicken, grilled baby corn, pumpkin, sugar snap peas, Balinese yellow curry sauce

Desserts was a feast in itself as well.  We each had a tasting plate with three wee desserts.  For those of us on a low sugar lifestyle (me), Matteo's kindly accommodated by swapping the sweet desserts for a sumptuous cheese platter.  My cheese platter was quite the envy of the sugar fiends.  The Gods must have been smiling down on us as we were also very lucky to have an extra sticky date pudding thrown in!

Chocolate pudding, run and raising ice cream, passionfruit trifle with red velvet cake and pineapple

Cheese platter with all the trimmings - the walnut bread was delightfully warm!

It's my lucky day - on the house warm sticky date puddings

A cuppa to wash it all down with

The kid's menu was no less spectacular.  Kiddo chose the following from the Gen Dine menu.  As mentioned earlier, all the adults begged for a little taste of each.

Calamari

Steak with onion rings

Chocolate pudding and icecream

So there you go!  It was a feast in the literal sense of the word.  It was a very memorable birthday lunch for me and my guests.

The deets:

Matteo's
533 Brunswick St,
NTH FITZROY  VIC 3068
ph: 9481 1177

The Wharf Hotel

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

Spring has sprung! It's the perfect time of the year to enjoy the best of waterfront and al fresco dining Melbourne has to offer.  I was very fortunate to be invited by Clemence Harvey to dine at one of the World Trade Centre (WTC) Wharf's waterside restaurants as part of their launch of their new Spring Express Lunch menus.  Out of the participating restaurants (Man Mo, Kobe Jones, Byblos and Wharf Hotel), I opted for the express lunch at the Wharf Hotel as I have never been there before.  The express lunch menu are designed for the quickie weekday lunch but in a much nicer setting that your average office break out area.  And in my case, a much better tasting lunch than what I usually pack in my lunch box!

Wharf side view

The staff were very friendly and the food came promptly as promised.  I was in and out in less than an hour.  The Wharf Hotel offer a choice of five items on the express lunch menu which come with a drink.

The waitress advised that their pizzas are a popular item, so whilst I generally don't order pizza when dining out (as I like to think I make a pretty mean wood fire oven pizza myself), I decided to give their's a go.  I ordered the salmon, tomato and chilli pizza.  It was a very generous size serve and I could not finish it.  It came with some serious cheese on top.

Salmon, tomato and chilli pizza

Seriously cheesy

The crust was very light and crispy and not at all greasy.  For a salmon pizza the taste wasn't overwhelmingly fishy, which was a good thing.  As I'm a bit of a fussy pizza critic, this pizza more than past muster.

I washed it down with a cup of tea which I ordered in lieu of the glass of wine or soft drink which came with the express lunch.

I was also provided with the dessert menu.  But as I could not even finish my pizza, there was no way I could fit in the dessert.

I'll leave you with a few pics of the surrounds.  As I said, a way better ambience than the average office break out area.  Indeed there were quite a few office folks grabbing a bite.

The WTC Wharfside restaurants are definitely a good lunch option for those working in the city - beats sitting down in a food court for sure.

Until next time...

Nieuw Amsterdam

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

I had a very civilised mid-week lunch with my sister and kiddo at Nieuw Amsterdam.  To cut to the chase, the BBQ meat plate was nothing short of glorious.  It was $24 and came with a meat of choice (we chose the pork chop), coleslaw, pickle, bread and potato salad.  The pork chop was moist and ever so tender, it was reminiscent of a slow cooked piece of meat.  It was drizzled with a slightly sweet BBQ sauce.  The okra in the pickles were also an unexpected but nice touch.

The BBQ Meat plate

To supplement the meat plate we also ordered the eggplant sandwich ($17).  This sounded a bit bland on paper but in life, it was a sizeable sandwich and delicious too.  Stacked with mozzarella, fresh tomato and served with steakhouse chips and Srirachi mayo.  Kiddo was particularly taken to the rocket salad.  It was the first greens I have seen her voluntarily eat for weeks.

A huge eggplant sandwich - split 3 ways

A close up

All in all, Nieuw Amsterdam does not disappoint on the food front.  It also had lovely bar-like ambience.  I can understand why it is such a popular haunt.  

Until next time...

Cafe Paradiso

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

I was at Cafe Paradiso with a couple of parents from Kiddo's school.  It's opposite the Rivoli Theatre at Camberwell Junction so in all respects a popular eating joint in prime locale.

I was a bit disappointed with the service.  Being a week night, it wasn't all that busy but we waited an eternity for the drinks to be poured.  One of the parents ended up walking to the counter and asking what the specials were before coming back to the table to recite it back to us as our waitress had gone AWOL.

My disappointment with the service was eclipsed by my disappointment with the food.  I ordered a wagyu burger.  Sounded good in theory.  However it was strangely gritty with each bite.  Try as I may, I could not identify the source of the grit.  I hoped to God it was sand on the lettuce but deep down, part of me was afraid that the grit is from the burger meat itself.  I was operating in denial and ate the burger on auto-pilot. The fries themselves were extremely salty and for once in my life, I did not finish my beloved pomme frites.

A suspiciously gritty wagyu burger

 A few quick pics of what the others had ordered:

Haloumi salad

Risotto

Soup of the day

In short, Cafe Paradiso - I will not be going back.



Until next time...

Kenji (Revisit)

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

I love the Japanese food at Kenji and go there regularly for a fix.  See previous Kenji post here. Since I have been clocking up the Kenji miles lately, a little update is in order.

Unagi bento is one of my favourites out there.  For $17 you get a generously stuffed bento with big slabs of melt in your mouth unagi (eel). Accompanying the bento is a cup of miso soup, side salad with a sesame dressing, edaname beans, chicken karage (fried chicken), gyoza, tempura prawn, fried squid on a stick and a corn and potato croquette.  Phew!  That's a lot of eating.

Miso soup

Fried squid on a stick

Gyoza!

Corn and potato croquette

Tempura prawn

On a separate occasion, I stopped by for a sushi snack ($6.80) and a couple of hand rolls as a take away.  My favourites are the spicy chicken and the avocado hand rolls ($2.80 each)

Spicy chicken and avocado handrolls

Sushi pack

All the ingredients were very fresh.  I would recommend the sushi here over any food court sushi any day.  If you haven't been to Kenji's yet, it is definitely worth a look-in.  Go here for Kenji's contact details.

Until next time...