My Melbourne Food Blog

Gossip Food

2009-07-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

Design of new Gossip Food web page done, all pro web designers are now putting together all the pieces! Hang in there guys!
Make sure you be a fan of our facebook page to be notified of the launch!

Gossip Food on Facebook

Facebook page now up

2009-07-06T07:48:00.001-07:00

Visit us at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gossip-Food/93289866623 includes our recent trip to Vue De Monde - 3 Chef Hat restauarant.

Follow us on Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Coming Soon.

2009-07-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

As we are moving this web page to our own domain.
For the time being, please keep track of our latest updates at. We looking forward to your tweets and comments.
http://twitter.com/gossipfood.
http://www.flickr.com/gossipfood - GPS tagging included to help you find the food better.

Many of these updates are LIVE, you might even spot us after doing an update! Enjoy!

Here is a sample, my current favourite Hainam chicken in Melbourne.

We got loads more photos coming! Majority of the Chef Hat restaurants as well.
Well the ones that let us bring a SLR in. grrrr to Jacques Reymond.

Friday Night Grill @ Mesh

2009-05-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

Lamb cutlets

Ground Floor, Crown Promenade Hotel
Ph: 613 9292 8289
Website (scroll down)

Mesh has a rather good buffet special on Friday nights. It's generally quite well-attended though, so be sure to book ahead. Be warned, there's also a late cancellation fee.

The Friday Night Grill ($39.50 pp) includes a seafood, salad and dessert buffet bar along with your choice of a main and 3 drinks. The seafood bar includes steamed prawns and oysters au naturale. There's quite a good salad as well as tapas (the grilled eggplant was perfecto) selection. Desserts were plentiful. There was an icecream bar too! The cheesecake was quite nice. You can choose from white/red wine, beer or a soft drink. No tea or fruit juice, unfortunately, since I don't, as a general rule drink alcohol, and I avoid soft drinks because they are fattening and generally EVIL (hello high fructose corn syrup!).

You can choose from grilled lamb chops, chicken breast, fish, or roast beef as your main, with a choice of sauce. If you want value-for-money, get the roast beef because it is HUGE. My brother ordered that and it completely dwarfed my lamb cutlets (which I admittedly ordered because those bite-sized morsels of meat on the tiny bone looked so cute). Not that you should worry about the size of your main; the buffet selection is huge and by the time the mains rolled around, I was terribly stuffed, and I was pacing myself!

My cousin, who had the lamb on a previous occasion, initially warned me off them saying they had a tendency to turn out dry. My lamb cutlets, however, were succulent and rather tasty. Inconsistent food quality warning!

The food wasn't too bad except for the oysters. I was all set to eat at least two dozen, maybe three but I couldn't make it past a mere dozen. I encountered a bad oyster or two, and that just put me off. They looked fresh, and were well-chilled though, and it's a nice restaurant, fer gdness sakes', how can they allow that?! My cousin has had mixed experiences with the oysters too. He said though generally it's quite good, there have been times in the past, too, where the oysters weren't fresh. Oh well.

Buffets being buffets, I severely overate even though I limited myself to like a small tablespoon of each food item. Wish the slices of cake were cut smaller so I could try more without having to waste food.

All in all, it was rather good, and worth a try, but I don't think I will go back. Not so much because of the quality of the food and selection, but more so because I'm not a fan of over-indulging. If you're a huge eater though, go for it.

Rating: 3.5/5

Pro tip: My aunt says to drink lemonade after a heavy meal to aid digestion.

5 minute review - More Greek Food

2009-05-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

Kouzina Restaurant
http://www.kouzina.com.au/
This restaurant is located in various locations around Melbourne.
The one we went to was located in Doncaster Shopping Centre, right near Hoyts and Borders. I always noticed this restaurant packed full of people and always live with atmosphere.

So we decided to go check out the Mezedes.

This is what we ordered.
Land mezedes for two
Pork kebabs, loukanika, beef keftedes, grilled quail, and lahanodolmades
We loved all in this selection, great variety of different mezes.
The lahanodolmades was fabulous, we haven't actually tried it before. It is basically stuffed cabbage leaves with minced meat and risotto inside.
I just found a recipe of this over here, might have to give it a go sometime.

Warm marinated Greek olives
Awesome olives, haven't had such great olives in a long time.

Crispy fried vegetables
"Mythos' beer battered eggplant and zuchinni crisps with skordalia dip
Great as well.

Mamacas Mezethopolion
http://www.mamacas.com.au/
210 Chapel Street Prahran

Had a birthday party here last week and I had the Mamaca's Tastes Banquet. ($29 per person). This restaurant was very warm, cosy boutique style restaurant with many nice art pieces on the walls. Great place to dine as a couple!

The banquet we had included the following:
Freshly baked bread
Mixed Dips
Zucchini & Haloumi Fritter
Calamari
Chicken Skewer
Spaghetti Meatballs
Greek Salad

Highlights
The calamari was so delicious, very nicely good and tender. Best calamari I have tasted in long time. Chicken Skewer was great, as expected from a Greek restaurant. My favourite mix dip was the Taramosalata, couldn't get enough it. Hope I didn't finish all of it before the others could try :). Nah i'm not one of those ppl.

Average
Zucchini & Haloumi Fritters were like Turkish Zucchini balls, they were a bit small. My favourite Zucchini balls will have to be from this restarant in Canberra called Turkish Pide. You have to try it out.

Would love to try out the other banquest and meals sometime.

Eos Greek Taverna

2009-05-21T02:45:00.000-07:00

83 Grimshaw Street
Greensborough
www.eosgreektavern.com.au

The family went to Eos for a postponed Mother's Day dinner on a recommendation from my brother's colleague.

We ordered the deluxe banquet for two ($40 pp) and the chicken special ($29). We're small eaters so this was more than plenty for 4 - we even had to get a doggie bag.

The grilled chicken thighs with polenta with a mushroom sauce was pretty awesome. The family dug into it so quickly I forgot to take a photo of it. What I've got above (second last photo) is the remnants of what I had on my plate! The thighs were beautifully done. The flavourings were simple allowing the chicken to stand on its own. It was tender, juicy, and went well with the polenta (which is a favourite side of mine). There was also a side salad of tomato, bocconcini and basil. The appearance of a classic Italian combination was a bit jarring in a traditional Greek restaurant but I guess it must be some fusion thing. Anyway, they went well together.

The deluxe banquet consisted of:

Cold entrees: mixed dips (tzatziki, possibly taramasalata and possibly babaganoush), dolmades, olives, pickled vegetables and homemade bread.

Hot entree: Saganaki cheese

Hot platter: consists of gyro, keftethes, chicken souvlaki, loukaniko, prawns, mussels, calamari and atlantic salmon accompanied with rice pilaf, lemon baked potatoes and Greek salad.

Sweets: Assorted Greek sweets including galaktoboureko, baklava and Turkish delight.

The bread was absolutely beautiful and was the highlight of the meal. At the end of the meal the chef came out to chat with the remaining diners and he said that the bread was handmade every day - no machines as the taste was different. Since then my dad has been bugging me to try making some bread at home. I don't think that's going to happen any time soon :P

The saganaki cheese is a fried cheese which is awesome by definition.

The hot platter was huge. For me, it was a bit blah, especially when compared to the utter delishusness of the chicken thighs. The platter was just too meaty for my mum and I, especially since we are not found of gyro lamb as it tastes too strong for us (we call it "sou" in Cantonese). I did like enjoy the rice pilaf though.

The banquet also included a salad which was a bit ordinary. The bulk of it was iceberg lettuce which is boring, and I found the dressing too sour. However, the fetta cheese was wonderful - light and fluffy.

The service was great. The waitresses were very attentive, and the chef coming out at the end was a nice touch. It made us feel like they really cared about whether we enjoyed the meal.

Conclusion: We really enjoyed the meal. We'd probably go back, but I wouldn't get the banquet, and I'd probably try out the other specials. And definitely get the bread again.

Stars: 3.5 out of 5.

5 minute pub review - The Carlton Hotel

2009-05-05T00:28:00.000-07:00

193 Bourke St, Melbourne

I love this place. Clashing, maximilian and offbeat, the vibe I get from this place is “retro chic”. The large stuffed animals scattered around the place are kind of awesome and manages to avoid being stale hunting lodge masculine. There are numerous cozy nooks and it was, of course, packed on a Friday night. There’s a rooftop bar which, tragically, does not have a pool, because that would be a great addition to the tropical palm tree-strewn décor. Be warned, spend any length of time up there and the delishus aroma of deep fried chicken and eleven secret herbs and spices from the exhaust vents next door will send you spiraling down what feels like 10 flights of stairs (which is a right bugger to walk up in heels) for a midnight snack.

Would I go back? Certainly.

Nitpicking: Their website as listed by Google, http://www.thecarlton.com.au/, is a completely empty directory. Someone should do something about it, it’s embarrassing.

5 minute pub review - Cho Gao Restaurant & Bar

2009-05-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Melbourne Central, Level 3
211 La Trobe St, Melbourne
http://www.chogao.com.au/

I dropped by on a Friday night and it was rocking. The drinks are cheap which may have something to do with its popularity with students. The décor is funky, sort of Asian/world. It’s trendy, hip, and popular with the yuppy crowd. I mostly hung out at the balcony which had a DJ playing decent but not spectacular house music. Still, the night time view from the balcony, particularly the State Library, was pretty good.

The kitchen was closed by the time I got there but the predominantly Asian fusion menu looked alright. The lunch time meal prices in particular look reasonable.

Would I go back? It’s a matter of taste, but it’s not exactly my scene – it’s very shiny, and as slick as a Beemer ad. Located on the top floor of Melbourne Central, parking is a breeze which will be convenient for those rainy winter days ahead! I’m still on a quest to find the typical Melbournian pub with live music, so much as I enjoyed my time there, I’ve got other priorities.

Nitpicking: for some reason their website isn’t indexed properly by Google so when you search for “Cho Gao” you just get a bunch of restaurant reviews on the first page! Someone needs to SEO-ize their website.

Evane on MMFB and a quick tip

2009-04-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hi! This is my first time on MMFB so I'll do a quick self-introduction.

I've only recently been livin in Melbourne and was in Adelaide for about a decade. I'm originally from Singapore and have Cantonese taste buds so I have certain prejudices when it comes to food!

I love cooking and dining out and am always happy to talk about food. Largely for green reasons, I'd love to go completely organic or dabble in the vegetarian thing but never have enough will power to do so. My cooking style is influenced by Jamie Oliver and my numerous older female relatives who are all great cooks. Favourite dining experience would be Tetsuya's and La Rochelle.

Quick Tip: Siu Long Bao
My aunt tells me that the ones at David and Cammy at Boxhill are pretty good. I’ve got to try it sometime. I got hooked on the juicy dumplings when I stayed in Hong Kong and have so far been disappointed by Australian offerings.

Melbourne Yum Cha in city

2009-04-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

Gold Leaf have now opened up a new yum cha restaurant located under the Southern Cross big wheel in Docklands and I must say I'm very impressed. I have previously blogged about the Gold Leaf in Burwood and this new place is definately equal and maybe better in terms of standards. This will definately be my new yum cha place in the city and it is a lot easier to find parking compared to Shark Fin Inn and Shark Fin House.

The first 1 hour of parking is now for free at the Harbour Town Factory Outlet parking so this is a bonus if you eat quick.

Enjoy my new tip.

Melbourne Yum Cha

Want to blog about Melbourne Food?

2009-04-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Live in Melbourne? Happy to assist with unpaid blogging on Melbourne Food?
Well we are looking for a fellow blogger to assist in posting about their wonderful food experiences in Melbourne. If interested, please leave a comment below and we will get back to you.

Alan & Karen Woo.

Thanh Nga Nine Vietnamese Restaurant

2009-04-01T17:07:00.001-07:00

Thanh Nga Nine Vietnamese Restaurant
Open 7 Days
10am to 10pm
160 Victoria Street Richmond VIC 3121
Tel: 9427 7068

Dropped by Richmond for some good Vietnamese food and saw this restaurant packed full of people so we decided to try it out.

I tried Rice + Combination dish (included pork chop - love my pork chops) and Karen tried her usually Vermicelli + Spring rolls combo.

First thing I noticed was the dishes were very colourful, lots of veges, Vietnamese restaurants are usually supply minimal veges so that was great. Both dishes also tasted great, everything was very fresh and flavours were just right (not too strong or too light). Looking forward to going back and trying out the Pho.

Some recent highlights

2009-03-18T16:29:00.001-07:00

Still haven't had the chance to update my akwoo blog http://www.akwoo.com/blog/ with food material, then I realised that this blog is starting to get popular on google.
So sorry to all the visitors, I will try get all my content up soon.

So here is a quick update here. Since my last post, i've been to many restaurants, probably can't remember all the names e.g. Koko, Dumpling King, First Taste, Shira Nui, The Lake House out at Daylesford (2 chef hats), Intercontinental Melbourne restaurant, Goshen and some other korean and japanese restaurants I didn't enjoy.

The highlights out of all these will definately be following
Shira Nui - Best jap food I have tasted ever, been returning a few times ever since, will post up photos and what to order very soon. Have to double check my photo of the receipt for exact names.

Dumpling King at Doncaster Food Court - Awesome dumpling soups and bargain too.

First Taste - Hot pots are alright, but I love the soups there, authentic chinese herbal soups.

Goshen - Went here to other day, very flavoursome korean food. Better than Oriental Spoon in the city, my regular korean joint. Will have to revisit soon, my wife said the Bimbimbap is awesome.

Intercontinental Melbourne Restaurant - Stayed here 1 week, awesome hotel highly recommended. I was too buggered to eat out one night, so we decided to try the restaurant inside the hotel and was very impressed. Steak had been best steak i have had in melbourne so far, was disappointed by Meat & Co, haven't tried Squirres Loft yet (colleagues have raved about it). Forgot what entree and other main we had (might have been Rabbit), but all I recall, was that everything was top notch.

Disappointing but still lovely food.
Koko - food was great still, but service was very slow, kept us waiting for our food a long time. We actually cancelled our Ezards 2 chef hat booking to try this too. teppanyaki looks great, might have to try that other day.

Lake House - great atmosphere, beautiful views and impressive wine list! Nothing on the degustation really wowed me, I think I have to try A la carte next time.

Shanghai food

2008-10-01T00:24:00.001-07:00

Been looking for Shanghai style food lately especially noodles, and have found David & Camy in Chinatown and Box Hill to a worthy favourite especially when if I am looking for a fast and cheap
eat. The Shanghainese noodles and dumplings are a must try.

Cookie Swanston St - Great bar but salty Thai Food

2008-10-01T00:20:00.000-07:00

Awesome bar with wide range of beers on tap and other drinks.
Food was disappointing with all of us experiencing over salted food.
One of my colleagues pointed this out to the chefs, and the chef acknowledged that the food was overly salted. My colleague got a free $20 voucher in the end.

Will have to go back there one day for drinks.

Kitoh - Hainam

2008-09-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

Went to this restaurant for the first time today for lunch. The previous time I went past here and looked at the menu, a guy stood outside trying to pressure my colleagues and I into the restaurant. The end result was that it annoyed me so we walked off. Today they had no one outside, so I decided to check it out.

Noticed some yum cha dishes on offer as entrees, so I decided a single Custard Bun and Hainam Chicken for my main meal. The custard bun came out first, and wasn't that great, tasted like the ones you buy from the asian groceries. I think i'll stick to yum cha places for custard buns.

The Hainam chicken came out and looked pretty appealing. It came with rather decent size chicken pieces on one plate, a plate of rice and a bowl of soup. This is my impression of their Hainam chicken.

Rice - was too dry, didn't have chicken flavour to it as expected from a true hainam chicken dish.
Chicken - pieces were too big and not too tender, I prefer slightly smaller tender pieces.
Soup - taste like average soup.
Sauce - needed more spiciness to it.

I still reckon Chom Chom makes the best Hainam chicken.

Where are all my photos?

2008-09-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

Some of you are probably surprised that I have been posting photos of my food with all the camera gear I got. I will endeavour to update my posts with some photos.

Here a recent picture I took with my new Canon 16-35 f2.8 II Lens.

Bigger picture can be found here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/akwoo/2805260681/

Top Spots so far

2008-09-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, already 6 months in Melbourne, looks like my project might be extended longer too.
Haven't tried many new restaurants lately.

Top picks so far will have to be following.
Yum Cha - Taipan
Italian - Papa Ginos
Chinese Seafood - All People
Hainam Chicken - Chom Chom
Cakes - Some place in Camberwell
Japanese - Hako
Pho - Indochine Box Hill
Hong Kong Cafe - Star East Glen Waverly
Dumplings - Chadstone Shopping Centre food court - forgot the name of the place.
Fine Dining - Yet to find a favourite.

Longrain

2008-06-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.longrain.com.au/
Pretty hip restaurant, different style of Thai food, very flavoursome and doesn't taste like traditional Thai curries. Dishes are in the expensive side of things though.

Preferable for group of friends rather than a date, gets pretty noisy in there. Feels like a bar where everyone is socialising with each other.

All People - Chinese Seafood

2008-05-20T00:06:00.000-07:00

Shop 12, 2 Burwood Highway
Burwood East VIC 3151
Australia

One of those popular chinese seafood restaurants in Melbourne e.g. like Jimmys Place back in Canberra (for my Canberra homies). I had a feast last time I went there, I just remember the bird nest, lobster and oysters. I love how they chinese cook their big oysters and this place is great at doing it. Apart from that, I haven't visited this place to comment more.

Rating at this time being: 16
Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best

Hwaro Korean BBQ

2008-05-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

Shop 1/ 562 Little Bourke St,
Melbourne 3000
Tel: 03 9642 5696

Went here from Jenny, Ozona, Nader and Karen the other day. Gotta love the charcoal cooked Korean BBQ with the massive suction kits (sounds like a car part) to suck in all the smoke. As we had one more person coming than expected, we had to get a table with a suction kit that wasn't sucking 100%. Oh well, it sort of did its job in the end. We selected a mixture of marinated and non marinated meats to share between the 5 of us.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was great, my charcoal cooking talent wasn't. Luckily, the waitresses were very keen to show off their cooking skills and always jumped in to help. The food was delicious, making use of my new ranking system. I would rate it as follows, wonder if this rating system is copyright protected...

Rating 15
Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best

rating system

2008-05-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

might use this rating system that i found.. hmm
Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best

Pho Dzung - Vietnamese Traditional Noodle Soup

2008-05-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

Pho Dzung Restaurant.
208 Victoria St, Richmond 3121
Ph: (03) 9427 0292

234 Russel Street
Melbourne CBD

Famous Pho place in Melbourne that is always jammed pack full of people.
Went to the Richmond restaurant. Huge selection with all these different types of tendons, beef and stuff.
I think soup could of been hotter, but as I was eating in a hurry I can't reallly give proper review.
First impression was that it was decent pho but probably not as good as Pho An in Sydney.

Papa Gino - Awesome Spaghetti Bolognese

2008-05-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

Located in the home of Italian food in Melbourne
221 Lygon Street Carlton.
http://papaginos.com.au

What a find! Out of all the restaurants I had to choose from, I'm glad I picked this one last week. Spotted it being very busy when cruising pass in my car so I decided that it was a must try. Went there again last night.

First time, we had our usual Penne Arrabiata and out of my ordinary I selected the Spaghetti Bolognese. Both great dishes, the Penne was a unique arrabiata but the standout was definately the bolognese. I haven't tasted great bolognese since I was little so this was a great discovery. Spaghetti was cooked perfectly and bolognese was flavoursome. Had it last night again, and they didn't disappoint us.
Also tried the gourmet pizza (not pizzas, after recommendation from Kim). Wasn't that great, Zeferellis back in Canberra still make the best gourmet pizza to me.

Hong Kong Seafood Pot

2008-05-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

I think this is what it is called, located at Glenflerrie, will update soon.

Hong Kong Best Food

2008-05-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

35 Carrington Road. Box Hill. Vic. 3128
Regular weekly joint for Karen's family before church on Sundays.

One of the many HK style cafes in Box Hill.

The family usually chooses from the special menu, meals come with free drink e.g. Lemon Ice Tea and all are about $8 a menu. Karen had a quick look at prices in the normal menu and they are also around $8. BARGAIN! only difference is that you don't get a free drink I guess.

Can't remember all the dishes I have tried, but last Sunday I had the Russian Style Beef with Rice. Really enjoyed it, it had a tomato creamy taste to it.

Chilli What? - Chillipadi, Chilliexpress and Chilli Malam (Midnight Munchies)

2008-05-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

Chilli Padi
Menzies Alley Melbourne Central
www.chillipadi.com.au/

Friday night - Chilli Padi
Today lunch - Chilli Express

Chilli Padi
This restaurant is basically an asian food joint with Thai, Malaysian, Japanese and other food similar to my dad's restaurant. Went here with the ECC folks before some bowling action at Kingpin and tried the Malaysian platter which consisted of (copy and paste) "satay chicken,rendang curry chic, samball eggs achat and coconut rice".

It turned out to be a huge dish, probably double of everyone elses on the table. However, it didn't really taste that great. Wasn't missing the bite of the spices I expected from a Malaysian cuisine. The dish was also $26, wouldn't pay for this dish ever again.

Chilli Express
Great selection of foods for lunch all around $8. Wasn't express to me, line was long and Green Curry + Rice + sald took a few minutes to come out. Had my first bite only to find an icy chicken that was not heated up properly. Good old last night cooked, quick microwave restaurant methodology. When it was heated up, it was not bad, not truly authentic green curry like Karen and I made in Thailand but good value for money.

Chilli Malam
Haven't been but saw the advertisement. Great for late night hunger.
Open
Wed 10:30PM to 3AM
Thurs - Fri 10:30PM to 5AM.
Might check it out if I get hungry at now, but I don't really expect anything great from my experiences so far.

Rahmen - Momotaro, Kenzan, Ajisen

2008-05-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

Momotaro Rahmen
392 Bridge Road
Richmond VIC 3121
Phone (03) 9421 1661

This is an ol' favourite of Karens located in Richmond. This is a very warm smallist cosey restaurant with great ramen. We usually grab a rahmen off the menu, I recommend the Rahmen / Gyoza combination. The other day, I tried some Scotch Fillet / Soy sauce rice combination off the special menu. It was delicious.. Highly recommended.

Kenzan @ GPO
Convieniently located in the city at GPO on Bourke Street Mall. Huge selection of sushi rolls and rahmens. Recommend the Bento, although a bit on the dear side $18 ($2 extra for Miso Soup), you get a huge selection of food.

Ajisen Rahmen
Popular international food chain where menu only consists of Rahmen. Try the spicy rahmens, they will leave your tongue burning... :P