Ale Stars November 2010

I’ve been meaning to get to this update for a while now… a whole month in fact as the next Ale Stars is just around the corner!

Last month we did Beer Cocktails. I think the name probably turned a lot of people off as numbers seemed to be way down than usual. Works out well for me though, as I know nothing about beer (except what I like) and so I could hear Shandy really easily and actually learn something new!



This is what we got told:

Beer blending and the creation of beer cocktails may be capturing some of the limelight for the moment but they’re far from new practices. Brewers and publicans have been blending and adulterating their beer for centuries providing the consumer with the product they want to, or could afford to drink. Modern mega breweries may also blend their beer to maintain consistency across large selling brands or possibly create more than one brand from stock beers.

Beer cocktails reside in the realm of the bar staff or home consumer and are created to make a beer more accessible, refreshing or even to give it a characteristic appealing to social groups and range from a short list of well know classics to the more surprising and esoteric for the most part attempting to create a beverage greater than the sum of its parts.

For me, I was apprehensive and not sure what to expect. I guess I learnt my lesson and to trust Shandy and the staff at the Local! I will tell you from the outset – I was pleasantly surprised!

We had four ‘cocktails’, all of which were interesting and mainly delicious. This is what we had:

Radler – Trumer Pils & Homemade Lemonade
The lemonade had been made by the kitchen staff at the Local (1 box lemons will give you 1 litre of concentrate, which with the right mix of soda water and sugar will equate to 5 litres of homemade lemonade) and made the radler quite flat. It had very sour notes upfront but the sweetness from the lemonade and pils was there too. The lemon probably overpowered the flavour of the pils a bit too much – we had a second one of these in our break and played around with the mix until we liked it at 40:60 (40% lemonade). By this stage we decided that it was YUM and we could sit around easily on a summer’s day drinking jugs of radler.

Table made Faro – Cantillon Gueuze & Taphouse candi sugar
The kitchen delivered again with a housemade toffee/sugar that we added in solid pieces to the Gueuze. The idea was that it would dissolve and leave us with a Faro – a sweetened version of a lambic beer that younger kids would drink in cafes as the lambic by itself was a bit too flavoursome for some of the younger customers – fancy that! The only problem with our faro is that despite all the stirring, prodding and stabbing with straws, that damn candi sugar would just not dissolve! Most of us put this to the side and came back to it an hour or so later, at which point the sugar had STILL not dissolved. Oh well. We drank the Gueuze anyway and fun was had by all. A very bitey flavour, the sour taste was slightly neutralised, but still a session beer for me. I have to say that I thought it was hard work. It was flat by the time we got to it, so apparently authentic as in the olden days (!) lambic beer was usually served uncarbonated.

Black Forrest Ale – St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout & Lindemans Kriek
Now, we’ve had the Kriek before, with not much success at my end of things. How can I put this delicately? I hate it. It reminds me of medicine I used to have as a child. The Black Forrest Ale had the exact same smell as the Kriek – as one of our esteemed Ale Stars put it – “Cherry Bum Juice”. I am not sure what the mix was on this one, but all I got was the Kriek – the stout was totally lost on me. As a result, I pretty much hated this one. The flavour is just so solid and so strong that I didn’t finish this one and handed it off to another Ale Star to finish for me. He finished several other people’s beers as well!

Imperial Black & Tan – Feral Hop Hog and Moo Brew Imperial Stout
We’ve had this mix before – lots of people have I suppose. Most successfully we’ve had it with the porter and larger at Coldstream (I think it was the larger? Someone please advise?!) but this is the mix I was most looking forward to… Two amazing beers in their own right left most of us excitedly wondering about what they’d be like together. And we were not disappointed. It was quite bitter, which is fine, but I don’t think I got the mix quite right (this is the only one we self mixed). My first try resulted in the hops overpowering the stout in a big way – after gulping down a few mouthfuls, that was quickly fixed and once topped up to a 50:50 mix, the hops balanced nicely with the stout.

PM24

Very luckily we got to experience the lovely new PM24 last week - rather at the last minute!



Champagne arrived quickly on arrival – being able to enjoy Louis Roederer by the glass is lovely, although pricey at $24 a glass. House made sourdough bread, with beautiful unsalted butter and a salmon spread was a delicious start to the meal. The salmon was a mix similar to what we sometimes cook (although ours is a poor mans version for sure) with dill, lemon and smoked salmon. It was extremely tasty and certainly spoiled my appetite!

Three of us dined last week and we shared 4 starters, 3 mains and 3 desserts, as well as a couple of sides with our main course. We generally found the starters to be the more interesting dishes. The mains tended to be quite heavy and rich, as well as being more traditionally French than the starters, which were a bit fresher with more distinct and interesting flavours. However this is not really a ‘sharing’ kind of place. None of the dishes are plated to be shared, but in this case we wanted to each try as many things as we could off the menu. The staff were wonderful in providing extra portions, and helping us share the dishes when needed. This is what we had…

Starters
Cured New Zeland King Salmon - Sour beetroot, dill, and horseradish cream -21.00

Roasted Beetroot - Octopus salad, goat cheese and eggplant compote -21.50

Seafood Nicoise Salad - Passionfruit, olive oil & rosemary vinaigrette, avocado royale – 25.00

Zucchini Flowers Crab Fritters - Piperade, red pepper vinaigrette – 25.00


A selection of starters including the zucchini flower at the top, octopus and beetroot (with accompanying goats cheese & eggplant ball) and chickpea crouton

These were all really amazing, delicious dishes. The salmon was perfect – none of us were really big horseradish fans, but it comes as almost a mousse and was not overpowering with the salmon at all. The beetroot was also great with the creamy goats cheese working perfectly with the tartness of octopus. The crab fritters divided our table a little – two of us loved them and thought they were the highlight of the starters, although we do agree that the flavours were the least unusual… Perhaps that’s why they are such a popular dish (the waiters told us these had been getting rave reviews). Given their flavours are a bit more mainstream, maybe that’s why we found them so delicious… maybe they are just delicious!

Mains
Rockling - Shellfish ragout, bouillabaisse fumet, saffron rouille - 37.50

King Salmon - Pan cooked, gnocchi, mushroom and chardonnay jus – 38.00

Rack of Lamb - Panko, mustard and rosemary, crust, Provencale vegetable gratin – 45.00

Potato gateau 8.50

Peas French style 8.50


King Salmon

The rockling was good – the portion was enormous, which you don’t often see these days! All of us commented that we would have struggled to finish the dish if we had not been sharing. The rockling was a large fillet, cooked beautifully, with other delicious seafood pieces. Again not great for sharing, but lovely rich flavours that seemed quite traditional for a bouillabaisse. The salmon was probably the most disappointing dish of the day. The mushroom and chardonnay jus looked more like a crust than anything, although it was soft and not great – the mushroom overpowered any other flavour and alongside the salmon we found this to be too rich for our tastebuds. The lamb was a thing of beauty (even though we were getting quite full by this stage). Cooked perfectly so it was incredibly tender, it was served with winter vegetables and was a lovely, traditional dish with an occasional tang of the mustard cutting through to make things a bit more interesting.

All these were accompanied by two excellent side dishes – a creamy, melt in your mouth potato gratin and peas ‘french style’ which included generous chunks of pancetta and a creamy sauce. Artery overload! But beautiful dishes and a lovely main course.

While the meals came out a little close together (leaving us very full after our main courses!) we were easily convinced to order dessert and had real trouble deciding on dishes – everything sounded very nice! The smell of the waffles cooking was now floating around the restaurant and that helped our decision, so we had:

Chocolate Waffle - Chocolat sauce, vanilla chantilly cream 18.00
Tahiti Vanilla Crème Brulee 18.00
Lemon and glace fruits - Ice nougat, raspberry jus, berries 18.00

The waffle (despite the incredible smell) was disappointing to a few. I found it to be very yummy indeed, but a bit short on the chocolate sauce and cream. So the jury was out on which was the best – I personally cant go past a crème brulee, especially one as beautifully creamy and sweet as this was. But the majority of the table ruled in favour of the iced nougat, with summer fruits. A very refreshing dessert and a perfect way to finish the meal!

All in all, a wonderful dining experience. For most of us (who are not millionaires) this will be an occasion restaurant, as to truly enjoy all it has to offer means at least $200 a head. But the interior is interesting and comfortable, the food wonderful, service is flawless (for the most part) and so PM24 is an experience well worth trying! Get in now before the tables book out until June!

Cutler & Co.

It’s a sign of how lazy you get, when you think a trek from St Kilda to Gertrude St is too far a journey. As such, we hardly ever go out on that side of the river. Luckily in this case, one of us had a very nice birthday present to spend, in the shape of a gift voucher to Cutler & Co. So off we went!

Wow – what a stunning space. What I loved about it was no matter where you sat in the restaurant, you had a bunch of interesting stuff to look at. The design was very interesting and the details amazing. The bathrooms were a particular highlight – an electronic sliding door leading into them! It felt like a spaceship! Fun.



Sunday lunch at Cutler & Co is a casual affair, and reflects in their menu. Service however remained spot on and remains the highlight of my time there – service often outshone the food.

Here is what we had:

Sunday Lunch 10.10.10 (spooky)

Shared starters
Clare de Lune oyster
Chilli & fennel seed salami
French breakfast radish

The radish was yum yum yum! Wrapped in a nice fresh piece of dark rye, with a delicious butter and sprinkle of salt, this was a surprising favourite in the first round of starters. Oysters were fresh (I’m told, not being an oyster lover myself) and the salami was like… salami. Nice and everything, but struggled to get any chilli or fennel seed flavours.

Shared salads
Artichoke bariguole, broad bean & mint
Tripe & cuttlefish braise, grilled bread and aioli
Marinated beets, apple & walnut cream
Asparagus salad, fromage blanc, honey & lemon
Cracked wheat salad

What a yum assortment of goodies. And very generous portions. The asparagus was super fresh and very good, with slashes of honey sweetness set off by the creaminess of the fromage. The artichoke salad was a highlight for me – it was delicious and made me wonder if I could ever cook artichokes this well. I think not. The beets were also very good and the cracked wheat salad had splashes of lemon that made it a very nice finish to a great assortment of salads. This was the highlight of the dishes for me. Some really great and interesting stuff on offer here.

Mains
We picked one of the four mains each – how convenient!
Coconut brained harpuka, scallop & tomato
Baked gnocchi, Taleggio, fennel & pea salad
Garlic sausage, lentils & mustard fruits
Slow cooked lamb, borlotti beans & anchovy

I had the garlic sausage and it was very good. The meat had a game flavour to it, which was offset nicely by the lentil salad. A very nice dish. I also tried the fish, which seemed to me, to be a weird combination of white fish with coconut, but the lucky lady who ate the dish assured me the spices were amazing. And the gnocchi was fantastic – a tiny portion, but a really lovely dish. The only one I missed was the lamb! *sad face*

And we drank – a bottle of Chablis for the girls and a sierra Nevada pale ale and emersons pilsner for the boy

Desserts
Normandy camembert & apple chutney
Strawberry fool

I had the fool and it was pretty good – its basically a mix of double cream with strawberries and other goodies… on this day we also got blueberries, some meringue and who knows what else! But the best part was the cheese – yummmmmm cheese! Delicious!

Then we finished up with a couple of rounds of espresso martinis, which were great!

All in all, a great afternoon. Staff were super wonderful and lovely. We stayed for around 5 hours and never felt rushed or that we were being waited on to leave.

The highlights for me were the service and the décor – the place looks amazing!

Mamasita

On a cold, dreary Tuesday night, four of us finally decided to kick off our blog in proper style with a meal at the much hyped Mamasita. As per our requirements, it was a venue none of us had been before. Almost everyone we told about our outing prior to going warned us about the lines. Waiting for up to 2 or 3 hours was not uncommon, we had heard, so we headed in at 5.50pm on a Tuesday night expecting to snag a table before the evening rush began.

Wow, were we wrong or what. It was PACKED. A line stretched down the stairs and out the door. Lucky for us, we managed to get the last table, right next to the kitchen. While its probably not the most comfortable space with all the people coming and going and yelling, its also one of the more interesting places to sit and we really enjoyed it.



First things first. Mamasita is NOISY. Really noisy. The music is loud, the people are loud, everything is loud! But in some ways it added to the atmosphere… in other ways, I would have appreciated some carpet, or wall coverings, or anything that could have helped absorb some of the noise.

The tables are not super comfortable, it has to be said. They are high tables with plain stools that are not easy to get up and down from (especially if you’re wearing heels or have had a few sangrias) and they are small too, which is not ideal when you have sharing plates, water & wine glasses etc.

But these are our only complaints. Food was excellent and service was great. Prices are great. Mamasita is great!

After waiting for our extremely late friends (hazellee you know who you are) we let our waiter order for us. A few of us had enjoyed some tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole while we were waiting – best guacamole I’ve ever had. It was amazing. A few people have commented since that in the true ‘Mexican’ style, these should have been complimentary, but I wasn’t expecting that and instead focused on eating as much guacamole as I could.




We had no idea what items to expect, given we’d let the staff pick for us. Here’s a run down of what we got over the next hour:

Elotes Callejeros – “Street Style” chargrilled corn with queso, chipotle mayonnaise & lime
Now, I don’t know what most of these ingredients are. This is what I do know. Corn is yum at the best of times. When it’s served to you chargrilled, with a light topping of a shaved cheese style product and fresh lime, it’s the best. As silence descended on the table (and it takes a bit to get the four of us to shut up) we knew we were in for a yum meal.

A selection of toastaditas (2.5 inch fried tortolla with toppings). We got one each of the following:
de Maiz – Sweet corn, black beans, epazote, jalapeno salsa & queso frescoYummy – the black beans were the dominant flavour here, but the salsa and corn gave it a nice freshness and zest

de Pescado – market fish with lime, guacamole, nasturtiums & Serrano chilli
Fantastic – the return of the amazing guacamole! Paired with a white fish we couldn’t identify and forgot to ask about, and the zing of the chilli and lime, this was del-i-cious! My favourite tostaditas on offer. Yum Yum Yum!

de Cangrejo – crab meat, avocado, cucumber, tamarind mayonnaise & habanero
Very nice and creamy, which worked well with the crispness of the tortilla

de Carnitas – slow braised pork shoulder with encurtidos & jalapenos
Anything with slow braised pork is good by me, but it was a strange combination with the tortilla… but tasty. Everything was tasty!

de Pescado taco – Grilled fish with lime, achiote paste and red onion salsa
This was probably my least favourite dish of the night. The achiote paste had a really unusual flavour – I couldn’t place it or give anything that you could compare it to. And as a flavour it did kind of overtake the salsa and fish. And my first mouthful carried a huge punch of chilli, so it took me a while to recover from that!

de Huitlacoche quesadilla – Mexican truffle, mushrooms, roasted corn, epazote & queso fresco
This was super yummy and very mushroom-y. The truffle had a really unusual flavour and the waiter told us it grows as a fungus on corn. Sounds icky, but tastes yummy! The cheese was also great – not too overpowering and really well balanced

Camarones gigantes al ajillo – grilled prawns with toasted garlic and green almond sauceOh wow – these were the freshest prawns I’d had in ages. Perfectly cooked, and with loads of the green almond sauce to slather on them, this was a really enjoyable dish. Has to be said though, at this stage we were starting to get full!!!

Cordero adobado al horno – roasted lamb with red chilli adobo sauce, preserved jalapeno & mint
This was really yummy lamb. The sauce was almost like a really mild curry – those same creamy and zingy flavours. Lamb was cooked very well and was super tender

Sides: Ensalada de Quinoa (quinoa, corn, spinach, coriander, chilli & pico de gallo) and Papas! (roast potatoes, Serrano chilli & parsley)Both very nice. The salad in particular was so fresh that it cleaned out your palate a bit before you went off to try another of the never ending dishes!

Phew! I think I need a break before I tell you about dessert.

It was a lot of food but so reasonably priced. Tacos were around $15 for three, tostaditas were around $12 for four ($40 for the four of us to try the each of the tostaditas listed above). Main courses like the prawns and lamb were anywhere between $16 for veg options, to $28 for the prawns.

Service was great. We had our water topped up all night and were offered drinks whenever our glasses started to get a bit empty. We also had a few glasses of sangria to start with and it should be issued with a warning – its strong stuff.

After a while though, we were very tempted by the dessert menu. We had:

Flan de coco – Coconut flan with prune syrup & sesame brittle
This was flan-tastic (I admit I only ordered it so I could say that over and over again). But it really was delicious. The flan was creamy and sugary and yummy like all good desserts should be. The prune syrup (which wasn’t really a syrup, but more like a paste) was also yummy and worked really well with the lovely smooth flan. Yum. My only comment here would be that the piece of sesame brittle was tiny and hardly enough for one person to taste. Sad face.

Torta de chilli chocolate – chocolate & chilli pudding with chocolate & cinnamon sorbet
This was eagerly anticipated, but unfortunately a bit of a let down. The pudding was probably a bit overcooked, and a bit doughy as well. The flavours were nice enough, but not really as powerful as you’d expect from a dish like this. The sorbet was quite yummy though.

So that was our night at Mamasita! It was really fantastic, one of the most anticipated, and best meals I’ve had in Melbourne in a long time. I will go back there for sure, and would certainly take interstate or overseas visitors there.

PS Sorry we still dont have photos. I promise to ignore other guests next time and take some shots of the food!

Japanese Izakaya

277 Carlisle Street, Balaclava

Only the two of us (hazellee and gammagum) visited Japanese Izakaya last Friday night, for a last minute meal to celebrate a “last day at work” thing with a friend. I’ve wanted to go there for ages. It’s always packed and I loved the place that used to be there – Piper – best Eggs Benedict in Melbourne! It was a sad day when Piper closed down, but we were very excited to finally make it in to try Japanese Izakaya.

We arrived for a late dinner to a full restaurant, and were not sure that we would get a table. But we were sat quickly at the last available table and bought water and menus. We decided on a nice bottle of Oakridge ‘Over the Shoulder’ Chardonnay and 5 dishes to share. We found the menu a little confusing at first – the price suggested that these were starters or small dishes, however couldn’t work out what quantities to order or if any of them would be considered starters. In the end we ordered 2 dumpling dishes and 3 meat courses.



Weirdly enough though, each dish came out separately and the three of us agreed that this lessened the impact of the meal. We probably would have preferred for the dumplings to come out first (not an unusual request I would have thought!) and the other meals as a second course. This is how the meals came out.

Braised free range otway pork belly flavoured with soy miren and honey – then flamed
I am not sure how prepped the kitchen was for this order… I guess they were ready for the orders to come rolling in! The pork belly came out first after about ten minutes. Hmmm. But the flavours of this dish made it the best of the night. The honey and soy sauce was spot on and delicious. The serving bowl and spoon made it hard to scoop up all that yummy goodness! The pork itself was a bit chewy, which was a bit disappointing, and in rather large pieces, which made it difficult to eat with chopsticks. But the best dish of the night for sure.

Pan seared duck breast on wombok and shiitake laced with Japanese black vinegar
Duck was cooked beautifully, nice and pink in the middle. The girls both enjoyed theirs, but mine was a bit tough, as I ended up with the end pieces. The salad was nice and worked well with the duck. I love wombok and the dressing was nice and sweet. A good contrast with the duck.

Sticky rice coated steamed dumplings filled with chicken, prawn and ginger, with hot mustard and vinegar dipping sauce
First comment and a pet hate – 3 people at the table and they bring 4 dumplings! So annoying. Why not give us a heads up when we order and ask if we’d like to pay a bit extra so everyone can have 2 pieces? What is a table of three supposed to do with one dumpling!? Anyway. The dumplings were ok, but not nearly as amazing as they sound on the menu. The rice was not a sticky rice at all and was a bit too underdone, leaving it crunchy and soggy all at the same time. The flavours of the filling did not really blow us away – it was kind of boring! The dipping sauce was great though and by this stage we had all commented that the sauces were so far, so good!

Soy marinated soft shelled crab with sansho pepper and sesame dressing
Not good. Crab was overcooked and dry and the batter was flavourless. A really disappointing dish.

Dumplings filled with sweet potato, carrot and shiitake, sprinkled with black sesame
These were yummy dumplings and we all liked them. Again, 4 dumplings to share on a table of 3 is not ideal! And we waited a good ten minutes between the crab and this last portion of dumplings to come out. A strange way to present small sharing plates for sure.

Overall, we were pretty disappointed. We paid $40 each, which included a 15% tip and a bottle of wine, so we felt it was good value in some ways. But the food was a big let down, especially when there is so much great Japanese around Melbourne. The staff were very friendly, but if we decided to go back again (unlikely) we would ask for dishes to come out at the same time and also specify the order in which they arrive.

I think next time we will try the Japanese place next to the Espy – a friend went there last week and raved about it. I don’t even know what it’s called! But that will perhaps be our next Japanese place on the list.

Ale Stars at the Local Taphouse

Well, this blog is rapidly morphing into a place for us to upload anything to do with food or drink we feel is interesting… So its probably time I wrote about my experience of being an “Ale Star”, a beer club that is run out of The Local Taphouse in St Kilda East.



I’ve been going there for a few years now and hazellee and I (gammagum) are both members. This means we pay an annual membership fee, and end up at the local once a month for a beer tasting, as well as getting an Ale Stars shirt and beer mug, with our own little locker to keep it in! Cute!

These monthly catch ups are usually pretty memorable… although of course there has been a few that I struggle to remember at all! But mainly it’s a line up of interesting beers and speakers, with great company and a real community feel to it. If you want more info, check out the Taphouse’s blog here



So to our last session - Tuesday night! This month, we had a visit from the Beer Ambassadors, three guys who went off to the States with a mission to visit 25 craft breweries in 25 days. Here’s what the Local had to say:

“The craft beer scene in the US leads the way in many regards when it comes to innovation and experimentation. Here in Australia we’re playing catch up fast but still regard ourselves to be several years behind the US market acceptance of craft beer, consumer uptake and brewer confidence. The Beer Ambassadors, not content to take the word of others, made the trip to the US themselves to experience craft beer at its burgeoning best. The Ambassadors set themselves the task of visiting 25 breweries in 25 days to discover as much about the US scene as they could and return with their livers intact. The following beers represent some of the diversity in beer styles they encountered.”

We tried 4 beers (plus I had a few sneaky ales between tasters) and here’s what we thought of them! You should note that we are not brewers and we don’t have a very functional understanding of how beer is produced. But we love to try new styles and encourage all wine/beer drinkers to do the same!

Lagunitas – A Little Sumpin’Sumpin’ Ale (American Wheat – 7.3%)
I should say this upfront – I am not a fan of wheat beers. Sorry. But this didn’t seem to fit as a wheat beer at all. In fact, I think I quite liked it! It smelt amazing, like it would be choc full of hops. And the taste was very crisp and malty, but bitter in its finish. It also carried a bit of sweetness and we also got a bit of citrus. But we thought that the hops started to really come through as it warmed up and also became less bitter towards the end of the glass. Lots of us commented that the one sample (maybe 100 – 150mL?) was not quite enough. Shandy (our Ale Stars leader!) said he was getting bready/wheaty flavours… but we thought you maybe needed a larger glass served a few degrees warmer to get that.

Avery – IPA (American IPA – 6.3%)
Mmm IPA, my favourite! Wait, it’s an American IPA? Even better! As you would expect, loaded with hops and smelt amazing. My only legible tasting note is the one that says ‘yum, yum, yum’ which is not particularly helpful. Apart from that, what else can I say? This was a super yummy American IPA and I would like to have a few of them in my fridge to come home to every night.

Avery – Salvation (Belgian Strong Pale Ale – 9%)
Phew. 9%!!! The smell of this one was not as pleasant as the first two tasters. I got a lot of banana on the nose, which is not my favourite in a beer, but despite this the taste was surprising. It was very smooth and almost like a tripel. This reminds me of the times we sit down at Cookie to drink some Trappist Ales – it seemed like a session ale to me and something you would sit on for a while in front of a nice, cosy fire.

Left Hand – Milk Stout (Milk Stout – 5.2%)
I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, although Shandy promptly informed us that we could expect a sweet stout. Sounds good. Then Tom from Mountain Goat told us that their Surefoot Stout also features a lactose powder, so I was keen to try it. And it is a great beer! Sometimes I find the coffee/chocolatty flavours in a really heavy stout a little overwhelming and I cant drink much. But this was like a chocolate milkshake in beer form, which I suppose on paper sounds pretty awful, but was delicious! Yum yum.

In between I has some small tasters of the Bitter & Twisted IPA from Harviestoun Brewery (UK) which was fairly average and not something I would go for again, and the Wig & Pen Velvet Cream Stout, which was delicious. What was most amazing about this beer however was the incredible colour and finish on it – the head was like velvet (hence the name!) and it carried such amazing bitter and sweet characteristics that this is another one I will need to go out and buy.

Bar Lourinha

We had planned to visit Mamasita tomorrow night, but as luck would have it, I have been forced to have an unexpected x-ray and specialist appointment to work out what's wrong with my ankle. And as a result, Mamasita will have to be postponed for a week or so as I am now broke...

But I did manage to get over to Bar Lourinha last Thursday night, for an unexpected bottle of wine, some yum food and a catch up with a few friends. Ollie has been to Bar Lourinha many times before, and hazellee wasn't with us, so it doesn't really count as our first visit, but I thought I would put up my thoughts anyway!



I had never visited before (my poor excuse is that it’s at the wrong end of the city for me – see why we needed to create this blog??!) and I had heard good things, so was looking forward to trying a few items off the menu. The girls were heading off to dinner after this, so we didn’t order much. Here’s what we had…*

Yellow tail kingfish ‘pancetta’ & lemon oil
This was beautiful – the best dish we had here by far. The fish just melted away in your mouth and it was nice and lemony, without being too oily. Yum. Could have eaten several more portions of this!

The goat special – cant remember much, except that the description featured the word ‘suckling’
The meat was full of fat, so was very sweet and tender, but probably some of it could have been trimmed away. Some of it was inedible… a few potatoes in the dish which were lacking in flavour and super boring.

Roasted mushrooms and garlic cream
These were yum, but weirdly, each tapas item was bought out one by one, so we couldn’t eat the mushrooms with anything else! We had selected this as a sort of side dish, so expected to have this with the others, but they were still good on their own.

Spiced lamb, white beans and free range egg
I can see what the recent Epicure article was talking about – why the need to specify a ‘free range egg’? Anyway it was really yummy, but nothing really amazing… until you added the coriander garnish – then it was super yummy!

*note – we didn’t take photos of the food. Ollie hates food bloggers who do that and so I just sneakily made notes under the table. But I will try and get shots next time when she’s not looking!

We also drank a bottle of rose (cant remember what it was) and they bought a good amount of bread and butter to the table – although I will comment that the bread was in two MASSIVE chunks, when there were three of us at the table? Weird.

Ended up being $45 each, which included a nice tip. We were in really early, around 5pm, so by the time we left at 7pm, there were loads of people waiting for tables. A popular place.



My opinion was that it was just ok. I am not in a hurry to go back there, but it’s a nice little place, great décor (love the horse/deer heads!) but I felt probably a bit overpriced for fairly average food.

Have you been there before? What are your thoughts?

And we’ve booked in for Cutler and Co for October 10 – stay tuned!

And so it begins...

Late one September night in 2010, a group of melbourne friends decided that we don't see nearly enough of our great city. A comment was made that we needed to go on a holiday in melbourne, to experience the food, bars and attractions it has to offer. And so a melburnian holiday was born. The three amigos (gammagum, hazellee and ollie) decided that melbourne's dining establishments would be the first we explore. And we would share our experience with the world via this blog. Welcome.

THE RULES

• Once a fortnight, we get together and head out for dinner

• The restaurant must be new to at least two of us

• We take turns to select where we go (3) then urban spoon's iphone application selects a random choice for us

• We put our review up here!

• We aim to do this for a whole year! Should end up with 26 reviews – that sounds ok right?

We're planning on starting next week with mamasita. Has anyone been there? Got any feedback of what's good to order?