Address:  500 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia

Website: www.movida.com.au

Telephone number: (03) 9663 3038

Date of visit: 18 January 2011

Price guide: From about A$20 per head

Comments on wine and beer: extensive list of wine and beer.

Cuisine: Spanish with a twist

Exchange rate: A$1 = £0.65

Summary:

There are 3 branches of Movida. 2 situated in Hosier Lane – a back street full of graffiti – and the original – Movida Aqui – on Bourke Street (entry via little Bourke Street).

From Little Bourke Street you have to climb outside steps to get to the first floor where the restaurant is housed. There is a huge outdoor dining area and a strange indoor area.

The indoor area is divided into two parts – one side is with normal tables and chairs, the other side has high tables and stools. The bar which is “traditional” looking is sited between the two areas. Two sides of the restaurant is surrounded by glass windows – end to end.

I first came across Movida some three years ago when I bought their cook book in the UK. I have since found that this place is listed in all food guides.

Lets start with the wine list, there is a mix of Spanish, Australian and various international wines. The best value ones are the sparkling wines – cava and Aussie sparkling. In the Spanish section, they have Pingus and Le Fleur Pingus but no Vega Sicilia or Valbouna. The 2 Pingus wines are both 2007 and priced at $1200 plus for the main wine and just under $300 for the Le Fleur. Not only are these crazy prices but the wines probably needed to be cellared for another 5 years before it matures.

The food here is described as Spanish but  other than the jamon, everything else has an Aussie twist applied to it.

Three Jamones (50g portions) are on offer: Serrano  $15, Paletilla Iberico $28.50 and Iberico $50. Three Arroces are also on offer: Paella de Marisco $50, Arroz Negro $58, and Arroz Caldoso $40. The portions are described as Grande – enough for 2-4 people.

There are also several a la plancha dishes all at just over $21.

I went for the Tapas Clasicas. I had Achoa ($4.5), Bomba ($6.5), Bocadillo De Calamares ($6.5) and Sardina ($4.5). The Achoa was a slice of marinated anchovy on crouton with a smoked tomato sorbet on top. This was quite nice. The salty anchovy and the tomato worked well together. The downside was that the sorbet was ice cold. The Bomba was a slice of chorizo sausage, surrounded by mash potato, bread crumbed and deep fried – they claim that it is a Catalan dish but I have never come across anything like it in Barcelona. In Italy it tends to be mozzarella cheese surrounded by risotto rice. The Bomba was ok but the chorizo was a small piece so you only get a smear of sausage when you open up the Bomba. The Bocadillo was a round crusted bun stuffed with deep fried calamari, mayonnaise   and a thin slice of pepper. The sardine was served as a piece of warm fillet over a slice of tomato and a piece of toast.  All this was washed down with a bottle of  Australian Sparkling wine ($48).

The overall experience was “interesting” but not a great meal. However, it is good value for money. The service was good and bad. The wines were “centralised” off the table – probably because the tables are small. The waitress I had was excellent but she was managing 6 tables and I had to ask for my glass to be refilled. Another point, they are very heavy on the salt here – from the bread to the food.

E

Address:  205 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia

Website: http://www.westin.com.au/melbourne/

Telephone number: (03) 9635 2222

Date of visit: 13-19 January 2010

Price guide: Bar meals (Lobby) from A$12 onwards, Allegro (first floor) @ A$30 for a main course, set meal (pre-theatre) A$ 50 for 2 courses

Comments on wine and beer: Beer from A$7.50. Wines from A$40 per bottle and wine by the glass from A$9.

Cuisine: Modern Australian

Exchange rate: A$1 = £0.65

Summary:

I am staying at the Westin for the one day international (cricket) and the Australian Open (tennis).

The Westin is situated near City Sq on Collins. There are plenty of cafes and wine bars near the hotel but overall, the hotel offers better service at nearly the same price.

Allegro

This is the main and only restaurant in the Melbourne Westin. It is on the first floor. Very modern, spacious with black wood  tables spaced apart.

For breakfast, the buffet cost $38 which includes, cereals, breads and pastries, fruits, cold meats and an array of hot dishes from bacon to bake beans. Eggs are cooked to order. On the other hand, a cooked breakfast from cafes around here costs from  $12.50 to $17.50 and coffee is around $3. If you want fruit and cereal, you can easily add another $10. The downside of all cafe breakfast is that they offer Australian beef sausages which are pretty awful. The upside is that the coffee – long black (a diluted espresso and flat white [long black with milk] is far superior to the awful stuff that The Westin dishes out.

For dinner one night, I had the pizza bread – one half with tomato puree and the other half with garlic butter ($7) as a starter. It was ok. The pizza base was very thin but it was not crisp. For main, I had the wild mushroom risotto ($28) which was sensational. The rice was moist and not soupy. I noticed they also offer risotto with duck’s breast for $38.

The Bar

They serves food and drink from around 10am till late.

The bar menu offers beer, wines by the glass, cocktails etc

The bar meals here are sensational. Everything I had was good. I had the club sandwich  ($19.5), the courgette chips ($12) and smoke salmon pizza ($21) – on different days.

The club sandwich has the usual chicken, ham, lettuce, tomato and a fried egg. The courgette chips were chunky chips size, battered and served with a light mayonnaise. The smoke salmon pizza, was served with a rocket salad and the smoked salmon still slightly raw – must have been placed on the pizza after it was cooked.

The lobby is a great atrium with a balcony overlooking City Square with the Cathedral on one side and the City Hall on the other. Oh, by the way the Wi-Fi in the lobby is free.

In my view this place offers great food at a reasonable price.

E

Address:  17 Market Lane, Melbourne, Australia

Telephone number: (0p3) 9662 3655

Website: www.flower-drum.com

Date of visit: 14 January 2010

Price guide: Expect to pay above A$60 a head

Comments on wine and beer: Very extensive list with wines mainly from Australia, New Zealand, France and Italy. A few bottles are available under $100

Cuisine: Cantonese

Exchange rate: A$1 = £0.65

Summary:

I was reading the Quantus in-flight magazine and came across an article from Neil Perry (Rockpool) about the 10 best dishes – around the world – he ate in 2010. Neil recommended the drunken (and roast)  squab at the Flower Drum in Melbourne. So, when I got here, I booked a table.

The restaurant (started in 1975) used to be based in Little Bourke St and has now moved round the corner onto Market Lane. As I got to the restaurant, I noticed that the Chinese name for Flower Drum is Ten Thousand Birthdays Palace.

Entry is via a red door in Market Lane, you then take the lift to the first floor with a room decorated in red and black with tables well spaced apart – approx 2 meters plus between tables. I have never ever encountered such generous used of space in a restaurant.

Around the space where lift is housed, the wall is plastered with hundreds of awards and accolades.

The menu is in English and there are two set meals  – $175 for 6 courses and $99 for 4 courses. The a la carte dishes range from around $18 onwards.

The restaurant manager claimed that Peking Duck is their speciality ($18 for 2 portions). That is a bit strange as the restaurant also claimed  to specialise in Cantonese Cuisine. Any way, I went for it. It came as two very meaty pieces of roast duck breasts – each piece must be around ¼ of a breast. It was rolled up in a pancake with scallions and cucumber with a smear of hoisin sauce in front of you.  Now Peking duck (crispy duck is a british invention – based on aromatic fried duck. The real aromatic crispy duck  does not come with pancakes and hoisin sauce) is normally sliced thin and you eat it for its crispy skin rather than the flesh. In fact the skin of my piece of duck was not particularly crispy and I suspect that they are using de-boned Cantonese roast duck.

I then had the roast squab ($46)- served with a pepper and salt dip as well as a bowl of lemon juice. This was pretty good and it turned out to be a heavily marinated whole bird. It was meaty and moist and very tasty. I also had the chicken with ginger ($26). This was also ok from a taste point of view but I found the chicken pieces too large – I preferred it julienne size.

The mixed fried rice ($18) was very good. They used Japanese sticky rice which makes it chewy. The prawns in the rice were again big pieces – size of a piece of chocolate. Do they have a thing about big pieces of meat in Melbourne?

I also managed to find a 2004 Knights Cabernet Sauvignon at $59 which turned out to be very drinkable.

My overall impression was good but this is not “kosher” Chinese Food. There is a wave of these restaurants around the world that has adjusted Chinese food to a more western approach (not quite fusion), improving the level of service  as well as hiking the price up to a Michelin Star standard. By the way, service was exceptional here!

E

Address:  21 Bond Street, Melbourne, Australia

Telephone number: (03) 9629 5900

Website: www.mahabg.com.au

Date of visit: 13 January 2011

Price guide:  from $75 for 4 courses – each one with multiple dishes. Wine paring starts at £55

Comments on wine and beer: Extensive list with Ch Musar  1981 at $750.

Cuisine: Middle Fusion

Exchange rate: A$1 = £0.65

Summary:

I wanted to go to Alba – a well known Lebanese Restaurant in Carlton which has been operating for nearly 40 years. However it was shut and the concierge at the Westin recommended Maha.

Maha is part of the Press Club Group operated by George Calombaris. He operates restaurants which are completely different in the style of the cuisine – Greek, Australian, Middle East etc.

The restaurant is housed in a basement with black furniture and soft lights – no table clothes!

The menu was really strange and I have to admit that it is the first  time in my life that I have no idea what the menu meant even though it is in English. He waitress was very good and tried to explain it but all I hear was multiple strange ingredients. I went for the 4 course Soufra – you can have up to eight!

I was offered a cold hisbiscus teas as a freebie – all I can taste was sugar – to start with.

Next came 5 cold starters – a kofta meat ball in a shot glass covered in yoghurt and deep fried onions, a small plate of gigantes beans, a red pepper paste, hummus and some aubergine paste.

Next came the second course of a stuffed c hicken wing (de-boned) and a dumpling. Both were filled with minced lamb and the flavouring was similar to the filling inside a keema nan.

For main course, I had lamb shoulder slow cooked with green olives, pilaf rice, a very thick yogurt paste with olive oil and a piece of salmon.

Next came the dessert. This consisted of a piece of chocolate cake with pomegranate seeds, a glass of spicy “truffle” and a deep fried donut with a piece of Turkish Delight within.

All this was washed down witha bottle of 2006 Rusden Driftsand (Shizar blend)

The service was good and bad. They have this awful habit of keeping your wine off the table but then they didn’t have enough staff so you have to catch someone’s attention and ask for the glass to be refilled. I got so fed up that I demanded that they leave the bottle after waiting 10 minutes to get my glass refilled.

I am not sure whether I like or dislike the food.  It was like eating sweet and sour pork, beef in black bean sauce with noodles and rice at the same time – some people obviously like it as judged by the fa ct that the place was full and many seem to be regular customers.

By the way, I held a verticle Musar tasting in Oct last year. The 1981 was light and very much on its last leg. On the other hand, the 1983 was absolutely fantastic and still has bags of life.

E

Address: Basement 115-117 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia

Telephone number: +61 3 9639 1553

Website: www.fifteenmelbourne.com.au

Date of visit: 15 July 2010

Approximate cost per head: A$ 50 plus for 2 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: N/A

Summary:

Judging by the media coverage and hype that this place opened up to, it appears that Jamie Oliver’s celebrity status is no less down under than it is in the UK. His books are best-sellers down here, and his toothy grin adorns billboards and TV screens across the country on what feels like an alarming frequency.

The restaurant concept here is no different to the other ‘Fifteens’ in existence (this one being the fourth opening after Hoxton in London, Amsterdam and Watergate Bay in Cornwall. The principle being that the restaurant offers apprenticeship opportunities in catering and hospitality to disadvantaged young people. The restaurants then seek to raise awareness of the importance of nutritious food and cooking. 

It’s an admirable cause, and it’s one than I am happy to support, yet I’m still not convinced that it works. This was my third Fifteen experience, having previously dined at the original estabishment in London, and then Cornwall. My issue is not about the concept, or even the food, but it’s the service – or lack of it judging by my experiences – that let’s it down.

Taking a group of essentially young kids, most of whom have never cared one jot about service and delivery and then teach them the benefits of nutrition and eating well, that’s fine. But serving people, showing empathy and customer understanding are interpersonal skills that generally come about as a consequence of education, discipline or breeding. And on my evidence I’ve just not seen it. Front of house is usually fine and welcoming, and you are shown to your table (or seat at the communal dining bar in my recent Melbourne visit), and then it starts to go downhill. I ask for a beer which comes quickly, then wait for what seems an eternity before eventually attracting someones attention just to ask for a menu!

The menu follows the Fifteen formula of half-a-dozen dishes in each of three sections, antipasti, primi and secondi. Antipasti and primi dishes are priced around $20 each (approx 14 GBP), while secondi mains are priced around $35 (approx 23 GBP). I order a Yellowfin Tuna starter ‘prepared three ways’, followed by a Jerusalem artichoke risotto with Hervey Bay scallops crisp pancetta and sorel cress. To accompany I order a glass of Grosset Watervale Riesling – to be served with my main course.

The tuna starter arrives fairly promptly, and comprises tartare, bresaola and carpaccio. The bresaola is very dry and too salty, thankfully I still had some beer to wash it down with. The carpaccio was delicious, and the tartare beautifully prepared, so two-out-of-three not bad.

I then wait, and wait, and wait for my main. Even the belated arrival of the white wine wasn’t accompanied or immediately followed any food. I ask politely what has happened to my main. Not my original server, always a mistake. Clearly the message didn’t register. I ask what looks like a more important apprentice. As my seat is close to the openview kitchen I can see an agitated discussion taking place, clearly my order has not been made. No apology, just an offer of more bread. Close to an hour after my starter the risotto arrives straight from the hob, still steaming. Sadly the wait wasn’t rewarded with a worthwhile flavour experience. The risotto was ok, but that’s all I could say about it, it wasn’t well seasoned, quite bland in fact, although the crispy pancetta was nice and the scallop nicely caramelised.

A strong coffee followed, along with the bill. Again no apology for the slow service, so despite admiration for the cause and my normally charitable nature I decide not to add a tip. I left disappointed, just as I had the first time in London, and for the very same reason. Cornwall had built my belief back up after a lovely dinner there with my wife and a couple of good friends. Fifteen Melbourne has got me all confused again! Sorry Jamie, but this wasn’t pukka!

Paul Plant

Address: 40-44 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 3000,Victoria, Australia

Telephone number: +61 3 9671 3151

Website: www.longrain.com.au

Date of visit: 14 July 2010

Approximate cost per head: N/A

Comments on wine list/beer: N/A

Executive chef: Martin Boetz

Summary:

From business lunch to business dinner, only this time a little less formal, more like an after-work ‘beer and a bite’ catch-up instead of any deep and detailed discussions around strategy and tactics etc.

Thankfully the offices I am working in are centrally located, and downtown Melbourne offers the diner a smorgasboard of cuisine choices from pretty much anywhere on the planet. If anything there is a bias towards Asian/Pacific flavours with Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese among the more prolific. Tonight we opt for the popular and highly-rated Longrain, which describes itself as a contemporary Thai/Asian restaurant.

The ‘hip and welcoming’ restaurant fills a 100-year-old converted warehouse smack in the middle of Melbourne’s Chinatown. The space is expansive, with a large island bar surrounded by both long and circular communal tables intended to offer ‘banquet-style’ dining (their words not mine). Like many Asian restaurants, and also many other non-Asian restaurants in Melbourne, the emphasis here is on sharing, the intention being that you each order something different, then share the taste experience, ensuring a correct balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet flavours.

So what of the food? Starter choices were limited to just three: oysters, or two variations of betel leaf, one topped with smoked trout chilli roasted gallangal garlic and trout roe, or prawn peanuts mint and chilli paste. There were three of us dining and while one went for the trout, two went for the prawn. Wow! What an explosion of flavour on the palate. I chose the betel leaf with prawn, which was ‘gone in 60 seconds’ – a true taste sensation, and so good we immediately ordered another. At approx 4 GBP a mouthfull however we reluctantly declined the chance to order more.

Abiding by the sharing mantra, we each chose a different main dish, ending up with a fish, pork and duck combination, accompanied by rice, sticky long grain of course. Our dishes came out from the open-view kitchen in reverse order, beginning with a salad of braised duck with sweet fish sauce pomelo ginger and flat leaf coriander, shortly followed by twice-cooked suckling pig with squid ginger and chilli salad. All conversation stopped – this food was far too good to interrupt! Then came the fish, a red curry of ruby snapper with baby corn thai basil and fried shallots, the sticky rice proving an excellent sponge for the red curry sauce.

Judging by the lack of chat and the speed with which the plates were emptied, I concluded that my two dining partners had found the food as tasty and satisfying as myself. We took little persuading to carry on with a sampler plate of the restaurants sweet dishes, and boy were they sweet!

It’s the one thing about Asian cuisine, the desserts rarely match the breadth of flavours and textures that one typically enjoys in say a decent French or Italian eaterie. That doesn’t mean that what we were served in Longrain was disappointing, however you did need to like coconut (included in four of the six), and have a very very sweet tooth. In truth the puddings were fascinating creations, but to have included some sharpness or palate cleansing morsels would have been a better conclusion for me.

The meal was washed down with ice cold Kirin and Sapporo beer, and surprisingly for an Asian restaurant the coffee was beautifully roasted and rich.

Overall, a superb meal, innovative menu, beautifully presented food, with wonderful flavours, and very attentive but not over-the-top service. I would definitely recommend.

Paul Plant

Address: 80 Bourke Street,Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia

Telephone number: +61 3 9662 1811

Website: www.grossi.com.au

Date of visit: 13 July 2010

Approximate cost per head:  N/A

Comments on wine list/beer: N/A

Summary:

Whilst on business in Melbourne I was fortunate enough to be taken to lunch at what is widely considered by the local food afficionados as the city’s quintessential Italian restaurant.

Located in the Central Business District (CBD), in the vibrant Bourke Hill Precinct, close to Chinatown, the restaurant endures an iconic local and country-wide reputation. Followers of the Australian food scene together with celebrities, captains of business and visiting dignitaries jostle for a table in order to enjoy the fabulous food and enduring Italian Hospitality served up by celebrity chef Guy Grossi and his expertly organised team.

The service is slick yet unhurried, conscious that some business diners do have to return to their desks in the afternoon, although there were plenty of diners around us who clearly had no such intention. The menu offers a broad range of options across as many courses as you have time, appetite or budget for. For us it was just entrees and mains, which was plenty for a business lunch.

The homebaked grissini and breads, served with beautifully aromatic olive oil soon got the tastebuds worked up in anticipation for my starter of oxtail risotto. The portion was a decent size – it could have easily satisfied many people as a main course, however it set me up perfectly for my main of grilled crispy-skin hapuka with braised shallots and salsa, served with a side of steamed spinach. Hapuka is a member of the grouper family and is common to the waters of New Zealand. It has beautiful white flesh and a flavour not too dissimilar to sea bass, although the cut is slightly thicker. The skin was delightfully crispy, almost a fishy equivalent of pork crackling, and the salsa accompaniment really worked well.

We accompanied the meal with a deliciously refreshing South Australian Riesling (sorry, but the name escapes me), deliciously dry yet with plenty of depth and nice, clean fruit.

I wasn’t paying the bill, yet from a glance at the menu the prices, whilst not extortionate, suggest that this is somewhere you come to celebrate, to reward yourself, to impress, or just to pay homage to a chef with an obvious passion for excellence. The restaurant prides itself on its sustainability philosophy, together with a commitment to source best ingredients produced by like-minded local suppliers. There was plenty of Italian flair and technique on show, accompanied with some nice innovative touches.

Definitely a place to return to, only next time I fear I might be the one who’s paying!

Paul Plant

PS The restaurant is open from 7.30 till late