Archive for the ‘Melbourne’ Category
V Rating: VVVVV Entering the Moroccan Soup Bar [MSB] often requires two attempts- hungry eaters beware! The first attempt almost always involves opening the door to be met by a waitress shaking her head- you want a table? No worries, come back in an hour (if you’re lucky)*. But when you enter the second time, with the confident swagger of a diner who has a table waiting for you and your posse, it becomes clear very quickly that a table at MSB is well worth the wait. As one of a cast of ‘Melbourne Institutions’ MSB is one of those places I’ve always meant to go to since I returned to the Victorian capital. Two and a half years later, here I am with my best friend, another good friend and my best friend’s new girlfriend who I was meeting for the first time. It was a night of ‘firsts’ and all were excellent. MSB produces Moroccan-inspired vegetarian food- and it’s not always (in fact, I’m informed, not often) soup. The style and presentation of the food reflects the décor- warm and comforting with minimal fuss. The atmosphere is vibrant and noisy- it feels like your sitting at someone’s kitchen table, eating off the everyday mismatched crockery rather than the ‘good china’. The decoration is eclectic- on one side the wall is filled with shelves that hold various Moroccan-style vases, jugs and crockery. The room is brightly painted in deep shades of brown, red, aqua-green- they reverberate the warmth generated in this busy restaurant. A small glass of mint tea arrives as soon as you’re seated. It is warm and refreshing- with more bite to it than I expected. Then owner Hana Assafiri arrives. She is a slight yet commanding presence in this small restaurant- she definitely runs the show. She offers us the choice of the spoken menu (there is no written menu to peruse) or the $16.50 banquet that includes entrée, mains, coffee and sweets. Food allergies and intolerances are catered for- Assafiri checks with us if these are an issue. The banquet is recommended as the most economical option and we opt for it. We’ve also arrived unexpectedly during Assafiri’s crusade to ensure people are educating themselves and thinking about issues bigger than the immediate desire to satiate our appetites. Of four of us, two have seen An Inconvenient Truth. They are to dine for free she informs us. It’s a policy that may run her out of business- one night last week she had a restaurant full of people who had all seen it. Within two minutes the entrée arrives. A plate of flat, warm pide arrives, carved in big triangles for us to enjoy with the platter of dips and other goodies that are placed in the centre of the table. The platter includes house-made hummus, marinated carrots, olives and a cauliflower dip. It’s a generous serve and once you’ve begun it’s difficult to stop. Self-control is essential here. Around fifteen minutes later the mains arrive- all at once they are placed in the middle of the table. The banquet. Tonight’s banquet includes lentil dhal with saffron rice and a vegetable stew with spicy vegetable rice. The stew has a rich tomato-base with large chunks of carrot and zucchini through it and a little bit of heat and spice to warm us up. There is also a chick pea bake which two of my companions familiar with MSB meet with delight. It is a dish made with just-cooked chick peas (another reminder why preparing chickpeas from scratch is so much better than those from the can), slivered almonds and spices with tahini and yoghurt to bind it together. To add to the texture of the dish there are crunchy pieces of baked and crumbled oven-baked flat bread (pide) through it. Delicious. The food is generous and presented in a way that celebrates a way of eating that is about sharing good food and eating together. Much later after we have eaten more than we needed, sweets arrive. They consist of a small plate of delights (including a slice with a crushed pistachio-centre) served with a traditional cardamom coffee. They are ‘sweet’ in the subtle way of Middle Eastern treats. A perfect way to conclude a hearty meal. The MSB is an experience for any occasion (although be warned that it isn’t licensed) - the banquet can cater from two to a room full of people and the menu changes frequently. If you’re looking for somewhere informal, relaxed and intimate- MSB will hit the spot. *Luckily three doors down is a very cosy bar, Deco, where you can pass the time in a deep lounge chair, a comfortable couch or around one of the small tables that are placed through the main bar. Drinks from the bar include a range of imported and local beers and a small selection of Australian wines by the glass.
V Rating: Super V Reasons for my excitement are enumerated as follows (I am doing it this way cos otherwise this post will turn into babbling food-related happiness) 1. It’s on Degraves St, which is one of my favourite of Melbourne’s cafe alleyways, coming off one of my favourite of Melbourne’s shopping lanes (Flinders Lane). 2. The food is, good, interesting, quick and affordable. It is also organic and largely vegetarian in combinations that I can handle (i.e. not everything has eggplant in it, and tomato is not a substitute for innovative spices which it often is in vegetarian cooking) 3. They have sourdough PIES, my friends. PIES full of mushrooms and tofu, or if you like, a vegetarian shepherd’s pie made from a wholemeal pastry. PIES. 4. The sandwiches come on a range of different breads, none of them white. I was very happy with my spelt bread sandwich with salad, tuna and soy herb mayo. 5. There is a range of food combinations to suit pretty much anyone’s food allergies or detox diets (mine included). They have wheat free, gluten free, sugar free, you name it. However I tried one of the sugar and wheat free apple and cinnamon muffins and it sadly wasn’t that good. I think the problem with muffins is that they kind of need something to soak up all the sugar replacement pear juice. But the vegan chocolate fudge is good according to all reports. 6. They do the all important LSD (latte soy dandelion). Las Chicas in Carlisle St, Balaclava still do the best, followed by Bare Pear (CBD). But TOFWD are now in third place. 7. They also sell their own range of organic wholefoods and products, like flours, sauces, jams, pasta, wines. 8. TOFWD naturally has a good selection of salads too. I am still getting through the deli goods though (like you know, the PIES), lost in the excitement of being able to eat them! Triple thumbs up for this little cafe. Go there go there GO THERE!
V Rating: VVVV This is a tres groovy restaurant. I am not sure but I think the inside of the restaurant must have been designed to maximise the sound system, what with all the angled timber and oval shaped slits in the ceiling and the speakers sending out some of my favourite toons to waft around me. The door is tucked away in a corner of Level 3 of Melbourne Central - a black, wooden affair which slides open as you approach, admitting you to the world of SOS. Down the black and timber gold corridor and you enter into the restaurant proper, passing a stylised forest on one side. The walls are tastefully covered with the repeated image of the Napoleon Bee, which I think is the insect which Darwin first used as an example of his natural selection theory (but this brainwave factoid visited me after three hours of dining, so I am most likely cleverly wrong about it - at first I have to admit I wondered out loud why the moniker of such a chic restaurant was a squashed fly). Ok and now to the food. The restaurant’s menu philosophy is based on sustainability, so the only things on offer are sustainable vegetables and fish dishes - no red meat, no chooks. The vegetables are unique and beautifully combined. As a fish eating vegetarian who doesn’t do dairy, I was pretty punchdrunk happy with the menu. I had the calamari with pea puree and squid ink sauce for entree, and the goldband snapper served with zucchini flowers, vongole and oak leaves. Mmmmm. The straight vegetarian options were also appealing (I was going through a protein day so stuck to the seafood, but otherwise the risotto or cannellini ragu with ricotta gnocchi balls would have been MINE). Overall, I enjoyed the experience. There was something a bit new and off-puttingly expensive about the place - some part of me still thinks that eco friendly should also be generally affordable in order to be truly morally OK. But the excellent food turned a work lunch into an enjoyable afternoon.
V rating: VV ‘Bare Pear’ opened three months ago near the corner of Queen and Bourke Streets. It has a short but carefully designed menu of sandwiches using organic meat and vegetables and cheeses, breakfast muesli and toasts and a lunch special of soup (generally something vegetarian - today’s were tomato and bean or pumpkin, broccoli, lentil and spice) and a slice of sourdough bread for $4.90. Sandwiches are in the range of $6-8, which is pretty standard in the CBD. They use Bonsoy, which is the best tasting soy milk around as well as being, you guessed it, organic. They also offer muffins and organic coffee which people actually seem to drink and like (I am no coffee aficionado but am a reasonably well, if self-taught, people watcher). One of the muffins they offer has no gluten or added sugar. It is apple and cinnamon. I tried it and it was somewhat mushy - I was not keen on the texture, but the concept is good! So if you are looking for a healthy alternative at a reasonable price in the city, try it out. I am giving it a VV rating.
V Rating: VV Look, we’d been out for beers in a largish group and wanted some food, okay? We wanted somewhere close and simple and Blue Train was at least close. Their website describes the ambiance thus:
Spew. They were right about the delay but “comfy and funky lounge area” is stretching it a bit. When we were finally shown to a table I was starting to get a bit edgy about the awful noise of 200 drunken “young professionals” and “funky young things” shouting to each other across tables. But enough about my grumpy nature. The food was adequate. Veggie choices are restricted to a dahl, a pasta, a risotto, a few salads and a couple of pizzas. The menu was so boring I’m running out of motivation to type. I had the pumpkin, fetta, leek, pine nuts and roquette pizza which was okay. Somebody else had the mushroom, spinach, sage and marscapone pizza. It was okay. Ugh. Go if you must, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Reviewed 21 July ‘06, SDEB.
V Rating: VVV I’m a bit of a newcomer to Japanese since I always believed it to be a vegetarian nightmare, what with all that fish and stuff. But after being dragged to a Japanese restaurant for a friend’s birthday last year I’ve been Japanese food’s biggest fan. Recently I’ve been bugging my wife to try out the couple of Japanese restaurants down the road and Iku Yakitori was our first target. There’s a great range of veggie fare available, with the many smaller dishes looking so appealing that on the next visit I might order a bunch of them, Tapas like, instead of a main. But this time, how could I go past the vegetarian banquet, which for $24 per person was outstanding value. First. A steaming bowl of miso soup to soothe those winter chills. Second. Organic tofu with spring onion, chili powder, ginger and soy sauce, with a seaweed salad. Third. A tofu-wrapped rice ball and a plate of sushi. Fourth. Scrumptious vegetarian dumplings. Fifth. Grilled skewers of mushroom and eggplant. Sixth. Green tea ice cream (although, this was replaced the night I was there with red bean ice cream — yummy!) Phwoooar… So full now I can barely finish my second beer. But the smallish room with the smells of cooking all around make it the perfect place to let a great meal settle before heading off home in the rain. The filthy carnivores looked happy with their food too, so, everyone’s a winner. Reviewed 28 May ‘06, SDEB.
V Rating: VVV Most Melburnians are a little bit wary of the famous Lygon Street Italian restaurant strip, what with its tourist crush, generally underwhelming food and relentless spruikers. But thankfully Trotters is way up the other end of the street, out of the sight of tourists and really only known to locals. It is also ideally situated a few doors up from the Nova cinema, perfect for that pre-film dinner and glass of wine. I’ve been to Trotters once before and didn’t even look at the menu. On the specials board was polenta with roast vegetables and napoli sauce. Sold! No, sir, I will not need the menu. And an excellent meal it was. So last night, before seeing Where The Truth Lies (great flick, by the way), we dropped into Trotters and I was keen to see just what kind of V-Rating this place deserved. I was pleasantly surprised. The regular menu contains four veggie options: pumpkin and pea risotto, spinach & ricotta ravioli in an arrabbiata sauce, polenta with eggplant, napoli and roquette, and a lentil burger on turkish with hommous. In addition, the specials board always contains a veggie option — five decent vegetarian meals to choose from ain’t bad. With the prices for these meals ranging from between $12 to $14 it’s good value too. I chose last night’s special — linguine with broccoli, tomato and garlic ($12.80) — and didn’t regret it. Al dente pasta tossed with a generous offering of broc and tomato in olive oil and just the right amount of garlic. You know, you want that great garlic taste but you’ve also got to go out and face the public after the meal. My wife went for the polenta and was also impressed. The servings aren’t huge but they are sufficient, the wine is quite good for $5 glasses, and the restaurant’s small, warm, dim and welcoming wooden interior definitely makes the meal more pleasant. If you’ve got interstate visitors who are begging to go to Lygon Street, take them to Trotters. If you live in Melbourne then here is a legitimate reason to dine on Lygon Street south of Cemetery Road. Reviewed 20 May 2006, SDEB |
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