Cafe Vue 401 @ St Kilda Road, Melbourne

Hello all! I apologise on my M.I.A status for the last week. It's been a crazy year end at work (and still is), and by the time I get home, all I want to do is go to bed (sometimes with no dinner!) Gasp... 

It's also the time of the year of social gatherings and Christmas celebrations... so here is a much belated post on our visit to Cafe Vue 401 on Melbourne Cup Day :)

Izakaya Den Review @ Russell Street, Melbourne

After the Taste of Melbourne this year, a bunch of bloggers and twitterers decided to pay a visit to Izakaya Den as they performed so well in the event.

The wonderful ingénue (she might choke on this a bit, so I'll add, for good measure, chotto!) author behind the blog of Blah Blog Blah did really well in organising the get together (given that I have never met her prior to this [face-to-face I mean]).

Together with a few others from blogs such as I Eat Therefore I Am, Jeroxie, Off the Spork and essJay Eats, we made a Motley Crue of food enthusiasts ready to tackle on this new frontier (okay, we had a little bit to drink prior to dinner... just a tiny bit!)

Hako Review @ Flinders Lane, Melbourne

HR ladies to eat, away we go!

KM was leaving and we had decided to pop over to Hako down the road for a farewell lunch. Busting My Chops had recommended the place as she recalled it as being worthwhile and reasonable for the price...

When we got there, we were greeted warmly and showed our seating. The place was already beginning to bustle with the lunch time crowd. We were clever and pre-ordered before hand via their online booking and by researching their menu.

Cocktail Night @ Cafe Vue, Normanby Chambers - October's 5th Element

The door that greeted our entry

When Ms Fashionista agreed to come to Melbourne for a visit, Ms Tinymouse and I were super ecstatic!!.. A GIRLY WEEKEND!!! What better task than to sit back, relax, gossip, giggle and dress up for no reason...

What better place to do that than at Cafe Vue's Cocktail Night. So I rang and booked for 3 for their October Cocktail Night, which was themed The 5th Element, to be told by a pleasant lady on the other line that unfortunately, the cafe was fully booked for that first Friday of October.

She asked if I would like to be informed if a cancellation occured, and of course I said, YES!

Fortunately, there was a cancellation and we made it!

A cute concept of using recyclable wooden utensils

We were told that the doors would open at 6.30pm and the first course would be served at 7.00pm. We arrived to see that the place was indeed filling up fast!

The menu that was present throughout the whole night

As we were seated, we were informed of the process and introduced to the concept of the Cocktail Night. Being the foodie that I was, I begin jotting down notes as each "element" was brought to us, as there was alcohol involved and I wasn't going to trust my memory on this ^_^

Water - spherification of Cairpirinha

First cocktail, representing the 'Water' element, was a bit confusing, as we were left to our own device to figure out how to drink it. Apparently 3 giggling girls could get it wrong!... We drank the shot and then had the lemon 'oyster', rather than the other way round, much to the amazement of the couple seated next to us...

As a drink, because it was a shot, this went extremely quick and I was feeling quite lightheaded! My tolerance to alcohol has pretty much gone downhill ever since I stopped working for companies that offer month end drinks :P

Tuna tataki with oyster emulsion, saltbush & edible sand

The first course that was paired with the cocktail was a delicious Tuna tataki dish. With the most delicate edible sand and oyster emulsion. I quite literally wanted to lick the plate clean! (I DID NOT, in case you were wondering!)

This dish would be my second favourite dish of the night!

Air - gin, marschino liqueur, lemon & lavender mist
Cheers to over 20 years of girly friendship!

The second 'element' arrived, a cocktail comprising gin and representing the element of 'Air'. This was our least favourite drink... it was quite bitter and neither of us finished it off... it had an interesting introduction though!

Before we were allowed to drink, there was a brief introduction, and one waitress released a lavender and lemon scented mist upon us (from a perfume bottle!)

My notes, with Ms Tinymouse's extra notes :)

By this stage, Ms Tinymouse was extremely giggly and kept succumbing to laughter at anything that was being said, much to the amusement of the lady seated next to us, whom we later discovered was a free-lance Journalist doing a piece for The Age.

Buckwheat risotto with duck egg and cranberry

The second course, was our most FAVOURITE dish of the night! Buckwheat risotto with duck egg and cranberry... second best risotto I've ever eaten (first being from Tutto Benne), actually could be one of the best.. considering the last one I had from Tutto was a complete disaster!! (Chocolate and red wine risotto, you ask me why? I'm just as confounded as you...)

The delicate balance of flavours and the crispiness of the duck (bacon) and cranberries worked really well together.

Shot courtesy of Ms Tinymouse

We took quite a lot of photos (as can be seen), with Ms Fashionista's SLR camera... which prompted one of the waiters to demand, "Okay, whose the food blogger here??!"... hence. how we found out that the lady next to us was a free lance Journo and now a Twitter acquaintance :)

The waiter was hilarious and was very friendly and chatty... just the way we like it with alcohol!

Earth - frozen peaty whisky and dark chocolate

The third 'element", Earth, was Ms Fashionista's favourite... it was a frozen cocktail (meaning ice-cream!), of whisky and dark chocolate and had a very very intense smoky essence...

Pan seared kangaroo loin with celeriac puree & cocoa soil

Paired with the Earth element, was a pan smeared kangaroo loin with celeriac puree & cocoa soil... (those tiny bits of meat at the background is speck)

The kangaroo dish came adorning paint spattered boards

When the waitress said, "Speck", I had to ask her to explain.. brain was already very slow ... I had assume she was saying that the board was speckled!... (yes yes, laugh all you want)

Arriving under cover and released with smoke!!
FIRE - cognac, fig, orange & burnt sugar

The fourth element was my favourite! And I even polished off Ms Tinymouse's cocktail (by this stage, she was drinking warm water and no alcohol)...

Representing 'Fire', this cocktail was a mix of cognac and burnt sugar (do you see why I liked it?)

Fromage - Fire Engine Red Panna Cotta with red wine gel & Squid Ink Grissini

Paired with it was an interesting dish... a cheesy panna cotta with red wine gel... those little squiggly sticks you see poking out of the panna cotta, are actually squid ink grissini, a bit tasteless, but very crunchy...

It was at this stage I caught the gentleman next to us licking his plate! The waiter (our good friend), approached him to say that we unfortunately missed the best picture of the week!

The 5th Element!!

The last element, the 5th Element, we were told to guess...

We were also told that we had to make the cocktail ourselves, by balancing the flavours provided...

Citrus, Syrup and tinctures (own made bitters)

I actually had a lot of fun... all 3 of us ended up with very different tasting drinks... and we all liked our own versions best

Reversed Floating Island

Paired with the last course, a dessert... which was a reversed floating island...

Delicious vanilla cream oozing out of the meringue shell encasing it, the dessert was sweet and was a great way to end the course.

Did you guess what the last element was?

It was ....

Creation!

It was a super fun night, filled with much chatter (we were chatting to the two tables immediately next to us and sharing notes!)

Would I return for another adventure? Most definitely... am already planning one for the girls at work for November's menu!!!

*Disclaimer: All food ratings are purely based on my own experiences and how I feel about the service, food and quality

Food/ Cuisine: Modern French
Dining Style: Cocktail and food degustation
Overall Food Rating (Based on the Dining style): 8/10
Restaurant ambiance: 7/10 (it was quite cold, and we were sitting inside the cafe!)
Service/ Attitude: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10 (5 courses, 5 cocktails for $75)

Address:
Cafe Vue
Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Tel:(03) 9691 3899

Website: http://www.vuedemonde.com.au/cafe-vue.aspx

Cafe Vue is open from
Monday to Friday 7am to 4pm and
Friday evening from 6.30pm for Cocktail Nights
* Cafe Vue does not take reservations during the day, only for
their Cocktail Nights on Friday evenings

How to get there:

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Jacques Reymond @ 78 Williams Road, Prahran

That's right.. that's me and the man himself... Jacques...

I would like to lie to say that he took a picture with me whilst I was dining at his restaurant, but as you can tell from the hair (mine)... this was taken during a Taste of Melbourne 2009...

Recently (the 28th of May to be exact), I had made a booking at the famed Jacques Reymond restaurant to celebrate the Boy and mine's 9th anniversary (a month early!)...

That's right folks... we have been together for a whopping 9 years! We've been inseparable since we were 18! Imagine that! Nearly a third of my life (!) has been spent in this relationship and I still get heart flutters when he calls me on the phone =)


Anyway, back to our dining experience... when we arrived, it was starting to drizzle (it's called raining here in Melbourne, meh)... and we were greeted at the front door by the staff smiling brightly bringing umbrella's out to shelter their guests coming in.

We were brought to our table with efficiency and seated at an area where it was non too bright... *sad face*... I was ready to throw a tantrum because I had had a long and tremendously busy day at the office and anything small would throw me... so here I was pouting like a petulant child and ready to throw a hissy fit at a 3 chef had restaurant!


The Boy said calmly, "It's up to you, but you can ask them if they would let us change tables to the brightly lit one, for your pictures"...

And I did, and with amazing alacrity and efficiency (imagine a bunch of fantastic butlers swooping in and moving you from one table to the other without you even realising it).... Note: We had already been served our complimentary bread and gougere


So as you can imagine, my mood went from 0 to 60 pretty quickly and I was already raving on how fantastic they were service wise!

Back to the meal...

As usual, the Boy had to stop me from stealing utensils/cutlery/salt and pepper grinders etc... however, having had the best butter in the world at Maze.... this didn't quite match up to that.. but it was still soft and creamy...


We were given the usual variety of bread (white and multigrain) and a bread stick called (I may be wrong, but sounds like), Ebby/Ebbie (I asked the waiter twice!)


This was served to us piping hot and it was delicious! This is known as Gougere, which is basically a Gruyere Cheese Puff (not unlike a cream puff)


The first meal of the 8 course was a lemongrass, spinach and rock lobster soup (served in a shot glass), fragrant Tiger prawn, and sweet potato and turmeric ice-cream...

We were recommended to have a sip, have a bite and have a lick (wonderful taste sensation)


The second dish was a Sandwich of spanner crab, mirin and fresh wasabi jelly, lacquered Petuna ocean trout, black bean and sweetcorn dressing


Wild Barramundi, almond and bush pepper caramel, yoghurt and black garlic, kaffir lime and lemongrass espuma (a fancy word for foam)

The Boy and I thought that this was the clear winner for the night... all the famous just went together magnificently and the caramel was just orgasmic!


This next dish, a Pekin duck (that's how it's spelt on the menu), and Harvey bay scallop, peking juices, spiced marshmallow like a crepe, tempura enoki mushrooms, ginger sesame and pandan oil

I quite liked the duck (it's a very different take on the traditional Peking duck and this dish was very similar in taste and texture to the squab dish that we had in Attica)


The dish that came next was another highlight for me... as it was highland venison like a warm carpaccio, horseradish mustard dressing, butternut pumpkin with honey and coriander oil

The venison was so tender and juicy at the same time.. I absolutely loved it!


When you go to a French restaurant, and when you see suckling pig on the menu, you expect BIG things... and having had such a fantastic meal so far, my expectations were pretty high...

So when the Western plains suckling pig and tamarind, celeriac and bitter almond, dashi apple veil, dancing bonito flakes and rosella chutney salad, and cavalo nero ( a type of cabbage, Tuscan cabbage), was served up... I was expecting BIG things

And unfortunately, this was a great disappointing dish... not only did it fail to meet expectations in terms of taste... the pig was overcooked and was dry and coarse...


On that night, we were offered an "extra" dish to be served with our last savoury dish (the suckling pig), fresh mushrooms from Mornington Peninsula, which had just been picked, served with truffle oil and thyme (extra $25)...

Being a great lover of mushrooms and not wanting to miss out on any creations that came out of the kitchen, I gladly said yes to that...

It was a tasty dish, but wasn't anything spectacular.. I enjoyed it more than the suckling pig (which is a travesty!)


However, the night was saved with the delivery of desserts upon our humble table...

Pacific Rim martini of pineapple, passionfruit and banana, liquorice ice cream and honeycomb

I did want to try sticking my finger to the bottom of the glass to try and get that last bit of pineapple, but I refrained... (I was civilised and used the dessert fork instead)


The final "official" dessert of the night was as delicious as it sounded...

Millefeuilles of chocolate: White chocolate mousse, pure Caribbean chilli ice cream, dark chocolate mousse and praline ice cream served with poached figs..

One word... ORGASMIC!


A close up shot of the chocolate with the tempered chocolate off


To finish off we had tea and coffee and petits fours





Which were, from memory, a dark chocolate truffle, macaroon, cream puff, Turkish delight and a hazelnut and chocolate (thing)...



I'd like to think we had a pleasant experience here, attended by good staff and showered with fantastic food (minus that suckling pig =( )... and we had an enjoyable and romantic anniversary!

*Disclaimer: All food ratings are purely based on my own experiences and how I feel about the service, food and quality

Food/ Cuisine: French (contemporary)
Dining Style: Fine dining
Overall Food Rating (Based on the Dining style): 9/10 (they lost that 1 important point due to the suckling pig)
Restaurant ambiance: 9/10 (I actually loved the idea of dining in a mansion, and we had a view of the front courtyard and watching the pattering of rain drops onto the fountain)
Service/ Attitude: 8.75/10
Value for money: 8/10 ($170 per person for an 8 course degustation and an extra $25 for the mushrooms)

Address:
78 Williams Road
Prahran VIC 3181

Tel: (03) 9525 2178

Fax: (03) 9521 1552

Email:dining@jacquesreymond.com.au

Website:http://www.jacquesreymond.com.au

Jacques Reymond is open
for Lunch from Thursday-Friday 12.00pm-1.30pm and
for Dinner from Tuesday-Saturday 6.30pm-9.30pm

Open Sunday and Monday by arrangement for functions

How to get there:

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Embrasse Review @ Carlton

We drove round and round and round Carlton last Sunday...because the Boy wanted to surprise me... I had no idea where we were going.. I was just hungry... and I wanted to eat!


Turns out... I was being "surprised" for a traditional French lunch at Nicolas Poelaert's Embrasse...


The Boy as usual did not make a booking and relied on his "luck" to get us a table.. Camm the front of house manager greeted us and introduced us to the traditional Sunday lunch...

Luckily for me... the main dish was to be Roast Chicken (otherwise, I would not have been able to eat)...


For starters we were given some traditional French bread with home made butter (love the rustic-ness of the presentation) served on tree bark

We were encouraged to tear the bread with our hands and enjoy!


The first course was to be Nic's, Father's Traditional French Onion Soup, served with Gruyere cheese and croutons...


The difference with this soup was that it was blitz (to remove any lumps)... I think


The Boy had fun ladling out our soup and decorating it to our own liking!


Next, we were served a beautiful salad of cous cous, quails egg, polenta, lettuce leaves, purple potatoes and pork belly (deep fried!)

This was the creamiest and melt in your mouth pork belly that I've had in a while...


There was definitely enough of this to serve two very hungry guests (especially moi!)


For the main, we had Roast Chicken, silver beet, heirloom carrot (these seem to be very popular in all the fine dining places lately), and potato croquettes


Served with Dijon mustard, tomato chutney and gravy (sauce au jus de viande)


In between the main and desserts, you can order a cheese platter (optional)... but we passed as we were getting quite full and only had enough space for the dessert

And what a dessert it was!

Rhubarb and apple tart served with chantilly cream and poached rhubarb


It was a beautifully light and sweet dessert to finish off a magnificent lunch!


To really cap it all off, we finished up with a pot each of English Breakfast tea...



Service was really good... the overall setting of the restaurant was laid back and casual (not unlike Attica).. but I don't want to compare...

We are definitely going to make a return... (twice at least... one for the ala carte experience and another for the degustation experience).

I wonder if they will think I'm mad to request a table that I sat in (it was directly under the light and the pictures turned out fantastically!)

Don't you think?

At the end of our meal as well, Chef Nic came out and smiled at us!! Wheeeeee... I love it when chefs come out at the end of the meal...!!!

*Disclaimer: All food ratings are purely based on my own experiences and how I feel about the service, food and quality

Food/ Cuisine: French
Dining Style: Fine dining restaurant
Overall Food Rating (Based on the Dining style): 8.5/10
Restaurant ambiance: 8/10 (the Boy thinks it's better than Attica!)
Service/ Attitude: 8.5/10 (We were looked after by Camm after all, who's had experience from Circa the Prince and Attica)
Value for money: 8/10 ($62 per person for the 4 courses)

Address:
312 Drummond Street
Carlton VIC 3053

Tel:(03) 9347 3312

Email: info@embrasserestaurant.com.au

Website:http://www.embrasserestaurant.com.au

Embrasse is open
everyday except Monday and Tuesday
Brunch: Sunday 9.30am-2.00pm
Lunch: Thursday - Saturday from noon
Dinner: Wednesday - Sunday from 6.30pm

How to get there:

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