Snow Pony, Balwyn by Big Fil

She looked like she had done herself up nicely, touched up her roots and applied a bit of lippy. No not Snooze, my breakfast companion for the day, but the blonde haired ruby lipped filly that sat atop the entrance to Snow Pony. Actually, on the other hand that just does sound a little like Snooze....


Anyway, Snow Pony is part of the same stable as a couple of other fleet footed thoroughbreds, Porgie and Mr Jones and Friends of Mine. Similarities in style betray that they obviously share a common racing philosophy, not surprising given they share the same stylish trainers. At least three very different yards in which to sit and dine, a modern Melbourne cafe at the front, a plush more old world room towards the back and an outdoor courtyard, complete with dressmakers dummy and red wicker light fittings.



After looking at the menu the odds of our breakfasts being good appeared to be short-priced chances without necessary being odds on winners. The form guide listed a few long time punter favourites towards the bottom of the page but we decided to go with a couple of horses we liked the look of, a well bred cheese toastie and a porridge that looked well suited for a run on a wet and cold morning.

Feeling my oats I chose to ride Flip Skelton’s five grain porridge, baked quince, pomegranate seeds and candied walnuts on my silks. The grains were light but filling, perfect to ensure that you have the energy for a hard days riding. The baked quince added some flavour to the feed, and the pomegranate and candied walnuts ensured that the track remained soft but not dead.


The racing colours for the herb and cheese toastie included an eggplant kasundi and bacon. The toastie was quite a majestic stallion standing several hands high. The bacon was obviously a quality addition to the field and the kasundi ensured that the towards the end of the race the dish did not lag but had the tangy flavours to push on in the race for the line.


Given we were obviously in the money after the first couple of races we decided to turn it into a quadrella through the addition of a couple of breakfast desserts. Our pick for the third was Millionaire’s Shortbread, ridden by salted caramel, dark chocolate and a streak of gold leaf. Unfortunately I think we were just out of the money here, with the weight of the caramel and dark chocolate a bit much for such a small horse to carry.


For the last of the day we decided to cheer on a lemonade scone, with jam and Chantilly cream. While the jam and cream originally looked a bit overmatched given the size of the horse they were riding it turned out to be perfectly judged. The only issue, the scone itself appeared to crumble just before the line resulting in a solid placing rather than an outright win.

The day's racing
While without the pedigree of say Black Caviar the food here is obviously capable of streaking the field at most courses. The stands were pleasant and interesting places to sit, although they did seem to be rather full by the time we were looking to leave. And the bookies taking the orders and delivering the winnings of our fellow punters were obviously keen to put on a good show. My only issue is they could have maybe offered better odds on some of the horses.

The payout
Food – 8
Ambience – 8
Service – 7.5
Price – 6.5

Address
95 Whitehorse Road
Balwyn VIC 3103
Tel: (03) 9816 8911

Spilt Milk, Carnegie by Big Fil

Carnegie is becoming more and more cool. It's always had more places to eat than nearby Ormond or Glen Huntly, but over the last few years it's really taken off. Firstly some well regarded Korean and Thai restaurants, then the dumpling houses. Now along comes Split Milk, the latest outpost of North side style to hit the inner South East.



Large coffee machine near the front, Check. Menu up on the board, check. Bare floors, industrial style lighting, white paint peeling from the walls, check, check, check. It's nothing you wouldn't have seen before if you routinely head up to Collingwood or Fitzroy but it is a new look for Carnegie.

Given that it is fairly small inside it definitely feels more spacious than you would have expected. It does this by limiting the number of tables and placing them all along the walls so there is an open space between the front counter and where everyone is eating. Probably a necessity given that it is order and pay at the front counter, so that you have somewhere to stand when doing so, but it does make the cafe feel more comfortable.



Even with the fairly miserable weather there was a constant stream of locals passing through looking for either coffee or a quick breakfast. The food has all been given funky animal names - the porridge with honey and cinnamon is a 'Bear', the poached eggs on sour dough with bacon, spinach and spiced capsicum aioli is a 'Donkey'.

The menu is fairly limited and it's the sort of food you could make at home if you wanted to make an effort, but that it's sometimes much easier to just let someone else do it for you. Presentation wise everything looked great, not so that you think how clever the kitchen is but more that you just knew it was going to taste good. In particular I loved the look of my Donkey, the grill marks on the toast, the contrast of the orange aioli, the green spinach and the white egg. The eggs themselves were a bit different to what I had expected. They weren't your usual cut them open and watch the golden goodness spill out poached eggs. They had been cooked a little longer, so that the yolk no longer flowed but remained gooey, then cut in half and placed on top of the crispy bacon.



The Bear looked good in its striped bowl with the cinnamon sticks on the top. And there was certainly a waft of cinnamon when it hit the table. Unfortunately though the cinnamon flavour wasn't as strong as I would have liked. This could have been related to just how much I like cinnamon but I think a stronger hand with the spices would have been better.



Overall
A great local cafe with a lot going for it. Good food, nice space, fun staff and much cheaper than the places we normally frequent for breakfast. I loved the background music and while I didn't feel there was anything it did outstandingly well it did just about everything very well. I could well imagine it as my local hangout for when I want my comfort food and nothing too fancy. The only real issue, almost flavourless hot chocolates.

Verdict
Food - 7.5
Ambience - 8
Service - 7.5
Price - 7.5

Address
288 Neerim Road
Carnegie VIC 3163
Tel: (03) 9571 8880

Badger vs. Hawke, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

It’s not quite what you’d expect from just looking through the front door. From there it looks like your normal coffee bar, providing caffeine hits to nearby office workers or others who just happen to be passing by. And it is of course at least partially about the coffee. Step out the back though and you enter a different place. It really does feel very much like a back alley Collingwood diner, a place of burgers and breakfast brioche, with the odd lunchtime cocktail thrown in.


How does it do this? Well the alleyways behind Badger vs. Hawk are full of 19th century brick and bluestone warehouses. These have been used in the occasional film (Ghost Rider) but are now used mainly for motorcycle workshops. Out the rear of the shop is a small courtyard, with a roller door which opens directly onto one of these alleyways. You're pretty well insulated from the noise of Lonsdale Street, but when a motorcycle roars through the alleyway the noise is almost loud enough to rattle your fillings!



Lunchtime ordering was straightforward for us. Three of us, three burgers, serendipity in action! The funny thing was that for each of us our favourite burger was the one the person on our left had ordered.

Snoozes choice was the chicken burger. Nicely herbed meat, crispy chicken, and in a nice touch for a burger not too much sloppy sauce so that it ends up running down your arm (and onto the work uniform). Something a little unexpected was the brioche bun, not on the menu but a nice if increasingly common touch.


My choice was the beef burger, with some crispy bacon as an extra. The beef patty was good, relatively thick and appropriately meaty in flavour, and nice and moist without causing arm runoff.


The one that surprised us all though was Bureaucrat’s black bean burger. Not only was it surprising that she ordered it, beating Snooze to the punch, but that it was so good. As described by Bureaucrat not at all ‘hippy’ or veggie’ food (her choice of words may give some inclining as to why I was so surprised she ordered it). Good texture and lots of savoury flavours in the patty.


Given it was a quiet day after an extremely busy period Bureaucrat decided a Gin Smash was in order. Reliably informed that it was a good cocktail, I got the impression that it was also quite a strong one by the look of surprise and short sharp shake of the head after the first sip.

Overall
Certainly not what we expected but lots of fun, with a great space, warming heaters and staff that were pretty cool but not too nonchalant to smile at the customers. Going to be a great place to kick back and relax during those summer Friday afternoon lunches.

Verdict
Food – 8
Ambience – 8
Service – 7.5
Price – 7.5

Address
333 La Trobe Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: 03 9300 0000

Ume Hana, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

Catching up with Mr S always fun, as it results in both of us laughing like crazy at our very juvenile sense of humour.


For this catch up, we went to a restaurant that I've been meaning to try - Ume Hana, which is located on Elizabeth St. I had been to another Ume named restaurant on Lt Bourke St (refer my post back in Nov 2011). I had liked that place, and I wondered if I would also like this one.


The menu and photos of dishes are plastered on the front windows - you can hardly make out what it looks like inside. Upon entering the restaurant, my heart sunk a little.... the place had a bain marie. I'm not a fan of ordering anything that's been kept warm(ish).

I got even more concerned when we perused the menu. It's your typical Jap/Korean menu but everything was a few dollars more than your typical Jap/Korean restaurant.

However, all concern and reservations were banished when our food arrived. The extra money translated in better quality ingredients and very tasty food.


Green tea and miso soup.


We both went for a bento box. I went for the teriyaki chicken bb. Nice seasoned, tender chunks of chicken thigh meat. The vegetable gyozas were perfectly pan fried - crispy skin and piping hot inside, and not at all oily. The rice was fluffy and hot, and the salad was crisp and fresh. I didn't try the sushi as I'm not a fan of raw fish. I gave them to Mr S who really liked it with the better quality soy sauce.


Mr S went for the pork tonkatsu. I didn't try any of the pork, but it looked good - a golden, crispy coating and tender and juicy.

Overall
Although there was a bain marie present, I really liked the homestyle feel to the place. In fact, the cook (possibly owner, too) came out to ask whether we were enjoying our meal and also gently remonstrated us to drink the miso soup first, so as to warm up the stomach, before eating the cold entree (the sushi).

Upon leaving, he wished us well and gave us a lolly and a gingseng tea bag. We left full and happy.

I totally recommend this place. On the day we went, there were a few other diners - I don't think it gets as much business as with the other restaurants in the immediate area. I think it's becuase of the slightly pricier menu, but I think Ume Hana is definitely better than the many Jap/Korean restaurants in the city. The food quality is much better, and the serving size is also quite generous. Plus, I love the fact that the cook is so happy to share his food with you and wants his diners to enjoy their dining experience - it's the intangible things that puts UH above its competitors.

Verdict
Food - 8.5
Service - 8
Ambience - 6.5
Price - 8

Address
Ume Hana
398 Elizabeth St
Melbourne 3000
Telephone: 9663 1108

Tidlom Thai Antique Restaurant, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

It's a little funny. Bureaucrat and I only ended up here because Snooze hadn't joined us for lunch, which meant the next door Vietnamese cafe was off the menu (Snooze wouldn't have phogiven us is we had gone without her). I knew that a couple of other bloggers had been here and liked it but still, expectations probably weren't too high of anything more than your typical quick Thai lunch hang out. Which turned out to be quite wrong, as I enjoyed the food here more than any other Melbourne Thai restaurant I've tried in this price range.



It's not for the set up. The cafe is fairly funky, with a collection of what I assume are Thai licence plates on one wall, movie posters on the other. It's bright from all the light that streams through the floor to ceiling glass frontage, and in contrast to many of the less than ten dollar eateries around town spotlessly clean. But to me anyway it also felt a little sterile, pretty enough but with only one or two other tables in use a bit lacking in life. Admittedly it did later start to liven up a bit towards the end of our lunch, but given the bare floors it remained surprisingly quiet.





At lunchtime the menu choices are relatively straightforward, mainly fairly simple sounding rice or noodle dishes. From what I have seen, the evening menu is both a little more adventurous and pricier (but still comparatively cheap). While I can't find where I wrote down the Thai names for our lunch choices, they were a fried rice noodles with chicken and Chinese broccoli and a spicy, crispy pork on rice to which I added an optional fried egg.

While neither looked especially impressive when brought out both dishes were delicious in a real home cooked style way, with the simple, crisp flavours shining through. Bureaucrat's dish came with thick strands of rice noodles, generous amounts of well cooked chicken and Chinese broccoli, finished off with lashings of wok hei.



For the crispy pork, the rice was a little 'meh' but absolutely loved my pork. Crispy skin, moist meaty flesh and the rich flavour of the pork brought out through the addition of a small amount of heat to the flavours. My only complaint, I wanted more of it! Bureaucrat's complementary comment, it tasted like the pork her mother cooks (and everyone knows mum's cooking is always the standard against which all meals are measured).



The drinks also include a creamy Thai style iced coffee, served over ice in a beer glass. Despite not generally being a coffee drinker I loved the creamy texture.



Overall
A great casual lunchtime place and somewhere I plan to visit for dinner in the warmer summer months, when laneway dining has more appeal than during the winter chill. Nothing about it is fancy but it feels like the dishes have been chosen and prepared as the cooks themselves like them more than being adapted for their customers, and not being overly complicated it is the simple, comfortable style of food you can happily eat again and again.

Verdict
Food - 8
Service - 7
Ambience - 6.5
Price - 8

Address
Shop C1, 550 Little Lonsdale Street (Healeys Lane)
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9606 0991

Tang's Family Restaurant, Box Hill South by Big Fil

Tang’s Family Restaurant was one of Ms MMMs suggestions, a non-descript looking sort of Singaporean style restaurant set in a Box Hill South shopping centre. Why sort of Singaporean in style? Well in addition to some of the usual suspects it also includes a couple of Thai , Japanese and western influenced dishes on the menu.

Apparently Tang’s has been shut for a period of time and has only just re-opened. Having seen it full on previous occasions Ms MMM made sure we had an early booking only to find we were the only diners for lunch that day. While this meant we were able to engage in an ongoing discussion with the friendly front of house Uncle it’s a bit of a shame because the food is good and reasonably priced.

Actually the food is considerably better than you’d expect from the surroundings. It looks like your typical suburban Malaysian restaurant. A little brighter and cleaner looking than usual, and with a small incongruous chandelier hanging from the ceiling, but nothing out of the ordinary. The first clue though is the service. It’s not your usual ‘You want chicken rice or not’ style of service but much more western in style, similar to what you’d expect to receive in mid-range restaurant.


Given there were six of us on the day we were able to give the menu a fair workout – three entrees, four mains and two of the desserts. I was a bit split on the dishes – all three entrees and two of the mains were ‘wahoo’, but two of the mains and the desserts were a little ‘meh’. I think I was in the minority though as just about everything had others commenting favourably around the table.

Pick of the entrees was the excellent pandan chicken pieces. I was a bit concerned when someone else chose these, as my general experience here is of overly seasoned greasy chicken. These however were spot on. The seasoning was perfect to bring out the flavour of the moist chicken and while still a touch greasy nothing compared to how they're usually served. I would have liked it a bit more fragrant from the pandan leaves but that's getting really picky.


The dumplings were also very good, much better than many specialist dumpling houses. Good and generous with the filling, tasting of much better than normal ingredients with well flavoured and cooked dumpling skins.


My least favourite of the entrees was the tofu. Not because it was bad, far from it, but more because the others were so good. With soft silky tofu heaped with pork floss, the best part of it was the dark, sweet slightly spicy sauce.


For the mains, the most impressive was undoubtedly the smoked pork belly. The most fusion in style of the dishes as well, I think we were all taken aback when the plate, covered with a clear lid holding back the swirls of smoke, arrived at the table. Unfortunately Snooze was slow with the camera to get a photo as the lid was being removed but we were soon all tucking into delicious, crispy skin pork. Ms MMM commented favourably on the lack of the saltiness of the skin – I think this may be an indication of having eaten a lot of siu yuk, where I understand the skin is salted so it becomes properly crispy.


The other main I really liked was the duck fried rice. Soft grains of rice, moist slivers of shredded duck, served with plenty of wok hei.


The other two mains I wasn’t as fond of. Char Kway Teoh is one of Ruby Grapefruit’s favourite dishes, a test of the quality of any Malaysian restaurant. It comes in at least two different styles and my favourite is undoubtedly the Penang style. This was more similar to what I’ve had in Kuala Lumpur, with a much heavier hand with the sauce. On the positive side though it did seem to have used pork fat in the cooking, boosting the flavours.

The Beef Rendang I didn’t particularly like and wouldn’t order again. Served in a pool of sauce, much more tender than it initially looked and topped with a few pieces of desiccated coconut, unfortunately it’s not what I think of or want when I order a rendang. I want a dish where the meat has been slowly cooking for hours, until the sauce and darker coloured meat has merged into a melt in the mouth experience. What we received felt more like a beef curry. It may be as Ms MMM said, it’s not quite the same unless the baba has cooked it.


The range of desserts is limited, but includes a cold silky milk pudding and pulut hitam, a black sticky rice soup with a dollop of coconut cream poured on top. The milk pudding was drizzled with Gula Melaka (palm sugar) and served with candied pistachio nuts to give it a bit of texture but I found the flavours uninteresting. And while a bit of a personal choice, I prefer my pulut itam with a bit more coconut milk and a little thicker.

Overall
For a suburban restaurant a very pleasant surprise. Tang's Family Restaurant is very much a family affair: the daughter is a western trained chef and mixes some of that training together with the dishes and flavours from home, the mother also cooks and has apparently visited Singapore to bone up on the way things are done, and the son and father work front of house. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. Here it definitely succeeds. Thank you Ms MMM.

Verdict
Food – 8
Service – 7.5
Ambience – 7
Price – 7.5

Address
179 Middleborough Road
Box Hill South VIC 3128
Tel: (03) 9890 9221

Wonderbao, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

Wonderbao is a new steamed bun dispensary located near RMIT in Literature Lane. It'd only been open for a few days when Snooze and I visited and it was obvious that things were still a little less organised than they could have been. This is a little surprising, as I got the impression bao making had been in the family for a while. However, it starts with two big things in its favour, some of the friendliest and most enthusiastic owners I’ve ever come across and offering a few less common buns that you don’t see in many places around town.

It's fairly hard to find though. If not for spotting it on another blog I doubt I would've noticed it, even though it's less than five minutes walk from work. It also suffers a bit from not being the most comfortable or convenient of places to eat. There are only a few seats squashed up against the window, and more than five people trying to eat is pretty squishy. Having said that, the view out the window is interesting if you do get a seat.

It’s always nice to be greeted by a beaming smile when you enter somewhere, and that was definitely the case for us here. Maybe it was just our charismatic presence but I suspect that it’s the reception everyone gets.


The range of buns is fairly limited, mainly Hong Kong in style but including a small number of gua bao, which I think are Taiwanese. The buns themselves were light and fluffy. I don’t normally like vegetable bao but these were amongst the best I’ve had, the filling full of flavour.


Also very good was the egg custard bun, hot and rich and without that nasty powdery texture you sometimes get.


The only one I found a little disappointing was the pork bun, which I found a bit light on for filling and taste.


The more interesting buns though are the gua bao. These are almost like little steamed sandwiches or hamburgers, sliced open on one side and the fillings inserted. Our choices were the braised and the roast pork bao. The braised comes with crushed peanuts which adds texture and boosts flavour, the roast (my preference) a little bit of vegetable on the side. Easy to handle in one hand, a little sweet but with nice flavours, these wouldn’t count as the best gua bao I’ve had (which have been at street markets) but they are cheap, tasty and you don’t have to wait till the next festival to try them!

Overall
I like the idea although the execution probably needs a bit of work. I really hope they are a success though, because the people here are guaranteed to put a spring into your day!

Verdict
Food – 7
Service – 7
Ambience – 5.5
Price – 7

Address
Literature Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9654 7887

 

Eastern Dumpling House, Carnegie by Big Fil

Word about the newest and in my view the best dumpling house in the Carnegie area is getting around, with the hungry hordes of local dumpling lovers gathering despite some already well established fan favourites in the area. It's not quite at that queuing out the door stage yet, but it is getting there amazingly quickly for a place that opened with no fanfare whatsoever.



What makes it so good? The obvious effort being put into making the restaurant a nice place to eat is a good start. Well lit, clean, well spaced tables, not too noisy, all the essentials are there for a functional but pleasant dumpling house. I like the staff a lot as well. Once or twice they did seem a little nervous which led me to think they may have been inexperienced, but they were polite, friendly and obviously trying very hard.



The most important thing about a dumpling house though is of course the dumplings. It wouldn't have mattered how good the service was if these weren't as good or better. Making a number of visits meant that I got the chance to sample quite a few and I can confirm that they are the best flavoured I have tried in suburban Melbourne.

One thing that any Shanghai style dumpling house in Melbourne has to offer is shao long bao, here listed on the menu as Shanghai pork buns. For many diners these are the crux of their dumpling experience, good SLB all good, bad SLB all bad. Fortunately these were pretty good. Admittedly the skins could have been thinner and a bit of ginger either in the soup or served sliced on the side would had perked things up a bit. However, these were generous with their slightly sweet soup resulting in a rich mouth filling taste.



The other steamed dumpling dish was the perennial favourite of steamed chicken and prawn. These were again good, the filling sweet and generous, the dumpling skins a little thick but a beautiful pristine white colour.



Probably my least favourite amongst the dumplings was the fried pork dumplings. This is being a bit tough though, as in many places these would have been the stand out. In a bit of a theme the filling was very good, the bottom of the pan fried dumpling crisp providing contrast to the softer top. Rather than being poor or below average, it was more nothing really stood out to me about these.



Leaving the best to last, my clear favourites were the pan fried pork buns. These aren't that commonly available, thicker skinner pan fried dumplings but filled with soup like fried SLB. In a twist I hadn't seen before these had been topped (bottomed?) with sesame seeds, combining with the dumpling skin to give it an almost bread like texture and taste. Great flavour, great texture, the only issue to watch out for is how hot the soup can be when you first bite into it.



It's not all about the dumplings though, with a variety of soups and claypot dishes also offered. With winter still upon us the ranzhou beef noodle soup with coriander, preserved cabbage and bok choy was a tasty way to ward off the winter chill. The beef is tender, the noodles had bite and the serving size is generous in its huge bowl.



Overall
What can I say? Carnegie is becoming a very competitive location for cafes and restaurants and Eastern Dumpling House is a great new addition. One thing that was noticeable was the number of multi-generational Chinese families who were dropping in for a dumpling fix. If it continues to reach the same high levels as during my visits I think it will become a bit of an eastern suburbs foodie destination, and I think they deserve it.

Verdict
Food - 8
Service - 8
Ambience - 7.5
Price - 7.5

Address
132 Koornang Road
Carnegie VIC 3163
Tel: (03) 9530 9141