Pappa Rich, Nunawading by Bureaucrat

When you eat at a franchise restaurant what you’re paying for is consistency.  You know that what you’re getting and paying will be the same no matter which particular franchise you’re eating at.  So it was quite disappointing that when we made a pit stop at the Nunawading Pappa Rich (which is part of the Brandsmart shopping center) that the food here was definitely not as good as its counterparts.

Like most PRs, this PR in Nunawading was hectic – but this was different as the staff seemed way more harried.  Also, the restaurant is more crowded and louder, as they’ve tried to put as many tables and chairs as they could get away with.

Arriving at the peak of lunchtime on a weekend, we had a five minute wait before we got a table.  My assam laksa (fish laksa) was disappointing.  A few flakes of fish (mackerel, I think) in this weak flavoured broth.  A proper assam laksa broth is deep in flavour – it’s unapologetically fishy, sour and salty.  This was a stock cube broth.  A few token pieces of pineapple, a mound of cucumber and lots of noodles with no proper chunks of fish.  It wasn’t tasty and I didn’t finish it (the Lawyer finished it as he was hungry, but not because it was particularly nice).

The Lawyer’s combination hor fun a smidge better, but still quite average.  A moderate amount of noodles but the gravy was watery and tasted like stock cubes; while the slices of chicken and seafood were bland.

The Lawyer also got a red bean drink.  This was the best item for the day, which isn’t saying much.  Very icy, a moderate amount of red beans in sweetened milk slushie.

Verdict

Food – 5.5

Ambience – 6.5

Service – 6.5

Price – 6.5

Overall

Definitely not the best Pappa Rich restaurant.  I’d avoid this one in the future.

Address

Pappa Rich

Brand Smart 

288 Whitehorse Rd

Nunawading 3131

Telephone: 9878 8860

Amarok Bar and Restaurant, Southbank (by invitation) by Bureaucrat

With the dark, chilly nights, winter is a great time to check out Amarok Bar and Restaurant, which is located in Southgate.  Last Friday, we were invited to Amarok’s launch, which was a great opportunity to try out their North American and Canadian inspired menu.

Amarok is owned by the same people who own Ice Bar Melbourne (which is adjacent to each other), and is kitted out like a swish ski cabin – with a fireplace, a deer head, warm wooden furniture and leather seats.  

The name Amarok comes from an Inuit mythological creature, described as a “gigantic wolf”, whose purpose is to “hunt down and devour anyone foolish enough to hunt alone at night”.  And boy, does Amarok know how to hunt, and it’ll come to you all as no surprise that I can devour (almost!) anything that’s served to me!

For the launch, we got to try the canapé versions of the many dishes on offer.  One of our favourites for the night was the fried bread, corn flat bread w cured meats and cheese platter.  The fried bread and corn bread were slightly chewy and not at all oily and were the perfect base for the quality cured meats and cheese.  Full of carbs and protein – it’s perfect for nibbling with a glass of wine on a cold night.

Seared tuna

I was really impressed with the prawns w chilli seaweed and fried leek.  Fresh sweet prawns with a nice balance of creamy mayo and the aromatic and crispy seaweed and leek on top.

Salmon cured w lime, coconut cream w pomegranate

The roast pork w apple slaw and crackling was also a standout – melt-in-your mouth pork.  It was utterly moreish and I loved how it was so soft and tender and full of pork flavour.

Mushroom and goats' cheese arancini

We also had these plump oysters w beetroot dressing; vegetarian fritters; salt and wood peppered calamari w wild lime and chilli mayo; a deeply tomatoey gazpacho, served warm; beef tartare; and these little fried oblongs that had a truffle flavour to them.  

A magical view of the Yarra River from Amarok

Verdict

Food – 9*

Ambience – 8

Service – 10*

Price – 8.5*

*Scores are notional as we were guests of Amarok and this was a launch event.

Overall

I’m loving the food and the whole “hunter” aspect to Amarok.  The service is friendly and prompt (and it doesn’t hurt that there’s plenty of eye candy for everyone!).  I love the fact that the waiters wear flannelette-style uniforms with leather aprons.

I’m definitely coming back to Amarok to order my favourite dishes of the night (the fried bread, prawns and roast pork) and I’ll be keen to check out their desserts!

Address

Amarok Bar and Restaurant

Mid Level

3 Southgate Avenue, Southbank

Telephone: 9663 1877

Foodtopia, Bayswater by Big Fil

How often do you think ‘Must go to Bayswater to get something to eat’?  Never, right? Well that could be a bit of a mistake, as there a definitely a few places in the area that are definitely worth checking out.  One of those is Foodtopia.

Foodtopia provides a mix of Thai, Malaysia and Indonesian dishes, courtesy of a Thai and an Indonesian chef.  

Staff are very friendly and willing to help, to the extent of opening specially for us when Ms Mmmm tried to make a Saturday booking, not realising that they weren’t planning to open that day.  

Fortunately though there were a number of walk-ins, otherwise we would have been left feeling pretty guilty.

Having a much larger group than normal meant that we were able to try a wide range of the dishes on offer.  First dish up was the satay chicken skewers.  Well cooked with a nice peanut sauce, a bit lacking in that nice smoky flavour but still pretty good.

Ms Mmmm and family decided on a few dishes to share, including the Chef Special Chilli Fish.  This looked impressive, really impressive, when it reached the table.  A generous quantity of fried fish served with colourful vegetables with a bit of tang from the sauce, looked superb and tasted pretty good too.

The other dish chosen for sharing was the Thai beef salad.  Again a colourful dish, the beef showing just a touch of pink and enough chilli to make its presence felt without being mouth burningly hot, just a nice dish.

For those of us who chose separate dishes, Snooze went with the Indonesian style Murtabak.  A fried egg and meat filled pastry, what stood out about this version was it’s unusual green colour, complements of generous amounts of spring onion.

My choice was the seafood laksa.  This was quite different to your more common curry laksa, and closer to my preferred Nyonta laksa or laksa lemak, with a smoother, richer soup base.  On the plus side two types of noodles in the soup, on the down side could have used more seafood.

While I didn’t to try them, others were complementary about their hor fun (a flat rice noodle dish with an egg based sauce)...

...the green curry fried rice...

...and the spring rolls.

By this stage most were looking for desserts, with the three options chosen water chestnut and jackfruit coconut milk...

...banana fritters and an iced durian shake.  While I didn’t try either of the first two there were certainly no complaints or indeed any left over.  

The durian shake I did try and while the odour was quite restrained (we speculated something to do with it being a frozen type of shake) it still had that distinct rich, creamy durian flavour.

Overall

Very friendly service and most impressed by their being willing to open specially for us, let down just a touch by lack of coordination on when the dishes came out.  Not such an issue if we were sharing dishes but more so for those who ordered individual meals.  Set up is nice and the food is good and well priced.  Bit of a hidden gem really.

Verdict

Food – 8

Ambience – 7.5

Service – 8

Price – 7.5

Address

741 Mountain Highway

Bayswater VIC 3153

Tel: (03) 8288 1618

Hero Subs, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

The full size Hero Sandwiches are certainly heroic in size, long and generous with the fillings, but flavour wise are they fit for a hero?  I wasn’t quite convinced, and I know Snooze was a little disappointed, still we seem to be a bit in the minority here.



Located in a side street just across from Wonder Bao, there’s not much room to eat in the shop itself.  However, I do like the outside seating amongst the giant apartment buildings.  Hero is supposed to be providing an urban style of sandwich (Brooklyn inspired as I understand it) and it seems somehow appropriate to be eating it in such an urban environment.



There are 8 different varieties of sandwiches available, plus a few other assorted goodies such as filled pockets, shoestring fries, onion rings and hot ball donuts.  The Kidroyale comes with slow roasted beef, honey Dijon mustard and crispy onion rings, with the choice of white or (I think) whole grain rolls.  Best part of this to me was the onion rings, which added some good texture to the sandwich, closely followed by the tender beef.  Overall though it just didn’t have the delicious smoky flavours that I was hoping for.



There’s also an option for a half sized sandwich with fries.  The fries are actually pretty good sprinkled with their seasoning, and combined with a half sandwich make a filling lunch.  My Throwback though was a little disappointing, particularly the meatballs which I found quite flavourless.



Overall
Fast and filling and close to work, I thought the offerings were amongst the biggest without being amongst the best sandwiches in the city.  Passable without being great, somewhere I might return every now and again but not my first choice for a great sandwich in the city.

Verdict
Food – 6.5
Ambience – 7.5
Service – 7
Price – 6.5

Address
1 Stewart Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9995 4655

Lady Grange, St Kilda (by invitation) by Bureaucrat

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of making an acquaintance with Lady Grange at its official launch event.

While you should never ask a lady her age, Lady Grange only a few weeks old.  Located in the hub of the Esplanade, Lady Grange is a new restaurant featuring a modern Australian menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  

We were welcomed by owner, Jay, and his father, and were offered to try out one of their cocktails, a Zombie, which was made from their Tiki style bar.  Upstairs is the function area, which has impressive views to Port Phillip Bay.

Zombie

Downstairs is the main restaurant area, where the piece de resistance for the night was the ice sculpture which had many fresh, sweet oysters awaiting us. 

The bar downstairs

Throughout the night, we had the opportunity to try many of the drinks and dishes on offer at Lady Grange, including...

...sliders...

...mini hot dogs...

...a range of wood-fired pizzas, which included chicken, fig and rocket...

...Middle-eastern style lamb pizza.  Both pizzas had the thinnest, fluffiest base and a nice amount of toppings on top.

...these amazingly creamy and perfectly salty crispbreads w  seafood, pansy and roe...

...these moreish seared tuna w mayo and sesame seeds on a crispy cracker.

There were also other dishes, including, the freshest sushi and duck rice paper rolls.

Verdict

Food – 8.5*

Service – 7*

Ambiance – 7

Price – 7*

*Scores are notional as we were guests of Lady Grange and this was a launch event.

Overall

The food is very fresh and Jay told me that, wherever possible, they only use local suppliers and produce.  Next time you’re in St Kilda, go meet Lady Grange and see what she has on offer for you.

Address

Lady Grange

1 Fitzroy Street

St Kilda 3812

Telephone: 9534 3056

Annoying Brother, North Fitzroy by Bureaucrat

There’s nothing like having a day off work and just keeping to your own lack of schedule.  On this sunny weekday, I happened to be travelling through Fitzroy and was on the lookout for a cafe.

I spotted Annoying Brother and, to make things even better, managed to get a car space right outside the cafe.

Open windows, sunshine and a lovely breeze set the scene for my late lunch.  An even lovelier soy chai latte was presented – deep in flavour with lots of warmth from the ginger and cinnamon spices.

I wanted a healthy lunch – so I got the corn fritters w avo, salsa, haloumi, smoked salmon and salad.  Very nice this was, too.  And also very generous in size!  Three thick fritters with lots of corn through it.  The avo, salsa and salad were all fresh.  I loved the chewy salty pan fried haloumi and there was a nice amount of smoked salmon to go with the three fritters.  Simple but done really well.

Verdict

Food – 8.5

Service - 8

Ambience - 7

Price – 7.5

Overall

A nice cafe with friendly staff.  I really liked the food and definitely go back when I’m in the area again.  Also, have a gander at Big Fil’s review back in November 2012.

Address

Annoying Brother

650 Nicolson Street

Fitzroy North VIC 3068

Tel: (03) 9482 9494