Thr1ve, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

I’m a bit picky when it comes to paying for salad.  I baulk at the idea of paying over $10 for a mingy bowl of iceberg.  While there are a number of great salads to be had from proper cafes and online delivery gourmet saladeries(TM by Bureaucrat) sometimes convenience is the order of the day. 

Meeting up with Beaker for lunch, we heading into the food court at the Emporium.  We both wanted something quick and healthy, and we spotted Thr1ve.  Flanked by pretty young things of both genders, you front up to the counter to place your order.  You pick a salad base, what sort of leaves, protein, dressing and extras that you want.  You pay for it and wait for them to make it up. 

There are two sizes – small and large.  Basically, you get one serve of protein for the small and two serves of protein for the large.  I went for the small size and got a mix of salad leaves, brown rice and salmon ($12.90) in a takeaway bowl.  It came with some strips of char-grilled caps.  I thought this was kinda underwhelming.  There wasn’t that much salmon and it was these little nuggets and scrapings of fish.  The salad leaves and rice weren’t that special or memorable.  For less than the cost of this salad, my weekly Trout Thursday lunch that I make (using trout and salad ingredients that I buy from the Vic Market) is cheaper and more filling.

Beaker went for a small salad as well but with sweet potato mash, spinach, herbed chicken and extra avo ($14.90).  She was equally underwhelmed with it and still felt a bit hungry at the end of the meal.

Verdict

Food – 6.5
Service – 7
Ambiance - 7
Price – 6.5

Overall

The quality of the individual ingredients were okay.  However, I still find the salads to be a bit pricey for what you get.  My search for a value-for-money saladerie continues…

Address

Thr1ve

The Emporium

287 Lonsdale St  

Melbourne 3000

Telephone: 9650 9864 

Miss Frank's, Camberwell by Bureaucrat

We needed a treat.  In the past week I had uprooted myself to dog-sit two high-maintenance doggies (such is life).  Anyone who's looked after dogs will know the wracking guilt you feel when you try valiantly to eat your meal in peace but you have these cute, pleading eyes and wagging tails imploring you to share your meal with them.

Grilled field mushroom burger

Having had enough of feeling guilty each time we ate, the Lawyer and I went to a local cafe, Miss Frank's.  Miss Frank's is a slick but friendly cafe with nary a hipster in sight.  The functional, grey cement exterior belies the warmth and homely vibe inside.

The space is sort of split up in two.  The first bit is where you pay and get your takeaway items - with polished cement floors, shiny white tiles, posters and a neat array of goods line the walls.

The dining area is in the second area, with individual tables and a large communal table.  For a mid-week, late lunch, the place had quite a few tables occupied, with more people coming in for a snack or coffee.

Feeling the need to be healthy, I ordered the berry blitz - mixed berries, apple juice and baby spinach ($7) while the Lawyer got a latte.  I quite enjoyed the berry blitz as it had no iced (but it was cold due to the frozen berries) and had no dairy.  With such a dark shade of puce, you could feel the nutrition emanating from the drink - I can practically feel the antioxidants from the berries and the vitamins from the spinach doing all manner of good things for my body.

For noms, the Lawyer got the impressive delux burger.  A juicy and proper house made beef patty w bacon, toms, gruyere, spinach, beet relish and mayo.  It came with chips and aioli ($20.50).  For the price, it certainly delivered in quality and taste.  He particularly liked how the beef was cooked medium rare that had a lovely grilled flavour to it and the fluffy, toasted brioche bun.  The chips were just perfect - a light golden, crispy outer with fluffy inner and the aioli was deliciously garlicky.

In line with the berry blitz, I got the incredibly great value grilled field mushroom, crumbed haloumi, sauteed spinach and caps relish on toasted brioche bun ($10) (see first pic).  I was equally impressed with the freshness of the ingredients and the flavour.  The haloumi had a light golden crumb.  I especially loved the thick field mushroom and the very generous mound of spinach.  Spot on.





Verdict
Food - 9.5
Service - 7
Ambiance - 7.5
Price - 8

Overall
We're loving Miss Frank's!  Those that live in the area are very lucky to have this as their local cafe.  Fresh ingredients, great execution and just very yummy.

I'm a bit perplexed about some of the negative reviews about Miss Frank's.  There was certainly nothing I would fault about our visit.  We're definitely coming back!

Address
Miss Frank's
200 Through Rd
Camberwell 3124
Telephone: 9078 5351

Kofi Beans, Croydon by Big Fil

Being located in a distant part of town, from me and Snooze anyway, normally means that Ms No Meat needs to travel for at least an hour to join us for a weekend catch-up.  Every now and again though we do travel out past Ringwood to join her and sample some of what's available in the outer Eastern suburbs. 


On this particular weekend we were invited to visit with her one of the better regarded cafes in the Croydon/Ringwood area, Kofi Beans.  It was somewhere I'd thought about visiting for a while and was quite happy when MNM suggested a Sunday lunch here, and overall thought it was a good local café.  The main issue (other than how long it took to gain staffs' attention), all our mains were fine without anything demanding a return visit.  Sometimes it's just tough to stand out in the Melbourne café scene.


When you enter Kofi Beans it has a bit of a buzz to it.  It's obviously very popular with the local crowd and if MNM hadn't made a booking there's no way we would have been able to walk in for our Sunday lunch, particularly with a larger than normal group of us on the day (MNM, Snooze, Ms Ruby Grapefruit, a friend of Ruby and I).


One of the reasons MNM chose Kofi Beans was because it offered her a range of vegetarian options, including the chickpea felafel with roasted cauliflower, quinoa and seed tabouleh, tahini labne and toasted Turkish bread.  Best part of this dish was the moist and flavoursome falafel, which was nicely complemented by the tabouleh salad.


Snooze went for the baked beans which she described as fine without being especially impressive, solid rather than outstanding.  The beans retained good texture when at too many places they end up overcooked into a fairly tasteless mush.  The addition of a tangy (feta?) cheese added body and strength to the dish, and the poached eggs were nicely done.


To make sure she preserved space for something sweet, Ruby ordered the Harira Soup, a spiced soup with chickpeas and lentils, yoghurt and toast.  Ms Ruby described it as very tasty, and appreciated the chilli hit that came with it.


My own choice was the lamb shoulder, served as an open gyros in style.  The lamb was slow cooked, very tender and quite flavoursome.  The accompanying salad was a little unusual, through the addition of mint.  A respectable dish although I do remember at the time expecting a little more given it was noticeably more expensive than the other dishes.


By this stage we were all fairly full, but we were still interested in trying the cakes.  Eventually we chose three to share - the lemon tart, the frangipani and the chocolate cake.  The lemon tart was generally considered the best of the three, although I prefer a more tart flavour than its soft lemony sweetness.


My favourite was the slightly gooey chocolate cake, which was actually lighter and less dense that it looked at first glance.


Not that the frangipani wasn't a good cake in its own right, slightly crumbly and the accompanying berries adding a nice sweetness.  In fact I did think the cakes overall were better than the mains.

Overall
All in all a fairly good option in a shopping strip where not much else really appealed.  The fit out is interesting and the staff were friendly but it does have a few things which could be improved.  The cakes were good and some thought had been given into designing the mains, but taste-wise they were more in the respectable camp, and felt a little pricey for what they were. 

Staff too, while friendly, seemed a little disorganised and overwhelmed dealing with a busy Sunday lunch crowd.  Although things could be improved as it stands for me would put Kofi Beans a rung or two below the top Melbourne Cafes.

Verdict
Food - 7.5
Ambience - 7.5
Service - 6
Price - 6.5

Address
137-139 Main Street
Croydon VIC
Tel: (03) 9725 3339

Lentil As Anything, Preston by Big Fil

Food is obviously about more than just sustenance.  It's also a social act, a way that we bond with family, friends or just acquaintances, at least on those occasions we aren't dining solo.  Lentil as Anything takes this one step further, turning eating into a social act in a wider sense.  How does it do this?  By empowering you to decide how much you want to pay for your meal.


Underlined by the realization that most people want to do the right thing and information posted on the wall you can pay what your meal cost to produce, pay a little more to subsidize someone with fewer financial resources, or help with the running of the café.  Everyone contributes according to their capacity to do so.


The front of the café is nice enough but out the back on a sunny day is was a very pleasant place to eat, the walls decorated by messages left by previous dinners.  If you didn't know it was there though it would be possible to miss, past the kitchen and the small couch, out through the door on the left.


There are a reasonable number of options you can order, inspired by rather than necessarily spot on accurate renditions of different world cuisines.  These include the okonomiyaki, which is like a Japanese vegetarian pancake topped with a mayonnaise sauce.  While I quite liked the flavour of the okonomiyaki, I did find it a bit heavier in texture than I'd have liked.


Also ordered were the vegetable curry and the vegetable tagine.  The vegetable tagine didn't come served in a tagine, like I had hoped.  Quality wise it wasn't great, but wasn't terrible either.  The vegetables still maintained a decent texture, the main issue was that the flavours were fairly flat.


Same thing could be said could be said about the vegetable curry, which seemed to have been prepared for a milder flavour palate than I prefer.

Overall
I wouldn't have a problem with returning here but don't think I'd be the one to suggest it.  Big fan of the concept and I agree with the basic premise, that if trusted most people will do the right thing.  Still that doesn't necessarily translate into great food, and for food which is both good for the body and the soul I prefer Crossways or Fo Guang Yuan.

Verdict
Food - 5.5
Ambience - 7.5
Service - 6
Price - 7 (based on suggested costs)

Address
288 High Street
Preston VIC 3072
Tel: 03 9471 3307

Jinda Thai, Abbotsford by Big Fil

If you want to visit this popular place just off Victoria Street you'll need to book ahead.  Silly me, assuming that on a stormy Thursday Night with the rain pelting down we'd be able to grab a walk-in table for the two of us.  Well, it turned out we could, as long as we were out in 45 minutes so the table could be made ready for the pair who had wisely made a booking.  Even then we were lucky, with both the group of four who walked in just ahead of us and the couple behind us having to find an alternative venue for the evening.

Inside is fairly warehouse chic, a large open space with unpainted brick walls with a few pictures scattered around.  While it's a style of outfitting that you do commonly see around town I did think this was one of the warmest and most comfortable that I've seen, complemented by the warm and friendly (if occasionally a little disorganised) service.

Between myself and my companion for the evening (Ms Candide Ginger) we ordered 2 entrees and two mains to share.  First up, of which the photos unfortunately didn't come out at all, was the chicken wrapped in pandan leaves.  Pandan is sometimes referred to as the Asian vanilla, and it's flavour and aroma lightly permeates the chicken during the cooking.  The chicken was moist in the middle, slightly crispy on the outside and nicely fragrant.  While it was also a little greasy, it wasn't nearly as much so as some other versions of this dish I've had before.


Second entrée and something I always order were the son-in-law eggs.  These are slightly more than soft-boiled then quickly deep fried, to give them a crispy exterior covering a soft, velvety interior.  The accompanying sauce is sticky, with a lovely tangy flavour from the restrained use chilli and tamarind.  The version at Jinda could have used a more concentrated sauce and the eggs a little runnier, to my taste anyway, but was still good.


I must admit to being a bit of a sucker for beef massaman curry.  Soft and delicately flavoured, a good one is like a warm hug and an excellent one can have some nice underlying complexity from the underlying spices.  Jinda's was definitely in the softer flavoured variety, which was good in some ways because it managed to provide some balance in the dishes for Ms Ginger, who had quite a surprise on her face after her first bite of our accompanying salad.


Which was, of course, a som tom or green papaya salad.  This would have to be one of the spiciest salads you can find, and Jinda's is every bit as spicy as you'll find in Thailand.  The papaya and beans add crunch to the mix, the soft shell crab was meaty and very well cooked.  It is delicious but if your chilli tolerance is low I'd suggest you give it a wide birth.



Overall
A great addition to the low to mid-range Thai restaurant scene in Melbourne, somewhere which many have commented is one of Melbourne's weaker foodie areas.  As mentioned service could be a bit more organised - we knew we didn't have long and it took a little while to receive menus and the food came out spaced a bit strangely (5 minutes for one dish, 15 for the next, 2 minutes for the third).  It's all done with a smile though which makes a difference. 

Verdict
Food - 8
Service - 6.5
Ambience - 8
Price - 7.5

Address
1-7 Ferguson St
Abbotsford VIC 3067
Tel: (03) 9419 5899

Rice, Paper, Scissors Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

It may not be the real deal as far as the purist is concerned, but Rice, Paper, Scissors brings a western touch to the flavours and textures of South East Asian street food. The atmosphere is convivial and complemented by the style of dishes, small in size so as not to impede the flow of conversation and designed for sharing.  Popular too, as yet again we seemed to be the last of the walk-ins to grab a table just after 12, and even then we had to be out by 1pm.

Staff are friendly and after querying whether we had visited before took the time to explain about the dishes on offer.  Not really necessary in our case but a nice touch anyway.  The inspiration for the dishes seems to be predominately but not exclusively Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, and included a few regular favourites of ours.  A good way to understand the food is to think of it as Asian themed tapas, and plan to order a few dishes accordingly.

Partly on the recommendation of our server we decided to share 5 dishes between us, which is pretty much right for a decent graze.  The son-in-law eggs were different to how I’d seen them before, just fried rather than boiled followed by a quick deep fry.  This meant that the yolks were still nicely soft and a little runny, but made them a little more difficult to eat.  Very tasty though, with Snooze commenting that the use of chilli in the dish was the first time she really felt that it complemented and enhanced the flavours of the other ingredients.

One of the daily specials that both Snooze and Ms Ruby Grapefruit were keen on was the barramundi in betel leaves.  Small parcels of barramundi which you fold the leaf around, resulting in bite sized packages of well cooked fish.

Something I really like is lamb ribs, the sweetest, tenderest, most flavoursome meat right next to the bone.  Complement it with a sweet and sticky sauce and you have a really yummy piece of meat which comes complete with its own handle.

The only dish which we really differed in opinion on was the mini soft-shell crab baguettes (bahn mi).  Specially recommended by our server, Ms Grapefruit really liked them, Snooze wasn’t as impressed without disliking them, and I was somewhere in the middle.  It wasn’t because of the crab, which was juicy and meaty with its tangy creamy sauce.  I suspect it was the bun, which I thought was slightly over-toasted, and which got lost a bit in the other flavours.

Finally we finished off with the mini-Vietnamese pancakes (bahn xeo).  Small crispy rice flavour packages, these were much crisper than normal (likely due to their smaller size) and had a distinctly satisfying crunch.  I did think they could have used  more filling, but that may not have been practical given their size.

Overall

Very good service, a congenial atmosphere and well prepared food, it’s hard not to like Rice, Paper, Scissors.  Only issue, if you’re looking for or expecting a Victoria Street sized feed it could end up getting a little pricey, but if you want something smaller but tastier you’ve found your place.

Verdict

Food – 8.5

Ambience – 8
Service – 8.5
Price – 7

Address

19 Liverpool Street

Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9663 9890

Hakata Gensuke Ramen (by invitation), Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

IRASSHAIMASE!!

It seems like overnight that an explosion of ramen shops have sprung up around town.  Possibly the newest ramen shop that has opened is Hataka Gensuke on Russell Street.  Big Fil and I were invited to try some ramen on its first day of its soft opening last week (it officially opened last Friday). 

Hakata is a district in the city of Fukuoka where tonkotsu (pork bone noodle soup) ramen was first invented in Japan.  This is the first time that Hakata ramen is available in Australia and Master Chef Kousuke Yoshimura is heading up his team to initiate Melbourne diners to this delicious soupy dish.

Upping the authenticity quotient, upon entering the restaurant, each diner is welcomed by a rousing IRASSHAIMASE! from all the staff.  I’ve never experienced this before and I love it – it’s so infectious!  You also get a rousing farewell when you leave.

We got to try chicken kaarage as our entrée.  These have to be the best kaarage that I’ve ever eaten.  The thinnest, crispiest crust which covered a trio of the juiciest chicken pieces.  So very morish.

I had to try the signature tonkotsu ramen.  For me, the quality of the ramen is in the soup.  Made from a master stock, the soup here is made with lots of pork bones.  It’s a very deep pork flavour and the soup has almost gelatinous texture to it due to the high amount of collagen in the bones (apart from the nutritional benefits this is great for those worried about avoiding wrinkles!)

Each table has a range of condiments, including do-it-yourself ground sesame seeds, minced garlic, dressings and pickled veg (shown above).

The noodles here are slightly chewier and flatter than your typical ramen noodles.  You also get to customise your dish by choosing how firm you want your noodles to be.  The tonkotsu comes with lots of spring onions, black fungus (wood ear) and a slice of pork. 

Another condiment - fresh, pickled ginger (my favourite).

You can also add extra toppings, including marinated egg, bamboo shoots, seaweed, cha siu, veggies and even extra noodles. While you can customise your bowl of ramen, adding the extra ingredients could potentially turn it into a more expensive bowl of noodles.

Big Fil ordered the shio tonkotsu.  I think ‘shio’ means ‘light’ and refers to the depth of flavour of the soup.  It came with bamboo shoots, spring onions and also a slice of pork.  While he admits that he isn't the biggest fan of ramen he did like the lighter, fresher, ‘cleaner’ taste of the broth. To him, the broth was definitely porky but without the somewhat ‘muddied’ flavours that he usually doesn't like.

Verdict
Food – 7.5*
Service – 7.5
Ambience - 7
Price – 7*
*Scores are notional as we were guests of Hakata Gensuke

Overall

Hakata Gensuke is a great addition to ramen scene in the city.  I really like the tonkotsu broth and there’s a great family vibe to the place.  I’m going go back to try their black tonkotsu (the soup and noodles look black!), the gyozas and to have them delicious chicken kaarage again.

Address

Hakata Gensuke Ramen

168 Russell St  

Melbourne 3000

Telephone: 9654 4040

 

Chuckle Deli, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

Chuckle Deli recently opened in the Hub Arcade, just around the corner from Chuckle Park Bar and Café, surprisingly replacing a small Vietnamese eatery that had always looked fairly popular. 
 

Walking past Chuckle Deli looked very attractive, with the small menu interesting.  It’s always fun to be amongst the first to try out new places so Snooze and I headed out one cold and wet day (pick a day, any day in the last two weeks) to see what it was all about.
 

Arriving around 12 I thought would guarantee us one of the three tables inside.  Wrong, and so we were relegated to one of the two outside tables.  Not a real problem though, as unlike some of the arcades and laneways around town Hub Arcade never seems to suffer from the wind tunnel effect and we were able to sit and enjoy our meals in comfort.
 

The menu is based on offering four salads and four rolls which are on rotation.  On this day we chose two of the rolls, and a salad to share.  All the salads sounded tempting but we (or rather I) settled on the lentil salad, served with smoked trout and pink grapefruit from memory.  The lentils gave the salad quite a strong flavour, the grapefruit a sour punch which when combined with the lentils I thought overpowered the fish a bit, although Snooze liked it a lot.  Different strokes for different folks I guess.
 

I thought the sandwiches were better, even if Snooze did beat me to my first choice of the Rueben.  Combine good bread, nice corned beef, a bit of sauerkraut and a real punch from the mustard and you have a quality, well flavoured sandwich. 
 

My Katsu roll on the other hand combined a well-cooked piece of crumbed, fried chicken meat with creaminess added by the accompanying mayonnaise.  If you’ve never had a katsu roll before just imagine a really good chicken schnitzel roll and you’ll get the idea.

Overall

Small but very cute, Chuckle Deli strikes me as both a good place to meet a (small) group of friends for lunch, or to grab a quick bite to take back to the office.  Service is friendly (although you’ll have to wait if you order the katsu roll – it’s cooked fresh) and they definitely seem keen about what they are doing.  The sort of place that there wasn’t much to criticise, all very good without anything really blowing our socks off.

Verdict

Food – 8

Ambience – 8

Service – 8

Price – 7

Address

Shop 5

318-322 Little Collins Street

Melbourne VIC 3000

Tel: (03) 9650 4494