Afghan Salang Restaurant, Dandenong by Bureaucrat

I love Afghani food but I have to say I don't get the opportunity to eat it as often as I would like.  So when an opportunity came up to catch up with Big Fil, it was going to be an Afghani lunch.  Afghan Salang Restaurant is a few doors down from my beloved Afghan Tasty Food.  Both, as it turns out, serve very delicious Afghani food.  I'd say the difference between the two would be that Afghan Salang Restaurant feels a bit more like a restaurant, while Afghan Tasty Food is a little bit more family-style in its decor.

Delicious skewers - chicken tikka and shami (lamb mince)

There is a range of banquet options (including vegetarian ones) at Afghan Salang and we both went for banquet number 4 - eight courses for $35.  The banquets are an excellent way to try many dishes for a very reasonable price (since most of the main dishes are in the mid $20 zone). 

Fish Tank, Brighton by Obelix

Do a quick Google search for the best fish and chips in Melbourne and you are bound to come up with Trip Advisor posts about Fish Tank.  These guys reassuringly serve seafood sourced from Australia.  Based on Church Street, Brighton, on some days (hot summer ones) it is a frenetic hive of activity as beach-goers swarm the place for a feed.


Grilled prawns

We were hankering for some good old fashion fish and chippery on one of those said hot summer days.  As the place was packed, we ordered ours to take away.

Shark Fin Inn, Melbourne by Obelix

Shark Fin Inn, in the city, is one of those ubiquitous restaurants along Chinatown - tables crammed in; big fish tank of groupers awaiting their fates; noisy patrons; pokey staircase.  Not that any of that was bad - it's all part of the ambience.


Peipa tofu

We were there for family dinner - fourteen of us in total, comprising of teens with bottomless stomachs and hangry adults. It was not one of those meals where you get to savour the food over convivial chatter.  We were bolting down our meals, squabbling among us as we fought for control over the spinning lazy Susan. The problem with fitting such a large party on the one table, the dishes we ordered may not all come with enough for one morsel apiece.  Kids were arguing over their sibling 'hogging all the steak' and missing out on the fried prawns. Despite the survival mentality that besieged us, once I stepped out into the cool night air to reflect on the meal, I was actually replete and satisfied.

Squires Loft, Nunawading by Bureaucrat

Having heard through word of mouth that it's a good place for steak, Ms S decided to have her birthday dinner at Squires Loft.  A bit of Googling showed that there's actually quite a few Squires Lofts around town (including some overseas) - and the one we went to was out in the burbs in Nunawading.  For those who know of Brand Smart, Squires Loft is situated on the exterior of this discount shopping outlet.

According to Ms S, organising the birthday dinner was a bit of hassle with the guys at Squires Loft.  While I can't comment on all aspects of the pre-dinner service, I did note that they made it clear that there is a minimum $45 dollar spend per person - so Ms S had to be sure that there were no empty seats for her dinner booking, lest the rest of us had to pony up the outstanding monies.  In addition, for a 6pm booking we were told we must be finished by 8pm.  All of this gave Squires Loft an impression that it had rather fancy airs about itself.

With 12 of us for dinner, all but two people went for the steak (the others ordered a grilled vegetarian dish and grilled lamb chops).  I only took a photo of my dish - a 200 gram eye fillet which came with chips.  For extra, you can order a side salad and sauces (which I didn't).  There's lots of different cuts of steaks on offer but most went for the eye fillet and a side dish.  

Gold Leaf, Docklands by Foghorn Leghorn

There are five Gold Leaf restaurants dotted around Melbourne, and I’ve had a few discussions about which is the best for yum cha. Recently people mentioned Docklands in favourable terms, so Mrs Shiraz and I decided to give it a go.

Deep fried taro dumplings

Our reliable restaurant companions, Knuckles and Shazza, cycled over from Footscray to join us. Once upon a time, if you saw someone from Footscray on a pushbike, you could guess that they’d had stern words from the magistrate about what would happen the next time they were caught driving. But Knuckles and Shazza have genuine licences (ie not the sort that a friend has run through the laminating machine at the job training centre), and they still choose to cycle. That’s gentrification for you.