30/06/2018 - Oakridge

Location: 864 Maroondah Hwy, Coldstream VIC 3770

Today is my partner's birthday!I have heard rave reviews of this place and I booked this place in about 1.5 months before today to secure my booking. I have booked this place via Dimmi and it gave me a sms with a link to confirm my booking. 

The place was pretty empty when we first arrived.

Guided to our table with an awesome view!

We were then shown our menus and we ordered the following:

• Kangaroo cabanossi, picked onions (starters)
• Soft Baked celeriac, smoked salmon roe, egg yolk sauce
• Smoked trout, caviar, cultured cream, caraway croissant
• Ox tongue, cipollini, garlic, black truffle
• Rainbow Trout, brussel sprouts, shitake, trout XO
• Beef Cheek, mountain com meal, chestnut, black truffle
• Lamb, braised greens, chickpeas, coriander yogurt
• Pear, parsnip, hokey pokey
• House-made Jersey milk semi hard, condiments
• A glass of white wine (Chardonnay)

Menu for Starters (goes well with wine)

Main Menu with Entree, Main and Dessert.

50% kangaroo meat + another type of meat which was quite tasty indeed. The bread was not very soft but warm.

I love the roe. Oh so sinful!

The trout entree which looks so pretty!

The ox tongue which was quite well cooked.

 

Rainbow Trout which tastes pretty good!

Beef cheeks which was very very tender and easy to slice.

Lamb which looks so so pretty. Just look at those chickpeas having fun on the yogurt!

After all those meals, we topped it off with 2 desserts, a glass of chardonnay and 2 coffees to finish it off! In my opinion though, the desserts were not as amazing as it sounds.

The wine was really smooth! 

 

Cheese was too hard but the cracker was cracking!

Wayyy tooo sweeeeet for me!

Damage: Average about 276 AUD for 3 pax. Its a pretty expensive place to have lunch but it is my partner's birthday so as long as she is happy, I am happy! :D

14/04/2018 - St Ali Coffee Roasters

Location: 12-18 Yarra Pl, South Melbourne VIC 3205

I have been wanting to bring my partner to this place for the longest time and we finally managed to come to this place. It was raining on the day but the place was crazy crowded. 

old school warehouse converted to cafe!

high ceilings!

We waiting about 15-20 minutes before we were served, so th wait wasn't that bad. We ordered the following below: 

a) Smoked Salmon
b) Koo Koo Ca Choo (The truffle was amazing!)
c) Our usual 2 coffees which were pretty awesome!


 

salmon with eggs! ahhhhhhh a wonderful start to the day!

The truffle was awesome!

Coffee was great as usual!

Damage: Average about 52 AUD. Its a pretty expensive place to have brunch but the food was awesome. We will definitely go back again! I miss the cold coffee brew in a beer bottle! It would be great to have that during hot weather!  

09/04/2018 - Vamos Melbourne

Location: 1st Floor / 37 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

It has been a while since the last update so here we are at the tapas restaurant for our 1 year anniversary celebration. The place is located on the 1st floor where you would need to take a lift upstairs. When I entered, it was pretty dark and the music was really quite loud. However, the place is quite cosy for a good dinner and it wasn't that crowded at all.

Entrance to the restuarant

The decor of lights behind my seat

The small table setup full of cutlery and glorious food and drinks!

We ordered 6 dishes in total. The food portions were not that big though. We wanted to go for the 35 AUD special where you can choose 1 from each food group(TO START, SOMETHING BIGGER, ON THE SIDE) but it turned out that the dimmi 50% off was a bit more worth while, so we just ordered it separately.

a) Chicken Skewers
b) Tostada (Baby octopus, lettuce, pico de gallo, aioli (gf)
c) Escabeche mussels, escabeche sauce, toast
d) Salmon, red pepper, amaranth, tamarindo
e) Brisket, tomato, spring onion, chimichurri 
f) Polenta chips, tapatio, aioli
g) Argentina Beer (Quilmere)
h) Tequila (El Jimador Anejo)

The chicken skewers were really good! Nice tender and to die for!

Looks pretty! But just okay .... 

The mussels were good but the sauce was wayyy tooo sourrrrrrrrr!

This salmon goes with the sauce but its quite salty!

Beef brisket is soft and tender!

Looks like a chorizo. I prefer it to be a bit more salty.

The imported beer - its always nice to have a good beer to go with food!

The tequila that tastes like medicine to me!

Damage: Average about 58 AUD after the 50% dimmi discount!. The price is quite reasonable considering the fact we had drinks and 6 portions worth of food. The normal price would have been more than 100 AUD! If not for the discount, I would not have stepped into this place.

Get the 50% off food here (Mon to Wed): https://www.dimmi.com.au/restaurant/vamos

25/01/2018 - Maha at the Windsor

Location: 111 Spring St, Melbourne VIC 3000 (21 Bond St is the original location)

I was invited to a company dinner by my partner to this beautiful middle eastern restaurant which has temporarily moved to the Windsor Hotel. 

Beautiful chandelier at the entrance!

so many bottles of wines!

We had the 10 Years of MAHA degustation which was pretty amazing. The wait for all the dishes to be served was really too long though. We started at about 7pm and the dinner ended at about 1130pm! A total of 4.5 hours worth of dining!

Such a long menu! 

Enjoy the pictures below!

A starter to whet the palate! Not really a fan of the starters though. The taste was too strong for me.

This was WAYYYY TOO SOUR for me ...

This kingfish was really well done! (My partner loves it too! Great minds think alike!)

OMG! I love this dish the most! Its so creamy and I love dipping the bread onto it! YUMMY!

This was just so so for me. The egg has overpowered the eel in this dish.

This chicken was quite juicy. But its just an OK dish. but the crispy skin was super wafer thin and crispy!!!

This was my 2nd favourite dish! I love the meat on this! :D

TOTALLY did not like this at all. It was WAYY too sweet for me and i love watermelon :(

Really love the texture of this ice cream! Its good!

Not a fan of this. Too sweet for me.

Damage: Average about 240 AUD per pax. The price is quite reasonable considering the fact that some of us ordered wine pairings to come together with the food. We also each ordered a few drinks and some red and white wines (I drank 5 glasses of wine and a Manhattan cocktail!) However, do take note that the wait is pretty long for the food to be served. There was a point in time where we were hoping that they would serve everything together so that we can quickly make our way back home!

14/01/2018 - Second Wife

Location: 8 Wellington Rd, Box Hill VIC 3128

I wanted to try this place since a few months ago and finally had this chance to do it! Its in a rather secluded place in Boxhill and it was pretty good!

We went there early so there was no one there except us!

A small but cosy place! It would be bliss to live nearby!

Love the logo on the left. Just realized the logo when I finished eating!

We ordered the following food items at the cafe! Kudos to my girlfriend who took these beautiful shots of glorious food!

a) Tumeric Latte 
b) Matcha Latte
c) Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pancake for those who do not know what that is)
d) Real Wife's breakfast (what a name!)

Wonderful pattern but a strange color.

Beautiful piece of art but there are better places which serves better matcha latte

This was pretty sweet and different but after a few bites it was a bit too sweet for me. My girlfriend likes this though.

The dish was pretty unique and the eggs were done to perfection!

Damage: ~49.50 AUD for 2 pax. The price is more reasonable than other famous brunch places found in the city. I like this place because its rather secluded yet there are quite a few people who came in for coffees and brunches. I would probably come back again if I am at boxhill and want to go to a brunch place which is less crowded. Do give this a try when you can.