So when Maze opened in Melbourne, I didn’t jump at it the way I thought I would. In fact, it was on pure chance that we ended up there. The funny thing was, it turned out to be my favourite meal of the whole three days I was in Melbourne – it trumped Vue de Monde, Nobu, Fog and all 17 restaurants from Taste of Melbourne.

Earlier that day, I planned a spa morning for my girlfriends and I at Isika Day Spa at the top of Crown Metropol. The place was truly amazing and was purpose built as a day spa – not an after thought like most in-hotel spas are. After 3 hours of massages, lounging by the infinity pool, steam room and floating on water bubbles in the vitality pool, we were ready to eat.

As we headed downstairs to Maze, we approached the hostess for a table for five, which she happily accomodated. We even put the pressure on, with only one hour to finish our meals in time for our flight back to Sydney.

We each ordered the lunch set menu – which offered 3 courses for $38 or 4 courses for $49. This is unbelievable value and highly recommend it to those thinking of dining there.

As we waited for our first course to arrive, we were brought bread and a pot of seaweed butter, which reminded me of the truffle butter I had at Tetsuya’s. While it tasted different, it was every bit as addictive as the version at Tet’s.

I started with the tuna tataki which surprised with every bite – and every bite tasted slightly different from the last. There were notes of citrus, coriander, mayo and soy. The cubes of tuna was perfectly shaped and cut, not stewy at all. This was a sensational dish and really set the tone for the courses to come.

Another entree was the haddock. The creamy foam enveloped the smokey flavours in the fish while the watercress added a touch of freshness. The soft poached egg was the icing on the cake.

Second course was a picturescque square of barramundi fillet with crisp fried skin. This perfect piece of fish was finished off with a butternut squash puree, compressed cucumber and pumpkin seeds.

Another option was the ‘ox tongue and cheek’, featuring a braised piece of beef cheek which was fall apart soft and doused in plenty of jus to keep it moist.

My main course was the pork belly – and wow, what a dish. The pork had a beautiful crisp crackling and was a perfectly rendered. The accompanying dashi broth really brought the dish alive and bound eveyrthing together. My favourite part of the dish was the very subtle hints of szechuan which added flavour, and not so much heat.

With 20 minutes to spare, our waiters brought over our desserts. The coconut and white chocolate panna cotta looked nothing of the sort. Served with a steaming hot friand on the side, the panna cotta had a mango and black olive caramel centre. It sparked a little debate around the table whether the dish was adventurous and just too experimental.

The other dessert was a sheep’s yoghurt mousse with frozen blackberry, walnut ice cream and a honey oat crumble. It was a lovely dish of contrasts – not only in flavour, but also in texture and temperature.

And so of course, as we hurried to the airport on time, the irony was that our flight was delayed by an hour.

Ahh… could’ve sprung for the four course after all!

Maze
Crown Metropol
8 Whiteman Street
Southbank Melbourne Victoria 3006
# 03 9292 8300
www.crownmetropol.com.au/maze

An event like Taste of Melbourne seems like the perfect solution, as it gives us the opportunity to sample dishes from the city’s top restaurants in one sitting.
Taste of Melbourne is like experiencing Melbourne’s food scene on speed, it’s instantaneous, exciting and lots of fun.

I flew down to Melbourne for this year’s event with seven of my girlfriends as part of my hen’s weekend celebrations. While we couldn’t resist comparing it to Taste of Sydney, the differences were unmistakably obvious. Not only was Taste of Melbourne more organised and at a more attractive venue, the standard of food overall was so much better.

Between our group of eight, we tried a total of 21 dishes from all 12 of the exhibiting restaurants. It took a lot of careful planning and coordination to make sure we got maximum mileage out of our pool of 300 crowns.

In the end, the dishes from Charcoal Lane and Stokehouse came out out on top. Although, the unanimous favourite was the eye fillet from The Palace by Luke Mangan. It was the most tender piece of eye fillet I have ever had – soft like a sponge and dressed in jus, the beef had subtle smokey flavours brought to life by the salty capers.

The Palace: eye fillet, potato mash, sauce Bordelaise

Stokehouse delivered two winning dishes, the first being the beef cigars, which had a lovely crisp shell encasing a stewed beef filling with spicy cumin. The second was the Bombe, a bombe alaska slice with fluffy meringue and velvety smooth ice cream.

Stokehouse: wagyu beef cigars, artichoke tapenade and horseradish

Stokehouse: the Bombe - strawberry sorbet, white chocolate parfait and toasted meringue

Meanwhile, Charcoal Lane served up a wallaby tataki, which was dressed in a ginger and sweet soy sauce. The dish was on the salty side, but I found the flavours very well rounded. The second dish from Charcoal Lane was the raspberry and rosella flower cannelloni. This dessert got top marks from me for originality. I loved the wonderful tart berry flavours matched against the sweetness of the candied rosella flower.

Charcoal Lane: Wallaby tataki, ginger, soy, horseradish

Charcoal Lane: Raspberry and rosella flower cannelloni, strawberry and native mint salad

Other mains that caught our eye (and won our hearts) was the braised pork cheek from Mezzo Bar & Grill. When this dish arrived at our table, it smelled absolutely divine. The aroma from the raisins, marsala and five spice was irresistable, however, the pork cheek was a little dry for my liking.

Mezzo Bar & Grill: organic slow braised pork cheef, white polenta, riasins and marsala sauce

Sarti served up a prawn sausage which had lots of heat through it and layers of flavour. The pickled cucumber salad was a nice contrast against the spiciness.

Sarti: calabrian prawn sausage, pickled cucumber salad

The desserts sparked the most debate among our group. While my favourites were the bombe alaska and cannelloni, others raved on about the deconstructed pavlova from Maze. There were so many different flavours to this dish, which made it an exciting one to eat. From the crisp of the meringue to the smooth lemon curd, this dish offered a variety of textures which all tied together seamlessly.

Maze: passionfruit vacherin, lemon curd, tropical fruit

And then there were the rest, which didn’t quite blow us away but weren’t horrible either.

If you can make time to visit Melbourne during next year’s show, I highly recommend it. It was a fantastic experience and there couldn’t have been a better (and more efficient!) way to tick off 12 restaurants off my dining wish list for the city.

For more information, please visit www.tastefestivals.com.au.

Stokehouse Restaurant & Bar
30 Jacka Boulevard St Kilda
Phone +61 3 9525 5555
www.stokehouse.com.au

The Palace by Luke Mangan
505 City Road (cnr Pickles Street) South Melbourne
Phone +61 3 9699 6410
www.palacehotelmelbourne.com.au

Charcoal Lane
136 Gertrude Street Fitzroy
Phone +61 3 9418 3400
www.charcoallane.com.au

maze & maze Grill
Level 1, Crown Metropol
Corner of Whiteman and Clarendon Streets Southbank
Phone +61 3 9292 8300
www.gordonramsay.com/mazegrillmelbourne

Mezzo Bar & Grill
35 Little Bourke Street Melbourne
Phone +61 3 9650 0988
www.mezzobar.com.au

Sarti
6 Russell Place Melbourne
Phone +61 3 9639 7822
www.sartirestaurant.com.au

Not only am I flying down with an entourage of girlfriends, we are celebrating one very special occasion: the last weeks of my singledom!

Running from 26-29 August, Taste of Melbourne will transform the Royal Exhibition Buildings into a culinary haven featuring signature dishes from Melbourne’s top restaurants.

Participating restaurants include:

* Stokehouse+ Bar
* Longrain + Bar
* Sarti
* Maze
* Fifteen
* The Palace by Luke Mangan
* Melbourne Wine Room
* Mr. Wolf
* Esposito
* Libertine
* Mezzo

This year’s festival will also feature pop up restaurants which change with each day of the show – these include Embrasse, Koots Salle a Manger and Entre Tapas y Vinos.

As with the Sydney show earlier this year, leading local producers will exhibit their delicious wares for tasting and buying. Anthea Loucas, editor of Gourmet Traveller magazine will also host cooking demonstrations by Melbourne’s leading chefs.

Win tickets to Taste of Melbourne!

Thanks to the organisers, Brand Events, we are giving away 5 double passes to Taste of Melbourne, which can be used at any session during the show. Unfortunately, flights are not included for interstate readers but there are great deals on offer from Tiger and Virgin.

To be in the running, simply leave a comment below and tell us which Melbourne restaurant you’d most like to see at the show – whether they are part of this year’s show or not!

For me, it will have to be maze, although I’m a little disappointed that Nobu and Movida aren’t participating this year.

Competition closes at 6pm Sunday 22 August. For more information, please visit www.tastefestivals.com.au.

When we were last in Melbourne, we spent the good part of an afternoon walking up and down Brunswick Street in search of the Alannah Hill outlet (we later found out that it had moved a kilometre from its original spot). After an hour of frolicking through piles of beaded cardigans and tulle dresses, we were in desperate need of a drink.

No less than 20 metres away, we found Little Creatures Dining Hall, a warehouse sized beer cafe jam packed with punters in need of a late afternoon pick me up. There was something oddly church-like about the place, only the thing being worshiped here was beer.

Awesome beer aside, Little Creatures does fantastic pub grub. It’s tasty, fast and goes along so well with beer.

Our first order was the garlic prawns, which were served whole to retain most of its original flavour. The garlic wasn’t too overpowering and I found myself chomping through the whole prawn – even the head which I’m not normally a fan of.

Whole crystal bay garlic prawns - $15

The chicken wings were also well received, we just wished there was more of it. Barbecued with a tomato based marinade, the wings were tasty and had a little kick in them too.

BBQ'd chicken wings - $14

The highlight for me was the grilled flatbread, which came with a very satisfying bowl of chunky beetroot and feta dip. The flatbread was very soft and still warm from the grill.

Beetroot and feta dip with grilled flatbread - $9

When we polished off the last chicken wing, we called over the bill, which arrived tucked into a Little Golden Book entitled “Mickey Mouse and Goofy: The Big Bear Scare”. I couldn’t help but squeal a little, it was so adorable!

No doubt a great place to go if you’ve got the afternoon munchies, but we were a little let down by the portions at Little Creatures. Judging by the size of the beers that were filtering out of the bar, we could’ve done with an extra prawn or two.

Little Creatures Dining Hall
222 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy VIC
# 03 9417 5500
www.littlecreatures.com.au

We had already spent the day eating non stop, walking up and down every street and making pointless stops at shops we weren’t interested in. Sitting on a bench, watching office workers giving themselves early marks and heading home, kids flocking out of trams and into fast food restaurants, Ms. Taste hits her iPhone to find some things to do.

“We’ve still got time left on our ticket, lets go ride the 96 tram, we haven’t done that route yet”, I suggest. Ms. Taste shakes her head and lets out an exasperated sigh, “What is your obsession with trams?”

Then she remembers that No Reservations episode where Tony visits Melbourne and with a few more minutes of googlising, we are walking again with a purpose, towards Chinatown in search of Dainty Sichuan.

After walking all the way to Little Bourke St, we find that Dainty Sichuan has moved and in it’s place, serving the same Sichuan delights with the same kitchen and wait staff is Sichuan House. It’s only 4:30 in the afternoon but there’s already two tables full of loud students tucking into their plates of chilli.

These tables weren't empty for long

Cumin Lamb Ribs

Ms. Taste orders the Cumin Lamb Ribs because Tony did it No Reservations, despite her dislike for cumin. There had to have been a jar of cumin in this dish (and a similar amount of garlic and sichuan pepper). It was an assault on the senses, with the aroma of all the strong spices, the crisp deep-fried outside and soft meat inside, and the lingering burning of the lips after each bite always itching for the next.

Fish Sour Stew with Pickled Vegetables

The stewed fish with pickled vegetables is a favourite of ours. However, each restaurant seems to have their own spin on the dish. The version at Sichuan House has plenty of bean sprouts to soak up the sour soup and that subtle, unassuming kick from all the chillis hiding under and in between all the ingredients.

My kind of ribs and beer

Sichuan House

Sichuan House was just the hit we needed before our flight home. And as we sat on the runway waiting for our plane to take off, we could still feel the tingle of Sichuan House on our tongues and took comfort in the thought that there couldn’t have been a better way to end our trip.

Sichuan House
22-26 Corrs Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
# 03 9650 8589

Crusty white bread sandwich, bacon, egg, tomato, avocado & lemon mayonnaise - $14

After a wonderful meal at Cutler & Co, we visited Andrew O’Connell’s other hatted restaurant, Cumulus Inc for some late morning breakfast.

The full English – farmhouse slab bacon, blood sausage on toast, fried eggs & smoked tomato - $18

The breakfast menu had a good variety of choices, guaranteed to appease the fussiest of eaters. However, the menu didn’t allow for changes to any of the dishes – so if you wanted to swap the sides around, you couldn’t.

Sardines with parsley, tomato and lemon on grilled sourdough - $13

CUMULUS INC. breakfast – boiled egg, toast, preserves, yoghurt, organic orange juice & coffee or tea - $16

The service was painfully slow at Cumulus Inc. It took me half an hour before I got my coffee (the waitress had apparently forgotten my order) and another hour for us to get our food. Even with 10 or so chefs in the open plan kitchen and six other tables, we all stared at each other in bewilderment as to what was holding up our food.

When our orders finally arrived, we hoed in without hesitation. It was satisfying, but it was far from fantastic. Everything tasted great and there was nothing I could fault, but the meal lacked the wow factor of Cutler & Co. Here, we just felt a little short changed.

Cumulus Inc.
45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC
# 03 9650 1445
www.cummulusinc.com.au

When our flight landed at 7pm, we raced from the airport to the city, dropped off our bags and caught the 86 tram to Fitzroy. The restaurant had a great vibe when we walked in and our party of four was shown a table near the back.

We had a bit of trouble deciding what to order from the menu – the dishes all sounded really fantastic and we wanted to cover as much ground as possible. We did travel farther than anyone else to eat there after all.

Amuse Bouche of Crisp Crostini with Tender, Slow-cooked Octopus, Chorizo and Aioli

Parmesan chips

Mr. Taste and I shared the Salad Lyonnaise for our entree, which had a poached egg yolk encased in caramel as its centrepiece. I had seen it on the food blog, Melbourne Dining Experiences beforehand and was dying to try it.

I absolutely loved this dish, it was a smorgasbord of contrasting textures, colours and flavours. The egg was a real highlight and had me wondering how I could recreate it at home.

Salad Lyonnaise - frisee salad with crisp pancetta, garlic sausage, smoked tongue, confit gizzards and poached egg yolk - $19

Our friends, Wendy and Molly shared the Asparagus Salad as their entree. Decorated with Nasturtium flowers, this dish tasted as good as it looked. “Real” crab is hard to come by on restaurant menus. We normally see the frozen variety, but at Cutler & Co, we were pleased to find fleshy chunks of spanner crab lining the plate.

Asparagus Salad, Seared Scallop & Picked Spanner Crab - $26

Mr. Taste’s main, the line caught snapper, had him enthralled from the first bite. The glistening flakes of fish, accompanied by the broad beans, shallots and potato aioli was a winning combination.

Line caught local snapper, broad beans, glazed shallots, potato aioli - $39

The pork belly was also a memorable part of the evening. Cooked sous vide (a method used all too often on Top Chef), the pork was pull-apart tender, with lots of flavour. The crisp layer of crackling on top provided the perfect finish.

Roast suckling pig, sweet and sour onion, prune vinegar - $43

While I’m not a big lamb eater, I chose the slow roast lamb for my main. The dish was accompanied by a ‘spring roll’ filled with a confit of slow braised lamb. The roast lamb was probably a little too rare for my liking, but its braised counterpart was right up my alley.

Slow roast lamb, merguez spice, carrot & black olive oil - $40

Throughout the night, we had excellent service from our attentive waiter who didn’t hesitate to check up on us regularly. This made us wonder whether we had been sticking up with Sydney’s notoriously bad customer service for too long.

Violet icecream, chocolate ganache, sour cherry sauce and chocolate sponge - $17

Although our original plan was to skip dessert at Cutler & Co and head somewhere else, we found it hard to move (literally). So we settled on a third course of strawberry sorbet on vanilla rice and chocolate sponge with violet ice cream. The two desserts couldn’t be any more different and yet, we enjoyed them all the same.

Strawberry sorbet, vanilla rice & verjuice jelly - $18

Cutler & Co
55-57 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
03 9419 4888
www.cutlerandco.com.au

Open for lunch on Friday and Sunday from noon and dinner from Tuesday to Sunday from 6pm-11pm.

Of course, I completely forget to do this and those words kept haunting me over the weekend at the times when I could do nothing about it, like on the plane or at 2am. I kept reminding myself that we are coming back in a few weeks, it won’t be a major drama if we miss out this trip, I’ll have plenty of time to book it for then.

Movida Exterior

So Ms. Taste and I end up wandering around Melbourne’s inner-city suburbs on a Sunday morning, bored out of our wits as nothing is open besides Coles (we went to the Coles in Richmond and then to the Coles in Fitzroy! Yes it was boring!). A pretty unsatisfactory leg of our unusually unprepared trip. So I suggest we might as well give MoVida a shot, worst case is that we get rejected and make a booking for our next trip (saving on a phone call, oh cheapskate-ness ahoy!) or we wait for a while and hopefully be lucky enough to snag a table.

Chalkboard full of desserts

Back onto the tram, we jump off into the empty wind-tunnel streets of the CBD and make our way down a few blocks to Hosier Lane, just off Flinders St and sort of in front of Federation Square. There’s a group of tourists taking photos and posing in front of the murals. It’s hard to tell whether they’re there to admire the art on the walls or whether they’re a bunch of excited foodies. Somehow we’ve arrived on the stroke of noon, just as they’re opening. The tables are all empty and reserved and the bar and window seats are already occupied save two seats. Lady Luck must have been making up for that boring morning with a fun afternoon ahead. “Are you OK to sit at the bar?”, asks the hostess. “Eh, I don’t think that will be a problem”, we reply, grinning with excited giggles.

Seated at the bar

Complimentary bread and olive oil

We’re immediately greeted with a few slices of soft bread, a few of a crustier nature and a small pool of olive oil. Our friendly bartender/waiter explains how we should order – The tapa are small individual bite-sized pieces, whilst the racion are plates to share amongst two or more people. Whilst we both sit silently, contemplating our ordering strategy (How many things can we eat? What looks like good value? Uh, wait didn’t we just eat?), our barman returns with our drinks and some more slices of bread for our freshly vacated bread plate.

Apple Cider - Le Pere Jules Cidre Bouche $8.00

Anchoa: Hand filleted Cantabrian artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet - $4.50

Anchoa

Our waiter suggests the Anchoa, one taste changed how he looks at the world he tells us (or was it how he looked at anchovies? Eh, same thing). The cool smoky foam fills the nostrils whilst the intense salty anchovy and the texture of the crispy crouton provide a enjoyably complex mouthful to slowly take in and digest.

Viera: Roasted Spring Bay scallop with jamon and potato foam - $4.80 each

Next is the Viera, with it’s sliver of jamon that also gives off that wonderful smoky aroma. The fresh and juicy scallop is quickly devoured and any of the leftover creamy potato foam is mopped up with some bread.

Gambas al ajillo: Prawns cooked in garlic and fino with broad beans - $18.50

Gambas al ajillo - $18.50

The ubiquitous Spanish garlic prawns dish, but with fino and broad beans! The prawns were fresh and cooked perfectly, the flavourful leftover sauce is again eagerly mopped up with what had to be our 5th refill of bread.

San Jacobo de cordonice: Hunter Valley quail, partially boned, crumbed, and filled with jamon and mahon cheese - $8.00

An amazing chicken nugget filled with amazing treasures inside its crunchy and crispy exterior. The cheese oozes out as we split this one down the middle, we both enjoy our portion and agree that half was just right for this relatively heavy dish.

Costilla con sobrasada: Roast lamb cutlet encased in a Catalan pork and paprika pate - $7.50

The green sauce is similar to a chimichurri, a strong parsley taste with the pork and paprika a little too subtle for my tastebuds. Also cooked perfectly, both of us very satisfied with this dish.

Carillera de buey: Slowly braised beef cheek in Pedro Ximenez on cauliflower puree - $18.50

Carillera de buey - $18.50

Ms. Taste’s favourite dish, the soft sweet and juicy beef cheek, falling apart and melting in our mouths. The penultimate course, I leave it to Ms. Taste to polish it off as it is very rich and flavourful.

Daily Special - Barramundi and other seafood

Our last dish, the daily special with barramundi and some other creatures from the sea. It’s unlucky that this dish came after the beef cheek. I have a harder time tasting the subtleties of the sauce and the seafood as there’s still the strong meaty taste lingering on my tongue. But everything is definitely fresh and it goes undeservingly unloved due to its order in the lineup and our already over-filled stomachs.

A highlight of our short trip to Melbourne, it leaves us hankering for some more tapas on our return to Sydney. Sitting just a few spots above MoVida on the Gourmet Traveller Top 100 is Surry Hills’ Bodega Tapas Bar, and top of our to-do list is to brave the crowds and their no-bookings policy to see if the high standards set at MoVida are exceeded.

MoVida
1 Hosier Lane
Melbourne
# 03 9663 3038
www.movida.com.au

Open daily from noon until late.