Cumulus Up

I had a classic Melbourne night out last night with Meat-and-Three-Veg.  We went along to a Comedy Festival show (David O'Doherty) for some belly laughs and then wandered up Flinders lane to Cumulus Inc.  But instead of heading to the iconic basement restaurant we went up the stairs to the right to the newly opened Cumulus Up.

Upstairs at Cumulus Up - it feels like it has always been there

Anada

Living in Melbourne a good air-conditioning system is not top of my wish list for restaurants but the past few weeks have made it an issue all of a sudden.  On a normal night I would have loved eating at Gertrude tapas bar Anada.  But on a stinking hot Saturday night in the midst of a heat wave it was not a pleasant experience despite the excellent food.  The restaurant only has two fans and a tiny air conditioner down the back.   With one fan broken even Stephanie Alexander who was eating at an adjoining table was begging for cool air (yes I was star struck).

Jamon at Anada

Pawn and Co

Everything has a price.  The owners of newly opened bar Pawn and Co have taken that theory to the extreme by putting everything in the bar up for sale.  Pawn and Co overlooks Chapel street and straddles the divide between the hipster-fied Windsor end and the flashy South Yarra end.  I was invited to the launch party last week and while the bar was filled with the beautiful people that dwell in this area it also had a little bit of a grungy feel to it reminiscent of the old Chapel Street pawn shops in Windsor thanks to the piles of old suitcases, lamps and even a morgue table which all come complete with price tag so you can buy them.

Fish and flaxseed ball at Pawn and Co

Captain Melville

Bushrangers are back! Captain Melville is the newest place in the city housed in Melbourne's oldest pub.  The old bluestone building was most recently called Mac's hotel but has been reinvented as Captain Melville, named after one of Victoria's most notorious bushrangers.

Slow cooked lamb in brik pastry at Captain Melville

The Smith

I was not totally surprised to see the girls before me in the queue for the toilets at The Smith to head into the cubicle in a pair.  The Smith is that sort of restaurant.  It's buzzing with a big open kitchen and the place becomes more of a bar than a restaurant as the night gets later.  This makes it not ideal for a quiet romantic dinner and more the venue for a group dinner with friends when you want to continue with drinks in the bar area.

Oysters

Safari dinner at Southwarf Promenade

I like to think that I am fairly up to date with what is happening in Melbourne but it seems like I just  turned my back for a moment and a whole new area has sprung up, South Wharf Promenade.   MTV and I were invited to go and explore the area on a safari style dinner, moving from restaurant to restaurant with each course, it was a concept that sounded great but first we actually had to find South Wharf Promenade.

Foie gras at Meat Market

Fitzrovia

The dilemma with Fitzrovia is whether to go there for brunch so you can have the excellent cured Tasmanian ocean trout or for dinner so you can order the truffled polenta chips.  These are the decidedly first world problems that I have to deal with in my life.

Cured Tasmanian ocean trout with quinoa for breakfast

Grub Food Van

Finding out where Melbourne's food trucks are has got a lot easier thanks to the new Where the Truck At website.  Instead of checking individual truck's Facebook pages and twitter feeds you can find them all on one website.  Genius.

The shiny silver Grub Food van

Tyranny of Distance

I'm house hunting at the moment.  This entails spending most weekends driving around Melbourne looking at houses which are ridiculously priced and bear only slight resemblance to the photographs.  Sticking pins in your eyes may just be a more enjoyable weekend activity as at least it does not include that element of hope and then disappointment.  You always know that sticking pins in your eyes is not going to be fun.

Coda

In Chinatown often the best dishes are not even written on the menu.  It felt a little Chinatown-esque at Coda when our waiter tipped us a wink and whispered that the must order dish was the "off menu"   pork belly ($40).  Unfortunately unlike those secret dishes in Chinatown, the pork belly was a bit of a disappointment.  While the pork was pink and tender the skin was limp rather than crisp crackling.

Follow the signs to Coda in a basement off Flinders Lane

The Newmarket Hotel

For a pub that used to host schnitz and tits nights* the Newmarket Hotel has come a long way.  The venue has a touch of the trendys about it now with a modern but retro feeling fit out thanks to Six Degrees.  Concrete arches span the ceiling and there is the same indoor/outdoor feel as The Royal Saxon.

Inside the Newmarket - featuring Greedy Diva's cardigan

Chin Chin

I've joined the hordes of people worshipping at the temple of Chin Chin.  Rumours of the seriously good Asian food being served up at Chin Chin had reached me while I was still living in London.  Then came the reports of up to three hour waits to get tables and friends who tried to go for lunch were told to come back at 3.30 in the afternoon.  All of a sudden I was not quite so enthusiastic about joining the Chin Chin cult.

The beautifully designed mosaic tiled bar at Chin Chin

The secret it turns out, is to head to Chin Chin this week.  Everyone in Australia is still at the beach or on summer holidays so my friend Claire and I just walked right in for a table at Chin Chin without a care in the world.  Once in, we liked what we saw.  The warehouse style space on Flinders Lane is a perfect inner city playground.

Spicy and slow cooked BBQ goat

A huge mosaic tiled bar lines one side of the room while chefs do their thing in a partly open kitchen.   Huge pink neon bunny ears hang on one wall and bright blue metal stools add pops of colour.  The whole restaurant has been designed to within an inch of its life and I could not help but love it.

Lychee cocktail

Claire and I tucked into cocktails including a brilliant lychee concoction which included a huge ball of iced rose petals that slowly melted into the alcohol while we checked out the menu which also doubled as a placemat.  The food is best described as "Asian fusion" even though in some circles that is a dirty phrase.  It jumps around the continent from dumplings to Thai style curries to a porky take on peking duck rolls.

Kingfish sashimi - check out the beautiful crockery at Chin Chin as well

Whether you waltz in to Chin Chin this week or queue for hours next week, here's what I'd order.  The Kingfish sashimi ($16) with thick slices of fish almost translucent and dripping with the acidity of lime juice and the punch of a chilli dressing.   Crunchy deep fried corn and coriander fritters ($12) wrapped in an iceberg lettuce leaf and lathered with chilli jam, essentially the culinary equivalent of crack cocaine.

Corn and coriander fritters

You also can't miss the wild Barramundi salad ($26) with its textural contrast between the crispy deep fried fish, sticky sweet cubes of caramalised pork and the slithers of green apple.

Wild Barramundi salad

Here's what I'd skip.  The pork roll ups ($18) are fun because you construct them yourself but they were timid in comparison to the other dishes we tried.  Similarly while the BBQ goat ($28) was slow cooked and spicy, the dish was pleasant rather than possessing.

Pork roll ups

The wine list at Chin Chin sits comfortably beside the spotlight hogging food.  It is a proudly parochial  all Australian affair and we loved the crisp and dry Pachamama riesling ($39).

Chin Chin's famous neon bunny ears

Yes, I've drunk the Kool-Aid and am now already planning my next pilgrimage to that culinary temple called Chin Chin.

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Update - July 2012
I went for dinner at Chin Chin on a Saturday night with friends which meant a two hour wait for a table.  We didn't mind as we waited with cocktails at Go Go bar, but bear that time frame in mind if you don't like queuing.  The "Feed Me" menu was brilliant although Chin Chin's duck liver and chilli dish almost burned our throats with some seriously spicy flavours.

Essentials
Details: Chin Chin, 125 Flinders Lane  Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia (Ph: +61 (3) 8663 2000)  Open 7 days, lunch until late.
Damage: Pricey.  Our bill came to $173 for two with drinks.
9/10

Gerald's Bar

Christmas is over and everyone needs a drink to recover.  Gerald's Bar in Carlton might be just the spot to indulge.  Wine is supposed to be the main event at Gerald's Bar.  After all the bar has won awards for its lengthy wine list and "first come, first served" open bottle policy (five whites and five reds are open at any one time) .  However the food at the bar is so good that it the cuisine at Gerald's Bar may just be trying to steal the spotlight from the booze.

Gerald's Bar already looks like an institution that has been around for years

Right next to La Porchetta's on Rathdowne street, Gerald's Bar has limited seating with some tables out the front, a handful inside and lots of stools on which to prop up the heavily laden bar.  The place has the feeling of somewhere that has been around for ages (despite the fact it is a relative newcomer) with net curtains on the windows, a ladder that slides along the bar to get to those tricky top shelf spirits and vinyls turning on a record player.  I went there for my annual book club Christmas party so we ignored the daily changing menu and opted for the group menu a bargain $50 per person in which you leave all choices in the hands of the chefs at Gerald's Bar.

Each course was a surprise to us which only added to the novelty of the experience.  To start, sparklingly fresh oysters served in the shell and topped with tiny crisp pieces of bacon.  Then came slices of thick chicken terrine flecked with pistachio nuts and served with toasted bread and chutney.

Chicken terrine

A vibrantly flavoured salad featured torn, creamy mozzarella with chunks of smoked tomato and was followed by slices of slow cooked pork on a bed of oozing mashed potato.   However the total superhero dish of the night was the whole baked ocean trout which was encased in a thick salt crust.  The theatre of the dish was amazing with the crust cracked open to reveal pink, pearly and perfectly cooked fish.

Smoked tomato and mozzarella salad

We finished the meal with a scoop of intensely rich chocolate ice-cream.  Simple but glorious stuff.     As for that helpful and encyclopedic wine list? We didn't use it at all.  Instead we relied on our waitress who, while a bit unhelpful at times (we had to ask three times for butter with our bread), was a total wine guru when it came to recommending what vino we should imbibe.  If you go, order the sparkling rosé from Bendigo ($40), sensational, and not too sweet.

From oysters to a whole salt encrusted ocean trout this was not your typical money-pinching-set-group-menu nor was it standard simple bar food.  Instead it was food with personality and pizzaz which pretty much hogged the lime light from the brilliant wine list.  Perhaps the place should be renamed Gerald's Restaurant instead of Gerald's Bar.

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Essentials
Details: Gerald's Bar, 386 Rathdowne Street  Carlton North, Vic 3054, Australia (Ph +61 3 9349 4748) Open: Mon - Sat 5pm - 11pm, Sun closed.
Damage: Reasonable.  The set menu is $50 a person.  With (a lot of) drinks and a tip we paid about $80 each.
9/10

The Royal Saxon

I must be back in London. Queues out the door on a Friday and Saturday night for a bar/restaurant? No, I'm still in Melbourne but I'm eating at Royal Saxon the oh so cool venture from the people who brought Melbourne The Public House and the Albert Park Hotel. My friend Sophie works around the corner from Royal Saxon and is already a big fan even if it is painful to get in on a weekend. The place looks amazing, no money has been spared by architects Six Degrees to create a multi levelled space with a lofty warehouse vibe. Inside and outisde is cleverly mixed with the bar area opening out into a paved courtyard where the focus is a beautiful old Moreton bay fig which was apparently transplanted at great cost to Royal Saxon.

The menus serve as placemats as well and are packed with exactly the type of things that you want to eat once you have had a few drinks. The food is Italian and features antipasti made for nibbling at and more substantial fare such as pizzas, risottos and pastas almost designed for soaking up alcohol. Napkins are cheery red and white striped tea towels all the better for trying to remove pasta sauce from your shirt.

From the antipasti section of the menu, crispy zucchini flowers ($14) are served dipped in a light tempura like batter alongside crisp sage leaves and slices of lemon. Doused in lemon juice it is light, refreshing bar food with a twist. The proscuitto pizza ($16) is thin based with a rectangular shape and arrives on a serving board. The dough is slightly charred and elastic and the pizza topped with silky folds of prosciutto, mushrooms, sprigs of thyme and fontina cheese.

Royal Saxon is a more of a bar than a restaurant so there are extensive beer, wine and cocktail menus with over ten beers on tap including boutique offerings such as White Rabbit and Pipsqueak cider. Good food, good drinks, a "we are so busy that we don't take bookings policy" and lots of beautiful people, I'm starting to see why this place is so popular.

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Essentials

Details: 545 Church Street, Richmond 3121 (+61 3 9429 5277) Australia

Damage: Pricey

8/10

Links

If you liked reading this you might be interested in my review of another new opening in Melbourne, Three Bags Full, for new openings in London check out my review of Yalla Yalla.