Shed 5

so my sheepy saw a pretty decent review on the age on a greek restaurant called Shed 5 (see review here: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/shed-5-20121119-29la8.html) and we decided to go try it

i've been complaining that after being in melbourne to close to 5 years, i still can't believe i've never eaten baklava. very failed, foodie, me *shakes head*

ANYWAY, greek was (sorta - actually it was french but greek was on the list anyway) next on the list of restaurants to try out so we found ourselves here on a really windy (when is melbourne ever NOT windy?) and COLD wednesday evening. seriously, melbourne, can you get your weather reports right? i mean it was supposed to be 26 after all but felt like freaking 20 and i wasn't wearing a jacket ! didn't help that shed 5 was at south wharf which are by the docks which didn't help the cold on our walk there from the city.

oops, got led off on a tangent. anyway back to shed 5 and my thoughts of this place !

it isn't too far from the city if you plan to walk there - took us about twenty minutes and the view is really nice as it's by the docks. really peaceful and serene. worse thing about shed 5 was the signage. honestly, this place is SOOOOO hard to find. the sign is really tiny. i should have thought of taking a photo but didn't. it's near the boat builder's yard (a bar/pub which i shall blog about some other time) and we were planning to head there for after dinner drinks but due to some unforeseen circumstances (like eating too much) we didn't. but more of the food portions later.

the food is quite decently priced (entrees are in the 14-20 range, mains about 30+) but we decided to go for the sharing menu instead (at $55 perhead) with an additional entree of saganaki cheese coz sheepy loves that stuff.

 First on the tasting menu was roasted mixed olives with rosemary, orange and cinnamon.
to be honest, they taste like olives. olives can't go too wrong i guess and i was never a big fan of olives. i thought they were a tad salty but sheepy said they were good olives.

 Next we had pita bread and fava puree which according to their website is a puree of fried chickpeas, shallots and hazlenuts. it's also quite potatoish so it's really filling. i have to say, i loveeeee this dish. i've never had fave puree before but this really worked. it was delicious. and the pita bread was light, fluffy and everything pita bread is supposed to be like.

next thing we had was  saganaki cheese. this wasn't part of the tasting menu. the saganaki cheese was served on a hot plate with grilled onions and roasted peppers. hmm, i'm not too sure what saganaki is supposed to be like but man, this was realllllyyy salty. i mean it was still delicious but after the first couple of bites i pretty much downed half a bottle of water. it was that salty.

Just look at the cheese pulling.. mmm.. i love cheese !

 Next up and back to our sharing menu, was beetroot terrine with burrata, capers, aged balsamic and filo pastry. omg this was pretty much the best dish of the night for me. it was fantastic.it was light and fresh and really cleansed the palete. although if you don't like beetroot you might not like this as the beetroot terrine was the star of the dish and pretty much dominated the senses.

N'duja and mozzarella croquettes served with aioli. this was really good and at about this point, i understood why the waitress asked me when we were ordering the sharing menu whether i was really hungry. the dishes are all really carb-heavy (all that potato and cheese) and by this time i was feeling pretty stuffed. this was done really well.

we got the next three dishes served together: hand cut fries seasoned with bay leaves, garlic, rosemary and oregano, a salad of dill, cucumber, radish seasoned with some lemony dressing, and slow roasted lamb next with dates, pinenuts and capers. (all pictures below)

let me start with the fries. omg, the fries.. were.. the best fries i have ever had. i'd put them right on par with golden monkey bar chips. the seasoning was just right and even though my dinner date was stuffed he actually forced himself to finish the fries coz they were just too good to put down.
the salad was well. salad. i mean i understand why vegetables are important and all that but in my opinion, salad is salad. as long as the vegetables are fresh, you can't go too wrong with salad, am i wrong? haha. then again i'm soooo not a vege person.
 the lamb next was really well cooked. the lamb was tender and seasoned well. i didn't have too much of it as i was really struggling by this point but it was delicious.

fries

the very pretty but salad is salad dish

lamb neck

and finally the dishes i was waiting for ! DESSERTS ! i never feel a meal is complete if i hadn't got desserts.

there were two desserts on the tasting dish - spiced syrup revant cake with halva ice cream, poached fig and pistachio and goats milk crema on walnut baklava, coffee sorbet and metaxa jelly.

i honestly.. loved the goats milk crema with all that (which i'm too lazy to type) it neither looked like any baklava i've ever seen before nor was it any baklava sheepy had before but since this is a 'modern greek' restaurant i suppose they have updated their backlava as well. this was really fresh and a great end to an awesome meal.
the spiced syrup revant cake wasn't so great for me - i mean don't get me wrong, i still thought it was good but it wasn't anything extremely standout.

goats milk crema served with walnut baklava, coffee sorbet and metaxa jelly

spiced syrup revant cake

 
All in all, a fantastic meal - i'd rate this place 80/100. the service was not bad - the first waitress we had was a sweetie but i don't quite like the fact that the waiters don't actually explain the food you are eating. i mean i'm not trying to be snob (or maybe i am, haha) but in my view, when paying a certain amount for your food, i expect the waiters to tell you what the dish is. i can't remember what's on the menu ok ! the one thing i DID love about this place was that we wanted to swap the saganaki cheese for a similar priced item on the sharing menu but as it was a sharing menu and we couldn't do swaptions and sheepy really really ( and i mean realllllyyyy) wanted the saganaki, they gave us free after meal coffee/tea on the house coz they felt bad.

it's modern greek so i'm quite disappointed i still haven't had traditional greek food AND baklava (really gotta find somewhere that does a good one!) but it was still an awesome night.

would have been more awesome if i actually didn't feel so sick and soooo stuffed i had trouble walking back to my car (which was parked at southbank so it's about a twenty minute walk!)

would i recommend this place to friends? absolutely. i already have.

may the force be with baklava hunters,
cheers~

p/s: if you're looking for shed 5, the address is 37 Dukes Walk, South Wharf. it's a bit hard to find but it's a slight walk past the boat builder's yard and the sign is pretty tiny, so stay sharp !