ezard

the sister and bro-in-law were down from adelaide over the weekend and we decided to go have dinner at ezard - reviews of ezard have been excellent (85% on urbanspoon) and we decided to go try it out. unfortunately due to trying to make a booking really really late in the week (about four days before we wanted to go for dinner) there wasn't any place left and we had to go for the early sitting of 6pm. early sitting = no degustation due to the lack of time (we had to be out by 8) and the brother was quite disappointed with that! but to that point, they have excellent service, we talked to them about really wanting their degustation (see link to dish list here) they agreed to let us do a sortof degustation where we had the degustation, but took two dishes out. fair enough, we skipped out on the salad and the cured salmon.

romantic setting of ezard

trio of dips to go along with our bread and olive oil

accompaniment to japanese inspired oyster shooter

japanese inspired oyster shooter

steamed spanner crab dumpling with yarra valley salmon roe, celery cress

steamed spanner crab dumpling with yarra valley salmon roe, celery cress with the tom kha added

pan roasted baby barramundi with caramelised eggplant, tomato and lime salad, yellow curry dressing

slow cooked bangalow pork belly, apple pudding, fennel, white peach and calvados jus

eight score sher wagyu beef, potato terrine, garlic and red wine jam, mushroom soil, bordelaise jus

palate cleanser

and we upgraded to a dessert wheel

a peanut butter popcorn creation which while me and my other half didn't quite like, my sister loved and walloped down.

a beautifully plated strawberry roll - very pretty but tasted pretty normal

mango bit of the wheel which the sheepy and i had to fight over, haha. i lie, he let me eat most of it coz he's such a nice guy. whee.

second favourite dessert - honeycomb icecream

green tea cake which the bro and maddie loved

this is the espresso chocolate marquise, soft meringue, raspberry gel bit which comes with the normal degustation if u didn't upgrade to a dessert wheel - which was actually really good too

 so what are my views on ezard? i loved loved loveeeeddd the oyster shooter and blue spanner crab dumpling.the barramundi was cooked to perfection with crispy skin and tender flesh but wasn't anthing too special. didn't quite like the pork belly, i felt it pretty salty but if you do prefer the saltier side, i'm sure you'd love it.the wagyu was beautiful, i loved the potato terrine and the pieces worked extremely well individually - just didn't think the beef really went with the potato but maybe that's just me. upgrading to the dessert wheel was an extremely good idea - even though by that time we were all quite uncomfortably stuffed, we still made room for the extremely nomolicious dessert.

also, the service was fantastic. not only did they cater to our want for degustation, the food came out extremely quickly and they took out all uncooked and alcoholic portions of the dishes to serve to the pregnant sis-in-law. no cakage allowed, the only drawback but all in all, although on the pricier side (poor sheepy is going broke coz of me, lol), extremely worth it.

may the force be with japanese food,
cheers~

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 !

gypsy & ham, maybe?

Gypsy & Pig, a restaurant that's famous for focusing on, you got it, pork. so after attempting a few times to get into this restaurant, shao finally did the smart thing and booked it. it's quite a small restaurant off little lonsdale (address is: Shop 3 391 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne, VIC 3000) with really friendly wait staff who all greet you upon entering. as expected all the decorations and menus are stenciled with pigs.

super cute specials menu :)

 anyway, gypsy & pig specialises on pork - korobuta pork to be exact which is supposed to be black pig.
am not too sure about the whole 'black pig' par. in my mind, a black pig is supposed to be, well, black. The meat isn't black at any bit at all ! and then maddie came up with the allusion of that if you cut any person up, black, white, asian, they're all gonna be the same colour inside so we can't be discriminating against black pigs, lol !

as expected, we ordered plenty of pork dishes. except for our entree of stuffed chicken wings.

we had plenty of deep fried dishes. seemed like there was plenty of deep fried stuff on the menu so we ended up ordering most of their deep fried stuff. we had deep fried scotch fillet, deep fried eye fillet and deep fried cheese hamburg steak. the chicken wings were awesome, the stuffing well complemented by the sauce they provided. i liked their deep fried korobuta scotch fillet and eye fillet as well although i have to say, while well cooked, you couldn't really taste the difference between the two meats. the highlight for me of the night was the hamburg steak with cheese. all the cheese oozing out, total yum.

 

 

 

we had pork belly as well, and pork stew that taste an awful lot like kimchi soup. the fried korobuta rice with omelette is a slimy egg version of nasi pattaya.

topped the meal out with dessert: black sesame and green tea icecream.

all in all, a good restaurant with pretty good food. i'll give it about 75/100. pretty good, i wouldn't mind going back again, and i definitely will recommend this restaurant to pork lovers out there.

may the force be with little black pigs,
cheers~

a food lovers venture

after some convincing from the beau, i decided on two things:

1. i might as well blog again.
2. and while i'm on it, why not, i might as well just blog about my food since we eat out so much. might take me a few tries to get into the swing of actually putting my food ideas onto a blog (and make it interesting) and it's been oh, sooooo long since i've actually needed to type anything which wasn't in a report style. trust me, once you start writing reports, it's hard to get out of the swing of that.

so anyway, i'll just blog about one of the more recent food ventures since it's fresher in my mind. J and I headed to this japanese gyoza shop called Gyoza Douraku on Bourke Street near the Virgin gym. totally stumbled across that one by accident as i wanted japanese and we were walking to Ajiesen Ramen (which i might blog about some day, if i ever get around to going back there) and i looked across the road, and there it was. Gyoza Douraku which we both had never heard of before but there were people inside, so had to try it, eh?

First, the menu is phenomenally cute and the choice of sake is crazy. i think it rivals chuji's choice and that place is famous for its choice of sakes. since we were at a gyoza place and we both had hefty lunches at work, we decided to just go with gyozas (it is after all called gyoza douraku, y'know)
and tataki as the waitress recommended it. and dessert coz well. i do love my desserts.
the place is really quaint as well, with these cute little wood striped tables with baskets underneath them for diners to store their bags and coats. that by the way, is a great idea, one which more restaurants should look into. really useful for those who dislike putting their bags on the floor. 

had myself a mocktail as i've been pretty sick recently. since i'm so hopped up on a concoction of medication, i figured it be better i avoid the alcohol. as mocktails go, it's ok. not the greatest but i wouldn't mind another one.

first up the tataki. it's supposed to be wagyu tataki but honestly, couldn't tell it was wagyu. the wagyu tataki we had at nobu literally melted in your mouth whereas this one, while good, don't get me wrong, didn't do any melting moments.

we were then asked to mix our gyoza sauce and they provided us japanese soy, japanese vinegar, chilli, sesame seeds and garlic. we were provided these huge ass plates with two compartments to mix our gyoza sauce in (i'm assuming in case we messed up the sauce concoction once, we could try again, hehe)
look at that bandit skunk or whatever that's supposed to be. how damn cute is that?

so our gyoza dinner from the top: pan fried duck gyoza, steamed prawn gyoza and cheese wagyu and red onion gyoza. they have a pretty decent range of gyozas all of which can be done in three ways - pan fried, steamed or cheese covered. the gyoza wraps are very thin and are well done but i couldnt' taste the difference in the duck and wagyu ones ! the meat isn't very distinguishable. but seriously just look at that melted cheese.. how nomolicious is that?

 

 finished the meal off with a really well presented mocha icecream with green tea/red sesame garnishing and red sesame mochi which was a decent effort.

they have a set meal option that cost (if i'm not mistaken) about 30-40 bucks perperson but that includes heaps more food as well as soft shell crab rice which is actually really tempting me to go back to this place to try that !

i'll try doing a rating sort of urbanspoon/rotten tomatoes style and do a scoring over 100. i'll rate this place 65/100, i.e, good enough to go back to but i won't be rushing to go back anytime soon. ambience is amazing, the service is great and the food isn't too bad !

note to self, gotta start bringing a better camera around with me to take better food shots - my galaxy doesn't do the food pics any justice.

may the force be with disney,
cheers