Bistro Vue

Bistro Vue, 430 little collins street, melbourne.

I went to bistro vue as part of the restaurant express week. last time i went to matteo's, and i thoroughly recommend doing this - for $35 you get two courses and a glass of wine. Bistro vue was no exception and it was a lot of fun for the day.

The entree was a prawn cocktail, which we skipped (i had eyed the cheese off on the way to our table, and had a hankering for some dairy goodness, whereas my girlfriend wanted to brulee, a pistachio version).

braised veal shin 'a la chinoise'

This was basically osso bucco, but oh so good. tender veal, amazingly intense bone marrow, and some ice bismati rice to soak up the juices. I could eat these all day long. The only thing was that we had no choice for the main course (even for restaurant express, you get options people!).

goat's cheese with a rosemary crust, cheddar, and assorted biscuits to carry said cheese to mouth.

The goats cheese was very, very nice, however the cheddar was not so good - it had a yellow crust like it had been left out for too long... i didn't even finish the cheddar :(

pistachio creme brulee

the sorbet was grapefruit flavoured and i loved it - too bad i was warned off it by my girlfriend :(
the brulee was ok, but i felt that it tasted too much of marzipan, and didn't discern any pistachio in it!

Canale

These were nice, but for some reason we felt that there was a bitter flavour to them. However when talking to the waitress, they said that these were only made with rum, sugar, vanilla and something else (flour?). however they were crispy, and nice and soft in the middle, and very good. these were right behind the veal i thought.

All in all it was a good lunch, but not as good as expected for bistro vue.

yes, i understand that it is a cheap meal with the purpose of trying restaurants, however i would assume that the meals would be indicative of what they have and make me want to go back. this did not, as all of it reminded me of foods that i can cook. Matteo's last time was amazingly good, and had some very special meals that i would see on their menus normally - they clearly see things differently to bistro vue.

i guess i would go back again, as the service was amazing and i liked the layout - it wasn't cramped, was easy to hold a conversation, and overall a lot of fun ;)

charles dickens tavern - the best bangers & mash ever?

Charles Dickens Tavern
290 Collins Street, Melbourne Tel. 9654 1821




I've got a confession to make: I have a dark, secret, guilty pleasure.

I love bangers and mash.

There, I've said it. So what do we do about it, now that it's out in the open? Well, I'll let you in on the secret of where to get some of the best ones in Melbourne.

And the best ones I have ever eaten are at the Charles Dickens Tavern. I really don't want to make such a spurious claim for something so simple, but I want to throw down the gauntlet, challenging anyone for what they believe to be their favorites.

How much for this, you might ask? Why, only $10.50. Good to see that some things never change.



The Charles Dickens Tavern is an old-fashioned pub, English themed, with plasma screens for sports. Regardless, it's cosy and quiet. It's the sort of place you can get away to for conversations when you just want to be left alone. They have a restaurant as well (which is also quite cheap), but I've never strayed from the bar area, where they have seating for 30 people with a lot of space between tables. The barman alone gives it a warm, familiar feel - delivering the meals, asking how they were, with a very happy "yum-yum" when he brings the meals over. Yum yum, indeed.

As you can see from the prices, they haven't changed in years. But that's OK, that's just how i like it. This is a nostalgic trip ladies and gentleman, and for a country boy, this makes me feel right at home. It's not going to win any awards, and there certainly isn't any foam or Escoffier meals on the menu, but on a cold winters day, when all you want is a quiet meal somewhere warm with friends and good company, this is it.

Lulo restaurant, glenferrie road, hawthorn.

A friend of mine has just bought a house in Hawthorn, so I'm busily reacquainting myself with the wonders of glenferrie road. i used to live just off glenferrie some 2 years ago, and it seems everything has changed. in a good way.

so far we've been to samurai a few times (i love this restaurant), and a new sichuan restaurant that can actually spell sichuan (instead of szechewan or whatever).

so last night we thought that wed give lulo's a go (it's next to samurai, and looks good).

the decor is nice, with a map of spain drawn onto a mirror, and nice red feature walls. the fact is, that we were there for comfort food, because the weather was typical melbourne drivel (we wouldn't have it any other way, now would we?).

this is what we got to eat:

Banderillas - skewers of olives, guindillas (mild chilli )& white anchovies- $8.00

the first tapas was very large for it's price, however the olives did not have the firm texture i was expecting. i'm not sure why, but i thought that caperberries would have fitted the bill perfectly instead of the olives, as they would have supplied a different texture, and no pit in them either!

Chorizo con Sidra - chorizo sausage sauteed with onions & apple cider -$8.50

the chorizo's in cider were good, and were tightly packed bundles of meat and spices. i liked the balance of them. i feel uncomfortable ordering chorizo, becuase, although i order them every time, i have no benchmark to judge them against. movida? barcelona? i really need to understand what good chorizo is supposed to taste like. regardless, these were nice. the cider was great, having been reduced, and was good on the chorizo and the bread we had.

roasted potatoes with peppers and olives - $12ish.

the roast potatoes were really good, and i liked the balances between the potato, pepper, and olives. the peppers worked well with the potatoes for sure.

Calamari a-la-plancha con dos aioli - grilled calamari with squid ink & garlic aioli- $20.00

the squid was tender, very tasty and fresh. i liked the main pieces a lot, however, i'm not a fan of the tentacles, so i'll leave them alone. i felt that the aioli (i think that spanish aioli is actually spelt "alioli") needed a bit more of a kick, as i love my garlic and didn't get to taste it.

Garbanzos salteados - braised chickpeas with eggplant, tomatoes & spinach - $12.00

and now, onto the dish of the night - chickpeas! these were really good and i loved the texture of the eggplant and the chickpeas, and it all worked well. i would have loved some bread to mop up the juices.


we washed it all down with some wines - an '06 auroch tempranillo that i liked the sound of, and an '06 Bodegas Crianza de Castilla Verdejo at the owner's suggestion. both of these were very good - next time i think we'll just go a bottle of the red! i loved it, yum.

a very curious thing happened however: while taking the photos the owner/manager came and asked me what the pics were for. i'm not sure if this has happened with other people and i'm not sure if there is a time or place to raise this, but the manger raised the issue of bloggers being qualified to review a restaurant while we were trying to eat. i mean really, this is my opinion, and who is better qualified to give my opinion than ME... I raised the issue that blogging is good for restaurants (in my mind) because it gives people an alternative view of the restaurant and pics. it did get me thinking though, what is the impact of blogs on restaurants? i mean, maybe ed's would have an impact, but for the average smalltime blogger i don't see what harm it could do. by the end of the night it was ok, as we chatted about other restaurants with the owner, and the truffles in tasmania, but i think that this is something that all food bloggers will come across at some time or another.

the layout of the restaurant was good. it had some hard surfaces, but was not loud and we easily sat there chatting, sucking down wines. this may change later on in the week - the owner said that mondays and tuesday are quiet, wednesday and thursdays busier, and fridays/saturdays very busy.

i liked the map drawn onto the mirrored surface, that showed the major cities. the only thing i might have done with it was perhaps add where the wines regions are to show people where each different wine comes from. that might have been a nice touch i guess in my mind.

the food was pretty good, and just what we needed on a crappy day. overall i liked this place, and will be going back to try a bit more food there. i'll even bring my camera :P

this week

i had a pretty big weekend so i didn't get to go to any restaurants - friday i had a friend's birthday party at the deck (the pics aren't very special, and are mostly incriminating, so they're not going up on here. if you are on my facebook, then you'll have seen them/ be in them anyway).

drinks consumed:
3 scotch and dry
4 glenmorangie and soda
2 tequila
1 tequila and tabasco (i highly recommend this).
1 quick-something
1 chartreuse

drinks sequestered from others:
white wine (wooded chardonnay)
gin and tonic which i mistook for water
sctoches and bourbons

3 berocca. oh, and eggs benedict, which are my new best friend ;)


as you can see, my detox went very well, thank you very much!

in other news, i'm going to a pub this thursday for the best bangers and mash i have ever eaten (i'll review them either here or somewhere else perhaps, but they really are amazing), cooking eye fillet with baby potatoes friday for my girlfriend, bistro vue on saturday, and then not sure what else.

i have to fit all of that in with gym (3 nights), squash (2 nights), a pushup challenge with a friend, and work, of course. fun all round!

otherwise, i have been having a read of other blogs. i'm only going to post one as it made me a bit curious about freedom of speech and all that jazz, in particular regarding a restaurant review:

http://ieatthereforeiam.blogspot.com/2008/07/anonymous-commenter.html#links

i recommend having a read, as i don't know a lot of the legal ramifications, but i think it's rather interesting and comes at a time when bloggers are getting mainstream attention.

til next time, james