Melbourne Trip Report January 2024

[Mr_Happy]

I went to Melbourne for a work trip back in January for a little over a week. It was my third visit to Melbourne. It’s summer in Australia in January and the weather was quite warm. Also, the Australian Open was in progress during my trip and we managed to take in a few matches. Here’s a report of some of the restaurants that I went to.

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Serai

I arrived in Melbourne on a Saturday after a 16 hour flight from SFO. After checking in at my hotel in the CBD, I walked over to Serai for a late lunch on a rainy afternoon. Serai is a modern Filipino restaurant in a laneway off Little Bourke St. from chef Ross Magnaye and Shane Stafford.

To drink, a Ube Wan Kenube (A$25)
The name of this drink made me chuckle. It tasted like a rum spiked ube (a purple yam) smoothie or maybe an ube egg nog.

They had a “Feed Me” chef’s choice menu for A$95 available in addition to the a la carte menu, and that’s what I had.

The meal started with a “lumpia” which looked like more like a tart than a fried spring roll, filled with pineapple and caviar. It was a crunchy bite with some lemongrass flavor.

And then a kingfish (hamachi) sashimi on top of smoked pork belly, topped with some daikon. This was delicious - a porky surf and turf.

Next, a kare-kare hash brown. This was a fried hash brown potato topped with a “kare-kare” sauce and some duck egg yolk that was frozen and then shaved on top. This was also delicious. Kare-kare is a Filipino stew that contains peanuts.

This was followed by calamari with a spicy ‘longanisa nduja’ sausage sauce. It had some of the most perfectly cooked calamari I’ve had - tender but not too tender.

Next, a pork neck which was a bit like char siu with a sweet sticky glaze.

The pork neck came with a charred cabbage with roasted garlic. The cabbage was tender with some slightly crispy charred bits and topped with a sweet tocino (a type of Filipino bacon) sauce.

Next, a lamb rib, which I neglected to write down anything about.

And to finish, a clay pot with sinangag (garlic fried rice) that had a lot of crispy rice bits and a runny egg.

This was a lot of food! I enjoyed my meal. I haven’t had a lot of Filipino food before but loved the flavors and the modern takes. Everything was very good.

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Tipo 00

Next, a very enjoyable dinner at Tipo 00, an Italian restaurant in the CBD named after the finely ground 00 flour often used to make pasta and pizza. This was a second visit to Tipo, which is headed by chef Andreas Papadakis and opened back in 2014.

There was complimentary focaccia bread with ricotta.

I started with a nightly special - a zucchini flower ($14).This was a nicely fried zucchini blossom, stuffed with a molten mix of anchovy and cheese, with some crunchy hazelnut sauce around it. Delicious!

Lingua ($18)
ox tongue, balsamic & pink peppercorn
For another starter I had the lingua - thinly sliced beef tongue with slightly crispy bits. It was rich and tender with a sweet + sour balsamic vinegar drizzled around it to cut through the fat.

Spaghetti ($52)
moreton bay bug, tomato butter & broad bean
For a main I had the spaghetti, which was cooked al dente and toothsome. It was lightly sauced with a tomato sauce with fava beans and had pieces of Moreton Bay bug, an interestingly named crustacean that has sweet meat with a texture kind of like a cross between lobster and crab.

Tipomisù ($16)
chocolate, coffee & mascarpone
For dessert - the “Tipomisù,” which was like a cross between a brownie and a tiramisu. It was covered with a chocolate sauce and dollops of a light mascarpone custard.

[PedroPero (PETER)]

That tasting menu looks great, and it’s a fantastic deal!

[Mr_Happy]

Definitely, especially with the exchange rate.

[Mr_Happy]

Lulu’s Char Koay Teow

For lunch on a Sunday, I went to Lulu’s Char Koay Teow in the CBD. There’s not a lot of Malaysian food in SF so I was keen to try a proper char koay teow from this char koay teow specialist on Hardware Lane. Char koay teow is a wok fried dish of wide flat rice noodles (the koay teow).

The menu looks like a newspaper.

I had the Blood Cockles Char Koay Teow ($19.90). There was also a deluxe option for a few dollars more that was “overloaded with blood cockles.” I don’t think I’ve had blood cockles before so I stuck to the regular option. They asked me if I wanted the cockles raw or cooked, and I had them cooked.

I also had a hot kopi ($5.50) which was sweet and strong and came with a biscuit.

The char koay teow. It had some big plump prawns, crispy lard, Chinese sausage that I think was lap cheong, garlic chives, bean sprouts, egg fried in, and the blood cockles. It was very good. The cockles had a bit of chew. The shrimp were snappy. The noodles were nicely fried and not greasy. I haven’t tried this dish in a restaurant before so don’t have anything to compare it to other then my own attempts at making it at home, but it was a satisfying plate of noodles.

[Mr_Happy]

Pho Thin

For an afternoon snack, I had a bowl of pho from Pho Thin in the CBD, also on Hardware Lane. Pho Thin (Pho Thin 13 Lo Duc) is a Pho restaurant from Hanoi, and their location in Melbourne was their first one outside of Asia - there is also now a location in Westminster, CA and also Sydney.

Pho Thin specializes in Northern style pho, which is distinguished vis-a-vis its Southern variant by a lighter, less sweet broth, the lack of an herb plate and bean sprouts, and the use of wider rice noodles vs rice vermicelli. I personally prefer the Northern style a bit and there aren’t that many northern style pho places where I live in SF.

Condiments included fish sauce, hot sauce, pepper, and pickled garlic. A lime wedge and red chili peppers also came with my bowl.

Pho thin is known for its stir fried beef pho, in which beef is seasoned and flash fried with scallions before adding to the bowl of broth and noodles. So that’s what I had. This was a delicious bowl of pho. The stir fried beef was tender and had some garlic flavor along with the thick sliced scallion. The broth was very nice and not sweet.

[Mr_Happy]

Reine & La Rue

I had dinner on a Sunday at Reine & La Rue, a “French-inspired” restaurant located in the original Melbourne Stock Exchange building in the CBD.

The interior is very impressive with towering ceilings and Gothic elements. The Melbourne Stock Exchange was quite fancy!

I sat at the bar, which also has a selection of shellfish on display. I started with a Flora Martini ($27), which had Never Never Triple Juniper gin, pear, chrysanthemum, vin juane, and Bénédictine. It was like a martini with some herbal notes.

To start, a few Rock Oysters ($8/ea) which were delicious and perfectly shucked. On the side were a shallot mignonette with a smoky olive oil.

Beef tartare, smoked bone marrow, onion ($12/ea)
Next, beef tartare on a crispy shell that I think was a rice cracker, topped with chives. It was very good.

Wood roasted leeks vinaigrette, hazelnut ($16)
And some roasted leeks with a vinaigrette. The leeks were meltingly tender.

Duck liver & foie gras parfait, sauternes, rhubarb ($28)
This was a sweet whipped foie spread with a sweet and sour pickled rhubarb thing that added some welcome acidity, served with toast rounds.

Duck neck sausage cassoulet ($46)
For a main I had a hearty cassoulet, which had a very nice duck sausage.

Jersey milk soft serve, mango, macadamia praline, elderflower ($23)
For dessert I had an excellent soft-serve ice cream. It had just the right amount of sweetness and some ripe mango chunks.

This was an enjoyable, somewhat splurgy dinner in an elegant space.

Menus

[Mr_Happy]

Soi 38

For lunch on Monday, I had some Thai boat noodles at Soi 38 in the CBD

Soi 38 has a casual ambiance where you feel a bit like you are eating street food. The restaurant is in a parking garage and you sit on metal stools.

You order by marking a slip with what you want.

I had the boat noodles with flat rice noodles, and a side of meatballs. The meatballs were good, with a spicy sauce.

The boat noodles were also quite good, though some of the noodles were clumped together. The broth was quite nice, and the meat was tender and the meatballs had a nice bouncy texture. The wontons that I added on were also very nice.

[Mr_Happy]

@Satimont

Melbourne is such a vibrant city with a lot to offer. I’ve been myself a few times and always enjoy the food scene.

It is! Regarding Chin Chin, here’s my report of a visit there few years ago:

[Melbourne] Modern-Asian at Chin Chin, Flinders Lane

Went to Chin Chin in a group of five on a weeknight. We got there a bit after 6pm, and there was a line out the door but we didn’t have to wait for seats as we got one of the last remaining tables downstairs. I think we were lucky as there was a long line outside when we left. It’s a good sized restaurant with two floors. We decided to do a fixed price family style menu. There are two of these on the menu - Feed Me #1 (“The Classics”) (A$69.5pp) - and Feed Me #2 (“Chef’s Banquet”) (A$88pp). We …

@Satimont

For something more relaxed, I love hitting Queen Victoria Market for fresh produce and great coffee.

I agree, Queen Victoria Market is well worth visiting. There are some good food stalls in the market as well.

[Mr_Happy]

I’m skipping to the end of my visit as most of my meals during the middle of the week were work lunches and dinners.

Here’s some not food pics at the Australian Open though. Grounds passes were pretty affordable at around $60, with which one could take in any of the matches that were not on the main courts.

On Friday I went on a tour of the Great Ocean Road. The road starts about an hour’s drive from Melbourne.

Along the way we stopped in the town of Lorne for lunch. I had a Halal Snack Pack ($18) from Lorne Central. It’s a bit like an Australian version of poutine or carne asada fries, with french fries, cheese, lamb and chicken, and sauces including a garlicky white sauce and BBQ sauce. It hit the spot.

The parrots here are like pigeons.

Here’s some more non food pics along the Great Ocean Road. I definitely recommend taking a tour or a drive along the road if you are visiting Melbourne, especially if you enjoy spectacular views.

A wild koala.

Memorial Arch

Loch Ard Gorge

The Twelve Apostles

[digga]

@Mr_Happy

I went to Melbourne for a work trip

Dang, I’m in the wrong industry/field.

[PedroPero (PETER)]

Very cool photos

[Mr_Happy]

Lao Liu Zhou Noodle Restaurant (墨尔本老柳州螺蛳粉)

After getting back to Melbourne in the late evening from the Great Ocean Road tour I took on Friday, I had dinner in Lao Liu Zhou Noodle Restaurant in Chinatown, which specializes in luosifen, or ‘river snail rice noodles’ from Luizhou in Guangxi.

#3 老柳州炸蛋螺蛳粉 SERVICE WITH LIU ZHOU STYLE FRIED EGG ($18.9)
I had the Lao Li Zhou Style Rice Noodles with fried egg. It had really nicely textured rice noodles with a lot of spring. The snail and pork based soup was medium-hot and slightly sour. You can specify both the heat and sourness levels. It was topped with crunchy vinegary cowpeas, peanuts, leafy greens, crispy wonton wrappers, scallions, wood ear fungus, and crunchy sour bamboo shoots. It also had fried eggs which were like unlike any fried eggs I’ve had before - like a beaten egg that had been drizzled into hot oil and formed into a sponge-like matrix form. It was both crispy and a soup sponge. It was a delicious bowl of noodles.

[Mr_Happy]

Ondo

On Saturday I had lunch at Ondo, a Korean restaurant and cafe right next to my hotel on Little Lonsdale Street in the CBD. Ondo is a restaurant from chef Levi Eun, who previously cooked at such fine dining restaurants as Quay and Igni. This Little Lonsdale spot is Ondo’s second location.

You can get coffee and other cafe drinks at the front to go.

The menu. You can get the dishes by themselves or as a set, which includes various banchan and other side dishes.

YUKHOE BIBIMBAP ($35 for the set)
raw beef tartare, garlic rice, gochujang, soybean sprout, cucumber & crispy seaweed
I had the yukhoe, which is like a Korean beef tartare. Clockwise from left around the main dish were: squid and I think crunchy radish in a spicy sweet gochujang sauce, napa cabbage kimchi, cucumber in a white sauce, steamed egg, clear broth of I think pork. As you can see it is very nicely presented.

Delicious! The beef was tender and thinly sliced and marinated. And the white rice had some garlic in it. It was topped with crunchy toasted seaweed, bean sprouts, and other vegetables.

I also had a drink from the cafe - a mugwort latte ($7). One has the option of hot or cold. I had it hot, and it was very nice.

[Mr_Happy]

(post deleted by author)

[Mr_Happy]

Aru

For dinner on Saturday I went to Aru in the CBD, a restaurant that mixes Southeast Asian and Australian cuisine.

I sat at the chef’s counter, which was a bit warm due to the grill.

To drink:
Sky Hook ($33)
Prohibition Shiraz Cask Gin, Cacao Vermouth, Campari, Maraschino
Which was a bit like a Negroni.

Forbidden Rice Sourdough, Palm Sugar, Smoked Cultured Butter ($4 for a half order / 1 pc)
I had a piece of the Forbidden Rice Sourdough, which had a sweet caramelized crust and sesame butter. It was a very good piece of bread. I think there were pieces of “Forbidden” rice inside the bread.

Duck Sausage Sanga, Leatherwood Honey, Onion, Peanut Hoisin ($19)
And then, a duck sanga. Sanga is Australian for “sandwich,” and I believe this was an upscale rendition of a “snag” - a sausage on a piece of square white bread such as the ones offered at hardware store Bunnings at their weekend sausage sizzles. It was a delicious duck sausage with caramelized onions, on a square bao to stand in for the bread slice.

Pate En Croute, Flavours Of Banh Mi ($34)
This was delicious and novel. It really did taste like a banh mi in pâté en croûte form, with the chicken paté and the pickled carrot and the daikon and the mayo on the side. At the top of the pâté en croûte was a soy gelée, and I was instructed to mix that around the rest of it.

Raw Beef, Smoked Oyster, Salted Chilli, Macadamia, Sourdough ($31)
This was a good beef tartare. It was nicely seasoned, with pistachios for crunch, and served with crispy rice crackers to spread on.

King Green Prawn Rice Noodles, Pork Crackling, Coconut, Garlic Chives ($16 for a half order)
And some noodles with prawns. The noodles were good - rice noodles with shrimp bits. This was pretty good but not especially remarkable.

Jaffa Milk Punch ($24)
Cacao Infused Dark Rum, Coffee, Creme de Cacao, Orange Liqueur
For dessert I just had a cocktail, a Jaffa Milk Punch. I believe this is named after / tastes like a Jaffa cake, which is a British sweet that has orange jam and chocolate. It was quite good.

[Mr_Happy]

Bowltiful

My New Year’s resolution is to finish this report For lunch on Sunday I went to Bowltiful in the CBD. Bowltiful is a small chain of restaurants in Victoria specializing in Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup.

I had a bowl of the Bowltiful Lanzhou Noodle Soup ($15.80). You have a choice of noodle size. I asked what was most commonly ordered and I got the 2nd most thinnest, called “Thin” with 1mm thick round noodles. The noodles are hand pulled and were nice and toothsome. There was a substantial amount of noodles in the bowl. The broth, which had a dollop of chili oil on top, was savory, spicy, and numbing due to Sichuan peppercorn. There were thin tender slices of boiled beef and thinly sliced daikon. It was rounded out with cilantro, leek, and I think garlic. It was a very satisfying bowl of noodle soup.

[Mr_Happy]

Ishizuka

On Sunday evening I had the splurgiest meal of my stay in Melbourne, dinner at Ishizuka in the CBD. Ishizuka offers kaiseki, a Japanese multi-course meal that showcases seasonal ingredients. The price for the dinner was $315.

Ishizuka is a little hard to find, hidden down a mural covered alley off Bourke Street. They have a counter serving 16 guests surrounding the kitchen where you can see the chefs preparing the dishes.

A mural in the alley.

Kitchen and counter, with some of the tsukidashi dishes being prepared.

You are given the choice of a green tea or an Australian sake to begin. I chose the sake. I neglected to write down what sake it was.

Menu

Tsukidashi
Edamame Sesame Tofu, Kabosu & Caviar
A few appetizers arrived. First, tofu in a small ornate glass, which was topped with caviar and trout roe. There was a citrusy foam on top made from kabosu, which is similar to yuzu (thanks Google).

Mud Crab, Scampi & Marron
Then, a striking presentation on a mud crab carapace. This was a meatball made with three different crustaceans - mud crab, marron, and scampi. The meatball was covered with a sweet corn puree, which was then topped with a lobe of briny uni from Tasmania and some kombu. This was delicious.

Tasmanian Eel & Japanese Unagi
A dish covered with a leaf arrived. On top of the leaf was a ponzu jelly. Under the leaf was a dish with two preparations of eel. The piece on the left was a charcoal grilled eel from Japan, and the pieces on the right were poached eel from Tasmania. There was also some peeled cherry tomato and sweet peas. The ponzu from the leaf went on top of the eels.

Chefs preparing otsukuri.

Sakisui
Scallop Shinjo with Summer Vegetable
Next, the soup course. A shinjo is a steamed ball of seafood. This was like a minced scallop fishball. It was wrapped prettily with vegetables and sat in a broth made of clam, winter melon, and water shield which gave it a somewhat gelatinous texture. Delicious!

Otsukuri
Fugu, Zuke Maguro & Paradise Prawn
Next, an otsukuri / sashimi plate. Such a pretty presentation! Going clockwise from the top left corner - fugu / puffer fish in a lemon half and topped with chives, shrimp, a faux watermelon slice where the red part is made from mentaiko, some sort of gelee, fresh grated wasabi, and zuke / marinated tuna that was topped with some yellow chrysanthemum petals.

Yakimono
Matsukasa-Yaki Coral Trout & Eggplant Soup
Next, the yakimono / grilled dish. On the left was a piece of trout prepared with the matsukasa-yaki technique - repeatedly pouring hot oil over the fish to crisp up the skin. There was a green colored sauce on the bottom made with chrysanthemums and some lightly pickled daikon as garnish. The fish had delicious firm meat and the sauce was slightly herbal. The skin wasn’t super crispy but it had some crunch and was good. The soup on the right, which was made of trout and eggplant, was delicious.

Agemono
Anago Tempura
Next, the agemono / deep-fried course, which was an anago (salt-water eel) tempura. This was so good and so simple. The eel was perfectly fried.

Hiyabachi
Octopus Yawarakani, Winter Melon & Okura
And then the hiyabachi, which apparently means cool small bowl (thanks Google). It was indeed a small bowl filled with chilled comestibles. This had - clockwise from left - winter melon, okra, shira-ae (mashed tofu) topped with a gogi berry, a pumpkin cake, and octopus.

Shiizakana
A5 Yamagata Wagyu, Wattle Seeds & Black Garlic
Shiizakana means “strong snack,” and this was a strongly flavored course of superbly marbled A5 beef. There was an optional supplement to add Hokkaido uni for $60 which I added. This was so good! The beef was rich and beefy and the creamy sweet and briny uni topping was great with it.

The beef was displayed - look at that marbling.

And also the Hokkaido uni.

Shokuji
Green Tea Soba, Hotaru-Ika & Abalone
Next, the last savory dish of the dinner, which was a small bowl of green tea flavored soba with firefly squid, abalone slices, and shiso.

There was a cup of bitter matcha prepared to take with the sweet dessert, which was a “raindrop cake,” a somewhat recent invention. The raindrop itself was relatively tasteless, its flavor comes from kinako / soybean flour and the little pitcher of molasses-like kuromitsu syrup on the side.

Matcha being prepared.

Mizugashi
Shiso Granita, Grape & Popping Candy
Mizugashi means “water dessert” (thanks Google). This was a cup filled with a shiso granita, with a candy that popped like a Rice Krispy. It was very refreshing.

Kanmi
Amazake Ice Cream, Melon & Hassaku
Finally, a scoop of ice cream made with amazake, which is a fermented rice drink. There was also a jelly around the ice cream that I believe was made of hassaku, which a type of citrus hybrid fruit, and melon balls. It was just a perfect dessert with the mix of creamy ice cream, the refreshing jelly, and the summer-y melon balls.

This was a delicious kaiseki dinner!

[honkman]

@Mr_Happy

The price for the dinner was $315

AU$ or US$ ?

[Mr_Happy]

All prices are in AUD, so this was at current rates around $200 USD before drinks and supplements etc.

[Mr_Happy]

Operator Diner

I was flying back home to SFO on Monday and had time for an early breakfast at Operator Diner, just a short walk from my hotel. Operator Diner is designed to look and feel like an American diner, and it was a bit interesting to see an Australian interpretation of that.

The menu.

I had a long black, which is what Australians call an Americano.

For food I had a Usual Suspect ($15), a breakfast roll on an English muffin with a choice of fillings. I had one with a sausage patty, egg, American cheese, and BBQ bacon chutney. I also added a hashbrown for another $3. It was very good. The English muffin was denser than a Thomas’s or Bay’s, kind of like a crumpet. The sausage and scrambled egg were both good, and there was a lot of the BBQ bacon chutney which I think had some tomato in it and was sweet and salty. The hash brown tasted like McDonalds (IMHO this is a good thing for hash browns).

And finally, after a bit of a long break that’s a wrap for this Melbourne report!