Salmon

Liar Liar

Quinoa and potato rosti with smoked salmon, avocado, poached egg and hollandaise

Perfectly poached egg, decent serving of avocado and salmon, and deliciously crispy rosti with the quinoa providing great texture.

★★★★☆

Zucchini, herb and chilli fritters with smoked salmon, tomatoes, feta and yogurt dressing, and served with mixed leaves

The fritters were massive, and they were also quite moist and herby.

★★★☆☆

Overall:

A place worth visiting for breakfast/brunch/lunch if you happen to be in the Hawthorn area. The service is fast and everything on the menu looks delicious.

Liar Liar

90 Kinkora Rd, Hawthorn, VIC

(03) 9818 8864

http://www.liarliarcafe.com.au/

Takumi

32 Bourke St, Melbourne 9650 7020

Edamame and Sake

Takumi’s Special Wagyu Beef

(thinly sliced wagyu eye fillet grilled on the outside topped with finely diced onion and lightly dressed in refreshing citrus seasoning)

Tsukune

(grilled chicken meatball skewers)

Salmon Carpaccio

(salmon sashimi infused in tangy carrot, onion and soy sauce seasoning)

Jo-hire eye fillet steak and Karubi wagyu beef bolar blade

Mixed salad, Squid, Salmon

Sweet red bean ice cream and Green tea ice cream

Overall:

The quality of the food here was fantastic. Everything tasted fresh and the flavours were superb. I found the usage of lard/fat to coat the grill plate quite interesting. No wonder the meat here tasted so good. We came with a Groupon voucher and definitely felt that we had snapped up a terrific deal. The staff were efficient and the “smokeless” grills that they use here are great as it meant that you could leave without having that strong grill smell attached to your clothes and hair.

The Panama Dining Room and Bar

Level 3/231 Smith St, Fitzroy 9417 7663

Salmon rillettes served with herb salad and toast

= Not bad

Spiced wagyu beef and prosciutto meatballs

Full of flavour, great balance of meat and breadcrumb, lovely rich sauce

= Good

Fried cauliflower with ras el hanout (spice mix from North Africa), golden raisins, fromage frais and argan oil

Deep frying pretty much anything will make it taste better

= Good

Slow cooked Western Plains pork scotch fillet with Jerusalem artichokes, grilled pine mushrooms, parsley puree and buttermilk

Tantalisingly tender pork with a wonderful combination of ingredients

= Good

Steamed broccoli with Mt Zero black lentils and pecorino (left), Green salad with buttermilk, tarragon and shallot dressing (right)

= Not bad

Yellowtail kingfish fillet with confit fennel, grilled saffron calamari, fennel puree and saltfish croquette

The Yellowtail kingfish fillet was extremely salty, while the calamari and croquette were unmemorable

= Not bad

Chestnut gnocchi, pumpkin and parmesan puree, morel mushrooms, spinach and salted ricotta

Delicately light gnocchi that had a mild chestnut flavour, complementing the other ingredients of this dish fantastically. If only the portion size was bigger!

= Good

Overall:

If you manage to survive the arduous journey up two very steep flights of stairs, you will encounter an unobtrusive grey fire exit door with a small blue ‘Panama Dining Room and Bar’ sign above it. Enter these doors and you will find a funky bar, a pool table, lots of casual seating and a formal dining area. We went on a busy Saturday night and the bustling atmosphere made it very difficult to talk (I found myself yelling throughout the whole night and left with a sore throat). Service was friendly however the food took a little while to come out. I think I would prefer coming here for drinks as opposed to dining here in the future.

J Café Restaurant

167 Exhibition St, Melbourne 9650 9877

Soft Shell Crab Sushi burger and Gyoza in a Bento Box

Spicy Raw Tuna Sushi burger and Sashimi in a Bento Box

Salmon Alburi Sushi burger

Ebi Mayo Sushi burger

Yomogi Daifuju (red bean), Black Sesame Daifuku, Green Tea Cream Daifuku, Murasaki Imo Daifuku (purple sweet potato)

Ichigo Daifuku

Overall:

Sushi in the form of a burger? GENIUS. These burgers comprise of various sushi fillings and buns made from sushi rice that are held together with a sheet of seaweed. There are almost 20 different types of burgers to choose from which are made fresh on order. My favourite would have to be the Ebi Mayo Sushi burger (crispy tempura prawn, lettuce, tartare sauce and teriyaki sauce) although every other burger I’ve tried has also been very delicious. There is also the option of getting your Sushi burger in a Bento box which comes with the choice of an entree and miso soup. I found the Bento Boxes to be merely okay so these days I simply order the Sushi burgers by themselves.

For those who are a fan of daifuku (small round glutinous rice cakes that contain a sweet filling), try the Ichigo Daifuku here!

Note that service can sometimes be slow and that prices are cheaper for takeaway Sushi burgers.

Jyu-Jyu

339 Clayton Rd, Clayton 9562 6269

Tori no Karaage

Salmon Sashimi

Spicy Ramen

Takoyaki

Jyu Jyu Upgrade Bento

Beef Una Bento

Thoughts:

Tori no Karaage – crunchy deep fried chicken that lacked flavour = Not bad

Salmon Sashimi – thickly sliced = Not bad

Spicy Ramen – Beef, egg, corn, seaweed and hot spicy sauce served in ramen soup. This dish was actually spicy making it a nice winter warmer = Not bad

Takoyaki – soft creamy octopus balls drizzled with takoyaki sauce and mayonnaise = Good

Jyu Jyu Upgrade Bento – gyoza that tasted like it had been reheated, remarkably sweet teriyaki chicken, sukiyaki beef, salad and rice = Not bad

Beef Una Bento – a modest portion of grilled eel on rice, salad and sukiyaki beef = Not bad

Overall:

Simple tiny place, friendly Japanese staff, cheap average food.

Me N Roll

636A Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn 9973 9825

Honeydew Rice Wine

Octopus Roll

Salmon Salad Roll

Spicy Tuna Roll

Prawn Crunch Roll

Thoughts:

Honeydew Rice Wine – sweet and refreshing with the distinctive taste of honeydew = Good

Octopus Roll – octopus mix, roll salad, cucumber and avocado = Not bad

Salmon Salad Roll – salmon, roll salad, cucumber, avocado and onion = Good

Spicy Tuna Roll – tuna mix, cucumber,spring onion and fish roe = Not bad

Prawn Crunch Roll – tempura prawn, roll salad, cucumber, avocado, fish roe and lettuce = Good

Overall:

I don’t buy many restaurant vouchers these days. However what compelled me to buy this particular voucher were the words ‘All-You-Can-Eat Sushi’, and for $29 for two people I was sold! I felt confident that I could eat at least 5 of these sushi rolls without a problem! But it turns out that rice is not your friend when it comes to all-you-can-eat.

The sushi rolls here are freshly made, nicely presented and are quite generous in size. (Note that this voucher limited our selection to what was available on the Roll-B and Roll-C menu only) The staff here are friendly and the decor is very cute. Nonetheless I don’t think I would come here without a voucher or discount of some sort.

Mrs Kim’s Grill

136 Koornang Road, Carnegie 9563 4424

Moo set

Oink set

Thoughts:

Moo set – 350g of marinated Galbi beef ribs, 150g of Skirt steak, tomato and avocado salsa salad = Good

Oink set – 250g of chilli pork belly, 150g of pork neck fillet, smoked salmon and onion salad = Good

Note that each set comes with butter and garlic potatoes, corn, soup of the day (which was soy bean paste soup), and rice for two.

The complimentary side dishes that are served with all meals include: homemade kimchi, pickled onion, spring onion salad, ssamjang soy bean, dipping sauce, and pepper and garlic salt.

Overall:

Really delicious and well marinated meat! In fact everything here was very tasty. My only complaint is that the meat sets need to be bigger so that there is more meat to be enjoyed! The atmosphere is casual and the staff are efficient and friendly.

Basilico

216 Blackburn Rd, Glen Waverley 9887 6288

Al Salmone gourmet wood fired pizza

Polpette Al Sugo (Meatballs) Risotto

Belgian Dark Chocolate and Strawberry dessert pizza

Thoughts:

Al Salmone pizza – thin crispy pizza base topped with slices of tomato, cheese, salmon, finely chopped leek, fresh basil, spanish onion, spring onion and cracked pepper. There was a generous amount of salmon on this pizza which made it noticeably salty, however the sweetness from the leek and onion helped to balance this out = Good

Polpette Al Sugo Risotto – tender Italian meatballs in a Napoli sauce. The sauce itself was tasty but the risotto was unfortunately hard and undercooked = Not bad

Chocolate and Strawberry dessert pizza – thin crispy base topped with deliciously melted dark chocolate brownies, fresh strawberries and four massive scoops of sweet vanilla ice cream. The base was superb and the ample amount of topping was fantastic. Hands down the best dessert pizza that I have tasted so far! = Excellent

Overall:

Great pizzas (there is a large selection of gourmet wood fired pizzas to choose from as well as original wood fired pizzas), average service, casual family-friendly dining atmosphere. But seriously, come for the Chocolate and Strawberry dessert pizza!

Gazi

2 Exhibition St, Melbourne 9207 7444

Tzatziki dip and Sweet Potato Skordalia dip with pita bread

Ouzo cured salmon with Karpouzi salad, goats curd and grain crumb

Saganaki with honey, lemon and sesame

Prawn and Duck Souvlakakia

Chips with feta, garlic oil and oregano

Red cabbage salad

Wood fire spit chicken with white beans and Tyrokafteri

Barramundi with walnut dressing

Acropolis Now

(strawberry mousse, coffee and mastic)

Loukoumades

(Greek donuts with honey and nutella)

Overall:

If you decide to have their 10 dish sharing banquet (like we did), be sure to come in HUNGRY and ready to eat. Everything we tried was enjoyable, but it would be the delicious dips and the extraordinary souvlakakias (small souvlakis) that I would be returning for. The staff were friendly and efficient, the atmosphere loud and buzzing, and the decor fascinating with a sculptural canopy of bright orange terracotta pots hanging from the ceiling.

Small Victories

617 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North 9347 4064

Baked Eggs

(creamed corn, streak bacon, lardo soldier, thyme salt)

Poached eggs on toast, house smoked salmon, soused cucumber, pickled onion, heirloom radish, braised mustard seed and roe

Thoughts:

Baked Eggs – also from the Herald Sun’s list of Melbourne’s 25 best breakfasts. Simply marvellous = Excellent

Poached eggs with salmon – colourful with a generous serving of salmon = Not bad

Overall:

Small simple place, slow service, fantastic Baked Eggs.