Kaz Bar

Kaz Bar

481 Chapel St, South Yarra

(Ph) 9826 6442

My parents arrived in Melbourne about midday, went to return their caravan and by the time it was all done, it was about 2pm before we managed to get ourselves to Shark Fin for yumcha (which was a disappointment, but I guess it was 'cause we went so late and there was not much food left - no 流沙包 left =( ) So we were pretty full and didn't want a heavy dinner - decided to go to Kaz Bar on Chapel St for tapas to share.

We took soo long trying to find parking on the streets that by the time we got to the place it was nearly 8pm. There was a band playing by the entrance so it was uber loud - even though we were sitting at the back of the restaurant =/

There was a really hot Eurasian waitress who told us there was a special on tapas that night - 5 for $40, 7 for $55 and 9 for $63 (or something like that). We asked her if we could use the Entertainment voucher as well as the specials and she said yes - w00t~!

We decided to get 9 tapas to share first (we chose mostly $8/9 ones so we'd get the best deal - so asian =P)

First came the Salt n pepper squid dusted in a Sichuan pepper & pure sea salt; Saganaki, mushroom and olive crumbed skewers; the Pork belly; and the Zartaar grilled quail.

The salt and pepper squid was the largest serving of all the tapas, and was quite tasty, with not too much chilli =p The saganaki and mushroom skewers were my favourite - my favourite things in the world, mushrooms and cheese and fried goodness <3 The pork belly tasted like Asian roast pork - wasn't that fat and was kinda tough, we were expecting it leaking with fatty oil which would have been disgusting. The Zartaar quail was quite good - whatever Zartaar is? Some Middle Eastern Herbs... mmmm. Too bad they only gave 2 pieces of quail.

The second plate was the Bruschetta topped with goat's cheese and sun-dried tomatos; Eggplant chips crumbed and served with garlic aoli; and Lamb koftas.

The bruschetta was nice - I really like goat's cheese =) Eggplant chips were my favourite! Weren't as regularly shaped as the ones at Hairy Canary but I think the flavouring here was better - and since P doesn't like eggplants, I scored another piece =D The lamb koftas was a little disappointing - one skewer of 5 meatballs only. They were quite tasty with the yoghurt but I wonder if they gave us less portions 'cause we ordered it in the set - as if anyone would pay $8 for one skewer of koftas?!

Lastly, came the Whitebait lightly floured and crispy fried and the Grilled scallops on sausage with pesto.

The whitebait didn't look like or taste like whitebait, I thought whitebait was <5cm long and can barely taste its flesh, but these looked more like sardines and could taste the fish roe which I didn't really like. It was a bit better with the lemon squeezed on but I didn't like it very much. The scallops with the sausage was quite good - strange combination of meats together but for ~$1 a piece, that's pretty good =)

P was obviously still hungry after the tapas so we decided to order a pasta to share - Kaz Bar Special with chicken and seafood in olive oil and basil sauce.

I didn't have any but P said it was quite tasty except it was lacking some sauce - what did he expect in a basil and olive oil pasta? There wasn't much stuff in it, but for $16.90 was pretty good, though I'm usually not a fan of seafood pasta 'cause they will never give you good quality seafood, but meh, this wasn't feeding me =P

Dad wasn't full but we knew we were heading out for dessert afterwards, so we decided to save our tummies for the next round =)

We asked for the bill, and the hot Eurasian waiter accidentally charged us $49.5 for the 9 tapas instead of ~$63, so plus the pasta total was $66.40. After 25% off was only $49.80 w00t~! Even though we weren't that full - it was super satisfying given it was only ~$10 each =)

7.5/10

C.
xo