Gaijin Lunch Bar

Gaijin Lunch Bar

361 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

(Ph) 0499 073 061

P loved our few visits to Gaijin in South Yarra so when we found out they opened a smaller sister restaurant in the city we had been meaning to try it out. But then I saw a Groupon voucher for this restaurant All-You-Can-Eat Japanese Tapas with Wine for Two ($39) I decided to get it and check it out. It's mainly a Lunch Bar but they are open for dinners Thursdays to Saturdays, so that's when you can redeem the voucher. 

How strange a restaurant doesn't have a landline as their contact number but a mobile number only? I tried calling the number multiple times with no answer and in the end I SMS'd them my booking details. They replied SMS letting me know they were full for the night I wanted and we ended up having a SMS conversation to book a time/date =/

It's a very casual restaurant with its random furnishings of wooden tables and colourful metal chairs, very different to it's sister restaurant Gaijin which is much more formal.

We got seated at a small wooden table, I'd much prefer that than these random high seats at the back end of the restaurant - at least they have foot rests right? =P And why would they have a "Welcome" sign at the BACK of the restaurant? =P

It's very casual here - if we weren't here for the Groupon voucher, we would've had to order and pay for our foods at the counter and pick up the foods at the counter (which are all served on disposable plates/bowls) and get our own plastic cutlery too. Kinda like Ocha2go with the self-service cutlery, and like Hanaichi with the order and get-your-own-food-from-the-counter in disposable containers.

But because we were here with the voucher, the waitress told us we can let them know what we want to order and they'll bring the food out to us - and w00t! They're not on disposable plates =)

We started off with our complimentary glass of wine - neither P and I drink wine but it's part of the deal, later we found out we could've got a can of Coke instead noooo! =(

They printed out a menu for the Groupon customers and even laminated them =P It included instructions like "Customers are allowed 90 minutes time limit on Groupon session", "Each person gets to order one dish from the menu at one time" and "Only when the dish is finished the customer is allowed to order another dish" and "Customers will be charged if a dish is not finished, based on what is left on the plate". The instructions were a bit annoying but I guess they need to have some sort of control. The foods on offer are the dishes in the "On the Side" column on the normal Lunch menu, minus the Gyoza (6 pieces of grilled pork and vegetable dumplings) and Crispy Soft Shell Crab (fried soft shell crab served with cucumber, crunchy, gaijin sauce and masago). I was a bit disappointed 'cause these are 2 of my favourite dishes =( I guess they have Tori Karage and Calamari Rings on offer instead.

We started off with Agedashi Tofu - 6 pcs fried soft tofu with tempura sauce, topped with fish flakes and green onion 

This was not too bad, but the tempura sauce was a bit too strong and salty, normally it's quite dilute so you could dunk your whole tempura in without it being overpowering but this was a bit too much considering the tofu is soaked in the sauce. Tofu was quite nicely fried and soft and silky inside though.

Potato Croquette - fried potato with carrot, beans and corn

This was quite tasty, not that there was much inside the croquette, 90% was potato but the crumb was very good and was delicious with the mayo and the tonkatsu sauce =)

I wanted something to drink after the fried food so got the Miso Soup - fermented soy bean paste soup with tofu, seaweed and green onion

You'd think they could just give us 2 miso soups but no, we could only order one dish at a time and we wanted to try more dishes quickly so we just shared it =P And lucky we did - the miso soup was a bit too salty for my liking, we were tempted to just pour some water in it to dilute it out =/

Edamame - a bowl of salted green soybeans

These took a while to come out, and when we asked the waitress she said they were cooking, I guess good to know they cook the food straight away for us, but you'd think they'd have lots prepared already since they know how many Groupon customers will be coming for the night? Quite fun popping the beans out of the shell and I liked the touch of salt on the outside =)

Next came the Tori Karage

This is not on the normal lunch menu, but is available for dinner tapas. Fried pieces of chicken - they're normally meant to be bigger pieces of chicken, these were more like popcorn chicken and some bits even smaller like they was mainly batter, stingeing on the chicken?

After the fried foods wanted something refreshing so got the Sashimi - both the Salmon and the Kingfish

How lowsy with only 3 pieces of sashimi? It was quite fresh and nice - we ended up ordering about 4 plates of each to eat our money's worth of sashimi =P But what a waste on the piece of lettuce and wasabi, at least P ate the ginger but they could have given us more pieces so to save dishwashing space =P

The Kingfish Sashimi wasn't as tasty as salmon, but I'm not usually a big fan of Kingfish.

I was quite excited for the Kani Crab salad but when it came was quite disappointed it consisted mainly of shredded crabstick. I looked on the normal Lunch Bar menu and found this was the description =( - crabstick, masago, mayo, cucumber

Crabstick is NOT considered crab - don't call it what it's not! And it was meant to come served with masago (capelin roe) which clearly it didn't! What a disappointment =(

Next we got the Calamari Rings - another dish not on the normal lunch menu, only available for dinner tapas.

Quite generous considering calamari is considered "expensive" - more than what we expected after the sashimi dishes and the disappointing crab salad. Quite nicely deep fried, would have been better if they drained the oil a bit first but like the potato croquettes, were tasty with the kewpie mayo and the tonkatsu sauce =)

I wanted something refreshing again so got the Seaweed salad - seasoned shredded seaweed, sesame flavour

Quite nice and refreshing with a slightly chewy texture - just annoying how you have to finish a dish before you can order another one, so it felt a bit bland eating mouthful after mouthful of seaweed =/

Last came the Sushi of the Day

This looked a bit sad compared to the awesome looking sushi dishes at Gaijin - it was just a california roll with some chicken inside and some spicy sauce over it.

Food~
5/10 - maybe it was because it was Gaijin's casual sister restaurant, or maybe because we were using a coupon and they didn't serve us the expensive stuff, but this dining experience wasn't as good as we thought it would be =( Plus I was expecting them to also offer Gyoza and Crispy Soft Shell Crab too which are also on the "On the Side " menu but not on offer with the coupon =( Maybe next time I'll try their normal lunch menu - can get a whole dish for $10 or less.

Service~
3/5 - the waitresses were very polite and kept saying "Sorry for the wait" every time they brought dishes out, and I guess it was good they brought the food to us instead of us going up to the counter 'cause that would be very annoying

Atmosphere~
2/5 - quite a casual lounge-like restaurant, next time I think I'll sit at the sofas seems pretty comfy there~

C.
xo

The European

The European

161 Spring St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9654 0811

The European is a long established institution at the top end of Melbourne CBD - step inside the heavy wooden doors and you feel like you're transported to Europe!

With it's checked floors and dark wood decor, the environment is very different to the typical Melbourne cafes. The clients here are generally more mature, and less rowdy compared to the usual brunch crew.

M and I both wanted the Huevos madrileños - baked eggs, black pudding & chorizo $18.50

"Huevos madrileños" means "eggs from Madrid". A very typical Spanish breakfast dish =) It was like any baked eggs dish but was quite flavoursome - I liked the shaved parmesan touch over the eggs. Black pudding is sausage made from congealed blood, generally pork blood. Looks just like a meatball eh? Taste's like normal sausage/meatball too - can't really tell it's blood but then again, I don't mind eating blood and offal normally =P

Overall quite a good dining expensive... until the end! Fair enough there's a Sunday 10% surcharge (which I don't think is really necessary) but they charged us for 2 coffees when we only got one! We were in a rush (M had a plane to catch) so we didn't look at the bill, but the bill ended up like 50% more expensive than we expected!

Food~
6.5/10 - not too bad, think the food is quite genuinely European. Would like to come back for their normal daytime meals though.

Atmosphere~
4/5 - definite thumbs up for this, really feels like you're at a cafe in Europe =)

Service~
1/5 - would have been quite good if not for the bill mistake!

C.
xo

Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder

Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder

50 Bridge Rd, Richmond

(Ph) 9421 2808

Brunch with J! I had wanted to come here for a while, it's one of the top rated brunch places on Urbanspoon and there's an Entertainment voucher for it as well =) We came here on a Sunday at 11am - the wait line went out the door and was going to be at least a 20min wait for a table. They were going to give us a buzzer and we could go for a walk along Bridge road but then the said we could sit by the bar straight away. The bar turned out to be just the ledge and stools by the cheese room which we totally didn't mind! The cafe has a very French feel with lots of sunlight streaming in =)

They change the menu regularly depending on what's on season - we were given the Summer Breakfast menu =) J and I both wanted the Potato and Spring Onion Rosti - smoked salmon, two poached eggs, spinach pistou sauce, Cantalet cheese sauce & grain mustard $18.50

Very nice presentation! Thought we should order something with cheese in it given they have a cheese room here =) Cantalet cheese is a hard cow's cheese and is apparently one of the oldest French cheeses, with a buttery nutty flavour when young, and matures to reveal earthy flavours.

The rosti was very flavoursome - would have been better if it was crunchier 'cause the potato strands broke apart very easily. Eggs were perfectly poached - definite thumbs up for the dish =)

Their RHCL grilled cheesy toast - our homemade cheese blend on toast (V), add RHCL spicy eggplant & chilli pickle is meant to be their specialty here which I only just found out - will definitely try it next time!

After our delicious food we decided had to go check out the Cheese Room =)

Lots of blocks of cheeses maturing by the window - they all have a date on it, the more mature a cheese block is, the more mould and darker the colour =P

All sorts of cheeses to choose from! Hard cheeses, soft cheeses, mild cheeses, strong cheeses. I bought a small piece of a soft brie-like cheese but with stronger flavours - love cheese!

Food~
8/10 - delicious food! definitely want to try the grilled cheesy toast next time!

Atmosphere~
4/5 - very nice brunchy environment here =)

Service~
2/5 - was quite busy on this Sunday morning and was a bit confusing where we pay - we went to the computer by the door but you actually pay at the bar =/

C.
xo

Cafe Trevi

Cafe Trevi

294-296 Lygon St, Carlton

(Ph) 9349 1029

P was in Melbourne and asked us to all join her for dinner at Cafe Trevi on Lygon Street. I had never eaten here before though I have had takeaway cake here - their cake display is very impressive and tempting! Though the cakes are not made here and are actually Mark's cakes =P (which by the way, are one of the best cakes around!)

They actually have an upstairs here I didn't even know - we were a group of nearly 40 people so it was nice they sat us upstairs pretty much like a private function =)

P, M and I decided to share 2 pastas and a pizza. We were initially thinking of the Pasta Mista - 3 entree serves of pasta for $37.50 but then decided to go for 2 main sizes instead. The first was the Papone - chicken & avocado in a napoli & cream sauce with penne $18.50 We were thinking of having tortellini or ravioli with it but then decided didn't want a meaty pasta with chicken.

I'm such a sucker for chicken and avocado and tomato cream sauce =P P really doesn't like tomato cream sauce usually - he thinks it should be either tomato (like bolognaise or napoli) or cream (like carbonara) but not both combined =P It was good they left the avocado pieces quite large otherwise it would have been quite mushy. I thought it was quite tasty though and the pasta was cooked al dente =)

P wanted the Trevi - sauteed prawns & garlic in a champagne cream sauce with fettucini $20.50

I usually don't like ordering seafood pasta 'cause I always think they give crappy frozen seafood but this was surprisingly good! They were quite generous with the prawns but look at the discrepancy in size! Most of them were the small prawn size (which to be honest is actually not that small) compared to the big tiger prawns still with the shell on the tail! The prawns were very fresh and weren't mushy like frozen prawns =)

The sauce was creamy but with a hint of garlic and champagne - quite delicious indeed (and this is coming from someone who doesn't like prawns normally =P)

The pizza took ages to come out - I guess they have to woodfire oven it but don't they have to cook the pasta too?! The gourmet - tomato, cheese, Virginia ham, sundried tomatoes, olives & fresh basil $19.00

This doesn't look as gourmet as we thought it would look =( They were not very generous with the sundried tomatoes (probably only about 3 pieces on the whole pizza?) and more cheese would have been appreciated. And what happened to the fresh basil?! They ovened the basil so it was all dried and shriveled up =/ I don't like how they put massive pieces of ham on it so when you bite into the pizza the whole piece of ham goes into your mouth in the first bite - why can't they cut it up into smaller bits? The crust was not too bad, crunchy with the smokey woodfire taste but was a tad on the thick side.

One of the other friends had ordered a main pasta but the waitress took the wrong order and gave him an entree size instead. When it came out he said if he could get another small portion of it so it becomes a main so the waitress went and got him another entree size pasta. But when the bill came it was 2 entrees instead of 1 main for him and he asked the waitress if she could change it, and she said "sorry I know it's my fault for putting down the wrong order but you still got 2 entrees 'cause the chef had to cook it twice" =/ we were very disappointed after this!

Food~
7/10 - think the pastas are better than the pizzas here even though there are neon lights on the windows advertizing "Woodfire Pizza" here =P

Atmosphere~

4/5 - quite nice how they sat us upstairs like a private function =)

Service~
1/5 - definite thumbs down here though, they should have been smart about the waitress putting down the wrong order and just changed the bill for us, makes us really not want to come back here =(

C.
xo

Misty's Diner

Misty's Diner

103 High St, Prahran

(Ph) 9510 1959

After holidaying in America for 2 months a few years ago eating cheesecake and pizza and burgers every day or two I said I wouldn't eat so unhealthily anymore but American food is just so tasty and I was having cravings =P I had been to Misty's Diner a while ago remembering it was a delicious but stomach-popping experience - this time we won't over-order =P

First thing you notice when you walk in is a Elvis figure right by the door - gave us a fright thought there was someone really there!

On top of the counter there are mini jukeboxes! How cute but don't think they work =P

They sell lots of American snacks and chocolates here! I remember the first time I came here we were very excited 'cause you couldn't get Hershey's or Reese's anywhere else but now they do stock them elsewhere - still they have a much bigger variety here =)

The diner is super colourful with alternating green and pink chairs and booths..

..and the walls are decorated with flags and number plates and discs and posters and all sorts of stuff!

By the wall of the booths there are mini screens playing American TV and mini jukeboxes which don't work =P

A random "Misty's Diner" car door?

Old school pink telephone which apparently works! Should have tried it out haha =P

There's a crazy burger called "Misty's Challenge" - eat a 1.2kg, 5 patty beef burger with a side of chilli/nacho fries within 14mins and it's free and you get a Burger Challenge Tshirt, or it's $35 with a bottle of Coke. There are photos of all the successful challengers on the wall - how crazy, I feel sick just thinking about it!

P ordered some random American softdrink to start off with - it was really tangy and actually not very nice lol =/

We decided to learn from our past mistake and order lightly and just get more if we wanted to afterwards =P We got Misty's Meat Lovers Platter - Chicken wings, pork ribs, meat balls, mini hot dogs, mini burgers, garlic roll, side of salad & 4 dipping sauces $33.90

The waitress asked us if we wanted the hot sauce - both P and I can't really take chilli but M wanted to give it a try =P So they gave us ranch sauce, bleu cheese sauce, smokey bbq sauce, buffalo wing sauce and the chilli sauce. The ranch sauce and the bleu cheese sauce were my favourite - M nearly died when he dipped his whole meatball into the chilli sauce - it pretty much burns your tongue =P The pork ribs were my favourite meat - soft and tasty! P liked the chicken wings the best - he said next time we should order a whole bucket of buffalo wings! Nothing too special with the mini hot dogs and mini burgers - which are actually just sausages and patties =P The meat balls were not bad though, but the "side of salad" was quite lousy and the garlic roll wasn't much of a roll or of garlic - just buttered bread that wasn't even very toasted =/

We also got the Junk Yard fries - large platter of fries with a splat of taco meat, gravy, con queso sauce and chilli con carne $17.90 

So we get some carbs =P we chose to have skinny fries but I think it normally comes with fat fries. After a while the 4 sides tasted quite similar though obviously the chilli con carne was spicy - they even gave us an extra tub of chilli sauce! =O My favourite was the taco meat with the melted cheese - staying clear from the chilli =)

There was room for dessert! I got the Reece's Pieces Pie with icecream

It took a ridiculously long time for this to come out - we had to chase the waiters for it and even so still took an extra 10mins for it to come! All they did was microwave the pie and put some icecream and cream on it =S But because they microwaved the plate the icecream had started to melt by the time it came to us =/ Mmmm love Reece's peanut butter cups <3 The filling was mainly chocolate with some reece's pieces on the top - was very chocolately so went well with the icecream and cream though

At the end of our meal, Misty (the owner) actually came and talked to us and asked us how our meals were which was nice =)

Food~
7.5/10 - come here for your American cravings! Once you step inside really feels like you've travelled to USA =) Think I'd like to try their burgers next time though!

Atmosphere~
4/5 - definite thumbs up for the atmosphere!

Service~
2/5 - it was all good up until the dessert part =(

C.
xo

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23/08/13

After our not so filling dinner at TGI Friday's we wanted some real hearty American food - more like N wanted some so thought we'd bring him to Misty's Diner.

N wanted ribs, and P wanted wings - so we decided to get a bucket of each =)

I had always wanted to try one of their thickshakes - seems like most people get them. First thing I looked at was the dessert menu - they have Deep Fried Cheesecake served with berries here omg that's like my heaven! So I decided to get my dose of Reese's in my thickshake - Reese's Pieces (peanut butter, fudge & candy pieces) thickshake $8.95 with no cream =)

Omg a bit overfilled =P How overindulgent is it they even poured melted chocolate down the straw! It got very messy drinking it with the chocolated up straw and the overflowing drink but oh my, it was heavenly delicious - love Reece's peanut butter and chocolate and crunchy bits <3

We got the Bucket of Pork Ribs - a bucket of pork ribs with smokey BBQ sauce, Fat fries, Corn on the cob and a Garlic roll. $33.90 Add wings for just $6.00 more. We were considering adding wings but you only get 6 wings compared to 12 wings in the full bucket and P really wanted wings so we got a bucket of each - we were a bit crazy right? =P

Oh my gawd how humongous are these! How are these ribs?!

It's like a whole log of meat o_Oa there's a rib bone at the bottom of the piece but it was mainly meat, unlike what you'd usually expect on ribs which would normally be max 50% meat to bone lol. The rib meat was not too bad but not as tender and fall-off-bone as we'd expect, not as tender as our last visit but last time's ribs were more the usual size of ribs =P

The garlic roll is really sad though - they really need to fix that up either toast it up a bit more or put more garlic on instead of just butter =/ The side of fat fries was surprisingly very good - super crunchy and seasoned very well =)

P really wanted the Bucket of Wings - a bucket of buffalo chicken wings with: buffalo sauce, ranch or bleu cheese, celery sticks, you choice of mild, spicy or po' man's cocaine sauce $19.90

We got bleu cheese sauce - the waitress told us we're meant to dip them in the chili sauce (we got mild and it was still very spicy!) then the bleu cheese sauce. Buffalo wings were cooked to perfection and very flavoursome - the skin was dry enough that it was crunchy but not too dry that it was tough =)

We got the Bucket of Wings in a Combo - for $7.90 add 1/2 order of fries. We decided to get Taco fries - skinny fries covered in taco meat, tomato, Mexican cheese, sour cream, black olives & onions as we remembered them to be very tasty last time.

I usually like skinny fries but with the taco sauce on top it made the fries very soft and 'cause they were so thin made it really hard to pick up the toppings so ended up having to eat fries with a fork. Wouldn't have thought the ordinary fat fries would be tastier than the taco fries! Maybe next time we'll get the topping fries with fat fries instead =)

We were seriously stuffed after it all. But when N saw this he really wanted to try it - Holy Sh*t! Deep fried Reece's Pieces Chocolate Bar

So we decided to share it... and omg it seriously is holy sh*t! We thought it'd be a few pieces of Reece's chocolate deep fried since it said Reece's pieces and didn't really register that it said chocolate bar omg =/

A whole block of Reece's chocolate deep fried - craziness! This wasn't as good as we thought it'd be - the chocolate was all melted inside the batter and oozing out, but the batter was really thick so it was like eating deep fried batter dipped in chocolate served with some melting ice-cream - how hard is it to give us icecream that isn't half melted? =/ And since it was on the specials board we didn't know how much it cost - turned out at a very expensive $22.90 =/

I'm glad I was too full to order the deep fried cheesecake - probably would have the same thick batter as well =/ Will definitely be back at Misty's.. but maybe not for a little while, have had too much American food lately! =P