Ocha2go

Ocha2go

64 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn

(Ph) 9819 6928

Catch up with T, and C^2! J was initially meant to come, and he wanted to go somewhere near Glen Waverley, while I wanted to meet in the CBD, so we went for somewhere in between - Hawthorn. Ocha2go is the more casual sister restaurant to Ocha - a fine dining modern Japanese restaurant nearby.

It is very casual indeed, you order at the counter, and there is a service cart in the middle of the restaurant where you get your own cutlery and plates, bowls etc. It's actually a very popular and busy restaurant, lots of people coming to get takeaway - even takeaway sashimi! It's pretty pricey for a casual restaurant though, guess it is Hawthorn =P

We decided to get some entrees and mains to share. Started off with Salmon Tsutsumi - 4 salmon parcels wrapped in a thin pastry deep-fried, served with a silky sauce $9.50

Nothing too special, kinda like salmon wontons deep fried, but the excessive sauce made the wontons soft =(

Next came one of the mains - why would they serve mains before the entrees all came? Pork Katsu - pork fillet crumbed served with a Japanese BBQ sauce on coleslaw $13.50

Strange enough this "main" doesn't come with rice. I'm always a sucker for katsu, but was a bit strange serving it with coleslaw - guess they're trying to modernize and Westernize this dish?

We also got some sushi and sashimi - they served it all on the same plate.
Sashimi Combo (12pc) - today's selection of fish $17.50
Norimaki Rolls - combo (12pc) $7.50
Soft Shell Crab Roll (5pc) - softshell crab, avocado, cucumber, flying fish roe, carrot, salad + Japanese mayo $10

The soft shell crab was delicious - love the end bits with more crab than sushi =P crispy crab with lots of meat, not sure if I like all the salad and leaves in it but was still yum =) I had heard great reviews about the sashimi here but it was nothing special. And the norimaki rolls are just filling and cheap sushi =P

Sukiyaki - paper thin slices of beef cooked in Ocha2go sukiyaki sauce with mungbean noodles, carrots, zucchini & tofu, served on steamed rice with a bowl of miso soup $16.50

Sukiyaki in a main meal? Very different. Usually you have sukiyaki in the pot with the stuff in soupy sauce but this was all cooked for us already and served on rice. The beef was quite flavourful but they could have been a bit more generous with the tofu - only 2 pieces?!

We had totally forgotten about the other entree we ordered, it came so late! Ika burgers - 4 fresh calamari "burgers" glazed with a sweet soy, topped with Japanese mayo $10.50

This was so strange, I guess they did warn us by saying "burgers" in quotation marks =P But it was like a calamari-mixed-with-some-other-mushy-stuff patty served with too much sauce.

Food~
5/10 - nothing too memorable here, and kinda expensive for what you pay, but then again, it is Hawthorn.

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite a casual restaurant with lots of families dining here

Service~
3/5 - food didn't take too long, just kinda in the wrong order haha =P

C.
xo

Dr Jekyll

Dr Jekyll

107 Grey St, St Kilda

(Ph) 9525 5999

☆☆☆

Dr Jekyll has been rated ☆☆☆ by the Cheap Eats Guide so thought I should bring my Brisbane friends here. Would have taken them to one of "THE Melbourne" brunch places but knew the waiting line would be at least half an hour so thought I should give St Kilda a try on this Sunday morning.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson about the investigation of Dr Jekyll who has to battle between the good and the bad within himself - the good Dr Jekyll and the evil Mr Hyde. It is commonly used to describe people with split personalities or people who act very different morally in different circumstances.

So this cafe is called Dr Jekyll, so only the good side of things =) You have the option of sitting outside  in the courtyard amongst the garden or inside the cafe. We chose to sit inside against the window - finally the Melbourne sun is out! The waiter told us to wait in the courtyard for 5 minutes for them to clear the table, not bad for a Sunday morning =)

I was tossing between the Brekkie burger: fried egg, leg ham, chorizo, melted cheese, house chutney & roquette $13.50 or the Brekkie trout: scrambled eggs served on grilled viennoise, house cured ocean trout & chive creme fraiche $16.50. I went for the Brekkie trout and it didn't disappoint me =)

The scrambled egg was so fluffy and flavoursome, not sure if I could tell the smoked salmon was "house cured" but never mind, was still quite good with the chive creme fraiche =P Whatever viennoise bread is meant to be, it was delicious - soft and fluffy and slightly sweet, like a broiche, or something you'd get from an Asian bakery. The bread is really the hero of the dish, but complimented well with all the components =)

P went for the Brekkie melt with bacon, beetroot puree, melted mozzarella, 2 fried eggs and a side of rocket $16.50 which was found on the Specials board.

This unfortunately, sounds better than it actually tasted. The pile of rocket salad was a bit sad looking - and who serves rocket by itself? It's so bitter =/ The "melt" was not what we expected, we were expecting more of like a pressed sandwich with melted goodies inside but it was really just a bread with some stuff on top. I'm not a fan of beetroot so didn't really like the beetroot puree, though it didn't taste of much =/ So really it was just bacon and eggs with cheese on toast... hmm...

Food~
6/10 - I would definitely recommend the Brekkie Trout, but just stick with the normal menu and not the "specials". P should have totally ordered the Brekkie Burger instead!

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite nice sitting against the window, there are cushions for you to sit on too =) got a bit too hot after a while! Maybe we should have seated outside in the cool garden instead =P

Service~
2/5 - we were at the corner table, and the table next to us was meant to seat 3, but 5 people seated there, so the waiter couldn't get to our table to give us our food. So we played pass-the-plate from the neighbouring table to us... didn't feel very professional but I guess it's the community feel of brunch cafes?

C.
xo

De Clieu

De Clieu

187 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

(Ph) 9416 4661

☆☆☆

Brunch again! <3 We decided to venture slightly outside the CBD this time - De Clieu was given ☆☆☆ by Cheap Eats Guide and 3 coffee cups by Good Cafe Guide. The chef actually used to work at Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander which we only recently visited =) We recognized one of the waiters also works at Seven Seeds, I guess they are the same group so they share workers and waiters? =P

Gabriel De Clieu managed to bring a single coffee plant from Paris all the way to the Carribean Seas, sharing his own water rations with the plant, and started the French Caribbean coffee plantations there. It was because of his dedication to coffee that the Seven Seeds group decided to name their new cafe after him =)

So of course J and I had to order a coffee each, even though we're not super fans =P I got a Chai Latte with soy, which is really cheating 'cause it's not really coffee, but yum! <3

And J got a Cappuccino - smooooth =)

The menu is full of so many interesting choices! I decided to go for the Sweet roasted Berkshire pork neck with fried free-range egg, spring onion roti & barbeque sauce $16.5

Wasn't sure what to expect but it had fully exceeded my expectations! A new take on bacon and eggs with toast - modern Australian indeed =) The pork neck was so soft, tender and juicy. The roti was crunchy yet slightly chewy, non-oily and just delicious with the sweet barbeque sauce =)

J got the W. A. King Brown mushrooms on white sourdough toast with scrambled eggs & white truffle oil $17.0

Big fat juicy mushrooms! <3 The scrambled eggs were very smooth and the toast was good, but the hero was definitely the mushrooms =) J likes her mushrooms hehe ^^

Food~
8/10 - definitely recommend the pork neck, delicious indeed! =) wanna come back and try some of their other very interesting sounding dishes too!

Atmosphere~
4/5 - quite a small cafe compared to Seven Seeds but very comfortable sitting against the window with the sun on our backs =)

Service~
3/5 - it was quite busy on this weekday so they were a bit short on waiter staff but we didn't mind sitting at the communal tables chatting~

Definitely a recommendation!

C.
xo

Sofi's Lounge

Sofi's Lounge

25 Collins Street, Melbourne

(Ph) 9653 7744

After our deliciously memorable High Tea at Langham a year ago (which I didn't blog about as I hadn't started blogging back then yet), P and I had been meaning to try another High Tea in Melbourne =) Since Sofitel is part of the Accor Hotels, we decided to come try their high tea as I have an Advantage Plus card, and make use of the 50% off discount =)

They do a buffet style high tea on weekends ($69pp) , and on weekdays just a 3 tiered stand and teas ($45pp). About once a month they have a theme on the weekends. Like during July - September, they were doing a French Napoleon theme, inspired by the the Napoleon Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, and prior to that they were doing an Egyptian theme, inspired by the Tutankhamen Exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. Unfortunately, they were booked out for the Napoleon weekends so P and I just went to the normal weekend buffet high tea. They said the food is pretty much the same, it's just that they have people dressed in Napoleon wear and some Napoleon decorations on the table. Still it would have been a nice experience =(

They run the buffet from 2:30pm till about 5pm. We had a very light breakfast that morning and saved lots of room for high tea goodness =) The high tea is at the lounge area on the ground floor, quite a nice area with comfy lounge chairs, a grand piano behind us, and a window view overlooking the Sofitel courtyard.

The first thing they brought us was a glass of sparkling wine =) I don't think the sparkling wine was unlimited as we didn't see anyone have another glass after the initial, but not like P and I like wine much anyway.

In the centre of the room is the dessert table w00t! And to the back wall is the savoury table with the crepe/pikelette station.

Look at all the beautiful delicate cakes <3

And the chocolate fountain!

The savoury selection up the back - the hot foods...

..And the finger sandwiches

We started with the hot foods, they only have 3 choices.  The Chicken pie was surprisingly the most delicious thing at the buffet! Creamy chicken and mushroom "filling" in to the Chinese tea cup, topped with a very puffed pastry =) The Mushroom quiche square was quite tasty too though there was more pastry than filling. The Shepherd's pie was a bit disappointing though, too salty and the potato topping was very dry. They have different warm savouries all the time so just hope you get some delicious ones when you're there =)

Next I tried all the finger sandwiches - these are the same all the time.
Roast beef and horseradish
Cucumber, cream cheese and chives
Free range crushed egg mayonnaise and cress
Artisan smoked leg ham with dijon mustard
Tasmanian smoked salmon with black pepper and lemon

To be honest, these finger sandwiches were the most disappointing of the whole buffet. None of the fillings were particularly "wow", and they don't even have a chicken + mayo one! *shock horror* that's the best finger sandwich filling of all time =( Some of the bread was a bit stale and some still had bits of crust on it, and the wrap was hard, like they've all been made hours (or even a day) in advance - if I pay this much money, I expect fresh sandwiches =(

P had ordered his Jing English Breakfast - a fantastic breakfast tea, assam tea is low-grown and holds a reputation as the strongest full-bodied tea to be found, perfect for those who love a strong and malty cup of tea, with or without milk pretty much since we sat down, but it took them a while to bring it out. Just tastes like a normal tea but yay for sugar cubes! =P

The teapot doesn't really match the tea set but anyway =P

Next we decided to go for the crepe/pikelettes station, the chef makes heaps of crepes/pikelettes and stacks them at the side so they're not really "made to order" but are still warm. He dips the crepes in the caramel sauce and you add your own toppings of berries or orange compote.

The pikelettes were super fluffy and soft, and delicious with the compotes <3 The crepe would have been nicer if it was thin and crunchy though, but the caramel was good =)

Next we tried the scones - plain or fruit, served with King Island pure cream, strawberry preserve and homemade fruit curd (lemon). I've never had scones with fruit curd before, but it was super delicious with the lemon curd! Too bad the scones were a bit dense, weren't warm and were getting a bit hard though =/

Dessert table time! Of course had to play with the chocolate fondue first =) Dipping my strawberry in the fountain =P There were also rockmelons, pineapples, turkish delights and marshmallows for you to dip, but we weren't a fan of this chocolate and preferred to eat the fruit by itself =P

Cakes! <3 P and I got a piece of each cake and had it together, there was no way we could have eaten one of everything each =P and lucky we did, because some of them weren't that tasty =/ The creme brulee on the spoon was good. The profiterole swan looks pretty cool, but taste-wise, nothing too special. Likewise with the strawberry tart, just a strawberry tart. The chocolate tart was very rich, and would have been very delicious, if we weren't so full already, too dense and rich for us by this stage =P

The second plate was so so. A banana cake, a carrot cake, a lemon custard, an opera cake, and not-sure-what-its-called-but-like-a-rum-baba cake. The banana cake and the carrot cakes were quite moist, but tastes like home cakes. The lemon custard was quite smooth, the rum cake was a bit too alcoholy for my liking. 

Opera cake is normally my favourite cake, but this one wasn't that fantastic. It had all the layers and everything, but the chocolate was really dark, and overpowered the coffee flavour =(

The last cake we tried was a surprisingly refreshing and tasty one - a coconut and lime slice. The coconut bit was really creamy so we couldn't fit anymore in after a taste lol.

We were soo stuffed by now, all we wanted was some herbal tea to wash it all down. We asked the waiter what teas they had, and he started listing them, then said he'll bring the menu for us instead =P There were soo many teas to choose from! We decided to get the 

Jade Sword Green Tea - grown in misty mountains in China's Jiande green tea terroir. Jade sword is a bright and fresh tea from Fengwukou Village Garden

and the

Silver Needle - Silver needle white tea is the most famous white tea in the world. From Tai Mu mountain garden, our silver needle is sweet, mellow and low in caffeine. Ideal for drinking on long, lingering afternoons, or well into the night

While we were waiting for our teas, they brought out a new dessert! A rhubarb and pistachio trifle - we're not fans of rhubarb but the jelly was quite good though not sure if the flavour goes well with pistachio =P

Our teas arrived with some Chinese teacups =)

Not sure if it lives up to the description but both were quite light and refreshing, a great way to end the afternoon tea =)

Quite an enjoyable afternoon with the pianist at the grand piano the whole time =)

Food~
6/10 - would have expected better quality food at a 5 star hotel, major disappointment at the sandwiches! and the cold scones =(

Service~
4/5 - quite good service, very attentive with our empty plates, though would be nice if they brought our teas out quicker =P

Atmosphere~
4.5/5 - very relaxing atmosphere, and comfy lounge chairs =)

Not sure if we would have come here if not for the 50% off though...

C.
xo

Mad Mex

Mad Mex

Southern Cross Station

(actually many locations around Melbourne now..)

Suddenly so many Mexican restaurants popping up in Melbourne, I still haven't managed to make myself line up for Mamasitas yet, but we recently went to Taco Bill which really whet my appetite for more Mexican food =)

Mad Mex is a fast-foodish chain store started in Sydney, but now there are a few opened up in Melbourne. There's one opened up at Southern Cross Station now and there's an Entertainment buy-1-get-1-free voucher so we thought we'd give it a go.

P said it feels kinda like Subway, which I kinda agree, you choose your base "bread", choose your filling and choose your sauces (aka salsas). 

I went for some Nachos - tortilla chips with melted queso cheese w/ black beans, sour cream, jalapenos & choice of filling $10.90. And for the filling I got the Pork (carnitas) - slow roasted, shredded, traditional style w/ garlic, onion, lime & cumin. After so many years still reminiscing the delicious pulled pork from New York =) The waiter made this straight in front of us - awesome 'cause we were starving!

Doesn't look that appetizing but surprisingly was delicious! The pork was so soft and juicy and was very refreshing with the lettuce and tomato. I'm not usually a fan of black beans but they went well with the pork =) If only they gave us some guacamole too - I thought nachos automatically come with guacamole =(

P got the Grande Melt - toasted flour tortilla, a quesadilla with the works, rolled like a burrito and toasted $10.90. For the filling he chose Chicken (pollo) - freshly grilled, seasoned w/ our chipotle adobo marinade (chemical free)

They give us a number plate and bring this out to us in only about 5 minutes - good to know they make it straight away for you =P it comes wrapped up in al-foil and P automatically rips it open.  Who's to know you're actually meant to just open it on one side and eat it while still in the al-foil so the juices don't leak out the bottom - there were actually instructions on how to eat burritos on the serviettes here which we didn't read until we got our hands drenched in burrito sauce haha =P

Lots of filling! Chicken and lots of cheeeeeese =D Too bad the juices made the tortilla soft and soggy instead of crispy =( How are you meant to eat it so it stays crispy hmm?

Food~
6/10 - quite good! I'd recommend the nachos or at least try some of their homemade tortilla chips =) Treating it as fast food, it's definitely is quite high on ratings!

Service~
1/5 - it is fast food so can't expect much service, but they could have at least cleaned the table properly for us when we asked them to..

Atmosphere~
2/5 - they need more tables here! Though the Melbourne Central store is nicer with it's own private eating area as opposed to be part of the big food court =)

C.
xo

Monga Sweet Cafe

Monga Sweet Cafe

Level 1, 217 Russel St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9654 4885

After the greasiness and spiciness of Crazy Wings, we wanted some sweet refreshing drink to wash it all down. Walked past Monga Sweet Cafe and decided to try it out =) I had heard about it in Boxhill, and how it serves genuine Asian, especially Hong Kong, desserts and Tea Cafe foods. There are actually quite a few Asian dessert places popping up in the CBD, like Dessert Story (2 stores in the CBD now!).

You go up the stairs to the cafe, the first floor looks like a typical modern cafe, with some sofas for you to relax on as well. Unfortunately the first floor was full on this night, so they asked us to go upstairs. There's a sign saying "1970s Hong Kong Style Venue Upstairs" and wow! It really feels like you're transformed back to olden day Hong Kong! It's quite dark there, with many square tables of 4, looks kinda like a mahjong den =P

And there was a genuine Bus Stop sign right next to our table!

You can come here and play games (cards, chess etc) - but you do have to rent it. And there's a room with dart machines in it too! Though that doesn't feel very Honky lol =P

We were going to go for a set - drink + pineapple bun, but then E wanted to try the following 2 desserts so we decided to not get a drink and just go for the 2 desserts =P

First was the Deep Fried Sweet Potato w/ Golden Syrup $4.50

We weren't going to go for something deep fried after the greasy chicken wings, but we're both suckers for sweet potato =P surprisingly wasn't too greasy and was very crunchy, though there was more batter than sweet potato lol. If only they were a bit more generous with the golden syrup =P

My favourite Honky dessert - Hawker's Waffles  (Peanut butter & condensed milk) $7.00

Doesn't look as appealing with the waffle drenched in peanut butter and condensed milk but the taste is what matters more! deliciousness <3 Crunchy waffles with a watered down peanut butter and condensed milk mixture - whoever thought of this mixture is a genius =)

This is the original one from the most famous place in Hong Kong <3

LOVE <3

Food~

7/10 - quite good, definitely feel like I've been transported back to Hong Kong =) whenever I feel slightly homesick will definitely come here! Wanna try some of the other savoury Tea Cafe foods too =)

Service~

4/5 - since we were one of the only 2 tables upstairs, the single waiter (I actually think he was the manager as he was in a suit!) was very prompt with our orders and bringing us water and everything =)

Atmosphere~

3/5 - bit too dark for my liking but love the Honky decor!

Will definitely be back =)

C.
xo