Aix Café Creperie Salon

Aix Café Creperie Salon

24 Centre Place, Melbourne

(Ph) 9662 2667

Brunch with E again :) I had been meaning to come here and blog about it for a while but never got around to it so here goes! It's a tiny cafe at Centre Place - the tables are very compact and table space is minimal - no room for 2 plates if you really wanted 2 crepes lol.

I had initially wanted to come for the traditional savoury or sweet crepes but saw the Specials at the bottom of the menu and the lasagna crepe caught my attention!

So I got the Beef crepe lasagna $9.00

I dunno what I expected but it wasn't like this =P I saw the waiter take a slice out of the cupboard and I dunno how they heated it up but the crepe was still crispy - in the oven quickly? It was oozing with delicious meat sauce and topped with lots of tomato sauce - if only there was more bechamel sauce in it and more cheese! There was lots of tomato-y water at the bottom of the plate - would have been better if the liquid wasn't there so the crepe at the bottom could be crispier!

E saw I ordered the beef lasagne and was intrigued and got the Vegetable crepe lasagna $9.00 instead.

It looks much tidier without the excess tomato water at the bottom so her crepe was crispier and full of delicious cheesy vegetables.

Food~
6.5/10 - not your typical crepes but was very original and delicious =) next time will come here to try their normal crepes~

Atmosphere~
2/5 - very cramped there so we didn't feel like we wanted to sit around to chat too long

Service~
3/5 - polite waiters =)

Definitely want to come here again and try their normal crepes... especially a sweet one =) see how they compare to the delicious Choix Creperie Cafe ones - I've realised savoury crepes have a tendency to be softer compared to sweet ones which are generally crispier like when I went to Roule Galette or even to Le Petite Creperie... we'll see about that next time =)

C.
xo

Coconut House

Coconut House

449 Elizabeth St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9329 6401

M was back in Melbourne and she was craving some authentic Asian food so we decided to go to Coconut House. There are 2 Coconut House's - they opened another one 2 doors down to cater for the growing number of customers but neither are very big so there was still a short wait for a table. You order the food at the counter so service is not great here but the food is quite cheap and generally quite tasty =)

We both got the Hainanese Chicken Rice, M got it with extra ginger which was an extra $1 but they both looked pretty much the same lol =/

It comes with a bowl of soup (no idea what type of soup it is, was a bit oily actually =/) and a tea egg (could have been darker but still quite tasty). The rice was deliciously soft and moist and full of chicken flavour =)

The plate of chicken doesn't look that big but was actually very filling - all the pieces were boneless and the meat was so soft and smooth =) And the lightly sweet sauce is super tasty especially when added to the chicken rice. M really liked the spicy sauce at the end of the plate which I'm glad they didn't mix together =P

M also ordered a plate of BBQ Pork to share since she said she can't get it back home =P

Delicious with its sweet glaze and moist meat - not the best in Melbourne but not bad either.

I was really thirsty so I got the Teh C - 3 coloured tea made from gula melaka (coconut palm sugar), evaporated milk and then tea.

Looks good as it is but after mixing looks like a normal Teh Tarik - smooth and milky and simply yummy =D

Food~
7.5/10 - delicious foods and very cheap too!

Service~
2/5 - you order at the counter so there isn't much service here but what can you expect?

Atmosphere~
1/5 - it was actually quite full on this Monday night, we had to wait a bit and even so, were seated right at the back right next to the kitchen... definitely don't come here for anything but the food =P

C.
xo

La Camera

La Camera

2 Southgate Ave, Southbank

(Ph) 9699 3600

A friend came down to Melbourne from Brisbane so we caught up over some Italian food =) He was staying at Southbank so wanted to go somewhere close by - looked in my Entertainment Book again and came across La Camera.

We made a booking but when we got there they said we could pick inside or outside. We sat inside at first 'cause it was a cold night but then realised outside would have a much nicer view of the Yarra River and would be warm under the heaters =)

P wanted a pizza and I wanted a pasta - usually it's the other way round strange =P He got the Alla Salsiccia – tomato base, mozzarella, Italian sausage, caramelized onion, roasted capsicum, fresh basil and olive oil $21.50

So different they don't cut your pizza for you at all and give you all your own pizza cutter lol. And it was actually very difficult to cut with it! Had to run over the pizza multiple times and kept pushing the toppings around =/ Pretty sure they have a much stronger pizza cutter or something 'cause we totally made a mess =P Was alright, crust was quite good but they weren't very generous with their sausage. It's very much like the Salsiccia at Espressino Coffee and Bar (which is the same as +39 Pizzeria) Neither are fantastic - this one didn't have much cheese while the one at Espressino had those nasty Porcini mushrooms.

I got the Rigatoni Pollo - Rigatoni tossed with slow roasted chicken pieces and mushrooms in a cream sauce with a touch of pesto $17.90

We had made some super delicious pasta at home that week so I was craving some more creamy chicken pasta =) P thought it wasn't salty enough but I quite liked it especially after the waiter came and added lots of parmesan cheese on top for me =D The chicken was clustered at the bottom in the middle so at first we thought they were stingy with their chicken but we ended up with too much at the end. Though would have been better if they were more generous with their mushrooms. It was very tasty with the touch of pesto - think I want to try making this myself next time =)

We usually don't order desserts when we go out but P had a sweet craving so we got the Sticky Date Pudding - Mouth watering traditional pudding, served warm with butterscotch sauce and our homemade rum and raisin ice-cream $12.90

It was more like a cake as opposed to a pudding, a bit dense but the butterscotch sauce was delicious and the rum and raisin ice-cream was definitely a thumbs up! Wish they gave us more than a tiny scoop!

Food~
5/10 - was alright, my pasta was much better than P's pizza and would definitely come back for their icecream =P

Atmosphere~
4/5 - very nice on the balcony under the heater with the river view in front of us =)

Service~
3/5 - very attentive waiters~

C.
xo

Veludo

Veludo

175 Acland St, St Kilda

(Ph) 9534 4456

We were in the area so thought we should grab brunch at one of the cafes here - Veludo was one of the restaurants in my Entertainment book 25% off =)

It was such a cold windy morning so we decided to sit inside under one of the heaters ahh ^^

P, as per usual, got the big fat pommy bastard: 2 eggs, bacon, hashbrown, roast tomato, pork chipolatas, mushrooms, chilli tomato pickle & toast $19

What a strange long plate! The hashbrown was homemade and super delicious! Crunchy on the outside yet still soft inside =) How come when I try to make it it's so fail?! =( The chilli tomato pickle was surprisingly really good with the chipolatas, not too chilli but not just like a tomato chutney either, and there were far more mushrooms than P liked which I was happy about =)

After my delicious corn fritters at Cheeky Monkey, I decided to get the corn & zucchini fritters, smoked salmon, watercress, persian feta, honey mustard $16

This was a bit disappointing =( I was expecting crunchy tall fritters but these are pancake-like like the Alcove Cafe ones =/ BUT they were much tastier, at least had some flavour and was slightly fried on the outside =P The honey mustard was really nice with the "pancakes" but wish they were more generous with it. The persian feta tasted like normal fetta but more mushy which made it easier to spread on the "pancakes" =P wish they had like an avocado salsa or something instead of the watercress though.

As we left we heard someone at the next table complain their baked beans was cold =/ hmmm... not sure if I'll come back here if not for the voucher...

Food~
5/10 - was alright but P's dish was better than mine~

Atmosphere~
2/5 - felt good under the heater =)

Service~
2/5

C.
xo

Wooga Korean Restaurant

Wooga Korean Restaurant

270 Victoria St, West Melbourne

(Ph) 9328 1221

It was Matty's birthday! =D We all wanted Korean BBQ 'cause it was such a cold windy day! The menu was not very extensive - but we had a group of 7 of us and we didn't really wanna pick menu items so we went with the -

Combo D $119 (6-8 serves)

- Top Grade Beef Rib

- Top Side with Salt and Pepper

- Top Grade Scotch Fillet

- Ox Tongue

- Seafood Pan-cake

- Pan Fried Squid in Spicy Sauce

- Soy Marinated Pork with Bok Choy

- Beef with Squid in Spicy Soup

- Rice (4)

Sounded like a good combination of foods =D I wonder why they only have steak for the BBQ and no marinated meats like bulgolgi and no pork/chicken? Bulgolgi is my favourite Korean BBQ meat =(

Love Korean side dishes <3 P really liked the picked radish plate as well as the beansprouts but they were a bit slow with their refills =(

They brought the burning hot coal BBQ - it was so hot but was nice on this freezing night =)

Cooking the Top Grade Beef Rib on the BBQ =) P was in charge of the BBQ and cutting of the meats - think he enjoyed it very much =)

Top Grade Scotch Fillet - looks quite good and was quite tasty and tender, but doesn't really feel like Korean BBQ, was like any Aussie BBQ. You'd expect Korean BBQ has more marinade and more flavouring right? If it wasn't for the sauces that we were given I'd say the meats aren't very flavoursome.

After all the steak, they changed the grill plate for us to cook our Ox Tongue - love ox tongue! Thin and chewy and yummo!

The Seafood Pancake was quite good - crispy on the outside and lots of baby octopus inside =)

This was meant to be the Pan Fried Squid in Spicy Sauce - there was only 10% squid (and very small pieces too!) and 90% spicy cabbage - jipped us! Bit too spicy for my liking and really wasn't worth scrounging around for the tiny pieces of squid =/

Next came the Soy Marinated Pork with Bok Choy - that is most definitely not Bok Choy and most definitely are a few pieces of lettuce lol. It had quite nice Chinese flavours - very soft pork belly =) And wasn't spicy w00t!

Last came the Beef with Squid in Spicy Soup - they gave us prawns instead of squid so we had to bother to de-shell them how annoying =P The spiciness sunk to the bottom so the last few bowls were ridiculously spicy. But was full of flavours, even though it was quite spicy P quite liked this =)

Food~

6/10 - was alright, have had better Korean BBQ here but for the amount we paid wasn't too bad!

Atmosphere~

2/5 - very packed and very smokey! But what can you expect at Korean BBQ? =P

Service~

2/5 - if they gave us our side dishes etc quicker that would have been nice but generally was quite good, the waiters come and help you cook some of your meats initially on the BBQ =)

C.

xo

Cheeky Monkey

Cheeky Monkey

89 Swan St, Richmond

(Ph) 9428 8833

P and I had a weekday off together - decided to go drive somewhere for brunch. Since my Entertainment book was expiring soon, thought I should find a voucher from there. A buy-1-get-1-free voucher at Cheeky Monkey =)

They do breakfast until 3pm on weekdays =) After my crappy corn fritters at Alcove Cafe at Great Ocean Road, I was craving some tasty crunchy fritters - Jumbo Corn Fritters with Crispy Bacon, Tomato and Avocado Salsa with a Coriander Yoghurt $16.90

The corn fritters were super delicious - super crunchy! =D Not sure about the tomato and avocado salsa - it was more like random tomato and avocado pieces minus the salsa lol =/ Think they need to work on their plating too lol =P I didn't realise the yoghurt was meant to be coriander... at least I couldn't taste it and I'm normally VERY sensitive to coriander... if only they had given some real salsa that would have perfected the dish!

I thought P was going to get the Big Breakfast but he decided to get Calamari - sea salt and cracked pepper floured calamari with a side of crispy cabbage and coriander salad and lemon aioli $16.90 instead.

Looks quite good, the calamari wasn't as chewy as calamari is usually - so strange, is it 'cause it's not fresh or 'cause of the type of calamari? Batter was nice and crunchy and the aioli was delicious =) The cabbage salad wasn't very tasty though - P doesn't like cabbage and I don't like coriander so neither of us liked it very much =P

Since P's calamari didn't come with chips, he ordered a side of chips. It wasn't on the menu but we figured it'd just be a small side - but oh my, it was a massive bowl! Pretty certain the chips weren't housemade 'cause they were all so uniform and super crunchy like when you buy frozen chips lol =P

P also got Caramel Milkshake $4

Super delicious and creamy in such a big metal cup - disappointed it was only half filled =(

Food~
5/10 - not bad given we had half price food!

Service~
3/5 - friendly waiters and food came very promptly

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite nice on this sunny weekday morning =)

C.
xo

Dumpling King

Dumpling King

572 Station St, Box Hill

(Ph) 9890 3719

We come to Box Hill to do shopping so regularly and we always just randomly go to a restaurant to get food. This time I thought I'd do some research and find a good place first - Dumpling King seems to have quite good ratings on Urbanspoon so decided to check it out.

We came at 2.30pm and the waiter said their lunch period ends at 3pm so we have to leave by then - whatever we were hungry so we sat down anyway. There were tablecloths on the table and lanterns hanging off the ceiling - was very Westernized, as was most of the customers there.

P said he felt like Char Kway Teow - we thought a dumpling restaurant must sell fried rice noodles right? How wrong we were - the closest they had was Singapore Fried Noodles, which aren't rice noodles boo =(

How strange of them to serve it up on a curry dish?! I guess there is curry flavour in it lol, I'm not a fan of Singapore Fried Noodles - it's just the noodle version of fried rice, where you just chuck in whatever you find in your fridge and mix some curry powder into it. Was alright - P said it tasted like the ones he used to get at uni which means it's not very good =P

I came here for the dumplings so of course I had to get dumplings - Pan Fried Beijing Style Dumplings - pork and Chinese leeks (10 pcs) $9.80

Who calls it Chinese leeks?! Chinese chives or spring onion maybe? lol. There was "Award Winning Dish" next to this dish on the menu. Unfortunately I really don't agree. They were quite ordinary - skin was quite thin but wasn't fried crispy enough.

Of course I had to order Steamed Shanghai Dumplings - pork and Chinese Soup Fillings (5 pcs) $6.20

This also had "Award Winning Dish" next to it - but my, this was even worse than the fried dumplings. There was barely any soup inside and the skin was kinda thick. Plus they didn't give us any ginger - for a restaurant who's famous for their dumplings how can you not give us ginger?!

And we felt like we had to rush our food 'cause we thought they were going to kick us out at 3pm, but they were still seating people at 2.45pm so surely we knew they couldn't close the restaurant at 3pm. Maybe it was just no ordering of food after 3pm?

Food~
3/10 - was very ordinary, had such high expectations of this place but seriously nothing compares to Shanghai Street =(

Service~
3/5 - not bad for an Asian restaurant, but like I said, they're aiming at Western customers here =P

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite a large restaurant, think it used to be 2 separate restaurants and they bought the store next to them to expand 'cause it's like 2 separate rooms

Not sure if I'll come here again...

C.
xo

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01/07/2013

Got the new Entertainment Book! Boxhill restaurants are never featured in it so when I found Dumpling King in it, and apparently rated as one of Melbourne's Top 5 Yum Cha Restaurants by the Herald Sun - I thought I had to come.

I don't remember Boxhill really having any proper yum cha restaurants let alone one of Melbourne's best - oh how wrong they are! It was only when we arrived that I realised I had been here before and they definitely don't serve proper yum cha food here They have some yum cha dishes you can order on a piece of paper instead of the proper yum cha carts, and all the dishes were very Western yum cha dishes - boo!

We were inside already so thought we'd give it a second chance - we decided to get some dumplings again and maybe a few yum cha dishes.

P got a bowl of wontons in soup - which surprisingly was one of the better dishes of the meal. Nothing too special but not too bad, and quite generous in numbers and in prawns for the filling inside.

I had forgotten how bad the dumplings are here - and it was no different this time. Thick skin and no fried enough to a crunch yet was very oily.

The Xiao Long Bao was the same again - thick tough skin..

Though it did have some tasty broth inside.

P wanted some fried wontons which were on the yum cha list - I had never noticed this before but fried wontons and soup wontons are folded differently where for the fried ones they leave more of the skin hanging so it's more crunchy =) This was pretty good, but yes it was a very Western dish so maybe that's what they're good at?

Last we got a BBQ Pork Bun $5 for 2 so actually pretty expensive =/

Ohmygawd look how red the BBQ pork is?! So much food colouring ugh (Western dish yet again!), bun was quite soft though.

The Caucasian couple next to us didn't finish most of their dishes - guess they don't please the Caucasians either! I guess after the 25% off was the meal was alright but no third time lucky for this restaurant from me!