Culumus Inc

Cumulus Inc

45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

(Ph) 9650 1445

I had read a lot of good reviews about Cumulus Inc so thought I should bring my friends here for lunch. We came on a weekday, and lucky, we got a table pretty instantly. Since we were a group of 5, they sat us at this random corner half booth table where 3 of us sat on the semicircle booth, and the other 2 sat on chairs outside. One side of the booth didn't have a cushion so P had to sit on this hard wooden seat =/ pretty strange table. The restaurant is quite small but the open kitchen is in view from our table which was nice.

The waiter told us all their dishes are for sharing, and suggested us to get a few starters, and 2 mains to share but we weren't that hungry so just got one main instead.

They started us off with a mini pan of breads, there was a sour dough and a grain bread. Lucky they kept refilling our bread otherwise we would have starved since the dishes weren't that big =/

We got a few Charcuterie (cured meats) since it seems to be one of their specialities. Pheasant terrine, pickled rhubarb $17

What does pheasant meat taste like? This kinda tasted like spam lol =P was quite tasty though and lucky we got our plate of bread to go with it 'cause 4 tiny pieces of toast is not enough! We actually thought the pickled rhubarb was the pickled ginger you eat with sushi normally =P

The waiter suggested the Wagyu bresaola (40g) with truffle cream & artichoke $19

40g of wagyu is really not much, but this was really delicious with the truffle cream (not that we can taste it is truffle =P) and the chips.

P thought it would be cool to eat elk - one of the largest species of deer in the world so we got the Red elk and rocket salad with cider vinaigrette, candied walnuts $10 The waiter said they were out of rocket and were going to give us cos lettuce instead which we said was alright.

We searched the whole salad for any trace of meat or elk and found nothing. We asked the waiter where the deer meat was and she's like "Wah?" and we said "The elk?". The waiter said red elk is actually the red rocket-like lettuce in the salad omgosh =__________= I just searched "red elk" on Google and there was nothing about the lettuce, all about the deer, until I searched "red elk lettuce" so obviously it's not very common =/ What a disappointment. At least the walnuts were crunchy and honeyed.

Since this was a French restaurant, I decided to get the Fois gras parfait with toasted brioche $17

It's like a pate, and surprisingly went very well with the sultanas. The brioche was delicious, slightly sweet but very fluffy. The parfait is very rich and creamy so need lots of bread to go with it, and lucky our bread plate kept getting refilled =P

The one main dish we got was the Fried soft shell crab, kimchi, lettuce & kewpie $19 which was recommended by the waiter.

You eat it like a wrap, putting some crab in a piece of lettuce, with some kimchi or kewpie sauce. The kimchi was definitely not kimchi, wasn't even spicy at all, and actually was a bit strange with the kewpie - kewpie was delicious with the crab though. The soft shell crab was deliciously fried, few meaty bits and many crunchy legs to go around =)

Food~
6/10 - food was pretty tasty but very small portions and not worth the money =(

Service~
4/5 - quite good, very diligent in their bread refilling =P

Atmosphere~
3/5 - open bright restaurant with high ceilings and open kitchen, too bad we got the random corner table =P

C.
xo