Category: Melbourne

Honestly, Sydney people does not like Melbourne that much. However, Melbourne has become quite a destination for foodies.

Meat Market South Wharf

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 / 10

Price: $20++ main course

Place: 7.5 / 10

Review:

For our second Melbourne review, we went to a steakhouse called Meat Market South Wharf. As a reminder to readers, steakhouse faced quite a tough challenge in convincing me as I am very particular about my steak and I love to grill a steak at home!

Meat Market South Wharf has an interesting concept of an open kitchen. It was quite impressive that there were only three people inside the kitchen!

We were not going to order any starters, but our waiter warned us it would take around 40 minutes for the steak to arrive. Our choice fell to the House Made Dip ($16) – Olives, Feta, freshly baked buckwheat sourdough. This description omitted the most important piece (and the yummiest) of the dish, pumpkin dipping sauce.

We did quite the unthinkable in a steakhouse by doing a shared dish for our main courses. We did it because of this sole reason: Meat Sharing Platter ($90) – chef’s selection of today’s cuts to share, mixed leaf salad and a selection of sauces (we chose peppercorn jus and blue cheese butter). It was a plate of three different cuts (if I’m not mistaken) – scotch fillet, eye fillet, and dry aged beef – for a combined size of 500gr. The presentation was quite appetising and the extra sauce and butter added a nice dimension to the steak.

Another interesting point here was the absence of potatoes (and their variances) from the plates. It might not be good news for a big eater like me as you would need to fork out an extra $9 or $10 for each of the companions. There were quite a few options here, but our choices went to Crumbed Onion Rings ($9) and Hand cut chips, spicy ketcup ($10). I always loved a good plate of onion rings and this one hit the spot for me. The chips on the other hand, I wasn’t a big fan of.

We also ordered the Catch (or fish) of the day. It was grilled salmon with beetroot sauce. The salmon was perfectly grilled but the plate looked quite barren with only a handful of vegetables and well-decorated spoonful of beetroot sauce.

The final verdict for Meat Market South Wharf

It took quite a long time (that’s after the waiter’s telling us it would take a long time) for the steak to arrive at Meat Market South Wharf. The steak itself ticked many approval boxes (including presentation), but there was really nothing sparkling about our experience there.

Details:

53 South Wharf Promenade, South Wharf, Melbourne

03 9008 8953

http://www.meatmarketsouthwharf.com.au/

Dec 12, 2013
Akachochin

Rating:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5/10

Price: $14 – $33 per plate

Place: 8.5/10

Review:

For the first time in our (short but eventful) history, we are reviewing a restaurant in Melbourne. To celebrate this, we will be reviewing Melbourne restaurants for the whole month of December! Since it’s such a short stay, we can rule out the three hats like Attica, Vue de Monde – we couldn’t even get into the two hats ones!

Luckily for us, Melbourne isn’t short of great food, and our first ever review goes to Akachochin Japanese Restaurant. Located strategically, just behind Melbourne Convention Centre and DFO, Akachochin is situated right by the Yarra River. In Japanese, ??? means red paper lantern. It is commonly hung outside Japanese Izakaya establishments. Being an izakaya, you are most welcome to try their sake. However, this time we will focus on their food.

Let’s start with a couple of classic Japanese cuisines: Miso Shiru ($6) and Sashimi Moriawase ($33). Two of the most common Japanese dishes that could hardly go wrong! The sashimi was quite pricey, given that there was only nine slices of fish and scallops. Although it was fresh and well-presented, I still wouldn’t order again for that price.

For half the Sashimi’s price, Hiramasa Namerou ($16) was the dish you should seriously consider. It was a Japanese-style kingfish tartare with wasabi stem and moromi miso. The interesting part of this dish was the introduction of the rice crackers. They truly balanced the strong taste of the tartare and added a crunchy dimension to the taste.

The Unagi Avodaco Roll ($14) was presented quite uniquely. Instead of the usual nori, it was wrapped with radish. The official description of the roll was: inside out roll with eel, avocado, sliced onion, masago, cucumber, and sweet soy. I wasn’t quite happy with the presentation of the Wagyu Yakimono ($18). The massive bowl of green leaves overpowered the small serving of the wagyu beef. The beef itself was perfectly grilled and was accentuated by the shimeji mushrooms.

It took a very long time for the last two dishes to arrive, but it is well worth the wait. We even ordered Unagi Dashi Chazuke ($16) – a chopped eel on rice with hot clear soup – because we thought we would need more food. It turned out that Akachochin Gourmet Chawan Mushi ($22) was quite massive for a chawan mushi. The steamed egg custard came in a large plate with generous servings of prawns, scallops, chickens, mushrooms and dressed with Kikuna leaves.

The highlight of the day came at the very end and it was actually recommended by the waitress (great job!!), Shake Miso Butter Mushiyaki ($30). It is a slow-cooked salmon steamed in miso butter and wrapped in cabbage. I was kind of hesitant when I saw my last dish of the night was wrapped in vegetables. It was quickly apparent why it was recommended in the first place. I believe I have never tasted such combinations before; it was sweet, salty, fresh, and tasty all blended into one!

The final verdict for Akachochin Restaurant

The combination of great food and great location merits Akachochin a very high score according to my standards. From the price point of view, it was pretty expensive from the average Japanese restaurant. Everything we had at the restaurant was masterfully prepared.

Details:

33 Dukes Walk, South Wharf, Melbourne

03 9245 9900

http://akachochin.com.au/

Dec 3, 2013