Bistro Guillaume - South Bank, Melbourne City

Bistro Guillaume is in the heart of South Bank and just minutes work from Crown or Crown Promenade Hotel. Should you be staying at South Bank this makes for quick and easy access to the restaurant  without having to brave the elements, catch trams or cabs or walk ‘till you drop. Bistro Guillaume is one of the Crown’s premium restaurants. Crown has $100 meal deals with this and several other restaurants nearby when you stay with them. What you get is dinning to the value of $100 but Crown throw in valet parking, itself worth $30.

The decor is modern with a touch of Europe. Dine in, sit at the bar (very colourful) or outside under the large awning. In the cooler weather heating is provided. Service is first class and meals appear reasonably priced. I dinned on a Monday night so the restaurant was very quiet but book ahead.  There is plenty to choose from on the menu and the Steak Tartare and John Dory were excellent.  The house wine, a sav. blanc, was also very good.

Bistro Guillaume is definitely a restaurant I will be re-visiting. Though there is plenty of excellent dining establishments on South Bank this is one I would recommend from the bottom of my stomach.   Choose a warm night and sit outside. The view is great as you watch others go past while you graze away on fine food and wine in a fine eatery. Find the time to visit soon.

Hare and Grace - 525 Collins Street, Melbourne City

Finding a good place to eat steak in the heart of Melbourne is not difficult. If you are like me, a creature of habit, once your fav. steak haunt is secured you go back again and again. Trying a new restaurant can be more exciting than feasting at your tried and true eatery. An ex-work colleague (Jackie) and I catch-up regularly for a steak meal and every time we visit the same premises. Time to get adventurous.

Not working in the city and trusting Jackie with my stomach I left the “surprise eat” up to her. I had no idea where we were going but fortunately we were booked at the Hare and Grace. Yes they serve many other dishes outside of steak but when I saw “250 GRM GRAIN FED BLACK PREMIUM ANGUS EYE FILLET, CLARE VALLEY GOLD, SA” (long title small serve) I had to try it. On service I was disappointed by what I saw.

After cooking massive rib eyes at home and dinning on 1kg steaks at other restaurants, to see a palm size meat portion arrive with a tuft of greens even an anorexic rabbit wouldn’t touch, you feel cheated. Then I cut into the meat and took my first mouthful. The meat was divine, perfectly cooked but next time I’ll ask “medium-rare”.  Fries were served in a small terracotta flower pot, novel. I would prefer full size chips but they did provide wasabi to go with the fries on request.

The decor is fresh with a rustic feel. Service is excellent and friendly and wines are decantered on request. There are plenty of sides to go with your meal and dessert to follow. An outdoor area for after work and plenty of quiet window seats for a relaxed meal are all conveniently provided. Hare and Grace is certainly a place you should try. I could find little to complain about and none of it worth mentioning.

Redfire - Karingal Cinema Complex, Karingal

After a night at the cinema a meal or coffee and cake is a nice way to finish off the night. We dropped into Refire which is right beside the cinema complex in Karingal. This restaurant has changed names and hands three times that I know of. This generally says something about the place.  I have eaten here a few times in the past and neither of them have been a good experience. Just read some of the negative comments already posted by others, it’s not just me.

On being seated we were told that some of the food was off service. We asked for beer, pizza and coffee and told that they were still serving that. This is 9pm but a busy and warm Saturday night. Where we sat we were pounded with annoying heavy metal music. This does nothing for digesting food. In fact the music was so bad, though we had ordered, my wife wanted to leave right then. Service was pleasant and before long I had my beer and my wife her coffee. The coffee was undrinkable being bitter with a burnt taste and my beer poured dead flat in the glass. No head and no bubbles??

After not too long, about a dozen heavy metal tunes later, the pizza arrived. It was totally tasteless with slabs of tomatoes on top. My wife couldn’t eat it after just one piece. I was hungry so forced down a few more pieces.  I quickly finished off my flat beer and we paid, complained and left.  Try Nandos or one of the other eateries. Redfire should be called Redface. If I was the owner that’s what I would have after reading all the negative remarks on the link. Time to change hands again?

La Petanque - Main Ridge, Mornington Peninsula

When looking for some where new to lunch or dine on the Mornington Peninsula you never have to look too far. There are so many very good and even high quality feeding stations, almost choking this long stretch of land, choosing is a chore. Once you chore is completed you should be able to enjoy your spoils of choice.

So the wife and I set out on a sojourn to Main Ridge to partake of the culinary pleasures at La Petanque. And yes there is a game of Petanque already setup for you to play should you so desire. Not for me I’m here for the food. On reflection the game may have been more satisfying. La Petanque tout their food as “contemporary French cuisine”. This is all very fine and where price for lunch is not an issues we should indulge from time to time.  Satisfaction and disappointment are two sides of the fine dinning coin. You never know which side is going to come up on a $69 toss.

For our credit card swipe we were served two courses. For me entree and main and the wife main and desert. We shared entree and dessert.  Three “punched-out” scallops (no foot) with a smear of source is a tolerable entree. My main was Lamb which I found just a little chewy but a reasonable portion. Side vegetables were delicious. When the coin landed at the end of the toss disappointment glared. My wife’s “fish” was two tiny strips of whiting.  If the fisheries officers had been present they would have thrown it back in. It was just too smaller serve. Four strips would have made the coin toss unnecessary. Two is gouging.

The wine list is 3” thick, looks like a wedding album and contains what appears to be hundreds of wines. I enjoyed a Stumpy Gully sav. blanc. Lovely florals and a nice full bodied flavour. Dessert of the day was fig. Four small pieces of fig on a biscuit base. The ice cream was French Earl Grey and was delicious. Dessert would be fine for one but we shared.

Service was exquisite and the surroundings delightful though the grounds are crude. None of these you can eat and eating you feel like when strolling back to your car. I glanced at the Petanque balls all ready for a game. I thought “no” I lost at one game today by drawing tails of the pleasure coin. You maybe more luckier in the toss than I. Good luck if you play the game.

Revisit: On a re-visit to La Petanque I was very pleasantly surprised. We had an excellent three course dinner with friends. The food was absolutely delicious and the evening was thoroughly enjoyable. I would recommend you try it for yourself. If you had an experience like ours you are in for a real treat. 

Brown Rice - Edithvale, Victoria

My first memories of Asian food were Chinese. This experience came as a child, can’t remembered what was ordered for me but I’m sure it was nice. Now we can enjoy a variety of Asian foods and cuisine from many different countries. Australia would have to lead the world in the variety, styles of food and countries represent at the table.

Thai restaurants have sprung up everywhere. On the Mornington Peninsula there are plenty to choose from.  In Frankston, on Nepean Highway, Kon Thai would have to be one of the better. To celebrate a family member’s birthday eleven of us visited Brown Rice Thai Restaurant  in Edithvale. For a Monday night it certainly got packed. Either the locals are Thai fanatics, this restaurants serves the best Thai food around or there are no other Thai restaurants nearby. Most at our table elected the banquet. Though the courses were served on large plates each plate was to feed seven.  Lots of vegies and coconut flavoured sources but sadly not a lot of fish, meat, squid or whatever.

Where Thai food should be rich and flavorsome most of the sources were bland. This is westernised Thai.  Food served this way will satisfy most but those seeking a “real” Thai meal will feel letdown. Service was prompt and staff friendly. Street parking is available and the restaurant is BYO. When I visited a restaurant I like to feel that I’m in a foreign country and the eatery has decor to match. Unfortunately I felt I was still in Edithvale. And waiters serving in green T-shirts with big yellow bear’s heads or Nike ticks on the front degrade the whole atmosphere.  Price is reasonable but better value would be had at the local pub.

How to improve on what could be a very nice Thai food house: Improve the quality and the genuineness of foods, waiters appropriately dressed and enhance the decor and surroundings to better represent a Thai restaurant. For all my negativity this is still a very popular restaurant. They must be doing something right. Maybe it’s just me?