Kanzaman Lebanese Restaurant

458 - 460 Bridge Rd
Richmond 3121
Ph: (03) 9429 3402

It seems that with more and more posts, I'm apologising for forgetting the dishes that I ate during that meal. It's not because I'm losing my mind, it's just that they're from so long ago that it all gets a bit fuzzier. So let me first apologise for forgetting what a lot of the dishes were.

This meal at Kanzaman was a good three months ago. Kim Anh had suggested this restaurant as it was good Lebanese food at a decent price.

We turned up to the restaurant to find the weirdest front door entrance. The covering in front of the door is bathed is harsh blue light, like those you find in public toilets in the city to stop druggies shooting up. Anyway, once inside, we were greeted by a warm hostess and warm room. Murals aligned the room and gave it a friendly vibe.

From left, we have Henry, Mai, Visal, Lawrence and Kim Anh. As the photographer, I was missing from the photo. But I'm sure regular readers of this blog have seen me splash enough photos of myself on various posts throughout this blog. I'm not adverse to some vanity.


For entrees, we got a host of dishes. There was Hommos, Baba Ghannouj, Falafel, Lahem Bi Ajeen (lamb mince in filo), Halloumi, Makanek (lamb sausages in photo below) and Fatayer (spincah in pastry in photo below).




Some of the entrees really surprised me and turned out to be my favourite dishes of the night. The dips weren't very good, but the falafel was. It was a tad overcooked on the outside but the inside was still fluffy. The sausages were good but nothing spectacular. However, the two pastries and the fried halloumi was sensational. I could have eaten all three dishes alone for my entire meal.

The dish that most caught my eye was the Sultania, which was lamb eye fillets sauteed in pomegranate mollasses. I was expecting this to be extremely interesting. It turned out the pomegranate mollasses added only a touch of acidity to the dish and not much else. It was nice, but as good as I had expected.


The other mains we got of Lamb and Chicken Kebabs, Lamb Curry and Stuffed Zuchinni were adequate, but lacked some flavour I thought. It was a bit bland for my liking. I thought the meat skewers would really pop with the grilled flavours, but didn't eventuate.






In between mains and desserts, the ubiquitous belly dancer turned up to do her routine. According to one of my friends (I forgot who said it), this belly dancer also dances at a few other Lebanese restaurants around Melbourne. For the record, I like the belly dancers, as long as they don't go on forever. She did two high energy songs and people were really getting into it and clapping along and it was fun. Any more and I think it would have gotten annoying.


Finally, desserts of Baklava, Mahalabi and Turkish Delights were a disappointment. The baklava wasn't goo, the Turkish Delight exceedingly sweet, and the Mahalabia rather bland. The desserts at Lebanese restaurants are like those at Chinese restaurants, totally a stereotype of themselves and boring, boring, boring. It's ok if they do them well, a great fried banana is heavenly, as is a wonderful baklava as I have raved on about in many other posts. But when it's stock standard stuff just brought in, it's disappointing.


The service all night was very good. Our hostess was extremely efficient and food arrived in such quick time that I wonder if it's all pre-prepared. I felt very comfortable in the restaurant and it had a good atmosphere.

Food wise, I would come back, and concentrate my eating on the entrees. Those pastries were divinely flaky and light, married beautifully with the filling. The cost of the meal was quite good, coming in around the $40 each with two bottles of wine.

Overall Rating: 14/20, I would go back as some of the entrees were a highlight.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Masterchef - Top 9 to 2, Who Will Win?

Time sure flies. I was intending to blog about Masterchef as it happened but as always, the blogs got fewer and further apart as I never find time to blog. From where we left off in my last post, Tom had just been eliminated in the Top 10. From that point, more contestants left, and then came back, in a reality TV twist that we've come to expect.

Tom, Poh and Justine were lucky enough to come back. I must say that Justine's exits (both times) were a huge shock. The beauty (and drawback) of the show is that each pressure test is judged on that test alone. Past performances did not count. That led to the demise of contestants like Justine, Julie and Chris, some of the strongest consistent performers in the show. However, it also shows that you have to be at the top of your game every time and they failed to do so.

The celebrity cook-offs have been very interesting, seeing how the pros deal with the pressure. The masterclasses have been amazing. I've learnt so much from them and can see how much more food knowledge Gary and George have compared to the contestants and myself. The week in Hong Kong has been some of my favourite episodes in the whole season. Just seeing them in a different environment and having to do unfamiliar things was great.

While the pace of the show was a bit slow in the audition and Top 50 stage, it has picked up more and more. I still hate the endless recaps but the rest of the show makes up for it. They eventually phased out the part of the show where the contestants voted each other out and I loved that. Each person stayed on their own merit in th end. The lack of nastiness and constant bitching has also been a massive drawcard of the show that has seen the whole family enjoy it each night.

I still haven't warmed to host Sarah Wilson, but have grown to really like Gary and George as a combo, and in particular Matt Preston. Somebody give that man his own shows. His descriptions of food have been both insightful and hilarious at the same time. "This isn't wind, this is dragon's breath...Today we are those pirate kings and you are our pirates. We're sending you out there into the dragon's den." He has so much personality that there are Youtube videos devoted to how he eats. And lets not forget "The Cravats".



From the last post, I had picked that Poh would be a dark horse. She has made the final and relished her second chance. I would never have picked Julie would make it in a million years but she's shown herself to be a fighter. Whoever wins, I think they would both be deserving. For the record, I think that if Poh can control her mind and not get all scatter-brained, her inventiveness should see her win.

For the funniest wrap up of the show so far, go and read Helen's post.

Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ

1/235 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000, Australia
Phone: (03) 9662 9445

Another unofficial birthday dinner saw myself and the boys (Kevin, Jacky and Dennis) at Dae Jang Geum in Chinatown. We walked up the stairs to find this absolutely humungous hall with table so sparesely located you could park cars between them. It actually felt too big a space and quite empty and isolated.

Dae Jang Geum is a Korean BBQ restaurant, which means you order a stack load of meat, cook it yourself and gorge until you can't move anymore. We did just that.



We got a Kimchi Pancake as Jacky was curious and never tried one. It was quite good, although I prefer the usual seafood pancake.


The Beef Tartare was also quite good in terms of flavours. But the texture was awful as the meat was still on the verge of being frozen. Even by the end of the night, the beef was still like icicles.


We ordered an array of meats and each was ok without anything really standing out. If you want really good Korean BBQ, go try Hwaro BBQ. The price is about the same but the meat is of a better quality and also cooked over coals.


The service was quite good as far as Asian restaurants go. The staff actually kept cooking the meats for us and requests for things were promptly done. The ambience is a strange feel. The tables are so far apart and the wooden floors make it feel like you're on an island by yourself. The actual food was ok but a tad expensive for the quality I think.

Overall Rating: 13/20, Food is ok with fairly good service.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Persian Flavours

338 Springvale Rd
Forest Hill, 3131
Ph: (03) 9878 3087

Persian Flavours is a tiny takeaway type shop. Nelly organised a dinner there and Kevin, Minh and myself attended.

The food on the menu looked like a cross between Indian and Lebanese type dishes. The waitress/owner turned out to be Chinese when she heard us speaking Cantonese. She told us about how she had opened the restaurant with her husband who is Iranian.

We ordered a variety of dishes, none of which I really remember the proper names of. We started with some fried puffs that contained spinach and cheese, very nice.


There was Butter Chicken, Chicken and Lamb Kebabs, a Lamb Curry with some vegetable that I now forget. The butter chicken was everyone's favourite. The kebabs were nice and smokey. I loved the Garlic Naan as well.


Desserts were some really strong ice cream flavoured with rose water. A bit too pungent for my liking.

Overall, a nice little place providing some different foods. I'm definitely going back and trying out some other dishes.

Overall Rating: 13/20, Good food and great prices.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Horoki - Part 4

19 Liverpool St
Melbourne 3000 VIC
Phone: (03) 9663 2227

Horoki also delivers good food, as I have wrote about previously. Hence, for the first of my unofficial birthday dinners, Jo, Kin, Sey Veng and I decided to go here.

I don't have official birthday dinners anymore as I'm getting old. Here I am looking older and wiser...NOT!


Kin, Sey Veng and myself all with really shiny skin from the extremely strong flash of the camera.


The Octopus with Butter Garlic Sauce is really delicous. I love octopus, and combined with an oozy butter sauce, perfect.


This has to be the best salad in town, the Sashimi Daikon Salad keeps amazing me everytime with the combination of fresh sashimi, marinated daikon, fresh salad, some fish roe, crispy rice strips and crispy seaweed.


The Steak Tartare also is extremely good. Finished with a quail egg, it was so good we had two serves.


The Roast Duck was better this time than last as well. The sauce is still a bit too strong.


The Stewed Pork was quite good, and comforting on a cold night outside.


Cod Roe Butter Noodle is so simple but so good. I wonder what type of noodles they use because I really want to make this myself since it looks so easy.


Lastly, a new dish we hadn't tried before, Crispy Seafood Rice Cake. The waitress had a mixture of cooked seafood and vegetables and then poured it over the crispy rice cakes. The rice cakes absorbed the flavours while still maintaining some crispiness, a great dish.


Horoki also finally has desserts. They used to give you a small but delicious serving of panna cotta for free, but now they have a choice of three desserts. Obviously we get them all. Tiramisu, Panna Cotta with Berries and Creme Brulee are all very good. I go for a second serving of the rich Creme Brulee.






Overall Rating: 15/20, Great food with simple no fuss service.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Vue de Monde - Part 2

Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins St
Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone (03) 9691 3888

When I went to Vue de Monde for the first time, I thought it was the perfect dining experience. I had wanted to go back for a while, and when a friend couldn't make his booking, I gladly accepted his booking and went with Nelly.

The booking was for a Tuesday night and when we first got there, the restaurant was fairly empty. An hour or so later, it was completely filled. The ambience on a Tuesday is a bit different to a weekend. There seemed to be more people there for work functions or at least dining with their work mates. It was still quite rowdy, not serenely quite as you would expect of a top restaurant. I like it with a bit of noise and not eerily silent.

The service is still faultless, from the minute you step through the doors till the moment you leave. The reception lady at Rockpool should take notes from the staff at Vue. We were treated warmly as we entered the room and led straight to our tables. The waiters explained how the menu worked and what options there were. They made suggestions regarding the food and wine.

We opted for 8 courses in the end, which leaves you extremely full. The food is still very good, but the food didn't give me as much "wow" as last time. It could be the dishes as there is a rotation of over 60 dishes I believe, or that I've experienced it before and was hence less surprised.

The amuse bouche of Roti roll with fish cream and vegetables over a tomato consomme was refreshingly light. This was followed by the first course (and I'm going on memory here as it was over two months ago, such is my backlog of posts) of a sandwich of Avocado Jelly, Watermelon and Pumpernickel topped with cured salmon, caviar and sour cream. A side of avocado with some sort of cream finished the dish. Strangely, the watermelon works well with the dish, helping moisten the pumpernickel. It was a nice dish, but not exceptional.


The next dish was what the waiter termed Vue de Monde's "signature dish of sorts". It was the Risotto with King Brown Mushroom and Truffles that I also had the first time. It was still amazingly beautiful in its simplicity and was close to the dish of the night.


We had asked for something with Foie Gras in it and we got a Foie Gras and Witlof Salad. It was very good, the richness of the foie gras balanced by the salad with it's many sweet components such as sultanas and apples and the bitterness of the witlof.


The next dish was a homage to Tetsuya we were told. It was Ocean Trout with Coconut Shell. The trout was cooked slowly in the oven at 60 degrees and finished off with a coconut shell that was burnt and left on the plate to infuse flavour into the fish under the plate lid. You then were suppose to break up the still burning coconut shell and eat it with the fish. As strange as this sounds, it tasted really good and worked well with the fish.


Glenoth Chicken with Mushroom was the next dish. The free range chicken was cooked beautiful and served with a mushroom sacue. Some fried pieces of something (I've forgotten) was wedged together with a chicken mixture. The chicken tasted really flavoursome, much more flavour than normal chicken.


The next dish looked sensational, with elements that worked and some that didn't. The Hare Tasting Plate consisted of a roll of hare jelly encasing a hare mixture, a piece of hare saddle and stuffed tomatoes. The hare jelly didn't taste good, although the mixture inside was nice. The piece of hare by itself was really good, as were the stuffed tomatoes. The beautiful curl is just potatoe. The clam looking thing is potatoe skin (I didn't like it) with a cream.


The now famous Vue Eggnog. There was Prune Eggnog, Pistachio Custard and Chocolate Mousse.


Dessert was sublime, simply a masterpiece of taste and textures. A Pistchio Souffle was served on a bed of light cream sauce. The souffle was so soft and broke apart like clouds when a spoon was dug in. This revealed a soft oozing centre of chocolate. The combination of tastes and various textures and temperatures was thoroughly enjoyed by Nelly and myself, both with sweet tooths.


And finally to finish, some Petit Fours. I loved the Hazelnut Macarons the most, the flavour just kept lingering in my mouth.


Vue de Monde was still a fantastic fine dining experience. The food didn't amaze me as much as last time, but was still extremely good. The service was utterly impeccable, the best service of any restaurant in Melbourne I assert. The atmosphere was still very good, not as good as on Saturday I felt, but still very enjoyable. Overall, I would still come and dine here anytime, money permitting.

Overall Rating: 19/20, A near perfect dining experience with exceptional food and service.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

The Brasserie By Philippe Mouchel - Part 2

Riverside at Crown
Ph: (03) 9292 7808

The lunch deal at The Brasserie is really good value. I had a great meal last time and was looking forward to going again.

A catchup lunch with Visal was the perfect opportunity. We arrived near 12pm and were one of the first customers. We were seated near the high ceiling window overlooking the Yarra, a great view. The weather outside went from sunny to dark skies with 45 degree raindrops and blistering wind all while we were deciding what to order. The glass windows came out of their groove at the bottom and were starting to wobble a lot. After some struggles by the waiters, they temporarily wedged some wooden blocks while moving us to the next table.

All that drama was handled smoothly by the wait staff and provided a bit of excitement for us. Here's Visal sitting calmly before the literal storm where the window looked like it might cave in on her.


I talked Visal into going three courses, and despite her initial fears that she couldn't finish everything, she did. For entrees, she got the Pan Seared Scallops with ginger, chives, cous cous, vegetables and Argan oil. Visal loved it, and I had food envy.


My entree of Spanner Crab Cocktail with eggplante compote and avocado cream sounded better on paper. The crab was nice and there was lots of it, but eggplant compote wasn't good at all and there was so much avocado cream that it was really sickening.


For mains, Visal choose the Gold Band Snapper with eringi mushrom and crushed potatoes. She liked it but said it wasn't amazing. This time it was her turn to have food envy.


My mains of Lamb Rump with capsicum and fennel, olive and anchovy jus was so moist and delicious.


The dish that stole the show though, was one of the side dish. The Oven-roasted vegetables consisted of eggplant and capsicum and was good. But the Sauteed mushrooms with Parisienne gnocchi was amazing. The gnocchi was so addictive and went perfectly with the mushroom.


To finish off the meal, we had the Dessert Tasting Plate. There were many elements to each, all of it very good. There were sorbets, rum baba, panna cotta, semifreddo, chocolate fondants and macarons. A great decadent way to end a great meal.


The atmosphere in The Brasserie is always calm and of casual elegance. Visal and I had a great chat over a very relaxed meal. Service was impeccable and faultless, as it should be at top end restaurant.

Overall Rating: 17/20, A great atmosphere and good, with the lunch special fantastic value for money.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Shine

74-76 Kingsway
Glen Waverley 3150
Ph: (03) 9561 9888

Shine is one of those cafe/restaurant that do every type of cuisine imaginable....badly. I've been to it quite a few times (not of my choosing) and never has it been good. The menu reads well but the reality is overprice badly done food.

As an example, here's some dishes we had at our last visit.

Steak and Mash, how can you go wrong right. Well, you go wrong by cooking a medium steak until it's well done and so chewy that it's barely eatable. And who needs that big a pile of mash?


Seafood Linguini is a gluggy and used a lot of frozen seafood. And who needs a massive ring of oil around the plate?


Moroccan Lamb is drier than sand.


Chicken Parma has this huge bubbly mess of cheese on the top. Again, too much.


Chicken and Avocado on bread sounded safe. Wrong. Chicken pieces are a bit dry but still edible. Avocado, well, it's just avocado, who can you ruin that. Bread is ok too. So what went wrong. well, they stick it all together and pour this disgusting sweet chilli sauce thing over it. Where on the menu does it say there is a sweet chilli sauce.


My opinion is stay away from this place if possible. Service is flaky at best, food is not good and overpriced.

Overall Rating: 9/20, If you really can't find anywhere else, eat here as the food is just edible.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.