Magic City - Camberwell

Name: Magic City

Address: 871-873 Burke Rd
Camberwell 3124 VIC

Phone: (03) 9882 7788

Food: ModOz, Thai
Average price: Entree: $3-18, Mains: $20-32, Dessert: $10-14

Complimentary: Rosemary focaccia with two disks of butter. The rosemary flavoured it nicely but I found it a touch greasy and dry.


We ordered dinner:

Entree: Slow-roasted pork belly with vincotto & apple & sweet potato puree - $19.50


This looked gorgeous on the plate. Ryan found the belly a touch fatty but he enjoyed it overall. He also thought it was a bit warm if meant to be a cold dish, or too cold if it was meant to be a hot dish.

Bean & pasta soup - $12


This was nice but I wish the beans hadn't been pureed though as it was a little unappetising looks wise and a touch grainy. A bit too homey for me though and not enough variety flavour wise - too mushy.

Mains: Pan-fried Atlantic salmon, marinated red onion and a chive & radish salad - $26


I didn't like this dish. The salmon actually tasted 'fishy' which I have never experienced before. The onions were OK, crunchy and tangy, the spinach tasted oily which was off putting and the overall Asian-flavoured watery sauce wasn't that nice.

Duo of duck, confit leg and spice roasted crispy skin breast - $34


Ryan liked the confit leg, as well as the sides, purees and soft vegetable, but found the breast too dry. He also thought it was a bit boring with too much meat and not enough side flavours to cut through. Ryan also thought it was a bit on the cool side temperature-wise.

Dessert: Hot fudge sundae with berries, peanuts honeycomb & salted chocolate sauce - $14


Getting the salty balance right is hard. The chocolate sauce failed, miserably. All I could taste was salt, and harsh salt, not subtle salt. Therefore the chocolate sauce was unusable.
I'm not sure where the fudge was, did they mean the berry coulis?
The cream was a little can-whipped, the ice cream was ok, a bit icy, the honeycomb was lovely and the raspberries (4) and puree gave it some much needed flavour but overall nothing fantastic. At least it was plated nicely.

Creme brulee with pedro ximenez figs - $14


I loved the presentation of this, although I'm not sure why it had an asian theme when the dish was not asian influenced...
The texture of the brulee was really lovely, and the sugar crust was perfect. It was flecked with vanilla seeds which imparted a nice subtle flavour but overall the brulee was loaded with sugar, so much so that towards the end I was knocking back glass after glass as my heart had started racing and I started to get that sugar-overload-saliva filling my mouth - a shame as it really didn't need to be that sweet. It was also completely cold.
In terms of the figs, I had one piece, which took me forever to cut through with my spoon. Couldn't taste the alcohol at all, the dried figs were in a sugar syrup and were quite leathery.

Cost: $119.50 for 2 entrees, 2 mains and 2 desserts.

Service: Great. Waiters were great and the food didn't take too long to come out.

Atmosphere: Casual. The decor is neutral but really tasteful with feature windows and ornate ceilings. When the restaurant started to fill up it did become quite noisy though.


Parking: Ample street parking as well as parking open lots not far away.

Website: http://www.magiccity.com.au/html/index.html

Hours: Tue-Thu 10am-9pm, Fri-Sun 9am-10pm

Would I return: No. Food was average and not cheap.