Barca

Name: Barca Food & Wine

Location: 1007 High St
Armadale 3143 VIC
Phone: (03) 9822 8515

Website: http://www.barca.com.au/

We dined on a Saturday night at 6:30pm. The street was extremely quiet and there was plenty of street parking.

Atmosphere: 4/5. The style of the restaurant was contemporary and a mixture of browns with gold furnishings. Very clean and well spaced. We sat at a table for two - I had the booth and Ryan had the chair. Both were comfortable. The room was dimly lit with a few lamps and 1 tea light per table. We were the first to arrive, but by 7/7:30 2/3 of the restaurant tables were full - there was an additional dining space upstairs with a fireplace.

Service: 4/5. Very attentive - we were served by 4 different waiters and there was little waiting time between being seated, orders being taken and plates being cleared.

Food: 3/5. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't memorable either - no dish really stood out to me.
Bill: $127 - 2 entrees, 2 mains and 1 dessert platter.
We were given freshly bakes rolls with butter and lemon oil. They were nice.

Entree: Soupe de Jour (mushroom soup with truffle oil) - $12 (3/5)
ROQUEFORT SOUFFLÉ – Twice baked served with a waldorf salad - $16(3/5)

The soup was halfway between a smooth puree and whole mushrooms, so the texture was thick as it was also quite heavy. I could barely taste the truffle oil and have made nicer mushroom soups myself. The portion size though was quite large and I only consumed half before feeling full
Ryan somewhat enjoyed the souffle, I however only had one bite as the souffle was more like a soggy custard/bread - not much flavour either.

Main: BEEF WELLINGTON – Tender beef eye fillet pieces with chopped mushrooms, chick liver pate, wrapped in pastry and served with blackened silverbeet & a red currant jus - $31 (4/5) FISH OF THE DAY - Blue eye fillet with fennel & pea rissotto - $34 (3/5)

Once again the portion size was HUGE. Ryan really enjoyed his beef wellington -the e meat was cut up into chunks and then wrapped in the pastry. There was a tiny amount of silverbeet put on the top.
I originally ordered an eye fillet by accident which they nicely returned and then gave me the Blue eye fillet 10mins later. The waiter did not mention that the risotto had bits of bacon in it - so I was unable to eat much of it. The fish was nicely done - nicely seared on the outside, and soft on the inside. However, due to being unable to eat much of the risotto, there wasn't much flavour.

We also ordered a side of Patata Bravas with Aioli, but they did not bring it or charge for it - which was a blessing as we were too full.

Dessert: DESSERT– a selection of lemon tart, chocolate fondant, steamed rhubarb sponge pudding , mocha brulee, and a Barca bomb $34 (2.5/5)

I shall start with the Barca bomb - it came in a shot glass and consisted of a Redbull sorbet with Jagermeister in the bottom. The sorbet was refreshing and lovely, however the Jagermeister was too strong for me. Ryan downed it in one go and enjoyed it - it was both of our favourites of all the desserts - 3.5/5.

Mocha Brulee: came in a small ramekin with muscat icecream and a cherry on top. It cracked well but the brulee was very grainy. I could not taste the muscat in the icecream. I give it a 3/5.

Rhubarb Sponge Pudding: it consisted of a sponge pudding served with vanilla icecream, custard and rhubarb sauce. This was absolutely putrid to me, I actually gagged. The ice cream was nice though - 1/5.

Chocolate Fondant: served with blackberry coulis and vanilla bean icecream (same as above). This wasn't bad, very cocoa-y, but it wasn't as good as the chocolate pudding being served at McDonald's - that one is better by far - 2.5/5.

Lemon Tart: served with clotted cream. A very average lemon tart, had two small spoonfuls - 2/5.

Overall score: 3.5/5. Whilst the atmosphere, location and service are great, the food was only average compared to its price. I will not be returning to this restaurant again.

Ezard

For Dad's 47th Birthday Gift I treated him and Anthi to dinner at Ezard. Ryan and I had great food and service there the last time we went, so we hoped we would be in for the same this time round. Dad arrived 45mins late so the waiters were a little slow in returning to take our orders.

Details: Ezard

• 187 Flinders Lane
  Melbourne 3000 VIC
• www.ezard.com.au
  

Starters: Anthi had: rice crusted kurobuta pork cheek with spiced apples, yellow bean soy, tamarind and peanuts for $23.50. Dad was extremely hesitant to try it ('Ew, pigs cheek, yuk') but after he tasted it he did a complete 180 and raved about it ('it's like a dessert'). Both Ryan and Anthi also thought it was really lovely.

Dad and I both had: gratinated potato gnocchi, caramelised shallots, pear, walnuts and parmesan cheese crumble for $21.50. Whilst I thought it was decent, dad found it quite bitter, which I thought may have been because the gnocci was gratinated, which also made it quite heavy and bland. There wasn't enough pear for there to be a flavour to cut through the heavy potato and cheese.

Ryan had: open wagyu beef burger with quail egg, onion jam, cresses, smoked tomato and truffle oil mayonnaise for $25.50. In Ryan's words: It was pretty good.Mains: Dad had: The daily special which was a mulloway in a plum sauce (don't remember the details). The fish was really tender as it was steamed and dad enjoyed it.

Anthi had: seven + score wagyu beef two ways, truffle creamed potato, celeriac remoulade and pea puree for $64. The meat was really tender and both Dad and Anthi enjoyed it.

Ryan had: sichuan peppered duck with coconut rice, stir fried witlof, blood plum and ginger dressing for $45.50. As I tried the coconut rice, I can comment and say that it was the most creamy coconut rice I have ever had, almost like rizogalo. Ryan's comments on the duck: It was really nice.

I had: red roasted barossa chicken, pea and mint frtiters, chiang kiang and shallot caramel, roasted garlic foam for $43. I had the largest serving out of all the mains. I was disappointed in my main as it had coriander leaves in it, which I can't stand as I inherited Dad's genetic trait where I have an enzyme that changes the taste of the leaves into a metallic, almost chemical taste on my tongue. So I couldn't really eat enough to comment on it.

Sides: fried potatoes with dukkah salt and lemon yoghurt for $11.50. These were yum, there weren't heavily coated with the dukkah salt, but the lemon yoghurt complemented the potatoes well.

Desserts: Dad and Anthi had: roasted bananas with chocolate cheese and caramel ice cream for $22. They weren't too impressed with this dish. The serving was quite small and compared to the tasting platter we had it didn't compare value wise.

Ryan and I had the dessert tasting plate which had the following: warm quince meringue pie with five spice custard and pistachio icecream, honeycrunch icecream with toasted gingerbread and sugar swirls, tea parfait with beurre bosc pears and pomegranate molasses, bitter sweet dark chocolate torte with macaroon and mandarin sorbet, Jerusalem artichoke and truffle creme brulee, roasted bananas with chocolate cheese and caramel ice cream, and a granny smith apple rice dish for $45.50.

Ok, firstly, the quince pie was decent, the meringue was fairly runny and I couldn't taste the five spice custard.

• The honeycrunch ice cream was yum, but the gingerbread was soggy and not strong in flavour - the sugar swirl was delicious though.
• The tea parfait was my 2nd favourites - the parfait was very refreshing and pleasing, whilst the pear with the pomegranate added a sweet and sour dimension to the dessert.
• The bitter sweet chocolate tart was mine and dad's favourite - the mandarin sorbet was amazing, like eating 10 fresh mandarins, lovely burst of flavour that helped to cut through the rich chocolate macaroon torte.
• The creme brulee was disgusting - couldn't get past the truffle, artichoke flavour in the creme brulee.
  
• The banana dish wasn't really enjoyed by anyone.
• The granny smith rice dish was also a little lackluster.

By this stage we were absolutely stuffed, and couldn't fit all of the desserts in, but we made a fair go of it.
Whilst the food was great, the service was lacking. We had multiple waiters throughout the night, and had dirty dishes left on our tables for much too long. Trying to order dessert, after we received the menus, took around 20mins which was much too long. The menu features much more Asian options, which is a little disappointing as I prefer their mod oz dishes much more.

Food: 4.5/5. The chicken brought the score down for the coriander leaf.

Service: 2.5/5. Really disappointed in the amount of time spent waiting for plates to be cleared and orders to be taken.

Atmosphere: 3/5. The tables are situated a little to closely together, the table hook to hang bags on was a nice touch though. The booths are much nicer and more intimate.