Estivo - Kew

Name: Estivo

Address:
330 High St
Kew 3101 VIC
Phone: (03) 9853 1727

Food: ModOz
Average price: appetiser - $9, entree - $18, main - $30, dessert - $13.
Complimentary: 2 slices of bread each with oil and balsamic and sea salt. The balsamic was really lovely and sweet.


We ordered:

Entrees: Citrus ceviche of Tuna, shaved fennel, dill & pomegranate - $10


This was actually an appetiser but was decently portioned. The citrus was a little too strong and overpowered the palate making the tuna and dill taste a little bitter. The pomegranate added lovely bursts of tart sweetness, I wish there had been a few more gems scattered. The fennel unfortunately didn't come through at all.

Crispy skin pork belly, quince jelly with apple, endive & raisin salad, sherry vinegar - $18


Ryan could not keep his praises in with this dish - there were oohs and ahhs galore. This was his favourite dish.

Mains: Porcini risotto - $24


There were no vegetarian options on the menu, this dish was a side with a main so they increased the portions for me. I'm not sure why they covered it with endive as it was extremely bitter and did not work with the mushrooms. The rice and texture was perfect however I did feel it was slightly bland.

Yearling with porcini risotto, parmesan wafer, truffle jus - $36


Ryan liked this also, he found the meat really tender.

Desserts: Chocolate creme brulee, fresh fig tart, Valrhona sorbet, vincotto syrup - $13


You know it's good when Ryan, who is not a dessert person, is eating it up. The creme brulee was perfect, crisp sweet topping with a luscious creamy chocolate custard underneath. The Valrhona was also divine, rich, deep and velvety. The fig tart was lovely, although I am not a big fig eater, Ryan on the other hand was licking his fingers after shoving it into his mouth. An absolutely lovely dessert, best I have had in a while. Divine!

Cost: $112. 1 appetiser, 1 entree, 2 mains, 1 dessert and 1 beer.

Service: Ok. There was a long wait in between meals. In 1hour we only received our entrees and once we ordered dessert there was a 30min wait for that also. The staff were perfectly polite and accommodating when I asked for a vegetarian option as there were none on the menu.

Atmosphere: Good. The interior was a cool brown with neutral tones and artwork on the walls. There was a staircase but I am not sure if this lead up to more tables as there were only around 30 seats downstairs. There wasn't much noise at all considering the tables were almost full. The lighting was low but not too low.


Parking: Moderate. There is street parking along High St - there wasn't much at 7pm on a Friday night.

Website: None.

Hours: Tue-Fri noon-3.30pm, Tue-Sat 6pm-10.30pm

Would I return: Yes. The food was lovely and it is just down the road for me. I shall definitely be returning.

Vue de monde - Melbourne

Name: Vue de monde

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

Food: Modern French
Average price: Degustation - $100-150 plus $15 for additional courses
Complimentary - Bread rolls offered throughout the night with french butter, salt and pepper.


We ordered the Gastronome menu (there was no menu and I forgot my pad and pen so please excuse the poor details) along with the non-alcoholic drink supplement and received the following:

Amuse bouche: Petit Clair-de-Lune oyster served with seaweed consummé, caviar and grapefruit air- I had tomato consomme with lettuce and avocado
The tomato consomme was tangy and sweet whilst the lettuce and avocado was cold and a little mushy.

Taco with crabmeat, fish roe, applesticks, nutmeg and mint jelly

I do not eat crabmeat - my partner said these were really delicious and were one of his favourite meals of the night.

Ginger martini This was delicious, smooth, sweet ginger with a large olive.

Mushroom Liquid gnocchi with mushrooms and a tarragon emulsion

This was a little bizarre. The gnocchi was almost rubbery and the burst of liquid that filled my mouth wasn't pleasant for me. The mushrooms were a little bland and I wish there had been more emulsion to cut through the heavy earthy flavours.

ChampagneFirst sip brought a huge hit of lemon - didn't like this much.

Thyme studded buffalo ricotta with buffalo milk skin and confit tomato, dehydrated olives, parmesan sticks


The Parmesan sticks were stale which was unfortunate. The flavours were nice, nothing spectacular.

Sparkling lemon verbena

This was delicious, refreshing, sweet, sour.

Butternut pumpkin 4 ways


There was a pumpkin risoni which was lovely, and salty. The butternut ribbons added freshness whilst the butternut balls were quite delicious. I believe the squiggly thing was butternut and yuzu (?) which was interesting whilst the sprigs of thyme complimented beautifully - this was my favourite dish of the night.

Whiting

Ryan enjoyed this - not his favourite but decent.

Hummus with charcoal, peas, dill

This was my 2nd favourite dish of the night. It was actually a cold dish, the charcoal gave it a nice smoky flavour.

Pork four ways

There was pork belly, the sternum meat, apple jelly some sort of pancake. Ryan liked this.

Coral trout, apple ribbons, baby leaks, abalone


This was ok - the apple definitely helped to cut through the heavy tastes. I didn't eat much of it though.

Waygu 4 ways


Ryan's absolute favourite dish. He loved the waygu sirloin and flank steaks. He didn't mind the chequerboard polenta and waygu. There were sticky ribs and a butternut squash filled dome.

Goats curd served with sugared rose petal, rose jelly topped with goats curd ice cream

The sugared rose petal, rose jelly and dust were lovely however I felt it didn't go at all with the goats curd. The sour curd cut right through the sweet rose and completely decimated it.

Kiwi lollypops with raspberry and zabalione

These were ok - didn't care much for the frozen mint jelly coated kiwi - the zabalione was nice though.

Cheesecake aux fruits de la passion

Now this was really lovely. The cheesecake was presented in a clear tube which the waiter removed allowing it to collapse onto the plate. The crumbs were frangipane and the cheesecake was topped with fresh passion fruit. There was also a passion fruit filled with passion fruit souffle on the sidecwhich was ok but I didn't feel it needed it. The cheesecake was creamy and worked beautifully with the passion fruit and crumbs.

Vincotto royale

This was a super fizzy, sweet grape drink with a deep after taste.

Boule de caramel fourre a la mousse de coing


Quince foam set into a caramel sphere with white chocolate cage and frozen white chocolate soil and creme brulee quince
This looked stunning however it was too sweet for me, surprising the fruit didn't cut through the white chocolate enough for me.

Petit fours

Meringue with a shot of passion fruit, carrot and coriander nougat, blood orange jellies and salted caramel chocolate, pineapple lollypop in mint jelly

The meringue was nice but the passion fruit overwhelmed it with its sourness. I couldn't;t eat the nougat because of the coriander but my partner liked it. The jellies were horrible as was the lollipop. And the salted caramel chocolate was perhaps the biggest let down - the runny caramel wasn't salty or sweet, quite bitter.

Chocolates to take home


The hazelnut was nice. The cardamom was by far the best. The milkshake was average and the gingerbread barely tasted like gingerbread at all.

Cost: $560 - $250 each for the meals and $60 for one person for the drinks.

Service: Excellent. Waiters were lovely and our water was always topped up. They even lent a hand to help me down the stairs in my platform heels.

Atmosphere: Ok. The entrance is quite grand but I found the dining floor to be a little too industrial with hanging globes and glasses suspended from the ceiling. The room is white with multicoloured striped chairs. The glasses and crockery are mismatched but lovely.
The room is quite tiny and the kitchen is open to the left allowing full view of the chefs. There was little noise, but it was noisy enough that you didn't feel people were listening in on your conversations.

We dressed up but there were people in smart casual clothes. No jeans though.

Parking: Ample. We were lucky enough to find parking on the one way street otherwise there is a nearby underground car park (you have to pay).

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

Hours: Tue-Fri noon-2pm, Tue-Sat 6.30pm-9pm

Would I return: Maybe - I was a little underwhelmed given all of the raves and that it once had 3 chefs hats. I much prefer the other French degustation option - Jacques Reymonds. I may go back in the future though during another season.

Circa - St Kilda

Name: Circa @ The Prince hotel

Address: 2 Acland
St Kilda 3182 VIC
Phone: (03) 9536 1122

Food: European, French and Modern Australian
Average price: Entree - $25, Main - $43, Dessert - $20
Complimentary: 2 mulit-grain cheese rolls with a small dish of butter.
We ordered:
Complimentary: Choux pastry with goats cheese and walnuts.

The choux pastry was cold and the goats cheese was running out of the bottom like water. Not very nice.

Entrees: Wild rabbit raviolo, braised celery riesling foam, sel saveur - $24.
Ryan didn't like it and the serving was a little small. (It's hard to get specific information out of him other than 'I like it' and 'I don't like it'.

Summer vegetable salad - $21.
This was average, just steamed vegetables with vinegar and cream. Some of the radishes and turnips(?) were quite bitter. They also sprinkled coriander everywhere which was a little annoying as I can't eat coriander (genetic trait passed down, it tastes like a chemical in my mouth).

Mains: slow cooked lamb shoulder brik, rack and sweetbreads, pumpkin, fabales, basil sauce - $46.

Ryan hated the lamb shoulder brik, it was dry and the sweetbreads were weird. The lamb rack was nice though.

Coral trout with avocado puree - $41.

This was originally an entree that they turned into a main for me - I also ended up getting snapper, not coral trout. It would be awesome as an entree but as a main it became a little boring to eat and tasted less great with each bite. The fish was perfectly cooked, a little oily, but still great. The avocado puree was quite sweet and played up the tart sweetness of fruit in the medley of chopped vegetables. Each mouthful had a large number of flavours, with a vinegar tang in each bite. It just got a little too much after 10 mouthfuls.

Complimentary: Lemon Posset with a raspberry.
The raspberry was lovely and fresh whilst the lemon posset was a little runny and grainy.

Desserts: Circa snickers II - $21.
When I ordered this I was thinking of something that definitely contained a lot of chocolate - I was wrong.

The salty caramel layer on the top was really lovely, however I was not in the mood for something cold so the honeycomb ice cream layer didn't really appeal to me and it made the chocolate crumb base a little soggy. The zabagione (not sure what it was exactly) was a lovely accompaniment as it enveloped the flavours in a warm, airy sweetness, however the chocolate foam (?) didn't add anything. It was nice, but not what I expected.

Banana parfait, honeycomb, rum, sesame, chocolate sorbet - $19.
Ryan liked this, especially the honeycomb and rum in the chocolate sorbet.

Cost: $195 - 2 entrees, 2 mains, 2 desserts, 3 bottles of water.

Service: OK. We made our booking through Amex Centurion as Circa is a centurion restaurant which means they have to hold a table until 10am on the day. After I made the initial request Amex called me back to let me know that we would have to leave at 8:30pm as our table had a booking then. I informed them that we wanted to order the degustation (around 9 courses) so we would not be able to leave at that time. Amex told me they would call the restaurant back and let me know if this was possible, if not I would book a different restaurant.
I received an email notifying me that we had a reservation at 6:30pm, the degustation would take 3hours and as we were Centurion members they would no longer need the table back at 8:30. So I thought, great! Circa it is.

Unfortunately when we arrived 15mins late (we called to let them know we would be 15mins late due to unexpected traffic) we were told by the manager that we could not order the degustation as we had to be out by 8:30. I informed him of the email confirmation I had received which he brushed off by informing me that he himself took the reservation and did not agree to let us stay past 8:30.
Obviously I was upset as the whole reason we were there was to order degustation for my partners birthday, if I had known we would have less than 2hours to eat I would have booked somewhere else. I rang Centurion when I arrived home to find out how the mistake happened. It turns out that the second time the Amex representative called he spoke to a different person who obviously did not pass on the information to the manager which is why we were asked to leave by 8:30 rather than given a table which would allow us to order the degustation.

To top it off we were asked what we would like to drink, we responded water as usual, to which the waitress asked whether we wanted still or sparkling. In most restaurants, still means tap water which is offered at no extra charge (Melbourne has awesome drinking water so almost everyone drinks straight from their tap). They brought bottled water which we assumed would be free of charge as they did not offer tap. Right at the end of the evening the table next to us requested water which the same waitress responded 'still, sparkling or TAP'. We then realised that we would probably be charged for the bottled water (which they continued to top up without asking). The bottled water ended up costing $18, a little annoying as we wanted tap water which is free but was not offered to us.

Atmosphere: The decor was lovely, although I'm not too sure about the 'stage-like' lighting that was on rails across the ceiling. The black and pink gauze gave the room a whimsical feel whilst the cane lights and pink peonies were really romantic. It is a very small room with white leather booths and large circular tables.

We went at 6:30 and it didn't start to fill up until 9pm. While we were there the noise was minimal but once everyone started arriving it started to get quite noisy. The vibe was a little 'off' - like the room is full of 'people on first dates' weird.

The restaurant is located within The Prince hotel, so do not wear jeans or dress casual as the restaurant mimics the hotels trendy but upmarket vibe.

Parking: Not good. It all depends on when you go as street parking gets taken up very quickly, and most have hour restrictions. The Prince hotel has car parking but the spaces are really tiny and hard to get out of.

Website: www.circa.com.au

Hours: Sun-Fri 7am-11am, noon-3pm
daily 6.30pm-10.30pm

Would I return: No. Food wasn't good enough to warrant a return, let alone the service.

Bistro Guillaume - Southbank

Name: Bistro Guillaume

Address: 8 Whiteman St
Southbank 3006 VIC
Phone: (03) 9693 3888

Food: French
Average price: Entree - $22, Mains - $35, Desserts - $18.
Complimentary: 1 baguette slice for each person with a disk of butter for 3 people that had a sprinkling of fleur de sel (?salt).

We ordered:
Entree: Traditional Onion soup - $16.


Dad and I ordered this and both of us didn't like it. Perhaps it is because we are used to Australianised onion soups we found the dish overly sweet with a weird deepness, perhaps a gravy or sauce? I didn't much like the texture either; I only had a few spoonfuls.

Freshly shucked oysters with shallots and red wine vinegar - $3.50 each.


Anthie ordered these, and Ryan who had never had an oyster before, absolutely loved these.

Chicken & duck liver parfait with pear, ginger chutney & toasted sourdough - $25.
Doris ordered this and cleaned the plate.

Hunter Valley snails with beurre persile - $21 per 1/2 dozen.

Ryan and his dad ordered these and ate them all.

Mains: Berkshire pork cutlet with pommes croquettes and sauce charcutiere - $40.
Ryan absolutely loved the pommes croquettes, and thought the pork was good too.

Duck confit - $38.

Doris had this and liked it.

Bistro Guillaume Fish & Chips - whole whiting with Pont- Neuf and beurre maitre d'hotel - $45.

This looks quite impressive, Louis enjoyed it.

John Dory with pea puree, asparagus - $39.
The fish was seared and salted, which contrasted well to the heavy sweetness of the pea puree and crispness of the asparugus. It was quite nice but got a bit boring.

Risotto with field mushrooms & Reggiano parmesan - $25.
Anthie and dad ordered this, and although the consistency and flavours were nice, it was oversalted.

Desserts: Chocolate Marquise with pistachio ice cream - $20.
Doris and Anthie ordered this and absolutely loved it. The chocolate marquise was like velvet. It also had a raspberry reduction.

Trio of ice creams - $18.

Louis ordered this - it was a trio of chocolate, pistachio and vanilla ice creams.
Poire Belle Helene - $18.
I shared this with Ryan, which was a mistake as it is definitely not enough for two. It is a poached pear, with vanilla bean ice cream and a dark chocolate sauce - classic combination. We didn't get much of the sauce though as everyone else of the table poured it over their own desserts.

Cost: $448 - 6 entrees, 6 mains, 4 desserts - unfortunately there is a ridiculous 10% surcharge on Sundays and Public Holidays.

Service: Great. We didn' really notice the waiters (most of whom had french accents). Our water was topped, our plates cleared without interruption. They were also quite knowledgable about the menu.

Atmosphere: The restaurant is located within the Crown Complex so it feels quite luxurious and upmarket. The interior is gorgeous, large billowing fabric lights take center stage to an otherwise muted colour scheme. Unfortunately the chairs are a little uncomfortable.

It was fairly empty, but there was little noise also. At one instance a light bulb exploded and shattered over a diners seat, who luckliy had taken a bathroom break when it happened, the waiters quickly cleaned it up and replaced her chair by the time she had returned.

Parking: Normally ample as it is within the Crown Complex which has an abundance of parking, unfortunately for us today it was full but we parked in another parking complex in Southbank.

Website: www.bistroguillaume.com.au

Hours: Sat-Sun 8am-11.30am
daily noon-11pm

Would I return: No. I didn't think the food was anything special considering the great reviews.