Old Salt - Port Melbourne

Old Salt Fish and Chips

On the wishes of my parents in law, we dropped by Port Melbourne to sample the local fish and chips. I picked out Old Salt because of the positive reviews and I wasn’t disappointed.  The service was great, we took about 5 minutes to work out what to order all the while the waiter smiled and said take your time. We ordered an old salt box (1 flake, 2 calamari’s, chips and tartar sauce) and for the lovers box (2 flakes, 2 potato cakes, 2 dim sims, chips and tartar sauce) for $29. Our order came out in 3 plates, 1 flake and chips on each plate with the calamari’s, dim sims and potato cakes divided up. When we finished up, we got a wave goodbye from the staff, a nice send off.

Description of the food

Flake – Fresh, crispy and not to oily

Chips – Crunchy, maybe a little too crunchy on some of the chips

Dim Sims – Standard dim sims not much to say here

Potato cakes – Potato cakes were quite nice, crispy and not to oily.

Parking – Lots of street parking, we ended up parking at coles.

Public transport – Not really sure about public transport here.

Restaurant website - http://www.oldsalt.com.au

Pros

Fresh fish

Crunchy chips

Friendly service

Cons

Taste score

Flake & Chips 8/10

Dim sims 6/10

Potato Cakes 7/10

Service score

9/10

Would I go back? Yes

Nitro Lab - Glen Waverley

Located outside Glen Waverley train station, we were attracted to this shop by the interesting method they use to create their ice creams.

Walking into the shop we saw two "scientists" (actually two girls in white lab coats) procuring an assortment of shakes, waffles and gelato. The setup reminds of high school science lab with beakers and all. Anyway we ordered a milomania gelato, seeing them adding the nitrogen was quite interesting.We got a chocolate filled syringe with our gelato. With an $8 price tag, I don't quite think it's worth it. The chocolate tastes normal, it would of been better if they mixed in the milo into the chocolate as well as sprinkling it on top. But definitely worth a try once, just to see them make it.

Yuzu Cafe & Cuisine - CBD

Yuzu Bar and Café  480 Collins St (enter via Church Lane)

Come to Yuzu on a scoopon deal and was pleasantly surprised, the cafe is quite spacious and looks upper class, the food was quite good for the price. We ordered 4 ramen, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, grilled moreton bay bugs and fried soft shell crab. Altogether this would normally cost $104, only $54 with my scoopon :)

Okonomiyaki – This came out a bit smaller then what I had expected, still not too bad. I’ve yet to find a good authentic okonomiyaki with bonito flakes and pork belly.

Grilled Moreton Bay Bugs – Two bugs fried and the meat grilled with some side salad. We ended with about 4 bite size meat pieces per bug. The taste of the meat and sauce made up for the small serving size.

Takoyaki – 10 pieces of octopus balls, this for me was the second best dish

Fried Soft Shell Crab – One soft shell crab, not as crunchy as I would of liked, a little to soggy once you bite into it.

Wafu beef with miso soup ramen – One of the best ramen I have had. The beef was soft, soup very tasty and the egg was cooked perfectly. The serving was very filling, pretty good for $14. Would definitely come back for the ramen.

Scores

Okonomiyaki – 6.5/10

Grilled Moreton Bay Bugs – 7.5/10

Takoyaki – 7.5/10

Fried Soft Shell Crab – 6/10

Wafu beef with miso soup ramen - 8.5/10

Service score 6.5/10

Parking – CBD parking

Public transport – Any tram that goes pass Collins St

Restaurant website - http://yuzucuisine.com.au/

Pros

Great tasting food, nice atmosphere, reasonable prices

Cons

Can't really think of any

Would I go back? Yes, even without a scoopon.

Pacinos – Flemington

One day, my wife and I were driving back from a long road trip and we were feeling a little peckish. So we dropped into Pacinos and looked for one dish to fill us up. We ended up picking the BBQ pork ribs, which was a great decision, the ribs were amazing. We have since been back several times and on each occasion ordered the pork ribs. On this occasion my father and sister joined us so we also ordered the chorizo pizza. Pacinos is located at 300 Epson Rd Flemington, inside the Showgrounds village.

BBQ pork spare ribs full rack: 4/5

Very tender and juicy, the meat was almost falling off the bone. The beer battered chips were crunchy and fresh, a perfect complement to the ribs. One full rack will easily be enough for 2-3 people.

Chorizo pizza: 2.5/5

For a pizza this was a nice tasting pizza, however the topping look a bit scarce. I would of liked to of seen more chorizos, there were only 2-3 pieces per slice.

 

There is plenty of parking at the showgrounds village or if don’t have a car the 57 tram stops right outside the restaurant.

Pros

Great tasting pork ribs

Good service

Easy parking

Cons

A little bit on the pricy side

Service: 3/5 – Good standard service

Would I go back? Yes

Mook Ji Bar - CBD

Located at 406 Lonsdale St in CBD, this bar always seems to have long queues. My wife had previously been to Mook Ji a few weeks earlier with some of her girlfriends and was raving about the fried chicken. One day after work my wife and I and her cousin decided to have dinner at Mook Ji’s (had to give it a go, supposedly the fried chicken is better than the colonel’s 11 herbs and spices). So we joined the queue and 15mins later we were seated. We were seated next to the large 25kg rice and flour bags (obviously storage space was at a premium here). Anyway we managed to flag down a waitress to take our orders, fried chicken, pork belly and calamari, seafood pancake and lamb soup (can’t remember the proper name). 10mins our pork belly and calamari arrived, followed by the lamb soup, however we soon discovered that we were running out of table space. The tables were a bit on the smaller side, we quickly gobbled down the pork belly and calamari just in time for the seafood pancake. We only managed to finish half the pancake when the fried chicken arrived. With no space on the table we put the chicken on the pancake plate.

Fried chicken 3/5 – Very crunchy, tasty, definitely better than KFC thou not the much meat on the chicken, which was disappointing.

Pork belly and calamari 4/5 – The best dish of the lot, spicy, tasty, lots of flavour and smelt great

Seafood pancake 3/5 – Crunchy, not so much flavour, I ended up mixing in the sauce from the pork belly to give it a bit of hmpf, but still tasted good.

Lamb soup 1/5 (No pic) – Not sure what to make of this one, lacked flavour

Service: 2.5/5 – Only two waitress on the floor for the peak period, they really needed a third person to help (maybe a kitchen hand out to the front?).

Cost: Reasonable, you'd be looking on average between $15-20 for mains and $30+ for stews

Pros:

Great tasting food (except for the lamb)

Good size portions

Cons:

You may have to wait for a table

The tables are quite small

Would I go back? Yes

Danny's@525 - Elsternwick

One Sunday afternoon, my wife and I decided to drop into Danny’s as we were going pass it. There weren’t too many other people, I think we made it before the dinner time peak. We were quickly seated by a friendly waitress. Looking at the menu we decided on New York steak and Israeli Breakfast.
Before I get to the main meals, I have to mention that while we were waiting we were provided with some pita, hommus and chilli sauce. The hommus was great, however the chilli sauce was amazing. My wife wanted to ask for more so she could take it home

New York Steak - 3.5/5
Medium to well done steak, with chips and 2 side salads.
The steak was juicy and cooked as ordered. The chips were crunchy and the salads fresh. You had the option of picking any 2 of 5 salads




Israeli Breakfast: 2.5/5
2 toasts, scrambled eggs, tuna, small salad, olives & pickles and 4 different types of cheeses.
This dish is not for those who are lactose intolerant as my wife is. Needless to say I had the duty of finishing the bulk of the cheeses :(
Nice but nothing outstanding about this dish, I'm not much of a cheese connoisseur so I can't tell you if these were average or outstanding cheeses.

Danny's is located at 525 Glen Huntly Rd Elsternwick, there is adequate street parking or hop on the 67 tram, if you don't have a car.

Service 4/5 – Great service from beginning to end.

Cost: On average $18-30

Pros

Nice tasting food

Very friendly service

Generous portions

Cons

None that I can think of

Would I go back – Yes