The Brasserie by Philippe Mouchel

I've been here 3 times now, and have always been happy with the food.

My first time at the Brasserie was a very enjoyable experience. Free valet parking and we arrived at about 1pm. There were only one other couple having lunch and there were more than 6 waiters, so we were pampered with attention.

The restaurant is well organize and faces the river. There is an upstairs section with private dining option and there is a well appointed bathroom.

We opted for the lunch special... why wouldn't you? 45 dollars for 3 dishes and a side, yes please!!

The view out into the river.

The restaurant.

Bread with dukka, strange choice for a french restaurant. Where is my butter???

Spanish Jamon with toast and fig salad. The jamon is twisted like a pretty flower :)

5/10

Escargot in tomato fondue, garlic and parsley butter, bread croutons

6/10

Barossa Valley chicken fricassée piperade
compote of capsicum, tomato, olives and Serrano ham

Silver served and beautiful presentation.

6/10

Waygu Cheek with porterhouse steak.

The steak was fine, but the red wine reduction was sooooo bitter. Kinda ruins the meat.

4/10

Dessert tasting plate

Raspberry sorbet, Pistachio sorbet
Rum baba
Chocolate tart
macaroons
strawberry cheesecake
And some sort of nutty cake.

All were very well made, and well presented. But tastes just like I would expect them to taste. Nothing special, and nothing was made with attention to detail

6/10

Overall, the food were all good but not brilliant. However considering the view, the service, the price and the valet parking, it was very enjoyable indeed.

Koko

I've been to Koko three times now, mainly because they used to have great valued lunch specials and free valet parking. This was my first time with the 34.5 dollar lunch special for 3 courses and soup & rice. The room was beautiful, the center piece of the pond is a wonderful addition to an already nice room.

We had to step over these rocks to get to the table. It gave a sense of occasion.

A beef wrap thingy for entree, I think it was nice, but i don't actually remember exactly what it tastes like.

Teppanyaki cooked Yabbis, very tender and well cooked.

Patagonian tooth fish, a flaky and tender fish. I asked the waiter what the fish was and whether it was good before i ordered it, and he stared at me and said: " ummm... well, of course it's nice!!!! hahaha"

Lamb or Beef? oh who knows. it was tasty.

Sorry for the lack of photos and the lack of details, but it's been a while since that visit. But I can tell you that it's a great place to go for the view and the decor. Although the food is good, it's much too expensive to pay full price, get a lunch special. The teppanyaki is also good, but once again, not outstanding.

The Press Club

Press Club: lots of everything. lots of food, lots of people, lots of noise.

The decor was dark and clean, everyone was crammed in like sardines. It doesn't look like a great working environment for the staff, dodging and weaving through the crowds.

The plate was dirty!!!! and the cutlery was from K-mart and old. Not impressed.

Menu was on an A4 piece of paper. A lunch there is a choice between ordering a la carte for 3 dishes or the kerasma meal, which is a shared menu of about 14 dishes. Kerasma it is!!!

Olive bread with olive oil and volcanic salt

Marinated cabbage, cucumber and celery

Olives

Octopus

Salmon

Smoked ham

the ham was great 6/10

Saganaki Martini

Interesting flavour in the shot, I actually don't know what was in it. But it was lemony and herby. hehehe and the cheese was perfect and it tasted like meat.

7/10

school prawns served with a spiced honey sauce. (i think it was made from honey, lemon, lemongrass, ginger)

the prawns were very crunchy but easily digestable, even the shells are wondefully pastry like.

8/10

A selection of mains and dips.

Salad

Kipler potatos

Chicken

Pan fried salmon

Pickled fennel

The quality of all the food is great, but the only interesting thing here was the fennel, and i asked for another plate!

5/10

Dessert

Don't remember what the first one is. Greek donut thingy.

Cherry reduction

Baclava

Chocolate tarts

Everything is well made and so so sweat!

7/10

The Baclava was the best I've had, works well with the cherry reduction.

8/10

I love these.

Some one tell me what they're called.

It's like a biting into a warm ball of goodness. I like chewy dough. :)

8/10

Dong Lai Shun in Hong Kong

This was one of the many restaurants I went to in Hong Kong, it was in the hotel I was staying in, the Royal Garden. The outside of the hotel looks shabby and old but the inside is amazing, It's actually like two buildings stacked on top of each other, there are two lobbies, the photo below shows the lobby on the top half, with the hotel rooms around the edge.

The atrium on the top half of the building.

This restaurant is actually a franchise from Beijing and specializes in northern Chinese food at Chinese hot pot.

The restaurant has great decor, and the staff is so professional and fast. I have to say, no one can run restaurants better than the Chinese. We had a waiter especially for our table, who was just so attentive.

The set was clean and the linen was well pressed. Two well weighted chopsticks and a heavy silver spoon.

Thousand year eggs. Creamy aromatic center with the smoky egg white.

7/10

Lamb terrines. Surprisingly tasteless, but excellent texture of the lamb and jelly.

5/10

Some sort of fish/lobster soup. The soup was just wonderful. One of the best soups i've ever had, just creamy and so very aromatic!

9/10

The vegetarian stew was wonderful again, these place is so good at making soup and stews, I don't know how they get so much flavour in to the soup.

9/10

Lobster and crab cluster on sculpture of a swan carved out of turnip.

Beautiful to look at but just so boring to eat!! haha

5/10

Lamb in pumpkin. The pumpkin comes in whole and baked, and the waiter cut open the pumpkin in front of your face revealing the meat inside or steaming and looking wonderful. :)

The meat was tender and just a little spicy, you'll find all the classic lamb spices in this dish, cumin, chilli, a tiny bit of mint etc. and the pumpkin is completely mushy and eatable. Just a magnificent dish.

8/10

Tea and goji berry jelly desset.

5/10

Fried pumpkin cake with pineapple.

6/10

Sesame centered yuan xiao. soft, chewy and just a hint of sweatness. Beautiful

8/10

A wonderful experience at this restaurant. and it only cost about 50 dollars a person for 12 dishes. I LOVE HONG KONG!!!

Cafe Vue 401

Finally came to the 'new' Cafe Vue at 401 St Kilda Road. I've never been to this side of town before and there are actually a few little cafes and restaurants around the area. Cafe Vue is surprisingly large, which a big entrance way that opens up to a eating space and the counter. Ordering is confusing, there is no one to greet you at the entrance, and I had to wait 10 minutes for a table, which I eventually found myself with no help from the busy and disinterested staff.

Nice clean decor... a bit too bland and boring though

Excellent selection of pretty cakes, ranging from 3 to 5 dollars. Good value considering the quality.

Lots of Macaroons, very large size compared to what I've used to. 12 dollars for 6

The open kitchen and the wine collection, very large for a cafe

The cake bar.

The menu was simple and most of the food are around 10. many dishes sound much more interesting than your usual cafe food.

Scotch quail eggs with salad. Only $3.50!!! bargain!!!

quite tasty.

5/10

Wagyu burger with fries.

Very nice meat and burger buns. but still just a burger

5/10

Custard slice

so so creamy and rich!

7/10

Opera

The layers are very impressive

6/10

Overall, a decent experience considering the quality of the food and the price. 24 dollar for an entree, main and two desserts.

Lung King Heen. Hong Kong

Hong Kong was my stopover from Melbourne(Australia) to Europe. Stayed over for one night, and boy did we have some good food.

I went on the internet 3 hours before boarding our plane and got hold the most highly ranked

restaurant in town. The only 3 star place: Lung King Heen.

It's Chinese restaurant focused on Cantonese cuisine. It's in the Four seasons hotel in the world trade center complex.

Almost didn't get let into the door because they had a strict dress policy and i was wearing short.

The view was great, the place overlooked Kowloon and it was all very dramatic. Service was impeccable, it was the type of service that were there when you need them but invisible

otherwise.

The plates were very minimalist and beautiful, silver edged. Silver cutlery but only one set of chopstick for some reason.

a set of 3 different chilli sauces. all were very intense and spicy. the last one was beautifully smoky and had a crunch from the chargrilled chillis

sharkfin soup with vegetables.

Very light, more of a palate cleanser.

7/10

Chargrilled hot chilli with blackbean chilli sauce. very simple dish but very impressive. The blackbean chilli sauce give the initial hit, and then the chilli provides the punch to the back of the tongue after about 20 seconds. once again, a simple dish layered with flavours

8/10

Smoked and caramelized eel.

This is the most amazing piece of fish i've ever had. I've never had eel so tender and juicy before and especially with a light crust of caramel on top and soaking in it's own natural juice. The sweetness starts first with a hint of spice and leaves you with a fascinating hint of smoke. So many layers of flavours.

10/10

Xiao Long Bao. Wonderful idea of putting them in individual baskets. Tastes great but a far cry from the classics in Shanghai.

7/10

Lobster and Truffles dumplings. I could see the truffles but couldn't taste it, a bit of a waste.

6/10

streamed eggs with caviar.

Seemingly simple dish but difficult to make. The eggs are layered like a cake, whites on top and bottom, yolk in centre. The cake is make from thin strips of egg that's been stacked on top of one another. not sure how they created that effect. But it made for fluffy eggs that matched well with the strong fish eggs :)

8/10

Some sort of strange mushroom broth. I remember it to be mild, slippery and very tender.

8/10

Frog legs stir fries.

Boring but well made. Typical XO sauce

4/10

Lobster and salmon cream pie.

The pastry was just amazing, but the filling was something else. The pie were tiny but actually had two layers of filling. the outer filling is salmon and lobster meats, while there is a creamy saucy centre. Just a divine concoction of concentrated salmon cream that burst out as you bite into it. It very light and well handled dish.

8/10

Abalone soup background, chrythanthemum tea foreground.

excellent soup, but can't remember what it tastes like.

streamed bread for the pockets.

tea tray with the view of Kowloon in the background

Black sesame cream center with green tea pastry.

7/10

Fantastic egg tarts. Center was sooooo creamy that it flowed out as you bite into it.

8/10

jelly: almond, mango and cream layered on top of one another. Tasty but nothing new here.

5/10

Boring desserts

3/10

Doggie bag