Overall Restaurant List

After 60 Restaurants and just under $7,500 spent i have finally completed my list. Here is my overall ranking. Except for the last 3 restaurants, i would fully recommend going to all of these even those ranked on the low end. However these are my opinions based on my overall experience incorporating food, service and drinks.

1	Vue Du Monde
2	Jacques Reymond
3	MoMo
4	Verge
5	Attica
6	Cutler & Co
7	Flower Drum
8	Grossi Florentino
9	The Point
10	MoVida
11	Circa The Prince
12	Donovans
13	Stokehouse
14	Ezard
15	Matteo's
16	Pearl
17	Café Di Stasio
18	Rockpool
19	Bistro Vue
20	Press Club
21	Golden Fields
22	Mercer's
23	Embrasse
24	Longrain
25	Cumulus Inc
26	Bistro Guillaume
27	Cecconi's
28	Maze
29	PM24
30	Shoya
31	Koots Salle a Manger
32	MoVida Aqui
33	Yu-u
34	Sarti
35	Taxi
36	David's
37	Comme Kitchen
38	Tempura Hajime
39	Church St. Enoteca
40	Spice Temple
41	The Grand
42	Bacash
43	The Italian
44	Sapore
45	Coda
46	Centonove
47	Esposito
48	Cicciolina
49	Gil's Diner
50	Il Bacaro
51	Paladarr
52	Maha
53	Abla's
54	Livingroom
55	Ladro
56	Estivo
57	Balzari
58	Becco
59	Melbourne Wine Room
60	Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons

Celebrity / Chef Sitings

Just a few of the celebrities and chef that i saw, met or spoke to during my tour of the restaurants.

• Robbie Keane (Former Ireland Soccer Captain)
• David Beckham
• Neil Perry (Rockpool)
• Shannon Bennett (Vue Du Monde)
• Stephen Mercer (Mercer's)
• George Calombaris (Press Club)
• Ben Shewry (Attica)
• Jake Nicolsen (Circa The Prince)

Best Petit Fours

The little bit extra after the meal to finish off a memorable meal with some sweet and delicious as the final thought on the restaurant.

1. Vue Du Monde - Lemon Sherbet Jelly, Peppermint Marshmallow, Crumbed Ice Cream and Lamington with Cherry Jel
2. Jacques Reymond - Churros Royale with dark chocolate sauce, hazelnut fudge, fruit jelly, a crisp pistachio and lime macaroon and praline truffle
3. Attica - Pukeko Eggs (White Chocolate eggs filled with salted caramel)
4. Cutler & Co. - Chocolate Fudge with black salt
5. Vue Du Monde - White Chocolate and Coconut balls
6. Cicciolina - Chocolate, Almond and Orange Truffle
7. Maze - White Chocolate filled with Strawberry Ice Cream
8. Embrasse - Salted Dark Caramel
9. MoMo - Florentine, Turkish Delight and Walnut bread with coffee mousse
10. PM24 - Strawberry French Marshmallow
Honorable Mention:- Candy Corn

Best Degustation Menus

The best combination of dishes and expertise in matching and following on with dishes and obviously the quality of the food itself.

1. Jacques Reymond
2. Vue Du Monde
3. MoMo
4. Verge
5. Grossi Florentino
6. Flower Drum
7. Attica
8. Ezard
9. Matteo's
10. Mercer's

Best Service

A secondary part of the overall experience is the service. Great food is one thing but if it is ot served efficiently with a smile that could be the thing you remember rather than how good the food was. The best service and wait staff i experienced in my list. A combination of both quality and expertise at job and also the ability to effectively engage clientele.

1. Vue Du Monde
2. Jacques Reymond
3. Attica
4. MoMo
5. Bistro Guillaume
6. Grossi Florentino
7. Flower Drum
8. Circa the Prince
9. Ezard
10. Cutler & Co.

Top 10 Sharing Food Restaurants

The best restaurants for going with a group of friends and sharing dishes. I would be more than happy to the top 7 with a big group again.

1. MoVida / MoVida Aqui
2. Press Club
3. Golden Fields
4. Longrain
5. Cumulus Inc.
6. David's
7. Spice Temple
8. Paladarr
9. Coda
10. Abla's

Top 10 Deserts

List Number 3 consists of the Top 10 Deserts

1. Vue Du Monde - Chocolate Souffle
2. Bistro Guillaume - Raspberry Macaroon
3. Vue Du Monde - Deconstructed Lemon Meringue Pie
4. Cutler & Co. - Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich, Vanilla Parfait and Salted Caramel
5. PM24 - Pistachio Souffle
6. Embrasse - Forest Scene
7. Attica - Franz Josef
8. Rockpool - Choc Jaffa Mousse
9. Comme - White Chocolate Mousse with salted caramel in a white chocolate cylinder served with mandarin ice cream and cocoa soil
10. Cicciolina - Peanut, Popcorn and Toffee clusters with salted caramel ice cream and Valrhona chocolate sauce
Honorable Mentions:-

• Coda - Raspberry Parfait with chocolate ball, white chocolate mousse and caramelised almonds
• Donovan's - Chocolate and Hazelnut Ice Cream Bombe Alaska
• Maze - Maze 'Lamington'
• Circa The Prince - Queen of Puddings
• Stokehouse - Ice Cream Bombe

Top 10 Main Courses

List Number 2 is on to the main courses.

1. MoMo - Duck Bisteeya with lime and cabbage salad with a side of whipped cream potatoes with french butter and pine nuts.
2. Vue Du Monde - Wagyu beef, chestnut, wild garlic and cherry
3. Jacques Reymond - Rabbit, Crispy Squid, spice walnuts, compressed apple and sherry vinaigrette
4. Verge - Dory with mustard seeds and lotus roots
5. Jacques Reymond - Wagyu beef, black truffle, ketchup sorbet and egg white omelet
6. Grossi Florentino - Lobster ravioli, pea puree, caviar and burnt butter sauce
7. Cutler & Co. - Slow roasted chicken breast, pancetta, peas, lettuce and pine nuts
8. Flower Drum - Wagyu beef with Szechuan sauce, Chinese vegetables with fried rice
9. Koots Salle a Manger - Rabbit Saddle, grilled polenta, black trumpet mushroom and fresh fig.
10. Donovan's- Chicken and Mushroom Pie
Honorable Mentions:-

• Flower Drum - Peking Duck
• Longrain - Egg Net filled with pork, prawns, peanuts with caramelised coconut with cucumber relish
• Grossi Florentino - Wagyu rump cap on a bed of diced potato, pickled veal tongue, salsa verde and fennel soil
• Mercer's - Herb crusted beef tenderloin with mini sliced vegetables with ox cheek and fennel sausage with red wine jus.
• PM24 - Malawi rotisserie chicken with roast vegetables.
• Ezard - Szechuan duck with chili and oyster sauce on a bed of coconut cream rice
• Verge - Pressed duck, melon, turnip, radishes and olive oil broth

Top 10 Entrees

With the list finally complete i will be running through some of my highlights from the list with a series of Top 10 lists over the next few days culminating in the overall list and then a list of restaurants i still want to try in 2012.

First of all is a list of my top 10 favourite entree / amuse bouche courses.

1. Vue Du Monde - Marron Tail, Brown Butter Emulsion and Beef Tongue Sandwich
2. Attica - Meat from Pearl Oyster
3. Jacques Reymond - Pork in Masterstock, fresh paperdelle with wasabi espuna and ponzu juices
4. Ezard - Crab Dumplings in a Tom Kha Broth with salmon roe
5. Golden Fields - Lobster Roll
6. Vue Du Monde - Pine Mushrooms, Walnuts, Bird's Cress and Cona Infusion
7. Circa the Prince - Chestnut Soup, Ham Hock and artichoke chips
8. Jacques Reymond - Tea Smoked Chicken and watercress soup, potato foam and tempura wakame oyster
9. Spice Temple - Caramelised Pork Spare Ribs
10. Cutler & Co. - Crayfish, Serrano Ham, Watercress Puree and Compressed apple.
Honourable mentions:-

• Mercer's - Salmon and Crab Roll
• Vue Du Monde - Crispy Eel, White Chocolate & Caviar
• MoVida Aqui - Grilled Calamari Sandwich
• MoVida - Bomba

Shoya

19th November 2011

The final restaurant has arrived and was completed with a trip to Shoya on a Monday night. A multi floor restaurant with different sections within the restaurant offering different eating and entertainment option. I was shown to my seat at the Sushi bar where i had a view of the chefs as they prepared the fish.

Reasonable dark with a heavy wood theme and calligraphy on the wall. After being seated i was offered a drink which i chose Sapporo and then had a run through of the menus. There was a degustation menu with several different options including a tasting option where u selected your own menu from the degustation options and the a la carte menu.

I went for the Chef's Omakase $120 option. Offering 12 different courses it was a long procession of food that was explained in great detail and in respectful and quiet tones by the waiting staff (except for desert).

We started off with a Salmon Carpaccio that was amazingly thinly sliced and cured served with salmon roe, black truffle, sour plum sauce and Wasabi mousse. Excellent combos of flavours and textures and a great opener.

The next dish was Kingyo. Served on a spoon it was one bit of chicken mince with plum and a sweet glace. Good flavours and good presentation and served very hot.

The next dish was also served in an interesting manner in an oyster shell and consisted of diced awabi and combined with monk fish liver and topped with home made cream cheese. The fish and livers was rich and tasty and contrasted well by the soft cream cheese.

The next 2 dishes were too of the most elaborately presented dish i have seen. The first being the Hatching Ocean egg. First a plate was put down with a salt holder that was for the egg. Then a wooden box was brought out with hay and a egg inside that was taken out with the waiter putting on white gloves to handle the food and placed on the salt holder. The taste was also excellent as inside the cracked egg was a steamed savoury egg custard with black truffle, spinach puree and a small piece of tempura scampi.

The next dish took it up another level with the Assortment of sashimi course. A square bowl filled with ice had a big glass bowl on top at a 45 degree angle filled with delicate, thinly sliced fish and vegetables. The fish was of sensational quality and the soy sauce and fresh wasabi was an excellent addition.

Moving on to the next course was the start of the more substantial course with a beef spinach roll. An ox tongue wrapped with spinach souffle and served with beans and pink peppercorn. The beef was very good and worked well with the light but flavourful spinach. (although this dish was difficult to eat with chopsticks).

The next dish was proclaimed as the waiter's favourite and consisted of a whole spider crab leg with half of the leg exposed and deep fried in tempura batter and the other half with the shell still attached that required breaking. A light and delicious tempura batter and beautiful crab meat inside it was a very quality dish.

After the crab leg we had a dish that was not on the original menu and was a palate cleanser of Japanese sorbet infused with bitter orange and topped with caviar. It did indeed clean the palate and itself had a great flavour of orange that did not overpower.

The next dish was a soup of snapper and thin rice noodles with salmon roe with the snapper broth poured at the table. Rich decadent and full of flavour it was a great dish.

The final 3 savoury items on the menu came out together with a medium rare Wagyu rib eye steak (although it was a bit closer to rare than would be perfectly cooked) and dressed with black truffle, shitake miso sauce and an egg quiche. This was served with mixed rice and a miso soup. The flavours of the beef and nutty black truffle and the sauce worked together well. Not so sure about the quiche and the rice was fluffy and perfectly cooked and had real ingredients and flavour. Miso soup is not really my thing but this was pleasing and didn't have a bitter overpowering fish stock flavour of other soups.

The final item was the desert plate. Featuring 3 different deserts but surprisingly not featuring the flowery and elaborate descriptions of previous courses i was left to guess the exact desert included. A black sesame mousse with green tea powder, chocolate cake topped with a chocolate mousse and a cheesecake with a flavour i couldn't put my finger one but was still very decent. Good flavours although nothing to rival the elaborate cooking and presentation of the savoury dishes.

Overall this restaurant was the best Japanese place i have visited and favourite Japanese restaurant in Melbourne. The presentation of the dishes and quality service was top notch with my preference against Japanese food keeping this restaurant from ranking highly in my rankings but good enough for the top half. If you love Japanese food then this place would definitely be for you. Although the food was not cheap the amount of courses and quality of the fish and dishes was evident throughout and combined with the skill of the chef it led to a memorable evening and a good way to finish my list.

Bonus Item - Rock pool Part 2

13th December 2011

As Christmas approaches i received an invitation to a fund manager Christmas lunch with Zurich at Rockpool for both me and Greg.

Having arrived at the main reception area for Rockpool, we were shown through to a private section of the restaurant with 2 long tables. On each place was the menu for our lunch. As we had a specially booked group, we were given a choice of 4 entrees, 3 mains and 4 deserts rather than the full menu. We also were offered the option of tea, coffee and Candy Corn at the end.

After much deliberation, i decided to ignore the voice telling me to not have a meat dish followed by another meat dish and went for a starter of Wagyu Bolognaise with hand cut fettuccine. Velvety smooth pasta and a rich bolognaise with quality meat and covered in freshly shaved Parmesan.

My main course was a Slow roasted sirloin with modern Bearnaise sauce. Combined with sides of Potato and Cabbage gratin, mixed greens and salad and a selection of sauces. The meat was perfectly cooked and beautifully pink and the Bearnaise was great. The sides were also top quality with the potato and cabbage gratin of superb quality with a crisp crust on top.

For desert we had a dark chocolate pudding with chocolate sorbet. A dark chocolate pastry shell with a dark chocolate mousse like pudding and a crisp chocolate top that was topped with some salt and on the side a scoop of rich chocolate sorbet sitting on top of chocolate crumbs. The contrast of salt and sweet chocolate was incredible and the flavours were outstanding. Whilst people rave about the fresh produce and entrees and mains, it has been the two deserts i have had at Rockpool that have blown me away.

After that i finished with a pot of tea. Served in a clear tea pot and cup it was pretty cool and the tea was good. This was also combined with a few glasses filled with Candy Corn. Soft and a nice caramel outside it was it was amazing popcorn.

Overall was extremely happy to give Rockpool a second chance, with the wine flowing and quality food. Thank you to Joe and the Zurich team for the invite and Neil Perry (who was at Rockpool that day) for the quality restaurant and food. A great way to celebrate Christmas.

Longrain

10th December 2011

On a Saturday night i headed into the city to complete the penultimate item on my list and had dinner at Longrain. Heading in at 6pm i was expecting a wait in the queue for a later time but to my surprise (and some of the staff) the restaurant was only half full although it would still be almost full by 7pm. Moving into a dark, dimly lit dining room i was greeted by pleasant staff and invited to take a seat at the bar (although the long share tables were free). Part restaurant and part club and cocktail bar space, i was greeted with three menus as i sat down - a one page specials menu, a 2 page regular dinner menu and an extensive cocktail and drinks menu.

Looking through the drinks list i settled on a cocktail called Rose Porteous. A very Asian inspired cocktail with smashed watermelon and some herbs. It had good flavours and wasn't ridiculously potent.

For the food i decided on 2 main course dishes and the waiter suggested that i have half serves of these dishes. Normally i would not be phased by the large portions but went with his advise. I was reasonably glad i did as the portion sizes were very substantial (even the half serve) and i definitely wouldn't have had room for desert. On a small note the second main course came out before i had finished the first which was a little disappointing but it did not get too cold before i moved on to it.

The first course i had was the Egg Net. Cooked egg woven into the shape of a net and filled completely with a mix of bamboo shoots, pork, plump prawns, peanuts and chewy delicious caramelised coconut with a reasonable but not overpowering hit of chili and a cucumber relish to cool it off. Bold flavours, ample portion size and quality ingredients this was a winner.

The next up was the Wagyu beef stir fried with snake beans & caramelised chili. Big flat pieces of stir fried beef with a thick sauce and a very decent chili hit and served with a side of fluffy white rice. Quality ingredients and cooking.

I also had a second cocktail with this course which was a Turkish Martini. Filled with rose water syrup and containing white chocolate liquor and infused vodka it was quality but not quite as good as at MoMo.

The final part of my dinner was desert and consisted of a Taro and Coconut pudding which was rich and dense and full of flavour and topped off a healthy serve of palm sugar ice cream. Bold flavours that worked well together and made for a surprisingly quality desert.

Overall the food, cocktails and overall atmosphere and service was all top notch. Definitely preferred this Thai restaurant to Paladarr and the top Thai restaurant in Melbourne i have been to.

Cutler & Co

5th December 2011

Due to the Christmas season, my 58th restaurant and final 2 hat restaurant changed it's normal opening times and was open on a Monday. I decided to take advantage of this extra day of business and head out for dinner to Cutler & Co. Evidently other people decided it would be a good idea to as the restaurant was pretty packed, including 4 men who rocked up about 830 from the L.A. Galaxy including Robbie Keane and David Beckham.

After an initial wait for my table in the bar, i was ushered into a cool and hip dining room with wooden tables, modern lighting and bare walls. After being seated i was offered the drinks list and the menu. The drinks list was reasonably long and offered a full bar with a mix of wine, beer and cocktails and spirits. The wait staff explained the various different elements of the menu, including the degustation menu and the option to have a selection of entrees.

I decided against the degustation menu, as there was a cheese course and a couple of the options didn't seem to grab me. Instead i went for the normal 3 course option. However before any of the courses were presented i was offered a choice of bread between sourdough and rye. I went with sourdough which was served warm and was crunch on the outside and soft on the inside. It was served with pink salt and a rich creamy and light and fluffy butter.

The first course was an entree of Wood grilled crayfish with Serrano ham draped over the top with a watercress puree and tiny cubes of cold apple gel. Great contrasts of flavours, texture and beautifully cooked and presented. Crayfish was perfectly cooked, soft and tender and complemented by the ham.

We then had a free appetiser of ocean trout en croute. A crisp bread with a beautiful piece of ocean trout topped with a a horseradish cream, caviar and pickled onion. A little too much horseradish cream was the tiniest bit overpowering but everything else was perfect.

On to the main course, was a dish of slow cooked chicken breast that was dense, moist and shaped into rectangle blocks. Two blocks of chicken breasts covered with very crisp pancetta combined with pine nuts and a cream cheese blob.
Combined with a mini cook pot of peas, lettuce and carrot in a rich jus with a nice foam on top. The rich and warm soup of vegetables was delicious. It worked great as a separate dish but wasn't an amazing complement to the main dish which was also outstanding on its own.

However the desert was a piece of pure magic. A pool of salted caramel, two layers of chocolate filled with a vanilla parfait and topped off with chocolate ice cream. Decadent full of flavour and just a sensational dish.

After desert, when i requested the bill it came with a little petit fours of chocolate fudge with a few crumbs of black salt embedded in it. Not a normal combination but it worked magnificently and the contrast between the sweet and salty flavours was great.

Overall the food was both superbly executed and surprisingly big on portions. Somehow flirted between technical mastery and homely cooking and was presented with flair and style. Service was great and the room was too cool for school but everything about the evening was theatre but with substance to back it up. Quality from start to finish and well worthy of the 2 hats and a place in my top 10.

Tempura Hajime

1st December 2011

On a Thursday night i drew one step closer to completing the list with a visit to number 57 (3 left to go) and headed to South Melbourne in a strange part of town to house a hat restaurant. On a business and house area and locate as part of the office complex was a small one room restaurant with only space for 13 people sitting on chairs around a wooden bar facing the chef as he prepared the tempura dishes in from of us in a restaurant aptly named Tempura Hajime.

The drinks list and menu presented after i took the final seat around the bar were both small. The drinks menu featured one page of red and white wines, sakes and beer and other drinks whilst the food offered three options - the tempura set or the tempura & sushi set (either 7 piece tempura or 10 piece tempura).

I went with the 7 piece tempura and sushi set and ordered a Sapporo beer. The first dishes to appear were the sashimi and an entree of satay chicken. The sashimi consisted of kingfish, ocean trout sprinkled in rock salt and a third fish covered with a red plum sauce. Firm and flavourful fish, it was perfectly presented and executed.

The satay chicken was a very small, delicate and beautiful dish of three small thinly slices chicken breast pieces served in a giant bowl on a bed of thinly slices cucumber and a rich but non spicy satay sauce. Great flavours.

Next up was the tempura. A procession of 7 different tempura dishes with a beautiful outer tempura batter and cooking that brought out the full flavours of each dish. A mix of meat and vegetable tempura served with lemon and salt and also soy sauce for dipping each offer a different experience. Dishes of Sweetcorn, prawn, sweet potato, eel tempura (not battered but served with its own marinade & wasabi), scallop with sea urchin filling, King George whiting and finally a mushroom filled with crab meat. A great exhibition of technique and flavour with my favourite surprisingly being the sweet potato.

This was followed by the sushi platter. Multiple different types of fish and one wagyu beef sitting on individual beds of rice with a subtle amount of wasabi mixed in between. They were served with a hand roll and an egg omelet with the restaurant symbol branded into the outside. Quality flavours and expert preparation and attention to detail.

The final part to the meal was desert. A simple dish of yogurt panna cotta served with cointreau and muscatels finished off the meal with aplomb and whilst simple had good flavours and worked well together.

Whilst Japanese may still not be my favourite type of cuisine i can appreciate now the clarity of flavour it allows for and the immense technique and skill involved. This place whilst simple in appearance offered a high level of complex and flavourful food. Decent value with the long procession of dishes and high quality fish and ingredients being offered for $85.