Monday, August 29, 2005

Lynch's

Introduction: Fine dining
Ambience: The feeling is of old and refined. The odd conglomeration of prints, autographed photograhs, paintings and pictures on the walls reminded me of a teenagers bedroom!

Service: Attentative, informed and faultless

Food: This was outstanding. We had a crab tortollino with prawns and a mushroom rissotto wrapped in spinach for entrees both - two excellent tasty dishes. The cornbeef and mashed potato was made into a fabulous meal by the accompanying light, creamy mustard sauce. the roast duck was cooked to perfection. The soufle dessert was also as good as it gets!

Wine: By the glass our waiter advised us to prefer the Seville Pinot Noir which was a good choice. Surprisingly he later offered us a good size taste of the Geelong Pinot that he had guided us away from and another sample of a most excellent shiraz. Both confirmed his judgemen.

Price: Expensive. Our bill with coffee was over $200

Comments: A worthy winner of the Michelin award for overall excellence in 2003

Regretably the high standard was not maintained at a second visit 9 months later
The atmosphere of the place is unchanged and it was really nice to enjoy a quiet meal in their upstairs room.
Unfortunately the service was exceptionally slow and our young waitress seemed somewhat distressed.
Oysters Kilpatrick ($48) were small, the bacon overcooked and all together unimpressve. This was an unfortunate start to an otherwise impressive meal
the entree of Goat cheese souffle on a bed of grilled eggplant was excellent as was was the Chef's special roast pheasant in a wonderful jus. The potato that came with it was barely cooked and woody in the middle. The King George whiting fish and chips had a fine batter and the chips were crisp. A side dish of Caesar salad was also very good The raspberry Souffle dessert had excellent texture tho it might have been a little too sweet for some
Wine by the glass is very reasonable Scotchman Hill Pinot Grigio and Scotchman Hill sav blanc were both acceptable at about $8/glass
Score: 7 /20 second visit 15/20

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Benito's

Introduction: Could not resist trying this restaurant after a very nice article in the Age
Ambience: Feels like an Italian wine bar

Service: Amiable and unhurried

Food: The chicken liver parfait ($7.50) is exquisite and would not be out of place across the road at Vue de Monde. The small antipasto ($16.50), quite a good size, with eggplant, tomato cheese, calamari, sausage peppers and meat was an honest dish of consistant good quality. The duck sausage on a bed of mash is a strange main course ($25.00) and not much to my taste. The pot roast rabbit was tender succulent and very tasty ($25.00), The veal saltimbucca was also excellently prepared ($25.00) The marinara made from fresh ingredients was another good dish. The desserts, of which there were only two choices by the time we got to them, were unusually good. The two flavours of semi-frodo, pear and passoinfruit were exceptional and the chocolate parfait really nice ($6.50) eac.

Wine: We had a 2004 Mornington Peninsula pinot noir - Massala by Kooyong ($35.00) I'd try something else if we return.
There is a modest range of Italian and local wines at reasonable prices
Price: Good value

Comments: There is a fairly limited dinner menu which means it will be quite a while before I return. I have no complaints about the food some of which was quite excellent and well worth the visit.

Score: 14.5/20

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Morri's Place

Introduction: Formerly Cafe Renzi, after several changes of owner, this 1121 High St Armadale restaurant seems to be thriving.
Ambience: Gave me a feeling of an unpretentious 'good restaurant'

Service: Efficient, informed uniformed young staff

Food: The Oysters Alaska - stuffed with smoked salmon and crab meat with grilled Mornay sauce ($19.50 for 6) were fabulous. The oxtail and beef cheek ragu with baby turnips, shallots on a bed of crushed chats was filling and tasty, the meat cooked beautifully 'till it was falling off the bone. Crispy skin roast duck with prunes, blood oranges and armangac served with lightly cooked peas in the pod, young carrots and broccoli was also a handsome well prepared serve but sounded a lot fancier than it was

Wine: Licenced or what I rarely resist - BYO corkage $5

Price: Entrees about $12 Mains $21 to about $27 Desserts $10.50

Comments: Cuisine bourgeoise no doubt tasty substantial and sustaining

Score: 13.5/20

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Radii

Introduction: A unique elegant restaurant set on 5 levels at the Park Hyatt
Ambience: Sophisticated breathes quality

Service: Unobtrusive suits the venu

Food: The starters are excellent. we had Chilli flour dusted cuttlefis, Wood roasted herb bread and Prosciuto, olives and reggianno parmesan - all excellent

The Shellfish soup with blue swimmer crab fritte and rouille was very tasty but for those who can afford the cholesterol the Chicken liver parfait with Pedro Ximenez jelly was to drool over
Unfortunately the main courses were not that fantastic. I felt the slow cooked pork scotch filllet needed a few more hours although the crackling and the quince paste that accompanied it were excellent. The ocean trout was not distiguished.
Desserts looked good but again were not really special The liquorice sorbet most interesting and the panacotta laced with cognac (I think) was also quite good
Wine: A very pleasant Punt Road Pinot Noir at $50 went well with our meal

Price: On the expensive side Around $75 plus wine

Comments: I found the quality of the meal somewhat uneven but this is a fine venu and a good place to take a visitor

Score: /16/20