miss Amelie (Woodonga) 01/2019

Woodonga, in Victoria, is a twin city with Albury, separated by the Murray river that forms the border between New South Wales and Victoria. Neither of them are noted foodie eating stops but miss Amelie was recommended. It lives in a former railway station

which has been refurbished into a clean but unexciting restaurant.

had only two dishes - local asparagus coddled hen's egg cheddar custard, black olives, potato chips,

 a riot of colour, taste and texture that I thoroughly enjoyed and spanner crab and bug tail spaghetti, crayfish bisque pangrattato, a fancy name for breadcrumbs,  parsley, chili, garlic

a dish I regard as showing a total disregard for the fine and delicate tasting seafood. The ingredients were excellent but the combination turned this sea food pasta into just a pasta in a sharp sauce.
Score: 13.5/20

Da Noi (South Yarra) 12/2018

Hard to believe that it is 12 years since we last ate here and it has remained fundamentally unchanged. At that time we had a five course Sardinian style meal with no menu. See https://1001dinners.blogspot.com/search?q=Da+Noi

That's what you get today. Indeed there is so much variation that dishes might even vary from table to table. The narrow two story terrace, home of Da Noi, remains the same 

with a bit of odd decor.

The food used to be excellent and it still is. It had two AGFG hats at that time and only has one now but it's as good as it ever was with most of the ingredients sourced from their own farm.  

The just baked olive bread is too good - we have to be careful not to fill up on it! Wines are a bit expensive 

and almost all Italian.

Every dish was extremely good and left me wishing for more from the oysters.

Well only one, the mini salad, 

the seafood salad,

to the remarkable pasta, 

a feature of every meal. 

My apologies for the horrible photo's. I did not notice the camera was on the wrong setting.

The main course was Saddleback pork cutlet 

which was quite spicy so Sandra could not eat it. The happily and quickly replaced it with a serve of suckling pig 

which was superb.
The meal ended with a pleasant not too sweet dessert. 

It's a happy, noisy place. The wait staff were helpful, friendly and efficient. The food was very good and I'd recommend it anytime. 

Score 16.5/20

En Izakaya (Balaclava) 04/2017

This could be called our local Japanese restaurant. It's the nearest to where we live, barely over a kilometre from home. We eat here several times a year and have reviewed it twice before see  http://1001dinners.blogspot.com.au/search?q=en+izakaya
Virtually nothing has changed.
We started with an attractively presented eel sushi.

This was very tasty accompanied by excellent sweet pickled ginger.
These sticky rice balls 

look exactly like what we had years ago but today they incorporated chicken and eel instead of beef.
An eggplant and tofu dish was new to me.
This is a pic from 2014 which shows an identical dish, seen in the next pic, served today. It is a cold dish of thin sliced wagu on a block of fine silken tofu topped with sour cabbage and a slice of garlic. 
 Not only is the dish identical,

but my view of it remains the same. I remain unimpressed by the wagu but the total dish was very good, particularly because of the fine tofu.
Eggplant with tofu was another unusual presentation 

with the roasted eggplant in broad slices interspersed with tofu, topped with see weed. A nice dish but not outstanding
Sashimi was fairly standard

but the fish was a bit thickly sliced. 
Score:13.5/20 (Previously we scored them 13.5 and 13.75)

The Bistro (Mildura) 03/2017

Romeo's (Toorak) 03/2017

This long standing Italian restaurant is very popular with locals, and for good reason. They serve unpretentious sound meals provided with efficient and friendly service starting from breakfast until late at night.
We really only wanted to have a flounder - again.
There is a choice of side dishes and we selected a couple of salads. A Greek salad with fetta,

 and a mango and walnut creation.

The flounder was served with a choice too - I chose mash but could have had chips or vegetables.
The fish was nicely prepared, the lemon butter sauce excellent, tartar was also available.

It was, to use the expression of the print journalists, a 'go to dish'
Nothing fancy, nothing tricked up, just a really good meal in a warm and friendly atmosphere and the price was just a tad more than the equivalent dish at the Rosstown Hotel Bistro but so much nicer.
Score:13.75 /20