Botafumeiro

Introduction: I don`t know if this specialist fish restaurant at Gran de Gra`n, 81 Barcelona has Michelin stars or not but it deserves them
Ambience: Bustling with waiters and patrons. A large display case is filled with awards and includes a Chaine des Rotisseurs chain. Photograhs of patrons includePresident Clinton and heaps of film stars and glitteratae. There is a long counter at which some ate presumably because the restaurant was full but most diners are seated at white linen covered tables
Service: White coated waiters are efficient but unhurried, considerate and willing to spend time on explanations
Food: We took our waiters recommendationfor 2 entreés and 2 mains
The crab salad in a light olive oil was exquisite with plenty of fine almost sweet crab meat
The grilled prawns were astonishingly tasty. Smaller but much sweeter than the Australian prawn they are caught 100 km up the coast. Only about 20kgm are caught each day for the whole of Spain and they could not be fresher ~ alive only a few hours ago
The Spiny Lobster (about A$170/ kgm) served with a mayonaise or a red mild sauce was again remarkable for the taste of the flesh
Finally the Sea Bass - a queen of fish, served with a cream sauce and sliced potato left us totally satisfied.
Wine: Again on our waiters advice a bottle of Bojus del Rios from the Galicia area proved to be an excellent accompaniment to the meal
Incidently they did have a few meat dishes available
There were complimentary sweets and Muscat to finish
Price: About A$430 but $300 if we did not have lobster
Comment: Undoubtedly a top restaurant
Score 18/20

Mt Rael Retreat

Introduction: A couple of miles out fo Healesville on the Yarra Glen Rd The views are wonderful: Packed with customers on the weekend to many of whom drink enough to let them roar with laughter as tho' there were no other customers who might like to talk quietly!

Ambience:Although it gave me the feeling of a spec house it is a pleasant happy sort of venue with a clean uncluttered feeling about it

Service: Neatly uniformed waiters, and waitresses, BUT neither the kitchen nor the floor staff could cope with the number of diners. They were short of menus, very slow and mixed up our order.

Food: A bit pretentious the rib eye was tasty but tough, the duck dry. Desserts are very good. The cutlery is mundane and to get some sort of kitchen knife for the steak further detracted from the enjoyment of the meal

Wine: A pleasant Reisling did not strain my wallet

Price: Slightly expensive for the food About $29 for mains $14 for entrees

Comments: Grossly overrated by Stephen Downes Great view moderate food terrible service

Score:13.5 /20

Lau's Family Kitchen

Introduction: A basic, good quality suburban restaurant at 4 Acland St. St.Kilda
Ambience: No nonsense No symbols of a past life
Service: The Lau family are everywhere and quick to look after you.
Food: Very straightforward. No fish crabs, lobsters prawns or scallops. No duck. Everything is very tasty
Wine: BYO is best
Price: Inexpensive but prices and menu have increased since y first visit
Comments: Make sure you make a reservation! A good recommendation in itself Don't bother with their web page which currently has almost no information ( www.lauskitchen.com.au)
Score:13.5 /20

Ru Inn

A popular Chinese restaurant on High St Armidale a couple of doors west of Kooyong Rd
Ambience: Undistinguished calm and pleasant. Has an air of being spotlessly clean with starched white table cloths Yesterday being the middle of a lng weekend, was very quiet. We found ourselves in the unusual situation of being two diners with two waiters and the proprieter and, I'm told, four in the kitchenService: Erratic. Slow at times but always extremely courteous. Andy, pictured, gave us every attention!
Food: Mostly Cantonese style. Having now been here 4 times recently and tried quite a few dishes I can confidently say this is a good general standard of cooking. If there is one thing which marks better Chinese cooking for me it is sweet sour dishes. There is lots of room for error - too sharp, too sweet too thick or gluggy. Whether pork or prawns Ru Inn do it really well.

These large firm fleshed prawns were in a light batter
Other dishes were good size serves and good taste. I enjoyed beef with vegetables and cashew nuts and Cantonese beef was excellent. We also tried the very tasty sate chicken and vegetables
Wine: BYO or chose from a limited and reasonable priced list
Price: A little dearer than average but not excessive. I end up paying about $75 for entree and main for two
Comments: Better than the nearby competition!
Score:13.5 /20

The Lobster Cave

Introduction: At 18 North Concourse, Beamaris this is a specialty seafood restaurant tho they do have some meat dishes for the dedicated carnivores
Ambience: Everything here tells you this is a fish place from the uniformed waiters ties with their crustacean theme to the wave like ceramic wall decorations t5o the large TV screen showing mostly tropical fish. Sophistctes might find it kitchy but I liked it tho it tho' it is a little tired
Service; Menus arrived promptly and our waitress waqs informative, attentive but not obtrusive
Food: From the start I liked the dish of crisp pistachio on the table. Garlic bread came with a twin bowl of Black olives and Olive paste. ($6.50) An entree of tempura prawns (6) was disapointing becuse the tempura batter was far to heavy and the dipping sauce also lacked the taste and refinement of that in most Japanese restaurants ($25) For mains I had the Fergh Lack half a lobster, a spanner crab, more prawns, two thick slices of toasted roll well covered in olive pesto and cheese all on a bed of green salad and parmesan cheese (99.90) Whilst my wife had a Lobster Thermidor ($85) there was plenty to eat but Sam Newmans comment that this place provides "Nirvanna for the taste buds" is very far from the mark. They use good quality ingredients but miss out on being fine cuisine. Nevertheless i will be happy to back for another lobster dish
Wine: We enjoyed a t'Gallant Pinot Grigio 2005 $42 i think which went very well with the meal
Price: There are plenty of less expensive choices but you need to avoid the lobster!
Comments; Have a look at their web page It's very well constructed and informative. Slightly expensive middle of the road suburban seafood restaurant
Score: 14/20

Kobe Jones

Introduction : On the waters edge at docklands (427 Docklands Drive) on the first floor
Ambience: A quiet sophisticated venue. apointments are simple and tasteful
Service: Very good not obtrusive
Food: Described as Japanese with a Californian twist. The term Californian twist appears in the menu quite often and refers to an extremely nice cream sauce. (the other frequent attender is sesame seeds and sesame oil) The tempura has the finest batter and could not be faulted. the seared tuna was also excellent. I was delighted with the Tenderloin Beef Teriyaki which was a very tender and good serve of meat cooked blue, to my specification. All mains are served with miso soup and rice
The selection of desserts was also particularly pleasing
Wine: An odd list we had a Reisling which went well with the food
Price: Around $50 for two courses Probably a much better deal for 3 or more customers is the Chef's special menu The $70 menu differs from the $60 menu only by the addition of a 9th dish - soft shell crab Had I the opportunity that ixmmmbkokcertainly
Comments: Part of a chain that started in California now with restaurants in Sydney, Bangkok and London this is a high quality establishment
Score: 15.5/20

The Press Club

Introduction George Calambaris's new restaurant is on the ground floor of the former home of the Herald Sun at 72 Flinders St (Cnr Exhibition St)
Ambience: Reasonably spaced tables in a slightly sterile feeling black setting
Service: Extremely attentive, offering full descriptions of dishes and advice on wines
Food: A step up in Greek cuisine compared to anything else I have had in Melbourne - or anywhere else for that matter. There is a range of degustation menus from $45 up to $75. Called Kerasme They may vary from night to night or even from table to table. We had the $75 Kerasme which was a very large amount to eat. It began with a small cold platter which included some white anchovies which were more palatable than most, and a bean salad
Each course was unusual utilizing a range of spices. There was a little too much emphasis on Fennel which was also in the extremely tasty bread. The warm fennel and crab salad was a highlight.
George's head waiter promised to send me details of the food we had so I did not take careful notes. After waiting 2 weeks I guess that is not going to happen ( I suspect that they were offended that I thought their web page very poor - illegible and short on information and let them know my views)
Wine: We had a couple of bottles of Greek wine at about $48/ bottle they were very acceptable
Price: Ordinarily about $50 but can be much dearer
Comments: A great addition to Melbournes restaurant scene I'll be back and will be more explicit about the food next time
Score: 15.5/20

Old Raffles Place

Introduction: On the corner of Johnston and Wellington St Collingwood this restaurant, which grew out of a coffee lounge, serves Singapore style food. Famed for Hainese chicken rice
Ambience: Remains a restaurant in a coffee lounge. You could call it understated but that would be overstating the case.
Service: Alan Han, the owner also serves. He has a long history in the hospitality business. While his wife cooks he is happy to talk at length about his experiences and about the influences the created the characteristic Singapore food of today
Food: Unfortunately, arriving late, we missed the Hainese Chicken which is descrbed most appealingly on the menu. We started with a Chef's selection entree of Prawn, spring rolls, a small samosa package fried crumbed calamari accompanied by some unusual prawn crackers - a nice start to the meal. The Laksa is really good not overly spiced and the beef rendang was also excellent
BYO $3.50/bottle
Price: Inexpensive. Mains $10 to $19 Cash only but there is an ATM on the premises!
Comments: Very good food at very reasonable prices. I MUST go again to try more of the specialties so glowingly descrbed on the menu
Score: 13.5/20

Chu The

Introduction: A traditional Vietnamese Pho noodle soup shop on Victoria St Richmond
Ambience: Eat and go. No frills
Service: Efficient
Food: Basically a broth spiced with five spice and coriander served in a large bowl filled with noodles and either chicken or beef tho there are some variations. I tried tripe which was tasteless and undercooked.
There is a side plate with bean shoots and mint to add to thje soup
Price: $7 to eat in $8 to take away
Comments: A good place for a quick light meal. Peasant food.
Score: 13/20

Lentils as Anything

Introduction: To cheap to get into the Age Cheap 2005 as there are no set prices - pay what you can afford and what you think it's worth!
Ambience: It feels like a squat. Dark, rather dingy, some modern inoffensive background music.
Service: Quite personal and very nice. I was impressed that when I began to ask my waitress Kate some questions she introduced herself, put out her hand and shook hands with me. I had been told it was very slow - not that night.
Food: Organic vegetarian. Substantial serves. I had a warm Vietnamese Salad - red and white cabbage, bean shoots, tofu, crispy noodles lightly spiced w some mild chilli. If this was served on fine crockery in flash surroundings customers would find it very acceptable.
Drinks: There are a variety of soft drinks and Chai available
Price; You decide. There's a large box with a slot in the top - just drop it in. If your lucky you might get a fanfare!
Comments: There are a few of these I went to the one in Blessington St. St. Kilda. If you don't mind going 'down market' in the extreme try it
Score: /1320

Three, One, Two

Introduction: Andrew McConnel's restaurant 312 Drummond St Carlton is in fashion just now (Sept 06)
Ambience: The stone floor, black wood half way up the wall and uninspiring stormy long, narrow landscape and old style kitchen chairs did nothing for me tho I did like the lamp fittings
Service: All the four waiters who served us were well presented and informative
Food: We had the degustation menu $90.
First course Cigar - a tube of thin deep fried pastry stuffed with a tomato jelly at one end and eggplant at the other - tiny but very tasty. After a long wait three very small pieces of fish - Kingfish with ? lentils, Mackerel on a semolina biscuit and sour cream and Eel on a beetroot mash. we had been here for well over an hour by now and the dishes began to arrive more quickly
The delicate flavour of crab in the crab broth with cuttlefish, crispy chicken and "aromatics" (coriander) lost out to the powerful flavour of the broth
The roast scampi wrapped in cured pork with almond sauce was delicious but also a very tiny serve
The duck petit sale was perhaps too long in the oven and beginning to get dry and stringy. the half mouthful of foie gras parfait was wonderful but hardly went well with the couple of lightly cooked green beans.
The 6th course grilled veal with soft white polenta and fresh Tasmanian truffles was as tasty as you could ever want but the powerful jus detracted from the dish
The Irish Cashel blue cheese with celery leaves an miniscule amount of cooked apple and two drops of a sweet sauce was lovely as was the last course Chocolate granache, milk sorbet, hazelnut meringue and mandarin sauce.
A la carte entrees are $17 to $20 and include the crab broth, a rabbit terrine, ocean trout or a vegetarian smoked tomato, zucchini flower asparagus, cheese and radish sprout salad
Mains include the duck and the veal that we had and baby snapper vegetarian fricassee ($28 - $34)
Wine: Fully licenced Quite a good wine list. Expensive by the glass. The Domaine Senecheaux Chateauneuf du pape $18 was particularly pleasant
Price: A bit on the expensive side
Comments: We changed tables to try to get away from the noise with little success. Melbourne diners seem to have little consideration for others and this detracts from the enjoyment of the occassion. Overall the meal fell short in too many areas to be really good 'tho there are some excellent tastes
Score: 15 /20

Shark Fin Inn City

Introduction; One of Melbournes long time favourite places for Yum Cha at 50-52 Little Bourke St.
Ambience: Typical of all popular Yum Cha restaurants. Good humoured boistrous noisy and crowded
Service: Trolley service with attractive uni student parttime waitrsses adding to the atmosphere. Very good variety. Experienced diners will wait for the dishes they particularly like but you can also, usually, order something 'a la carte'
Food: I did not expect anything special so I was exceptionally pleased with the excellent tastes and combinations. Steamed dim sims with pork and peanuts was outstanding as were the stuffed eggplant and the sessame prawns on toast. There's plenty to please everyone
Wine: They have some reasonabe and inexpensive 'wines of the month' but i settled for
Chinese tea!
Price: We ate like pigs for less than $30 / head
Comments: Not only as good as my previous favourite Yum Cha restaurant but even better!
Score: 16/20