Cibi: try the green tea muffins Cibi is a cafe that thinks it’s a gallery. Actually, it is a gallery and regularly holds openings to launch the various (mainly kitchen) products it imports (mainly) from Japan. Housed in a modern warehouse building on Keele St, the Cibi space features a large open kitchen and grunge cafe mixing found objects and mismatched tables and chairs with a minimalist feel – if that makes sense. It’s the brainchild of former architecture nut […]
Restaurants
Restaurant and bar stories, news and reviews
Shades of brown at The Spaghetti Tree
Fresh fish doesn’t smell. The seafood crepe ($17) at The Spaghetti Tree smelt acrid, of ammonia. I didn’t even want to taste it and one mouthful was enough to put me off the food for the evening. It was awful in smell, taste, texture and presentation and left barely touched by the three of us. An awkward yeast infection was mentioned and before even the garlic bread ($6.50) could arrive, halfway through our mains, the seafood crepe was renamed the […]
Heirloom – one foam too far
Heirloom looks great but the food needs to be simpler. The best French chefs are Japanese nowadays, they say. But they aren’t French they are Japanese. They are just cooking French-style with the addition of Japanese ingredients. Meanwhile, the best French chefs are now open in Japan. They rock. Or at least Michel Bras does, the man who is one of the inspirations for local, sustainable super-natural cuisine several decades before Noma had even been dreamt of. And now this […]
Josie Bones: we ate everything
We all know Chris Badenoch right? The bad boy beer guy who was runner-up on Masterchef series one. He’s the one that was chewed-up by the tabloids and spat out a love rat. Now he’s a place of his own to, so to speak, chew-up rare breed animals and swallow, together with several hundred beers. Josie Bones, his love child with Masterchef runner-up Julia Jenkins, has only a token page of wines to a telephone book of beers but surprisingly […]
Canelés: the next big thing?
Canelés: the new thing? Once it was donuts for me. Then a rainbow cornucopia of macarons. Now it’s Canelés, this particular one from Dench Bakers in North Fitzroy. To me they have the look of a barnacle or some such other marine creature that you have to chisel off a rock. But they are in fact gorgeous soft brioche-like confections soaked in custard and caramelized on the outside. They are a small snack but big enough for your partner to […]
Proud Mary. Great coffee and tea
I‘m starting to judge cafes by their espresso machines. The more serious the machine, the better the coffee. So when you walk into a cafe and you see a six group Synesso longer than a coffin worth some $40,000 and you know something special is going on. It sorta trumps even St Ali’s $30,000 Slayer which is pretty awesome but only has three groups. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8bkRs77uX4] A Synesso in action. And I can tell you it’s official: Today coffee – and […]
The Abyssinian: freedom fighter food in Kensington
There’s a lot to be said for ethnic restaurants. They usually offer big, cheap hearty meals often cooked from the heart. They also often offer the chance to reacquaint oneself with monosodium glutamate, fluorescent strip lighting, surly service and dodgy lino. Then there’s The Abyssinian (277 Racecourse Road Kensington, Victoria 3031, 03 9376 8754), run by two Eritreans, which has taken the genre to another level and avoided all the crap which is why it was packed out the night […]
Q&A: Should I modify my tipping in the global financial crisis?
Q What is the appropriate amount to tip? I realise that tipping has never been much of a norm in Australia, but for some reason I still feel obliged to tip at high-end restaurants, and I’m very conscious of the etiquette. I simply don’t know what the proper amount is, if any. In times of global financial crisis, the problem becomes more difficult, as I feel more constrained. I suppose my question is, what is the tipping etiquette in general, […]
Andrew McConnell’s Cutler and Co takes Gertrude St to another level
The dessert that made me a plate licker. I’m not the only one worrying about the recession. But I’m probably the only one in Cutler & Co thinking about it. The reincarnation of chef Andrew McConnell’s Three, One, Two at the top end of Gertrude St is packed. So packed, McConnell later tells me that it took them by surprise which explains a couple of timing issues that a few of you will have seen on Twitter. But the whole […]