Well, not strictly my first but my first in Vietnam and for breakfast. It’s hot and humid and we’re about to be killed by several hundred motocycles bearing down on us at a crossroads. Somehow we make it over and land at the Little Hanoi 1 (25 Pho Ta Hien 926 0168) restaurant, recomended by Lonely Planet. And this is why we are to dump Lonely Planet because it was stuffed full of people – all Wasps – who had […]
Restaurants
Restaurant and bar stories, news and reviews
Not the Barri Gòtic
There’s something about those dark back alleys that get to me. My first taste for it was in Europe, the alleyways of ancient Italian towns. The south of France. And who can resist the pull of Barcelona’s Barri Gòtic. And so it is with Melbourne a city that hides laneways off laneways, among jumbled warehouses built when the city was a Gold town. Hosier Lane is probably one of the most interesting, covered with stencil art and filled with various […]
A Proustian moment with pizza
The power table, the one in the corner, the round one from which I can survey the whole room. Could I have reached Godfather status in St Kilda already, with the staff at I Carusi II (231 Barkly Street St Kilda 3182 03 9593 6033) plonking me there? After a few minutes the lavatory door wafted open, then closed and had one of those Proust like moments remembering the lavatory disinfectant on the way up to Taxi Restaurant. And again. And again. […]
Taxi: In the belly of an architect
Kingfish usu-zukuri Every item of food that I have eaten at Taxi (Federation Sq, cnr Flinders St & Swanston St, Melboune +61 3 9654 8808) has been a masterpiece in presentation. I’d go as far as describing most dishes as architectural masterpieces. Whether or not the building is an architectural masterpiece is a moot point. Part of the controversial Federation Square complex, the building has featured in Wallpaper*. We decide to walk up to the restaurant on the first floor. […]
All change for restaurant critics
Well sort of. Last week saw the appointment of Melbourne critic and John Lethlean and Epicure’s (the food section of our local broadsheet, The Age) deputy editor Necia Wilden as the co-editors of our local Good Food Guide. Now Sydney’s man of the sharp knives Matthew Evans has quit Good Living (the food section of the Sydney Morning Herald) as restaurant critic after five years (although it’s not clear if he remains joint editor of the Sydney Good Food Guide). […]
Warming up for Sunday breakfast meme
Just warming-up the new Ricoh for Andrew at Spittoon Extra’s breakfast meme. Saturday morning at ikea. I was ready to be apaled. Two sausages, two hash browns, bacon (I avoided the spongy looking scrambled egg), tomato and beans plus an orange juice and a pretty good long black for AUD6. That’s about £2.50. And it was better than many hotels I’ve stayed in. I’m impressed. Let’s not forget the flat white. Delicious but sloppy with dribbles down the side of […]
Steak sandwich
A stroll up the road. Yum. One steak sandwich and an Asahi. AUD16. Inkr7 7 Inkerman St, St Kilda, Vic (03 9534 6011). Oh, did I mention the whizz bang digital camera? More on choosing one later.
The Bulletin: Whose restaurant rules?
My story about the egos and clashes behind the restaurant awards season appears in The Bulletin (that’s our local version of Newsweek) today. The brief agreed with news editor Tim Blair was end of restaurant awards guide season, bruised egos etc. Innocent questions stimulated an interesting response from the people behind The Age (our local daily broadsheet) Good Food Guide. Shannon Bennett’s Vue de Monde I’d heard was upgraded from two to three hats but The Age had only checked […]
Sydney vs Melbourne equals LA vs NY
Anthony Bourdain doesn’t think much of Sydney but loves Melbourne. The New York Times restaurant critic Patricia Wells seems to agree that Melbourne’s Flower Drum is the best Chinese restaurant in the world (for its Peking duck at least).Now the LA Times food critic S. Irene Virbila, is wading in to the debate rating Sydney as one of the best places in the world to eat.The divides between the hometowns of the protagonists of this debate perhaps illustrates the cultural […]