Tall Timber

Bestie has had her eye on Tall Timber awaiting for their doors to open considering it is walking distance from her so she messaged me for lunch the week following its opening. Having already established a following at their other cafes, Coin Laundry and Station St Trading, Tall Timber has breathed new life into a part of Prahran void of any decent cafes (or so the locals say!). The white brick walls and high ceilings gives an open and inviting feel to the space with strong accents of timber throughout the cafe and out in the courtyard. An open window by the coffee machine catering to takeaway orders which is always convenient for those quick coffees. The large communal table has a recessed centre for potted herbs which add vibrant pops of colour to the otherwise neutral colour palate.

Tall Timber use Peoples Coffee originating from New Zealand; although this is my first time trying, I really enjoy the rich, chocolatey undertones in my magic.

Magics ($3.50)

Bestie has an unyielding affinity for cheese so she opted for the goat's cheese and sage fritters with beetroot relish and a poached egg on a bed of salad. The poached egg on top spilled a golden ooze and she particularly enjoyed the fritter with the salad studded with slivered almonds. Perhaps my only concern would be the size or quantity of the fritter for the price.

Goats cheese and sage fritters with poached egg and radicchio, cos & almond salad ($16)

For someone torn between the sweet and savoury options, the breaky board was most ideal choice for me. The house made cereal surprisingly hit the spot - a decent amount of honey and crunch to it when topped up with the milk and yoghurt while the poached apples were soft and not overly sweet. Poached eggs on sourdough are usually nothing to rave about, but here the relish really added a burst of tartness and flavour to it. Finishing up with the freshly squeezed, pulpy orange juice, I was incredibly satisfied with my choice.

Breaky board - poached egg & sourdough, cereal w/ poached fruit, natural yoghurt & milk and orange cleanser ($16)

Outside the cafe, there is a heavenly aroma of coffee floating in the air which is enough to tempt anyone to head inside to escape the daily grind. The service was efficient and friendly enough, while food and drinks were spot on during my visit. The oven has yet to be installed so the full menu isn't in place, but I look forward to returning to try some other dishes on the full menu I had my eye on.

Food: 8/10
Service: 7.5/10
Value: 7/10
Will I return? Yes, the other dishes sound great.

Tall Timber
60 Commercial Road
Prahran VIC 3181
(03) 9676 9333


Mon to Fri 7am - 4:30pm
Sat & Sun 7:30am - 4:30pm

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Mr Huang Jin

Disclaimer: We were invited to dine complimentary at Mr Huang Jin. All thoughts and opinions are based purely on my experience at the time of visit.

Mr Huang Jin sits on the ground level underneath the Rialto Towers in Melbourne CBD. I have often spotted it on my tram ride along Collins street and having previous read posts by other bloggers about their chilli xiao long bao (soup dumplings), it has been on my wish list ever since. Mr Huang Jin is a Taiwanese restaurant with dumplings being their speciality. With the likes of HuTong dumpling bar and Shanghai street dumpling, to name a few, they have some tough competition vying for the number one spot for these delicious soupy dumplings.

The interior is bright and modern, with funky little touches to the space. 

A small saucer with sliced ginger is mixed with vinegar for the xiao long bao. It was nice to see that we didn't have to share; unlike my recent visit to ManTong Kitchen at Crown Casino which left us to share one between five people, talk about awkward double dipping.

We started with a trio of dumplings - the xiao long bao had perfectly thin skin and the soup was rich and flavoursome; the pork and prawn dumpling also had soup in it with a good mixture of pork and prawn; and finishing off with the vegetable and pork dumplings which I found to have a strange gritty texture.

Steamed pork soup dumplings, steamed prawn & pork dumplings and steamed vegetable & pork dumplings

Wontons in chilli sauce is one of our favourite dishes so it had a lot to live up to. The big chunks of prawn in the pork filling swimming in a sauce that had just the right amount of spiciness to it, leaving my lips puffy and red. The blanched lettuce and cucumber on the side soothed the fiery tongues and was refreshing against the chilli wontons.

Prawn and pork wontons in chilli sauce

Like a gourmet chicko roll with large chunks of duck meat within, the duck spring roll was very moreish with the sweet chilli sauce.

Crispy duck spring roll

I don't usually like sweet and sour dishes but I'm slowly warming to the idea of it. I enjoyed the crisp morsels of prawn encased in a sweet and sour sauce. The salad of bean shoots, pineapple and crispy noodles complemented well along with the light vinaigrette.

Sweet and sour prawn with salad

The lightly spiced squid were cooked well and extremely tender, really tasty with the mayonnaise.

Spicy squid with mayonnaise

Just as there is Southern fried chicken and Korean fried chicken, there is TFC - Taiwanese fried chicken. Juicy and tender pieces of chicken were incredibly scrumptious with the sweet chilli mayonnaise.

TFC (Taiwanese fried chicken)

The kung poa prawns, which are only available on the banquet menus, were rich and salty, and made with fresh prawns.

Kung poa prawn (banquet menu only)

The chicken satay skewers were beautifully moist while the fragant satay was plentiful with peanut with a kick of heat from the Szechuan oil. I am a sucker for good chicken satay skewers and these were no exception, I need to get a recipe!

Chicken satay with pickled vegetables

The freshly fried flake was fresh and well cooked however we couldn't get past the strange sauce which we felt jarred with the delicate fish.

Fried flake with home made sauce

Thankfully, the savoury dishes were coming to an end with the special fried rice - chock a block full of pieces of prawn and with a nice charred flavour coming through.

Special fried rice with prawn, egg and spring onion

Dessert was a light and crispy red bean pancake that left no greasy aftermath with a thick, sticky red bean paste inside. The home made black sesame ice cream was sinful - nutty and ultra creamy. Together, it was a delicious combination and despite our groaning stomachs, we could have shared another serving.

Red bean pancake with home made black sesame ice cream

To finish our banquet menu, they brought out a new dessert they were looking to add onto the menu. Similar to the Korean street food, hotteok, it is a fried bun filled with brown sugar and walnuts which melts from the heat to form a paste-like filling. Nutty with a subdued, sweet flavour - a very nice way to finish the meal.

Pan fried bun filled with brown sugar and walnuts

Given the modern setting, we were worried that the dishes would be bastardised versions that often appear in Chinese restaurants, however we were delightfully wrong in that presumption and enjoyed every single dish thoroughly with the exception of the flake dish. We felt that the 'Hungry Menu' was fantastic value for $48 per person and although the à la carte prices are higher than HuTong, the quality of the food and service more than made up for it.

Mr Huang Jin
Ground Floor, Rialto Building
525 Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9077 7937


Mon to Fri 11am - 9pm
Sat 6pm - 9pm

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Bayte

It's birthday week! Usually the only time I can self-indulge and not feel overly narcissistic. In the past years, I have been extremely spoilt and lavished with really extravagant birthday meals but this year, we wanted to steer away from a fine dining experience, to something more relaxed and modest.

Bayte (pronounced bay-tee) came highly recommended for breakfasts and lunches - Middle Eastern fare doesn't automatically come to mind when one thinks to go brunching but it does offer something much more diverse than the typical corn fritters and eggs benedicts at most cafes. Having recently commenced dinner services, every seat was occupied the night we dined here for my birthday. The waitress guided us through the menu and dishes, explaining carefully and recommending dishes according to our tastes.

A glass of wine each to hail the weekend; while my glass of Nebbiolo was light on the palate, Mr A's was rich and incredibly smooth.

2010 Poderi Luigi Einaudi Langhe Nebbiolo ($10.50) & 2010 Fiorenzo Nada Barbera d’Alba ($10)

The char-grilled flat bread came out of the kitchen steaming and fluffy, becoming the perfect vessel to hold the smokey eggplant dip. A great appetiser to start with although we did find ourselves getting prematurely full from the carbs.

Chargrilled flat bread ($3.50) with Babba Ganoush ($5)

I have never tried raw lamb before but my first foray was fantastic. The fattiness of the lamb melted on the tongue leaving a lovely texture and the herbs and spices mixed in complemented nicely, without overpowering the flavour of the lamb. The tangy yoghurt doing well to offset the fattiness against the crisp bread.

Raw Lamb Kibbee ($14)

We do love a good beetroot and goats cheese salad but Bayte's rendition has to be the best we've had yet! The sweet baby beetroot with the creamy labne, that had a subtle muskiness from the goats milk, made for a delicious mouthful; the crunch of the hazelnuts just finished it all off with a bow.

Warm baby beetroot, goats milk labne, hazelnuts and rose water dressing ($15)

The ground lamb skewer was very good with the tangy yoghurt, however the chicken skewers stole the show. Tender and juicy pieces of barbecued chicken, charred in all the right places, was paired with a powerful garlicky sauce. Not ideal for date night but who the hell cares when it tastes this good.

Chicken and lamb barbecue skewers ($8.50 each)

At that point because I was so full, I was thankful that spatchcocks were tiny birds, but I was also torn because the spatchcock was excellently cooked and so incredibly tasty. It was tender, flavoursome and despite my aversion to raisins in any sort of savoury dish, I really liked the spiced rice filling (I still picked out the raisins though, can't change!).

Oven baked spatchcock filled with spiced rice, kale, almonds, and raisins ($29)

The lime and pomegranate sparkling fruit juice sounded really appetising and refreshing and while there was a slight lime flavour, we both agreed that it tasted exactly like 'creaming soda' we used to drink as kids.

Lime & pomegranate sparkling fruit juice ($4)

Needing something small and sweet to finish off our meal, a single scoop of halva and pistachio ice cream was in order. The familiar sweetness of the ice cream was hard to pinpoint but nevertheless, it was quite delicious studded with chunks of pistachio nuts.

Home made ice cream - halva and pistachio ($4.50)

When simple meals are done well, it is something to rave about and that is what Bayte does. At great value, the delightful food is suitable for both date nights and group dinners as the dishes are perfect for sharing. Service was wonderful especially with our first waitress, as it got busier later in the evening service did start to wan, although the warmth remained. An exceptionally lovely dinner that warrants many return visits for brunch and dinner and I can't wait.

Food: 8.5/10
Service: 8/10
Value: 8.5/10
Will I return? Yes, thoroughly enjoyed dinner and would like to see the brunch offerings as well.

Bayte
56 Johnston Street
Collingwood VIC 3066
(03) 9415 8818


Mon & Tues Closed
Wed to Fri 11:30am - 11pm
Sat & Sun 9am to 11pm

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MoVida Bakery

My sweet tooth has been reignited recently so I have been craving insane amounts of sugar - even consuming spoonfuls of sweetened condensed milk on the daily in any form; terrible, I know but I can't help myself. Coincidentally, my birthday passed recently and we celebrated with some MoVida dossants!

Dossants, possibly the next dessert trend hitting Melbourne, is spearheaded by MoVida bakery. What is a dossant, I hear you ask? It is a croissant pastry fried with cinnamon sugar which is then topped with a variety of fillings. It all came about when food lovers were all atwitter on Twitter in regards to a certain article circulating about Dominique Ansel's 'cronut' - the croissant-donut hybrid taking New York by storm. In fact, demand is high and even the name 'cronut' has been trademarked! MoVida Bakery has decided to make their own version for Melbournians to enjoy!

Chantilly with dried cherry, lemon curd & raspberry custard with dried raspberry ($5 each)

With a few batches made per day, the first comes out at approximately 9:30 - 10am, so by the time I arrived at 10:30am, I had managed to grab the last six of seven dossants left. The dossant flavours available that day were Chantilly with dried cherry, lemon curd with dehydrated strawberry and raspberry custard with dried raspberry.

We didn't eat them until later that night but a quick zap in the oven and they were crispy outside with buttery, fluffy layers inside (even beautifully caramelised on top from the cinnamon sugar melting in the oven - omg!). Not to mention that all the fillings were delicious with lemon curd being my favourite. In my opinion, worth the hype and worth a visit. Try them out yourself and let me know what you think!

Food: 8.5/10
Service: 7.5/10
Value: 7/10
Will I return? Yes, here's hoping the dossants are here to stay!

MoVida Bakery
3 Tivoli Road
South Yarra VIC 3141
(03) 9041 4345


Mon closed
Tues to Fri 7:30am - 4pm
Sat & Sun 8am - 4pm

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