Montereys, Prahran

218 Chapel Street

Prahran
Melbourne
Victoria 3011

We were in Prahran on a Saturday looking for a spot for dinner and wandered past Montereys and decided to give it a try. We got a seat in the front area featuring a bar as well as tables which had a modern look, is fairly dimly lit and was fairly busy when we visited. There is also another dining area out the back



The restaurant is modelled on those of the Californian town it takes it's name from, which we visited about a year back. We kicked off by sharing a serve of fish tacos, which meant one each. These came with a decent chunk of battered fish along with some salad and dressing, which hot the spot and turned out to be the highlight of our visit.

I went with the beer battered fish and chips for my main which was served with a lemon wedge and tartar sauce, but no greenery of any sort. It did the job, but little more.

The Monterey seafood chowder was quite different from similarly named soups we've had before. A fairly thin broth accompanied by whole mussels and scallops and chunks of seafood, rather than a thicker richer chowder with the seafood blended in. While the ingredients were good and fresh it just wasn't what we expected...

The service was friendly and we were fed quickly, suiting our hungry stomachs. The bill came to $91  including few drinks, probably normal for that end of town, but it seemed a little overpriced.

Cafe Maritana, Ocean Grove

1 Flinders Parade
Barwon Heads
VIC 3227

We chose Cafe Maritana initially based on its enviable location close to the water near the bridge across to Ocean Grove. There was no menu up outside but we decided to take a risk and head on in. The fit out inside simple and classic with wooden tables and flowers on the tables. It turned out that the menu was almost tapas style with plates to share.

We kicked off with the bread with dukha, balsamic and olive oil. The bread itself seemed pretty basic but the oil, vinegar and dukkah were all good.

The prawns were big, fresh and flavoursome, if only there had been more!

The Persian Beans combined the legumes with olives, feta and more dukkah. Whilst each of the components were good, the combination didn't quite work for us.

The tempura soft shell crab was another winner.

 Our final selection was the mini-bucket of chilli salt whitebait which packed quite a flavour punch which we enjoyed.

Overall it was a little hit and miss and it would have been great to have a bit more variety with the salad garnish, as rocket appeared in 3 of the dishes. The service was friendly and well paced. The bill came to $98 with a 3 drinks.

Royal Albert Hotel

140 Commonwealth Street
Surry Hills
NSW 2010

While visiting Sydney for work, a friend from school, Neil suggested meeting up at the Royal Albert Hotel on the corner of Commonwealth and Reservoir streets in Surry Hills.

It looks like a classic Sydney Hotel from outside and inside plenty of traditional touches remain. The bar taps though, with their selection of craft beers and distinct absence of modern Aussie standard brews are amongst the clues of recent changes. We didn't venture into the Bamboo Dumpling Bar, but did sample the Young Henrys Real Ale, which reminded me of the UK beer in a good way, and very appropriate for the occasion.

I decided to take a look at the burger menu, and decided on the soft shell crab. After a short wait it arrived with its asian 'slaw and wasabi mayo. The serve of crab was generous and the flavours worked nicely. The crinkle cut chips came with a red sauce, which in the dim light could have been tomato, fortunately I was warned about the spicy chilli before dipping!

A little later Neil went for the spiced up Royale with cheese featuring a Jalapeno mustard!

The burgers were around the $16 mark, and perhaps took a little longer than I'd expected to arrive, although the re were a good number of orders from the bar area, along with a reasonably busy sounding dumplings section. The bar staff were friendly and the vibe relaxed. The Royal Albert lives up to its billing as a crafty little corner joint and is well worth seeking out for the burgers as well as the beers.

#zomatomeetup at Claypots St Kilda

213/215 Barkly Street
St Kilda
VIC 3182

We've enjoyed previous visits to Claypots, so when zomato invited me to a meet-up there I jumped at the chance!



The kick-off was fairly early at 6pmon a Monday, and I almost didn't recognise the quiet restaurant, as it was still empty. After finding Pranav from zomato and being introduced to fellow bloggers including (excuse the lazy use of instagram links) @evelovelle, @lydiapebbles, @embel, @mel_bin_blog, @monsadventure and @simtiaz_grazingpanda as well as  @confessionsofalittlepiggy, @mmeparker and @clamhands from zomato. We had a drink in the bar first, I stuck to the super low alcohol German lager as I was on the bike.

We sat down towards the back of the restaurant, under the octopus, and near the chalk board menu

To start things off we were presented with Turkish bread with a selection of Meze...

...including somw garfish, squid and tasty salads.

Next up out came the signature garlic king prawns, which lived up to their name in size alone...

...and also delivered in the flavour stakes.

The chilli crabs were served on platters also loaded with mussels.

It was fun to extract the tasty morsels from both components which complimented each other well.

The 'secret recipe' Cajun style Flathead was the closest of the whole fish dishes to me, and the dark coating added to the star of the show.

The fearsome looking crispy skin silver dory was given a kick by the sambal.

I loved the full flavours of the coral trout twinned with the asian influences of the sessame, soy and ginger.

By the time I thought about trying the actual claypot I was just too full.

The evening was great fun and the range of food pushed it into surpassing previous dining eperiences, it is a venue that works even better with large groups sharing big meals! I didn't have to pay for the meal - thanks to zomato and Claypots.

Neither organisation had any control over this post.

The Grain Store

517 Flinders Lane
Melbourne 
VIC 3000

Danny was visiting and was after some "modern Australian" cuisine; a bit of research led us to the Grain Store on Flinders Lane. Outside it was wet, so not a great time for finding the perfect angle, as it is the restaurant is in a large multi story building, with minimal branding outside. 

Inside the look was smart with plenty of light wood and would suit the brunches that get great write ups.

At the back the kitchen is open.

The menu isn't long, but it still took us a while to choose our meals.

Danny ended up selecting the pan seared scallops with smoked eggplant, a butternut boudin noir (black pudding) sandwich, ricotta lemon curd and crisp leeks which he enjoyed.

I went for the octopus which came with calabrese peppers, saffron potatoes, chorizo aioli and a smoked paprika chimichurri. The tender cephalopod was well complimented by the strong flavours..

Despite his well laid plans, Danny ended up opting for steak again. He asked for the 300g Romsey range NY cut grain fed sirloin rare, but it came out a little over that, but it still went down well. It came with a potato galette, sauce béarnaise and caramelized red onion jus.

My choice for main was the ocean trout, which came on this evening with cauliflower purée and fried school prawns. The skin was crisp, the flesh tender, moist and flavoursome. The crunchy crustaceans, veggies and sauce were perfectly cooked and worked well together.

We had the side of triple cooked hand cut French fries which came with chipotle aioli, the tomato sauce came out on special request!

The service was great, friendly, efficient and happy to accommodate our tardy ordering. The bill came to just over $150, including a few schooners of the True South Pilsner and a glass of wine. I'd be happy to eat at the Grain Store again, either at dinner or to try their lauded brunch.

Kota Kinabalu Night Market, Sabah

Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens

Kota Kinabalu, 

Sabah

We made two visits to the night market while we were in Kota Kinabalu.

It is right on the sea front, with sunset views across the fishing boats.

It is a hard location to beat, just a few meters from the vessels that brought in your dinner!

The first time we visited this was our menu.

The fish had been what tempted us, both cooked...

... and fresh out of the ocean.

This was our silver snapper, which was well cooked with enough flavours to compliment the fresh flavours.

We also had a few local greens.

On our second visit we ate at Nadirasa Resipi, although most of different eateries were fairly similar.

There was plenty on offer on the menu....

...and more on the bbq.

We had some good grilled sweet corn.

The greens were served with onion, chilli and fried shallots.

Our fish took a bit longer than expected, I think that was just because it was cooked to order. It was covered in a layer of a sambal like paste and served on a banana leaf, and was worth the wait.

The night market is a great spot to head down to in KK, the location, sights and sounds make the experience special and the food is great and well priced.

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