Oceanz - Auckland Fish Market

Corner Daldy and Jellicoe Streets
Hobsons Bay
Auckland

Oceanz in the Auckland fish market was the first meal stop during our trip to New Zealand. It's on the edge of the fish market in the recently re-developed waterfront area which was busy on the sunny Saturday afternoon when we visited. As well as selling plenty of fresh fish and seafood, which dominates most of the space, with a counter at the back where cooked food can be ordered.

We shared the fish and chips combo pack which contained two portions of fish for around $NZ15. The fish was fresh and moist, as you'd expect, the batter crisp and the chips weren't bad either.

We did have a bit of a wait for our orders to be ready, but it was fairly busy even mid-afternoon, and we had to clear the table we grabbed outside ourselves. Overall thought the food was worth the slight inconveniences and it was a good spot to watch the world go by at that time of day.

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Trunk Diner

275 Exhibition St
Melbourne,
3000

I've been to Trunk a few times but had never eaten at the Diner, which lives in a permanent clear sided marquee in the courtyard right alongside Little Lonsdale Street. There are tables inside but we grabbed a table in the courtyard where you can order from either establishment. The only down side with that is that as there are two kitchens, the orders arrive separately, which is fair enough.

The Diner from the courtyard, apologies for the in phone panorama.


I ordered from the Diner Menu and had the niçoise baguette, which was packed with tuna, slow roasted tomato, olives, cornichons, capers, cos lettuce and aioli with boiled eggs perched on top... Although it wasn't huge it was flavoursome and pretty filling and quite a challenge to eat.

 
My colleagues both chose the caramelized pumpkin and taleggio tortellini with hazelnut and sage burnt butter from the Main Trunk menu, which they both enjoyed.

We shared some polenta chips which would have been a little bland except for the jalapeño mayo.

The menu in the Diner is quite small with the burger being the centre of attention, but all the options are around the $10 mark, and not bad value. The service was pretty efficient for us and friendly, despite it being fairly busy on a Friday lunch time. If you fancy a casual burger, sandwich or salad in a relaxed environment at that end of town




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Maccaroni Trattoria Italiana

10 Manchester Lane
Melbourne
VIC 3000

After doing some urbanspoon research we decided on Maccaroni Trattoria Italiana for lunch. Tucked in on the Collins Street end of Manchster Lane it is small with a couple of tables outside and a row of six two seater tables along a banquette on the wall, behind this was the open elevated kitchen and there may have been some more tables further back. The fit out is pretty moderm, for some reason I was expecting something older, the walls being filled with jars and packets of different types of pasta, bottles of wine and other consumables.

We began to peruse the menu, I focused on the pasta and gnocchi options, but there were also antipasti, main dishes and desserts as well some daily specials.

I ended up chosing the handmade potato gnocchi sorrentina, featuring a Napoli sauce with lots of mozzarella melted through it topped with some pesto. The balls of potato pasta were slightly smaller than usual, and there was more cheese than I expected, but it all tasted good and was well cooked and put together.

Phil went for the baked macaroni pasta with mince meatballs eggplant and mozzarella au gratin which looked great and went down well, he even grabbed a card on the way out.

The service was from the only waitress we saw was friendly and pretty speedy given I could also only see one chef. The bill came to $26:50 for the two of us, and it was nice to try something to our usual noodle of curry based lunches!






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The Footscray Rickshaw Run

Leeds Street,
Footscray
3011

Previous Melbourne Food and Wine festivals seem to have passed me by, I'm not good at planning and booking meals more than a couple of days in advance. This was in danger of happening again until I saw an article proclaiming 'Rickshaw Pullers needed!' for the Footscray Traders Rickshaw Run and I got in touch and two days later on a Sunday lunchtime a turned up for a shift...

After a briefing on how to safely manoeuvre one of the sturdy but surprisingly nimble carts and meeting a few of the volunteers I was drafted in to help pull an Age photographer along to get the shot for an article in the paper, we got the shot on the fourth try!

Things started with impressive live Japanese and Korean music performances in Leeds St.

Whilst enjoying the dramatic drumming, the customers were tucking into fresh oysters.

The first stop was a visit to Little Saigon Market, which showcased the diversity of produce available, then it was off to Sen for a  Rice Paper roll making master class.

From there the convoy headed to Hao Phong for Pho.

Grant the organiser chats to Long outside his restaurant Sapa Hills where Bun Cha was being served.

Whilst I sat waiting in my chariot Grant popped in to Aroma and returned with a box of custard tarts to energise us for the rest of the trip, these were tasty and welcome!

In Dong Que Spring rolls were on offer which were popular before the return leg to Pho Tam for a final Vietnamese sweat drink. This was also the location for the volunteers lunch which was welcome after a hard days pulling carts. The customers certainly seemed to enjoy their introduction to Footscray eating and it is a great introduction to the area. I enjoyed the afternoon and would think about another shift if I get a chance...

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Sonido, Fitzroy

69 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy,
VIC 3065

After enjoying our visit to Caffettino - Fitzroy Brendan and I returned to Gertrude Street for lunch at Sonido a south american restaurant which had plenty of good reviews. From the outside it was pretty anonymous with a small sign and a few random seating options outside.

As we got closer we realised it was busy inside with people sat at all the smaller and larger shared tables, which we were offered the option of perching on the end of. We opted to go out side and selected the bench and coffee table rather than the kiddie sized table!

This was the first time either us had tried food from south of Mexico. We both went for arepa's, which are apparently a typical food of northern South America (Colombia and Venezuela) and are crispy flat round 'goodies' made of ground corn. Brendan selected the Arepa con Huevo, which with scrambled free range eggs with spring onions and tomato. It seemed to go down well and had a distinctive flavour from the added greens.

I had the Frijoles con feta - Black Beans and Feta on a Arepa, served with guacamole and picadillo. The beans were brilliantly earthy in a slightly spicy sauce with just enough bitey feta on top. The guacamole was super zesty an broke things up along with the picadillo. the arepa was crispy and satisfying, I guess this is almost a south American beans on toast!

The waiting staff were all distinctively unkempt but friendly at the same time, despite how busy things were. Our dishes took enough time to arrive that we were definitely ready for them when they appeared! Both were $11.50. I'd happily go back to try some of the other options on the menu.

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Don Too

330 Little Lonsdale Street
Melbourne
Vic 3000

After our visit to Kokoro Ramen and seeing comments that the best ramen in Melbourne was possibly served at Don Too, it seemed like it would be worth a try. So a lunch with Phil came up, and seeing he'd come up to my end of town last time, I jumped on my bike at lunch time to get across town.

On arrival from the outside the place looked pretty good, nicely set up with wooden tables and chairs, a clean design, and busy!

Looking at the menu I worked out a couple of things, one ramen isn't served at lunch time and two this place is very similar to Don Don even sharing the menu. The cheap prices also stay as does the super fast service, however maybe it's being away from Swanson street, it seemed just slightly more relaxed...

In the end both of us selected the teriyaki chicken don for $7. Again this looked similar the offerings at the other branch, but the sauce seemed to have a little more kick here which was welcome.

On doing some more research later, it seems that the ramen is strictly evenings only, which means I'm less likely to try it. Don Too certainly joins its sibling in offering great value, and probably beats it in terms of atmosphere and fit out. This isn't fine dining, but is well priced fast lunch food.

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Caffettino - Fitzroy

43 Gertrude Street
Melbourne
VIC 3065

Rather than wandering into the city for lunch with Brendan we headed for the quieter streets of Fitzroy, Gertrude street and Caffettino in particular.

The tables outside were all taken when we arrived, but we managed to find a spot inside, where the walls were decorated with Italian style food related photos.

The menu was on boards behind the counter and is also hiding on their on their website and covers sandwiches, soups various pasta options and more, all apparently home made.

The penne with pesto and sundried tomato topped with shaved parmesan was rich and tasty and delivered what was expected.

I decided on the the lentil soup, which arrived looking like a vegetable soup, but on further inspection was packed with small brown lentils. The bowl was a good size and the soup was hearty and tasty, it came with some good bread.

The meals were good value, only $8 for the soup! The staff were friendly, if maybe a little disorganised. It certainly isn't a bad option if you need to grab lunch while in the area, the coffees looked good too.




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Chill @ the Bay

14 Pascoe Street
Apollo Bay
VIC 3233

Chill @ the bay is tucked away off the main street of Apollo Bay, but is signposted from there. When we arrived on the Friday evening of a long weekend, there were plenty of other diners already there, both inside and outside. Initially we were told it was full, although we'd spotted some tables outside, slightly taken aback we left, only to be called back by the waitress who'd realised her mistake. To be fair it looked like the table may have been recently vacated and as seems often to be the case in seaside towns in the holidays the staff seem to be slightly overwhelmed. The set up outside was fairly standard and basic, inside behind the darkened windows it was nightclub like with low couches, high tables and stool as well as a bar.

The menu featured tapas dishes, some traditional Spanish style ones and others such as spring rolls, slightly larger "raciones" and sharing dishes including paella.
We selected some of our favourite dishes as well as some new ones. The first tapas to arrive being the patatas bravas these were fine, resembling mini roast potatoes rather than usual fried and came with an average tomato sauce.

The Garden salad was fresh and made a good healthy accompaniment to go with the more intense flavours.

The hake croquets were crunchy on outside and soft and tasty inside.

The salt and pepper calamari were a bit on the orange side and lacked some flavour.

The mushrooms were nicely cooked but didn't have much to lift them above the ordinary...

After the initial confusion, the service was friendly and the dishes arrived at a good pace as we grazed. Overall the meal wasn't as good as the one we'd had at El Burro a few weeks before, which was really good. The bill was around $60 with a couple of drinks.

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Cafe Nautigals - Apollo Bay

57-59 Great Ocean Road
Apollo Bay
Vic 3233

While down in Apollo Bay for a long weekend we noticed Nautigals cafe had started serving dinner and decided to give it a try. Later we found out this was the first summer holiday season that they'd been open late, after previously doing this during in Easter 2011. The beachy café feel remains with tables on the pavement, a courtyard out the front as well as a couple of rooms inside, the café counter area with some computers and fishy wallpapered dining area with a mix of tables including the 'church area' where we literally found a pew. The menu was relatively short with around 4 entrées and 5 mains on offer. There few other tables occupied when we arrived, but it filled up,to start, and was pretty busy by the time we left.

We shared the trio of dips to start, I'm not sure the photo quite does justice to the size of the servings of the dips, they were big, larger than I'd seen as an entrée before and it was good that we were sharing! The beetroot and mint dip and eggplant and garlic were our favourites, the capsicum dip was a little on the creamy side, and with plenty of each of the others, we ran out of toast Turkish bread before we got really stuck into it.

I went for the oven cooked fish of the day with a herb crust, served on chips (I'd assumed this meant fries, but they were more like crisps) and a rocket, goats cheese, walnut and pear salad. The fish was moist and gently flavoured by the crust and the salad was fresh and interesting.

The prawn linguine with rocket and baby tomatoes featured prawns that had been completely shelled rather than left with their tales on which now seems to be the standard. Other than that the dish was up to scratch.

The staff were all fairly young, even those spotted when peaking into the kitchen behind the counter looked to be barely out of their teens. They provided friendly service and gradually got busier and maybe a bit slower during the Saturday evening. The bill came to just over $70 including an Otway beer and a couple of glasses of bubbles, served in a standard glass. Overall this was one our best dining experiences in Apollo Bay, and I reckon we'd give it another go if they are open when we are open again.

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