Boo in Australia - Melbourne Breakfast/ Brunch (Fitzroy)

One of the things which greatly appealed to me during the planning of my trip to Oz was the idea of having a glut of breakfast options in Melbourne along the lines of Lantana and Caravan here in London. And the coffee, I was promised amazing coffee and Melbourne certainly does not disappoint on that front.


Being based in Fitzroy North for the duration of our stay in the city, Dench Bakers was my firm favourite in the area. Approximately 1 hour after landing, I was camped here, enjoying a latte and avocado and danish feta on sourdough with a large chunk of lemon and a sprinkling of chives. So simple and soooooo good. Dench are bread suppliers to many other Melbourne restaurants.


I also tried their veggie breakfast, (why don't I eat always spinach for breakfast?) and many of their sweets as dessert at our pre Xmas feast at Jamie and Tori's were from Dench. Some friends have heard reports of snotty service but I always found them to be more than pleasant and we never had to wait for a table. Dench - I miss you.


Perhaps our second most frequented brunch venue throughout the stay was Arcadia on Gertrude Street. They don't seem to have a website but Gertrude street is home to many small independent clothing/music/art type shops and is also where the Melbourne branch of Books for Cooks can be found. The above Arcadia eggs was lovely, I always marvel at the beauty of a perfectly poached egg having seen many failed attempts both at home and when eating out.


The Mexican eggs were fantastic, scrambled eggs with tomato, avocado and coriander on sourdough. They also have a bewildering array of lunch salads, sandwiches and sweets, though I never had lunch here, my visits were always early, whilst the lunch display were being assembled. Nice coffee and muffins too.

Just 2 doors down from Arcadia lives De Clieu, another real favourite of mine and many others, it can be tricky to get a table at weekends. On our 2nd day here we met Rob and Olly for brunch and were still completely jet lagged so I neglected to take any pictures. I had the Breakfast De Clieu, a board with boiled egg, smoked ham, gruyere, tarragon mustard butter and baguette with a selection of jams. Everyone else on the table had the Brunch De Clieu, a fried egg with pureed cauliflower and mushrooms with truffle oil, veal jus, bacon and sourdough. They all raved.


Other popular dishes include a pork neck roti and a Reuben's special. Everything on the menu sounds lovely actually and I returned to try more but it was too late in the day and they had stopped serving food (at 3pm daily). Still in time for a great latte though!

De Clieu is the newest opening from the team behind Seven Seeds and Brother Baba Budan, both in Melbourne's CBD, see my next post for my thoughts on Seven Seeds.


Also very close to where we were based, with Megan and Dan was Jorg. We went here on day 3 of our trip, the sun was shining and we had a lot of travelling ahead of us to look forward to. The food was not of the standard to which, by day 3, we had become accustomed! Megs and I both had baked eggs, mine with tomato, peppers and cannelini beans, the other option with puy lentils and feta. I was disappointed that the yolks were hard and, as always with baked eggs + greed, we burned our tongues. Other dishes were on the small side and with Dench just around the corner, I can see why we were the only diners on a Sunday morning.


Across the road from Jorg sits the Tin Pot Cafe. They are a slightly cheaper option (most breakfast dishes will cost around $20, around £15 when we were there, and Dench increase prices by 10% on a Sunday??!)

The above bacon with scrambled eggs was okay, I had an english muffin topped with poached eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach, yay. Good coffee but a distinctly average breakfast by Melbourne standards. They open evenings too which many do not and the menu read very well, friends concurred that they had heard good things of the dinner dishes.


Rounding up the Fitzroy selection is Atomica Cafe. I was hungover and in need of serious sustenance so I ordered the veggie breakfast with extra corn fritter and an iced latte (it was a scorcher and we walked there). The smoked tomato was a revelation and this was just what I needed to prepare me for the pub crawl ahead of us.

I hope you can see that breakfast and coffee is something the Aussies really take pride in and do well. It's one of my absolute favourite things about Melbourne and the average quality is far superior compared to the standard greasy fry up available here. Unfortunately for us Brits, the Australian dollar is very strong at the moment so you'll need to take plenty of money, but it really was worth every penny for me.

Dench Bakers
109 Scotchmer St
9/10



Arcadia
193 Gertrude St (Fitzroy border Collingwood)
7/10



De Clieu
187 Gertrude St
8/10



Jorg
203 St Georges Rd
5/10



Tin Pot Cafe
248 St Georges Rd
6/10



Atomica
268 Brunswick St
7/10

Roganic

I've been back in the UK for a week now, and I have a, frankly overwhelmingly, lengthy list of meals in London, Singapore and Australia that I am keen to document here.

To start off, and ease myself back in to blogging after 3 months off, here's a mainly photographic account of an outstanding meal at Roganic, where I dined with a group of friends back in September.

We opted for the 10 course dinner menu, starting with this pretty amuse.

Then the most spectacular bread selection I've ever seen was presented, 1 between 3 (we were 6 diners in total). This was one of my highlights, there was a quite brilliant soda bread, sweet tasting, and unlike any bread I've tried before.

Heirloom tomato, poached lamb tongue and dill custard - amazing and intense dehydrated tomato.

Bradock white (egg yolk), pickled roots, ox eye daisy and salt beef - best dish of the night for me.

Cured and smoked Cornish char, Watts farm pepper and crab apple.

Pig and smoked eel, sea purslane, black mustard and pickled corn - this, I don't seem to have photographed for some reason. I do recall the sea purslane being the best thing about the dish, salty and crunchy.

Grilled langoustine, purple sprouting, elder and loganberry oil.

Royal kidneys (potato) cooked in chicken fat, snow peas, goats curd and clam juice - tastiest potato EVER.

Skate belly, young beetroot, caramelised cauliflower and King scallop.

Cumbrian rose veal cooked in buttermilk, cobnuts, mead and wild cabbage puree - I come from Kent and find it a joy to see cobnuts on any menu. The ingredient list here perfectly illustrates the clever and interesting cooking one can expect to enjoy at Roganic.

Warm salted chocolate, William pear, chesnuts and buckthorn.

Billberries, dried caramel, natural yoghurt and iced lemon thyme.

Service deserves special mention, each member of the team is knowledgeable and helpful. The room too, which is cosy and warm, though the taller of our party had trouble with those pesky hanging lamps!

We started off with gin and tonics all round, and somehow managed to see off 5 bottles of wine throughout the night (Droit chablis '08, Chateau Filhot '99 and Rillard Morgon '09). 10 courses (plus canapé and pre dessert), I didn't feel overly full when we left and all this came to under £160 per person. I thought Roganic was terrific and am keen to try chef Ben Spalding's food again. Or, perhaps a trip up to Cumbria to sister restaurant, and head chef Simon Rogan's permanent home, L'Enclume is in order - this is certainly food worth travelling for.

Roganic
19 Blandford Street
W1

8/10 (if you've not already been, go in 2012, as Roganic is a 2 year pop up and you really don't want to miss this)

Boo not in London

I'll be out of the country for the rest of the year visiting Singapore then traveling around Australia.

I'm not likely to be posting whilst I'm away but plan on eating lots!

Until 2012! x

Nid Ting, Holloway Road

Clichéd Saturday evening entertainment = dinner and movie.

I did exactly this a couple of weekends ago with a visit to Nid Ting on Holloway Road followed by the Inbetweeners. Both proved to be underwhelming.

The restaurant was pretty busy with a steady flow of diners, it's a handy location for pre or post cinema dining just along the road from the Odeon. Which is perhaps the only positive thing I can find to say about the spot. Service was efficient and friendly, we'd not booked and were deftly accommodated.


Starters were solid yet unimaginative, prawn toast, dim sum-esque dumplings and spring rolls all prettily presented and generous in portion. The table dining next to us asked for 'spring rolls for 3' to start and got the giggles when 3 of the below (minus the arm) were presented, rookie error and spring roll overload.


I opted for the lamb massaman curry from the specials for main course. I really liked the sauce, mild and sweet, sprinkled with red chilli and peanuts and bulked up with potatoes but the lamb was tough and would have benefited from a longer slower cook.


Other mains were well received, the red chicken curry and a fiercely hot chicken stir fry with tonnes of chilli. There seemed to be a contingent of faithful regular diners appearing throughout the evening to a rapturous reception, Nid Ting is a safe but not out of the ordinary local find. They have an extensive menu, which I found it very tricky to select from, and prices are average (between £7 and £12 for mains).

I'll probably stick to Charuwan in future.

Nid Ting
533 Holloway Road
N19
5/10

Le Pain Quotidien

I know it's a chain but the girls and I love Alain Coumont's Le Pain Quotidien so much that we ate there twice in one day on Noy's birthday weekend.


I usually have the cheeseboard, as indeed I did last Saturday. It hits the spot with an oozing blue, a pungent camembert, a hard, crumbly red and a creamy goats cheese. Served with a few dark grapes, some baguette, fruit and nut bread, wheat bread and butter. I love it, so simple, I have no idea what the cheeses are but they are consistently good.


Also great are the platters, meat, fish, veggie, mezze, they all look appealing. The fish platter with salmon pate, crab, prawns (let the side down as they lacked any flavour) and smoked salmon is perfect for grazing over the course of a long leisurely lunch. Noy enjoyed the Italian version, with tapenade, pesto, roasted veggies, artichoke, mozzarella and prosciutto. Nibs was happy with her tomato and mozzarella salad, the salads all look seriously good, generous portions and a huge selection to choose from.

Billed as a communal dining venue, at the Soho branch there is an enormous long wooden table running through the centre of the dining room as well as smaller tables seating 2's, 3's and 4's along the outer walls. I like the relaxed feel to the place and I like the prices. I'm not sure about the tartines, open sandwiches, never tried them, probably never will but there's a whole section of the menu devoted to them, and a daily special.


After a mooch around the shops we returned for some tea and cake, a pot or earl and a bakewell tart for me. An excellent crunchy pastry tart with a wickedly sweet and almondy centre, you can't go wrong with anything almond flavoured as far as I'm concerned.


Nibs went for the lemon tart and the birthday girl had cream tea. A monster scone with fluffy whipped cream and a selection of jams.

With a glass of prosecco lunch came to £20 a head with service. There's a lengthy breakfast menu available until 12:30 daily and more substantial dishes on the dinner menu from 5pm. It seems like there's a lot going on here with a befuddling combo of guises - cafe/boulangerie/pâtisserie/deli - but that's precisely what we like about it, particularly on those indecisive days where you can't pinpoint exactly what you all fancy.

Le Pain Quotidien
18 Great Marlborough Street
Soho
WC2E
6.5/10

Bocca di Lupo

On a busy Wednesday evening I scoffed at the size of the queue at Barrafina and head to Bocca di Lupo instead, finally making it a tardy 2 and a half years after the launch.

I've read great reports from fellow bloggers about meals here but my dear friends John and Sue were not so keen so I was keeping an open mind. We had to wait a mere 10 minutes and were seated at the bar. My companion thought the stool to bar ratio was off and felt pretty uncomfortable for the rest of the evening. I'm fairly short so wasn't bothered.


First up came an excellent selection of bread, served with olive oil to dunk and a bowl of those amazing vibrant green olives.


The concept is sharing plates, you're advised to order multiple dishes to split. We started with some courgette flowers with honey, mozzarella and anchovies. I loved these, the cheesy filling and the crunchy coating contrasting nicely.


Served next was the tomato and basil bruschetta which I found to be dull and lacking seasoning. Luckily it arrived with my favourite dish of the night, the orecchiette with 'nduja "extremely spicy home-made salame," red onion, tomato & rocket. It was as spicy as promised and we both agreed this was a fine dish, just the kind of food I'd hoped to find on Jacob Kenedy's menu.


The next batch of dishes to arrive began with the clams, mussels & borlotti beans stew, freshened up with a sprinkling of basil but a great hearty bowlful. The linguini with spider crab tomato and basil was a little devoid of flavour, nice al dente pasta but disappointingly bland. Our final savoury choice was grilled langoustines which were, I think, overpriced at £16 for 6 of the creatures, they yield so little meat.


It can be said that the desserts are a particular speciality here, what with Gelupo across the road. We tried the wickedly boozy rum baba with strawberries and cream and the gelato cup zuppa inglese, or trifle, sour cherry and zabione gelati with toasted almonds, this was wonderful, and refreshing. Most memorable though was the caffe allo zabaione, coffee with sweetened beaten egg yolk, incredible. I saw one of these being prepared and we just had to have one.


The meal came to £80, a lot given that I found some dishes didn't quite hit the mark. The good was very good and service was lovely but I think I might just brave the queue in future as my heart still belongs to Barrafina.

Bocca di Lupo
12 Archer Street
Soho
W1D

6/10

The Horseshoe, Hampstead

As a birthday treat I had the ultimate indulgence package at Natura day spa in Hampstead last weekend, heartily recommend them by the way, if pampering is your thing, it was fantastic. Anyhow, following a morning of relaxation, I dined at The Horseshoe for brunch.

This place's main appeal has to the the micro brewery, most of their home brews have recently relocated to bigger surroundings in Chalk Farm but there are still several barrels to be found under the dining room here in Hampstead. But the food is certainly not an afterthought and I have to say this is perhaps the finest smoked salmon (bizarrely from Camden apparently) and scrambled eggs I have had in a long while.


Great bread was served too on a nice little wooden board, rustic and hearty seems to be the ethos here, the room is minimal and service is nonchalant. Excellent toasted sourdough the perfect platform for the fine coupling of salmon and eggs.


They had regrettably sold out of the eggs Benedict Thomas' first choice so he went for the cheeseburger. Another use for the little wooden boards, and chips in a bucket, again, seeing this everywhere!

I really liked the relaxed vibe at The Horseshoe, having stumbled upon it is fun too, I usually plan meals so it's nice to discover somewhere having not researched beforehand, how we used to do things pre food blogs.

I'd like to come back, the mussels smelled great. Less than £15 a head, my dish came with a glass of rose for £12.50. Lovely day for it.

The Horseshoe
28 Heath Street
Hampstead
NW3 6TE
8/10