Australian – Page 3

Lone Pine Bistro (Phillip Island RSL)

June 22, 2012 Posted in Australian, Cowes, Food Reviews, Phillip Island, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

We often go to Phillip Island to bring our guests to the Penguin Parade, but since we’ve seen the penguins so often, it isn’t worth it to buy a ticket for ourselves. So instead, we take a little detour to the main town centre (Cowes) of Phillip Island. One of the few restaurants/things to do at night is the Lone Pine Bistro, and the Phillip Island RSL that are connected.

I was quite surprised that they close early, I think it was 8:30 but the RSL/Pokies still remains open. Luckily we got in time and was one of the last few orders before the kitchen closed.

I ordered the Lamb Burger with Chips and Salad. I was a tad bloated because I ate some Korean Corn Chips (Delicious) an hour or so before, but after tasting this. I couldn’t resist.

I loved the burger, it had a slice of beetroot, well seasoned lamb mince patty, salad and cheese. It was a traditional combination but nicely cooked. The bread was crispy but soft on the inside, and overall the burger just hit the spot. Usually you’d find the burger to be dry, but this one was perfectly cooked.

The salad had a nice tanginess that helped with the fattiness of the chips. The chips required tomato sauce to go down, it was a tad too dry with the potato having that chalky texture. On the positive side, it was nice and crunchy.

I was pleasantly surprised with RSL/Bistro food after eating this, usually “pub” food can be overcooked and quite pedestrian. Although this doesn’t stray too far from the norm, what it does, it does well.

Their Roast Beef and Vegetables dish wasn’t as fantastic as their Burger. Most places cannot serve perfectly cooked carved beef or turkey. I think it’s because they cook the entire beef/turkey/pork and just leave it to “keep warm”. So eventually the meat just loses all it’s juices and overcooks. This is what happened here.

The meat is quite tough, and the gravy tries its best to assist with the dryness, but ultimately cannot overcome the fact that the meat is severely overcooked. On the plus side, potatoes are always good, and the vegetables served are pleasant enough to eat.

I’d be disappointed if I was served this, and it’s a stark difference to how well cooked the Lamb Burger was. I can see why it was disappointing, and it would definitely be difficult to cook the meat perfectly all things considered. Probably would be better if they served a steak but alas this isn’t what they offered.

Impressions

Lone Pine Bistro serves traditional Australian food, they also have a wide range of desserts and cakes. So if you’re travelling to see the Penguins, a stop here for some tucker isn’t a bad idea at all.

Lone Pine Bistro – Phillip Island RSL
Phillip Island
Phillip Island RSL 225-243 Thompson Ave
Cowes VIC 3922

Red Hill Brewery

May 18, 2012 Posted in Australian, Food Reviews, Red Hill, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

One of the main tourist attractions in the Mornington Peninsula is the Red Hill Estate for all wine lovers. For beer lovers, there is the Red Hill Brewery. Their brewery and dining area has this nice rustic wooden aesthetic to it but it feels very Australian and modern. While the Brewery’s beer gets people through the doors, their sharing plates are wonderful in its own right.

We ordered one of those beer sampling tray, as seen below. From the far back I believe Wheat Beer, Scotch Ale, Belgian Blonde and Golden Ale. Being a fan of the lighter beers, I much preferred the golden coloured beers as it didn’t feel as heavy and strong. I don’t drink beer all that often so I really can’t comment on the complexities of flavours of each beer, but I’d definitely go back for the Belgian Blonde. Reminds me of Stella Artois, which is a good thing!

We also ordered three sharing platters which range from $10-12 dollars as this was basically our morning ~~tea~~ beer, and to accompany our lovely beers.

The first dish we ordered is the Beetroot & Orange Cured Salmon. My golly was it something else. The citrus flavour of the orange works really well with the slight saltiness of the salmon and the sweetness of the beetroot makes this whole combination oddly beautiful. The Main Ridge dairy goats curd mousse and pea shoot salad, really add to the complexity of the dish. I’m actually a fan, even though I was quite apprehensive at first.

The other two dishes we ordered is the Stoemp Cakes. These crispy fried pieces contain mashed potato served with vegies. I’m a big fan of anything potato so these cakes were superb. The batter is very light and thin so it doesn’t feel overly rich and fattening. The homemade mayonnaise adds a nice creaminess to the overall dish. So I was pretty happy with this dish, but I’d be happy with potato regardless so maybe it’s not the best advice to go off.

On the right of the picture, in the red bowl, is the Lamb Koftas. Again, Red Hill Brewery have served up another winner. These lamb balls aremarinated with some very pleasant spices, and for those that are put off by the Lamb taste, it still has retains some of this but the roast tomato sauce along with the spices mostly mask this flavour. Even though I loved the Stoemp Cakes, these Lamb Koftas were my absolute favourite. Perfectly cooked, and just a pleasure to eat.

Red Hill Brewery is definitely a must visit for Beer lovers, but also wins my heart for its delicious food. I couldn’t afford to come here as often as I would like, but that’s okay. When travelling to (or even through the) Mornington Peninsula, you can’t go wrong with stopping here.

Red Hill Brewery (Menu)
88 Shoreham Rd
Red Hill South
Victoria 3937

Ph 03 59892959
Fax 03 59892270

Winter Opening Hours
Thursday – Sunday 11am – 6pm (7pm during daylight savings)
plus all Public holidays and Mondays during school holidays

NB: Bookings are required for lunch

Kitchen Workshop

April 13, 2012 Posted in Asian, Australian, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant Reviews, Southbank, WesternLeave a comment

Crown’s Kitchen Workshop is one of my favourite buffet restaurants in Melbourne for its affordable pricing and all-round good food. What makes it a winner for me is its range of offerings and their dessert selections.

What makes Kitchen Workshop attractive is its offerings of 300g of fresh iced prawns or half a dozen fresh oysters. You get a coupon/ticket when you enter and you redeem it at the seafood bar.

Their prawns might I add are pretty darn good, along with the nice seafood sauce you can grab, these prawns are fresh and nicely cooked. You could probably make a meal out of just these but of course you don’t come to Kitchen Workshop for just their seafood.

They have a mix of the usual Western and Asian dishes from pastas, to beef stews, Asian stir frys, and a selection of cooked meats. They also usually have one or two soups, the last time I went there I tried their Potato & Leek soup, and also their Tom Yum Soup. While the Leek soup was nice and creamy, their Tom Yum soup wasn’t as good as I hoped but seemed really popular anyway. The Roast Counter I find their meats to be a tad dry but with sauce it’s usually decent enough.

Kitchen Workshop also has a Teppanyaki station where you can pick an assortment of vegetables and a protein, I think people usually go with pork and watch the chef cook you up something nice from your selection using their Teppanyaki grill. It’s usually extremely popular so get in quick when you see minimal people hovering around.

For those looking for a lighter meal, they have a salad bar with your selection of cold dishes and cheeses/meats. I’m not usually a fan of cold meals so I have no real comments on these but they do look desirable.

Okay, time to talk about their desserts. It’s slightly odd how all the desserts are right at the entrance but I’m digressing. There are the usual treats, e.g tarts, cakes, custards and the like. Either fruit or chocolate, or both! They also have a chocolate fountain where you can dip strawberries or marshmallows.

I believe they also have some warm desserts, and pavlovas to boot but I can’t be certain because I usually go straight towards the one dessert.

The real star of the show, for me, is their self-serve soft-serve ice-cream machine. Phew, that was a bundle to say. However, my golly is it good. There are only two flavours, vanilla and chocolate (the chocolate being the more authentic tasting one) but you can also pick a variety of toppings, e.g syrups, sprinkles, m&ms, candies, you name it. I like it au naturale, and I could sit there all day eating just that. Probably not the healthiest thing to do, or even the cheapest option since McDonald’s do 30c Cones. Who needs cones anyway! However, it definitely is the greatest way to end a meal. Delicious.

Overall, Kitchen Workshop is pretty good value for money. It has a good range of foods and desserts plus service is usually very good (removing plates and providing drinks). I just checked their prices, it appears it may have gone up? $33.50 for dinner Fri-Sat/weekend lunch. I’m not too sure but still I’d recommend this over Conservatory any day. Unless you prefer more seafood, then go for broke at Conservatory, but be warned they have no soft-serve ice-cream there.

Kitchen Workshop

Ground Floor, Clarendon Street Entrance
8 Whiteman St
Crown Entertainment Complex
Melbourne VIC 3006

Opening hours
Lunch
Mon to Fri: 11:30am – 2:30pm
Sat: Midday – 2:30pm
Sun: Midday – 2:30pm

Dinner
Mon to Thur: 5:30pm – 9:30pm
Fri: 5:00pm – 9:30pm
Sat: 5:00pm – 10:30pm
Sun: 5:00pm – 9:30pm

Lynbrook Hotel

November 16, 2011 Posted in Australian, Chinese, Desserts, Food, Indian, Italian, Lynbrook, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

I came across the Lynbrook Hotel after browsing Urbanspoon’s top Melbourne Buffet Restaurants. Having already tried China Bar, Consevatory and Kitchenworkshop (3 of the top 5), I was surprised to see Lynbrook Hotel so far up the top. Lynbrook? Lynbrook has a hotel?

After my initial shock, I checked out the official website, it said it had a International Buffet Bistro, offering European, Asian and Australian cuisines. This piqued my interest and afterall their prices were quite reasonable too.

We went to try it out for my father’s birthday, and booked the earlier session to avoid the large cohords of people (I expected anyway). Their eating area is quite spacious and clean. It makes for a welcoming dining experience.

The food is grouped into several categories, from Asian (Chinese), European (Italian), Australian, and Indian with a bit of Thai, and of course Desserts.

The Food

While I didn’t take photographs of the food itself (I was too busy eating), the food was decent and there was a great variety of dishes.

In the Asian corner, they have Fried Rice, and a few stir frys which were surprisingly decent for a restaurant primarily served by Indian chefs.

There was a good selection of seafood, from fresh prawns, to steamed fish and a few of your standard ‘Fish and Chip shop’ items, and also roast items like roast beef and potatoes, vegetables in another area.

In their European flavoured area they served mostly Italian food, i.e pastas, lasagne and pizza.

Their Indian area took me by surprise, as it smelt great. A few different styled curries, and bite sized snack food. As I mentioned before they served Thai fish cake, which was spicy! However when my parents when again for a friend’s birthday celebration, they didn’t have these on offer. So it seems their selection of food varies slightly per week.

Their dessert menu consisted of a lot of cakes and sugary treats. My favourite was the warm almond cake, and the chocolate mousse. Of course, they served ice-cream for the kids, which was running empty by the hours end. I’ll admit their selection of desserts was great, but nothing can top soft serve ice-cream at Kitchen Workshop.

There were a couple of downsides, their pizzas weren’t cooked long enough so the bread was still doughly. Perhaps their second run of pizzas were better, I didn’t attempt to try it again.

As mentioned earlier, their 3 tubs of ice-cream were probably sitting there for a while so it wasn’t replaced as quickly (or at all) during our session. Some of their dishes were slightly overcooked but I can overlook that as it wasn’t terribly bad.

Overall impressions

The Lynbrook Hotel serves a great selection of food, for what you pay for, you do get your monies worth. Compared to Kitchen Workshop which is roughly the same price, I’d prefer Kitchen Workshop but if you’re looking for some tasty Asian dishes Lynbrook is your best bet.

Lynbrook Hotel

550 South Gippsland Highway
Lynbrook

VIC 3975

Bistro Prices and Sessions Here

Spudbar

May 14, 2011 Posted in Australian, Doncaster, Food, Food Reviews, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

My love of potatoes knows no bounds. I’ll eat it mashed, grilled, fried, boiled, cut up into wedges or fries and then deep fried or oven baked. I don’t think I’ve stopped loving potatoes and their versatility. So when a baked potato store opened, my sister (Also a potato head) found it and got me to try it. It was just simply perfection.

The name of the store is Spudbar, and it’s been a firm favourite ever since I went there a couple of years ago.

They have a number of stores around Victoria, and when I went to get my Macbook replaced in Doncaster Shopping Centre, I just had to go back there.

On this occasion, I tried their Tuna Melt Spud, there are plentiful dishes you can order and you can also make your own spud selection but just for convenience sake I chose the Tuna one. They used to have one called ‘Hot Stuff’ which included, kidney beans, a nice spicy sauce and vegetables but over the years I guess people weren’t interested in it.

The Tuna Melt Spud, is quite tasty. I doubt anyone can ruin potatoes for me, anyway. The only downside was that the dressing and tuna are cold, and well it makes the warm spud just a bit too cold for my liking. Nonetheless, it was still delicious. I added some chilli flakes, and tabasco sauce just for some added kick and it was great.

The mixture of the cheese, peas, carrots, corn, dressing, tuna and of course the potato all worked really well together and it’s really filling so you know you got a good meal out of it.

If you love all things potatoes, this is the dining experience you’ll not want to miss.

Spudbar

Westfield Doncaster Shopping Center
619 Doncaster Rd,
Doncaster VIC
Phone: 03 9840 2007
Fax: 03 9840 2007
Email : doncaster@spudbar.com.au
Open 9am – 5pm Sat – Wed
Open 9am – 9pm Thurs – Fri

Pie In The Sky

May 2, 2011 Posted in Australian, Baking, Food Reviews, Olinda, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Pie In The Sky is one of Victoria’s premium Pie restaurants. Famous for it’s award winning pies and their ‘Pie In The Sky’, a pie floating on top of a soup. It is quite a tourist attraction in itself.

Located in Olinda, it’s nestled away near The Dandenongs and for a small regional town it surprisingly brings many people from all around Victoria and possibly Australia here. I guess it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise if you have had the chance to eat here. The food speaks for itself really.

Having a great variety of pies, from your customary Meat Pie, to the more adventurous Curry Pies and their gourmet Guinness and Steak Pies. It truly is hard to pick what to eat and with a wide selection of sides, such as salads, chips, and your very English mash, peas and gravy. You can always have a different meal experience every time you visit.

After a very lengthy time deciding, I finally chose the Guinness Pie with Mash Potatoes, Gravy and Peas. It’s reasonably price too for what you get and tastes great too. I don’t think I really have anything bad to say about the pie, the pastry was light and crispy and the Guinness flavoured steak was delectable and just cooked nicely.

The ‘Pie In The Sky’ looked interesting too but as I’m not a big fan of celery flavoured soup I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much. It certainly has a great ‘home cooked’ aroma too it though. It’s definitely worth a try.

Pie In The Sky also serves desserts and teas, with many varieties of cakes and another English classic, Devonshire Tea. I think I mentioned before the scones here are really tasty, light and fluffy as they should be. The second time we tried them, it just wasn’t as good but maybe it was just an off day.

You don’t necessarily have to dine in to try it out, they also sell many of the pies ‘to go’ and as I mentioned in my Stay Fresh Scones post, they sell a really good Raspberry Jam part of the Mornington Peninsula association I believe, they also sell Strawberry Jams too but I’m more of a raspberry fan nowadays.

Pie In The Sky is well worth the drive over, and it’s a great way to support our local communities too. If you ever come down this area, check out the candy store which has a great selection of lollies from the UK and the US, and also the chilli store with their famous death sauce.

You can check out their website below and peruse their menu, that way, when you arrive you can order straight away without having to take ages to decide!

Pie In The Sky

43 Olinda – Monbulk Rd,

Olinda 3788,

Victoria, Australia

ohdenny

Category: Australian

Lone Pine Bistro (Phillip Island RSL)

Kitchen Workshop

Lynbrook Hotel

Spudbar

Pie In The Sky