Matcha – ohdenny

Little Rogue

June 23, 2017 Posted in Food Reviews, Japanese, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Little Rogue is tucked away in one of Melbourne’s many laneways and it almost seems strange to come from the always crowded Swanston St and find this gem on the relatively quiet Drewery Lane. Little Rogue is famously known for its Matcha Lattes and coffee and there’s usually a selection of small bites sourced from other local suppliers such as donuts from Shortstop or baked goods from Penny for Pound.

Their Matcha lattes is what every person seems to come to Little Rogue for, and rightfully so, because their lattes are fantastic. It’s smooth, frothy and has an amazing bold, slightly bitter green tea flavour. It’s honestly unmatched.

Last words

If you want your Matcha latte fix. This is it.

Little Rogue
12 Drewery Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000

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Tsujiri

December 30, 2016 Posted in Desserts, Food Reviews, Japanese, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Getting in on the Soft Serve ice cream popularity is Tsujiri on Swanston Street in the Melbourne CBD. Tsujiri is a tea brand originating from Japan that excels in all things Matcha/Green Tea. With locations in UK, Canada and Asia, it has now opened in Australia. Tsujiri’s menu offers a wide range of Matcha and Houjicha flavoured drinks, as well as snacks such as cream puffs, swiss rolls and glutinous rice balls.

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Tsujiri’s signature sundae you can order mixed (Matcha and Vanilla), Matcha or just Vanilla and it comes with the glutinous rice ball and sweet potato ball on top, Sakura flavoured wafer, red beans and roasted rice. Tsujiri certainly doesn’t skimp on the flavour of the green tea as it’s stronger than you would have at Rice Workshop or Nene’s Chicken. I also loved the subtle floral notes of the wafer, and the roasted rice for a lovely crunchy texture. The only thing I didn’t like was the price where it’s leaning towards $10 and especially for the price.

Last words
While Tsujiri excels in green tea, its pricing is on the higher end and I question whether it’s worth it even if it’s good.

Tsujiri
146 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
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Shortstop.

October 21, 2016 Posted in American, Asian, Desserts, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Shortstop is a popular donuts and coffee spot in the Melbourne CBD. Located on Sutherland Street and walking distance from Melbourne Central Station, the donuts there tend to be sold out before closing time so I’d recommend getting in there early or pre-ordering! At Shortstop, they usually have around 10 different donut flavours to choose from and their flavours do also change from time to time. Whilst the flavours may change, they usually have at least one of each type of donut (Raised, Cruller, Filled and Cake). The first time I visited Shortstop I had to try all the different types. Obviously.

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I ordered the Thai Milk Tea (Raised), Maple Walnut & Brown Butter (Raised), Tiramisu (Filled), Cookies & Cream (Filled), Triple Matcha (Cake) and Australian Honey & Sea Salt (Cruller) which sadly, is not pictured above.

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The Cake donuts are as you would think by the label given. They are cake shaped donuts. Freshly made, this Triple Matcha Cake donut is fluffy, with a bold matcha flavour to it with just a slight bitterness coming through. The white chocolate and matcha glaze is heavily on the sweet side but that’s par for the course for white chocolate and donuts in general. Love the matcha flavour but not the glaze so much.

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Eaten the Shortstop donuts fresh is amazing and I highly recommend you don’t keep the donuts for too long after as the texture, taste does change a bit. The Maple Walnut & Brown Butter Raise donut is incredible. Like the best damn donut I’ve ever tried. Crunchy and toasty maple walnuts with the just sweet enough brown butter glaze on top of this so fluffy raised donut it’s the perfect combination.

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The Thai Milk Tea donut is interesting and in a good way. I love fusing Asian flavours with traditionally Western food so this one works for me. The Thai Milk Tea flavour does come through but it’s a bit more subtle than I would have liked but again the donut is top notch. Fluffy and not dry.

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The Tiramisu filled donut has a lovely coffee cream filling inside. The coffee flavour is surprisingly intense and might be a bit too strong for my liking with the fluffy donut. However, for those that love their coffee creams strong, this one is for you.

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Usually you can’t go wrong with a Cookie & Cream flavour or filling, and this is no different. The Cookies & Cream filling is tasty, the flavour comes through perfectly and the cream is so light and delicious paired with the fluffy donut.

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The Cruller’s are interesting. The texture of these donuts is quite airy which is nice, but the honey glaze is incredibly sweet. Too sweet to have the entire donut all to oneself to be honest. The sea salt seasoning does try and put the sweetness back in balance a bit but I wouldn’t order this particular flavour again.

Last words
Interesting flavours and more importantly tasty donuts. Donuts done right.

Shortstop
12 Sutherland Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Movenpick Box Hill

August 8, 2014 Posted in Box Hill, Desserts, European, Food Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, SwissLeave a comment

On Groupon we found an offer for discounted vouchers basically e.g spend $20, receive $30 worth so we thought it was a good incentive to give Movenpick in Box Hill a try. The Movenpick brand of Ice cream I believe originated from Switzerland and I recall the first time coming across a Movenpick store was in Harbour Town, Docklands. However, that store has since been closed and I never did get a chance to try their ice creams, however tempting it was.

Now with the vouchers, we wanted something of a snack and so we ordered the waffles with chocolate flakes and syrup. One of my better experiences having waffles was in Theobroma Chocolate Lounge at Spencer St and those were beautifully crispy but so light and fluffy inside with the sweet, chocolately goodness on top. Unfortunately, the waffles made (?) here are soft and possible frozen and reheated or just not cooked long enough to give it a crunch. It is very soft and almost doughy, and if it didn’t have the amount of syrup and chocolate flakes I don’t think it would have gone down all that well to be honest.

The ice creams were also a little lacklustre, the Espresso Coffee one was actually quite nice with a strong coffee hit but it was extremely sweet. The Maple Walnut scoop on the other hand was just overall very average but I guess the plus was the walnuts as that added crunch however for what seems like a premium Ice creams store, the ice cream flavours that we ordered didn’t really leave a good impression at all and I don’t have that high of expectations for ice cream in general.

The Green Tea Smoothie I found was actually very nice, sweet but the matcha flavour comes through exceptionally well. I quite enjoyed the smoothie but it is rich and very sweet.

Impressions

Unfortunately, I found Movenpick to be underwhelming and considering it is a dessert store, the desserts really weren’t that great all things considered and I’d probably even just go to a Wendy’s if I had to choose based on value for money. A bit of a shame.

Movenpick Box Hill

Shop 53A
1 Main St Box Hill, VIC 3128
(Near the Commonwealth Bank Box Hill branch)