Melbourne – Page 4

Queen Vic Market Cake Shop – Macarons

March 30, 2012 Posted in Confectionery, Desserts, MelbourneLeave a comment

If you have ever visited Queen Victoria Market’s Food Hall, I bet you would have come across this store. They have a wide selection of colourful macarons that definitely look enticing enough to eat.

This Cake Store also has a variety of other sweet snacks and desserts to satisfy those sweet tooth cravings.

I tried their Chocolate Macaron, and shell is slightly too crunchy without that nice chew that Macarons usually have. The filling was quite nice though, but Chocolate anything is usually good.

I really can’t remember what this one was but the Chocolate Ganache filling was probably a bit too sweet for my liking.

This Vanilla Macaron was actually pretty nice. Again the shells aren’t really my favourite as they are slightly too high and airy.

I think this one was Coffee, and that was probably one of my favourite one. The coffee flavour had a good bitterness to it which offset some of the sweetness so it makes it much more pleasant to eat.

Overall, their macarons were a slight letdown. I much prefer Le Petit Gateau’s Macarons to be honest even though they don’t have a wide variety of macarons.

I haven’t tried any of the other Cake Shop offerings but they do seem tempting!

Queen Victoria Market Cake Shop

155 Victoria St
Melbourne Victoria 3000

Brownie and Passionfruit Chocolate Gâteau @ Le Petit Gateau

September 6, 2011 Posted in Desserts, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Le Petit Gateau has definitely made a name for itself in Melbourne with it’s delicious cakes and chocolates. Their Brownie and Passionfruit Chocolate Gateau is an interesting combination of passionfruit, chocolate and their famous delicious mudcake praline all rolled into one.

I have got to say, Le Petit just don’t know how to make a bad dessert. Their passionfruit jelly on the top, along with a nice thin layer inside, as well as a delicious crunchy bottom. All the layers create such a wonderful taste in your mouth. Even if you tasted each layer separately it would have been perfect but together it’s just even better.

Only bad thing I can say is that their prices keep going up every year. It’s heading towards, ‘I don’t know if it’s worth it but I might still buy it anyway because it’s delicious’ pricing but alas I don’t think I would stop going to Le Petit Gateau. I’m hooked.

Le Petit Gateau

458 Little Collins St
Melbourne
Tel: 03 9944 8893
Opening Hours

Monday to Friday, 7:30am-5pm

Papparoti

July 11, 2011 Posted in Glen Waverley, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

PappaRoti is a popular franchise/bakery in Malaysia. Probably not as popular as RotiBoy but still these Mexican buns are sold in many shopping centres in Malaysia and now we have a couple of stores down here in Melbourne. The first one I’ve seen to pop up was on Kingsway, Glen Waverley but there is also another one that recently opened on Elizabeth St (Across from Melbourne Central) in the Melbourne CBD.

These buns have a sweet crunchy crust on top, and you can smell these buns baking in the ovens far away. The crust I believe has a coffee taste to it but it’s more delicate. It’s sweet, but that’s a good thing since it stops you from having too many!

Inside they place some butter before they are cooked, so when it’s done. The inside is nice and soft, with a rich butter texture to it. It’s actually quite nice but you definitely can’t have too many.

Compared to RotiBoy’s variety of buns, who sell these buns with butter, cream cheese and blueberry cream cheese, Papparoti only sells this one particular bun with butter. The store in Glen Waverley also sells coffee and ice cream but I haven’t taste tested them yet. I might try their ice cream once this winter finally passes.

Not everyone will like these buns, and for me personally, I’ve had my fair share for the year, but definitely try it because you just might like it!

Their ice-cream selection is actually quite decent. They have the usuals like Rum & Raisin, Strawberry Jam, but then they venture into the Asian favourites like Durian, Black Sesame, Lychee and Red Bean.

I tried Lychee and Black Sesame on my first go, and whilst the Black Sesame was too sweet and lacked the nice bitterness of black sesame, the lychee was an instant favourite. It had an authentic lychee flavour and was smooth and creamy. I haven’t seen many places that sell Lychee ice-cream, and one that tastes good too, so whenever I’m feeling like a cold treat (nearly always) this will be the first place I visit.

PappaRoti

105 Kingsway,
Glen Waverley. VIC

Mon-Thur: 9am-9pm
Fri-Sat: 9am-Late
Sunday: 10am-9pm

Gânache Chocolate Macarons

June 28, 2011 Posted in Confectionery, Food Reviews, Melbourne1 Comment

I’m just such a sucker for macarons. I just love how creative people can be with them and the many different flavours and combinations that can be made with them. I recently came across Gânache Chocolate on Collins St, close to the corner of Collins and Swanston. I didn’t get to try their chocolates, and their cakes look really appetising but I wasn’t in the mood at the time. I think they only recently opened and by recently as in within a year but I can’t be too sure.

Macarons, however, I will always snap up that opportunity. There were 6 flavours to choose from but I can’t really remember them all that well. From memory, there was Passionfruit, Hazelnut, Coffee, Chocolate, Vanilla and Blueberry variations.

I picked up the Passionfruit, Hazelnut and Coffee and they all had quite a good taste and texture and just how I like them to be.

The Passionfruit Macaron, I’d prefer a jam of sorts for the filling but of course, I was at a chocolatier, and what else are they famous for? It was still really fresh and just had a nice balance between the creamy texture of the chocolate with the crunch and chewiness of the shell.

Similarly, the hazelnut and coffee ones were just as good and being know for their chocolates, of course the chocolate taste would stand out! Definitely one of the better servings in the CBD.

I’m going to go see their cakes and chocolates next time I’m around there so be on the look out for that post in the future.

Gânache Chocolate

245 Collins St,
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Tel/Fax: 03 9650 8388

Mon – Thurs: 8am – 8pm
Fri: 8am – 10pm
Sat: 9am – 10pm
Sun: 9am – 6pm

They also have a store in South Yarra, check out their website for details on the address of that one.

Crisp Lemon Tart @ Le Petit Gateau

June 22, 2011 Posted in Desserts, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant Reviews2 Comments

Le Petit Gateau is a small well known patisserie on Lt. Collins St in Melbourne.

As I’ve mentioned before, their macarons are really good but what they are known for is their delicious cakes. Their Praline Mud Cake is a definite must try so please go visit this shop when you have the chance, and despite their need to increase prices nearly every year, I think it’s still worth it.

Their Crisp Lemon Tart is only available in one size, unlike the other cakes. I’ve always had a liking for lemon because of it’s sour, acidic taste and combined with sweet desserts, it’s the perfect combination.

I actually bought this for my birthday because of my love of lemons. If you were old enough to watch Rugrats as a child, I will always remember this one part where they made lemonade and it made their face all scrunchy. Haha.

Back to the tart though. The pastry is unbelievably good. It’s just so delicate, but filled with flavour and the lemon curd is both sweet and tangy. Just how I like it! It is covered with a nice glaze of some sort, but I’m no expert as to what that’s called but it adds another layer to it.

One thing that might be of concern is that you can’t save it in the fridge! Or my fridge just adds too much moisture to it and makes the pastry too wet and the bite and crunch of the base disappears. So it’s unfortunate I couldn’t savour the taste for many days.

Overall, it’s one of the best lemon tarts out there and Le Petit Gateau just make top quality, delicious products that everyone with even a slight sweet tooth will love.

Le Petit Gateau

458 Little Collins St
Melbourne
Tel: 03 9944 8893
Opening Hours

Monday to Friday, 7:30am-5pm

Little Cupcakes

June 17, 2011 Posted in Baking, Confectionery, Food Reviews, MelbourneLeave a comment

Little Cupcakes is a famous Melbourne bakery, dedicated to cupcakes, as expected by its name. It’s been on Postcards, and it definitely has gathered quite a following for those wanting a cute and celebratory birthday cake in the form of cupcakes. Located in one of Melbourne’s most popular laneways, Degraves St, and close to Flinders St station, it is conveniently located and that just might be a bad thing as you’ll definitely be coming back for more.

One of the best things about Little Cupcakes, is its tiny bite sized cupcakes, that are almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

This bakery has a wide selection of flavours, ranging from the decadent chocolate cakes, to the lighter lemon and vanilla cupcakes, and for those veggie lovers, a carrot cake.

This one above was the Mocha (I believe), and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the cupcake itself. The icing on top for me anyway was a tad too sweet but it had had a nice hint of coffee, I would have liked it to have a bigger punch though. What I absolutely loved about the chocolate mud cake cupcakes, is how moist they are. It’s not too heavy, it’s fluffy and just nicely melts in your mouth without the dryness of most mud cakes I’ve eaten.

The Lemon cupcake, is a classic butter cake with a lemon frosting. I must admit, I’m a fan of all things lemon flavoured, but it has to taste like a lemon with the sweet, acidity and sourness that a lemon is. So it’s always disappointing to have a lemon frosting reduced to pure sugary sweetness, and makes the lemon taste almost fake. Unfortunately, this was what it was like, and the butter cake was quite dry too so it wasn’t a great one to be honest. I do hope I just got a bad egg.

The Cream Latte one is quite similar to the Mocha cupcake, and again the cake is just so moist. It’s really quite the delicious tasting experience, topped with a nice coffe and cream frosting. It’s just a pleasant cupcake to eat.

I love my cookies and cream ice cream, and so I was hoping the taste of that would translate into a nice frosting. Was slightly disappointed it lacked the creaminess and cookie crunch of cookies and cream, and lacked a bit of that flavour too. It was mostly sweet, but again the cake was deliciously moist.

This buttercake may have been from the same batch as the lemon one, the strawberry frosting on the other hand, was quite pleasant and you could taste an authentic strawberry flavour so even if the cake was dry, it was made up nicely by the sugary creaminess of the frosting.

This was a Belgian Chocolate cupcake, with a moist chocolate cake and topped with a dark belgian chocolate frosting. It was quite good to be honest. Usually I’m not a fan of chocolate on chocolate desserts as it’s just a chocolate overload but the frosting wasn’t overly sweet, it had a nice smooth and silky texture and taste to it. Plus it had an excellent moist cake base, so it was a real winner.

I saved the best for last. This Red Velvet cupcake, consists of a cocoa butter cake with a cream cheese frosting, and my oh my was this good. As you probably noticed, I’m not a real fan of just sugar overload, I do like balance and this Red Velvet little cupcake delivers.

The cake itself was moist, maybe not as moist as the chocolate counterparts but definitely nicer then the butter cakes on offer. It wasn’t too sweet either, and the cream cheese frosting was just pure goodness. It also wasn’t half as sweet as the frostings on the other cupcakes I tried, it had a nice creaminess to it and was just what I wanted in a cupcake. A cupcake that isn’t too sweet, moist, and has a nice texture and taste to boot. It also looked great. I definitely would go back for these, and they seemed quite popular too as when we went there, we took the last one available.

Little Cupcakes

Shop 7 Degraves St
Melbourne
VIC 3000
03 9077 0413

Mon-Fri 8.30am – 5.30pm
Sat-Sun 9.30am – 5.30pm

There are also stores on William St and Queen St (Closed on weekends), check out their website for further details.

Sambal Kampung

June 12, 2011 Posted in Food Reviews, Malaysian, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Sambal Kampung is located in the heart of Melbourne’s Chinatown. It is one of the few Malaysian restaurants that have opened up in recent years on Little Bourke St. It’s probably my most visited Malaysian restaurant in the CBD as there aren’t many Malaysian restaurants to choose from in the city.

I believe there have been changes in menu and cooking over the years though so it can be a bit inconsistent and well, I went there a couple weeks ago and it definitely wasn’t as good as before.

The image on top is of their variation of the Mee Goreng, and to be honest, it was actually quite good. I’m not a big fan of the sweet and strong tomato tasting Mee Goreng’s, and in this dish it isn’t overpowering. It also has hints of chilli with it too, so that’s a plus. Squeezing some lemon juice on top also gives this dish an added layer of freshness over the slightly oiled noodles so overall it’s a balanced Mee Goreng.

We ordered a Tom Yum Nasi Goreng, with seafood. I expected it to have a a really fake tom yum taste but again I was pleasantly surprised with how it tasted. It wasn’t too overpowering but you could definitely taste that it was tom yum and it had a great balance between the spicy, sweet and sour elements of tom yum. Matched with the nicelycooked seafood, it was quite a nice dish.

Their satay snack dish is one of their newer menu items and it was again, surprisingly tasty with loads of flavour.

The few negatives I would say about this was the actual meat was overcooked and a tad dry, and since there wasn’t really enough satay sauce to dip into, parts of the meat went without sauce and it didn’t taste as good.

Also the fresh cucumber was soft when it should be crunchy with some bite to it. You could tell it was probably not at its peak ripeness.

However, the satay sauce was the hero of the dish. It was packed with flavour. It had a strong nutty flavour, slightly sweet balanced against a great nutty and slightly viscous texture.

I was a bit disappointed with their drinks menu. The black jelly drink had no sweetness to it at all, and was just ladled with ice so you didn’t really get your monies worth.

Same goes for the Three Colours drink, which had red bean, cendol, syrup and ice. It didn’t have the sweetness to make it nice, as the red bean and cendol aren’t sweet at all. The loads of shaved ice also made this a difficult drink to well…drink. It just made what sweetness was existent disappear when the ice melts and so it was just kinda bland.

As mentioned before, we ate here again and it was disappointing to see that their dishes just lacked the flavour that it used to have.

Sambal Kampung

234 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne, 3000

(03) 9663 2666

ohdenny

Tag: Melbourne