There there there there there...

In a word? Tempting (but you're too late!)

Where? There There, 8 Malop Street, Geelong
When? A Friday evening, when the Cats were playing in the finals. Joyously quiet and blissfully tv-screen-free.
Drinks? Yep yep. Non-alcoholic options a bit dull, but the wine list, beers and ciders had plenty to keep me interested.

Not my first visit to There There, and for good reason. However it does seem that it may have been my last, at least for quite some time.

My tardiness in finishing this review has been exposed by the fact that just days after I ate 'there', There There announced they would be closing for a few months, before re-opening as a tapas bar. I won't then bore you with the details of what I ate, but it was enjoyable as always, and the staff friendly and efficient.

I look forward to the next iteration, and hope dearly that it won't be a case of 'regression to the mean' (if you'll excuse a statistical reference). There has been a lot of great innovation and increased variety in Geelong lately, but the safer model of business does seem to be catering for... umm... shall we say a 'lower' common denominator.

In the mean time, their little bar out the back, 'Captain', has re-opened after a long hiatus, and I am yet to try it. Watch this space. Let's see if it holds any clues to future directions.

(Clockwise) Bresaola with walnuts and apple, pulled pork lettuce cups (an absolute must) and haloumi. I've mentioned how everything is better with haloumi, right?

Winter in Spring is Summer on a plate

In a word? Joy

Where? Winter's Café, 330 Pakington St, Newtown
Day? Saturday brunch
Drinks? Actually they are licenced, but whenever I am here it is all about the coffee, which is reliably good, although occasionally a bit slow during peak weekend times.

Two good rules to live by: 1) Everything is better with haloumi, 2) Everything is better with chipotle.
If you add coffee, a sunny morning and brilliant brunch company, my tiny mind will nearly explode with the brilliance of it all. A recent visit to Winter's was my first taste of the new Spring menu. I adore the fact that Winter's changes the menu with the seasons, and every new iteration is more inventive and fun and delicious than the last. Sadly though, it does mean having to wave goodbye to some favourites from time to time.

My biggest problem with Winter's, and this has been going on for some time, is that it is so good I find it hard to motivate myself to go anywhere else for weekend brunches. This problem is usually solved only by the (fairly frequent) disappointment of finding that they are booked out when I haven't planned ahead. This time though, with an early arrival and some good luck, my companion had secured a table at the top of the stairs by the time I had chained up my bike and wandered over, grinning in the spring sunshine. 

Despite many very appealing options, we both ordered the same thing: Huevos Rancheros with an extra side of haloumi. I am a huge fan of huevos rancheros, having first encountered them on a trip to north America some years ago (and my companion hails from the states), and I have long wished they would start appearing on local menus. Wish granted! They have also recently shown up at a few other places, yet to be explored. 

So - house made tortillas, crispy fried into a couple of baskets, and filled with bean, egg, chilli and avocado goodness. The haloumi at Winter's is my absolute favourite. Even more salty and fabulous than regular haloumi. Bottle of chipotle arrived at the table and was enthusiastically applied. 

Coffee, excellent as always. Also, I might be imagining it, but I feel like since they finished their most recent renovations, coffee speed has improved. In the past I remember ordering a second coffee well before I had finished the first, just because the wait was so ponderously long. That doesn't seem to be an issue any more. On that note as well, from a customer perspective, the renovations were aesthetically pretty subtle. We discussed over huevos, and decided that the main difference was a bit more light. 

I'll be back. Must get there in time to try "Spring breakfast salad of asparagus, kumatos, spelt, crispy prosciutto and boiled eggs with green tahini" before the menu rolls over into summer's new delights. One day I'll be brave enough to order a bloody mary with my brekky as well. Special mention for the virgin mary now being listed as a 'bloody shame' on the menu. I wonder if it is in response to a recently aired episode of QI in which Stephen Fry confidently informed the world that that is how a virgin mary is described in Australia? (which was news to me at the time).

Yum. 

A sex-change is as good as a holiday - Mrs Hyde

In a word? Promising!

Mrs Hyde has emerged from Mr Hyde, biologically implausible, but great news for Geelong.

Where? Mrs Hyde, 11 Malop street, Geelong
When? Friday evening
Drinks? Very much so! It's a bar first, with food second, but both seem to be outstanding.

When I heard that Mr Hyde had closed down and was being renovated, I must admit to being a bit bewildered. It was already pretty new and flashy, and I couldn't imagine what the aim would be in renovating it further. I am pleased to report that it was definitely worth the effort.

To go back a step, I was never a huge fan of Mr Hyde, a pretty up-market bar and tapas venue, which at the time was pretty unique in Geelong. I felt like I should love it, on paper it ticked a lot of boxes, but I don't know... something just didn't click for me. It was a bit loud, a bit the wrong crowd for me, a bit... Not quite right. Coffee was good though.

So, having waited a while for it to re-open, and very curious to see what the renos had achieved, my lovely companion and I ventured in for a pre-dinner drink on Friday, and I was really impressed! The decor is lovely, polished but inviting, with a sort of English-hunting-lodge-slash-library feel and big chesterfield sofas. I was surprised to find that the feel and flow of the place really has really lifted, and seems to work much better now. The staff we dealt with were uniformly friendly, polite, helpful and relaxed (there's table service for drinks, a nice luxury that I can't recall encountering elsewhere in Geelong).

Probably the most impressive thing was the drinks list. When we were offered the menu, and pointed toward the cocktails a few times, I only just managed not to roll my eyes, but people - check it out. It was a really thoughtful and inviting list, that has clearly been tailored to the season. The day we went was the winter solstice, and it was an icy evening (that would go on to drop below freezing), so it was a real treat to find a range of warm and warming options, that went way beyond the usual mulled wine and hot toddy. In fact, I'm not even sure how usual that is in Australian winter? It's been a while for us. So alongside mulled wine, mulled cider and mulled ale, there was a winter manhattan and a bunch more cocktails that sounded brilliant but I've just forgotten the details of.

The crowd had a happy, young prossional vibe. With the cocktails hovering close to the $20 mark, and wines by the glass rarely dropping below $10, it's certainly not a student crowd, but it feels like there is a growing slice of the Geelong population that are in their mid twenties to mid thirties, earning a good wage, having fun, and not yet having kids. These are the people I queue for coffee with at Fuel and Spot for Joe. I don't know if they've always been here, and now they have places to gather, or if they (we?) are a new demographic for Geelong, but either way, happy days.

Having become enamoured with hot alcoholic drinks, and mulled cider in particular, through our winter in England, my lovely companion and I both jumped at it when we found mulled cider on this menu. Good choice. it was spicy, warm enough to be able to finish it at a normal pace without it getting too cool, and served in a wine glass with a twist of lemon.

With other plans for dinner we didn't have time to try more of the cocktails or the food, but looking around, both looked brilliant, and I'm sure we will be back soon to check them out. Soon, while the winter goodness lasts... Although I also look forward to seeing the spring options... and the summer options...
Cheers!

Mini-review: Soft Cafe, Herne Hill

In a word? Brunchy (that's a good thing - I love brunch)

Today I'm trying a new mini-review format, not because I think less of this place, or others to come I this format, but sometimes theres less to say, just because it works.
Soft is where I go when I want eggs and coffee, and no crap.

Where: Soft Coffee Lounge, 29 Minerva road, Herne Hill  Meal: Brunch
Day: Saturday
Drinks: Licenced at other times of the day, great tea and coffee for brunchiness

Declaration- this is pretty close to my house. But it works for that reason as much as anything else. In summary, they do nice breakfast (for a decent amount of time on weekends), good coffee (although I think I object to 'coffee lounge', but I'll forgive one small slip into wankeriness), great pots of tea, the staff are nice, the atmosphere is very chilled, not too noisy, but kid-friendly. Lots of good gluten free options. There are also a couple of other soft cafes, but this is the one for me.

My brekky/brunch of choice here is eggs benedict with gluten free toast, a skinny latte and a newspaper. The hollandaise is house made (I'm pretty sure), and delicious. The coffee is above average. I can depend on this place when I want to be out of the house but not too 'out'. 

Thanks for being there. 

(small downside, their website doesn't seem to be happy today, so I'm struggling to add a link. Don't worry, you don't need the website, just go.)

A steak is not enough

In a word? Steak. And that's it, because there was little else here that was worth the effort (or prices).

Dear readers, it has been (quite!) a while. I suddenly skipped the country for a year in the UK. But I am back, very glad to be back, and keen to re-start my culinary adventures around Geelong and surrounds.

In celebration of my return, a couple of mates came to visit from Melbourne. Over a drink, one mused that she was in the mood for a steak. Perfect! There is a brand new (I assume) steak house on the waterfront that I had walked past in the last couple of days. Let's give it a go!

Where: The Steak House, 100 Western Beach Road
Meal: Dinner
Day: Saturday
Drinks: BYO only (apparently waiting on their licence)

After a very pleasant drink at the also-new-to-me Customs House wine bar (hoping to eat there soon for a review, watch this space), we headed to the Steak House, which sits off to the side of the pier point building next to Deakin Waterfront. We had been pre-warned that it was BYO only, and duly trekked across town to find an open bottle shop - what's the point of a great steak without red wine?!

In summary, the meat was excellent, but aside from that, well, they're new, and I hope things will improve for them...

Perhaps I'm still experiencing price shock after my return from the UK, where eating out seems to mostly cost about half what it does here. But the menu seemed, well, a rip off. I'm comfortable with paying a bit for for good meat, and the steaks are generally between $35 and $40. But that starts to look like pretty poor value when all it comes with is potato (chips or roast), OR a small garden salad. Any sauce is an extra $3.50. If you're vaguely interested in having a balanced meal, brace yourself. A side serve of vegetables? $12. Sorry readers, but I'm just not yet ready to spend $50 on a single main course, so I can't report on the vegetables. I will be having a detox day of fruit and veg to make up for it.

My 200g eye fillet was superb - cooked as I ordered it (medium rare), tender, full of flavour. Lovely. I wished I had got the bigger one, especially since my potatoes were in edible!

There were too many problems to give a good narrative of them all, but it just wasn't a smooth experience. White linen table cloths were accompanied by cheap paper napkins, cheap supermarket table salt and ground pepper. We were near the door, which has a bizarre semi-automated opening/closing mechansism, which did nothing to reduce our shivering whenever the door opened. The meal took 45 minutes to arrive, and when it did, mine was in the company of some unpleasantly undercooked 'roast' potatoes. The chips my partner had were pretty good, and one of my mates had the salad, which was a bit small and sad, but not surprising at a steak restaurant.

I do love an overheard conversation...
We skipped dessert because the desserts that were on the menu were not those that were available, and it seemed like we made the right choice. At the table next to us, two ladies sharing a dessert sent it back with the message that it was "revolting" and probably off and unsafe, and a suggestion that they shouldn't serve it to anyone Else. Which was a bit alarming, until the waitperson responded "I'm so sorry, I keep telling them not to serve it to people, because it keeps getting sent back, but they insist it is ok. I'm so sorry".
Ouch.

Ooh, just remembered another good thing - there was always plenty of water, without us having to ask. I love that, it is such a simple thing to do, that costs nothing and makes a restaurant experience so much nicer.

When we received our bill, it was 'a bit of a surprise' (to be polite) to have been charged $8 corkage, when we had no choice but to bring our own, necessitating a half hour detour in our evening to find a central bottle shop. Hilariously though, this provided another opportunity for the waiting staff to apologise and distance themselves from management decisions. Doesn't seem like a lot of love is lost among the team here. While paying I also checked which dessert is the one to avoid - tiramisu apparently. With this additional advice: "I would only eat the sticky date pudding, because they buy that in from a supplier". Wow.

Black Salt (at Chifley Motel)

In a word? Patchy. Beyond patchy really, but I'm not sure what a good stronger word would be.

So, yes, we were obviously taking a risk choosing a restaurant in a motel for an evening meal, but in my defence, it has been recently renovated and looks very nice as I ride past on my way to work each day, it is on the waterfront, and frankly, we hadn't been there before and we had a discount voucher - do I need any more excuse than that?

Where: Black Salt Restaurant, Chifley Motel, 13-15 The Esplanade, Geelong
Meal: Dinner
Day: Wednesday
Drinks: Licensed

Our arrival was relatively smooth, and a very enthusiastic and somewhat flamboyant waiter showed us to our table and insisted that we have some mulled wine "before you have water"... also before we were allowed to have menus as it turned out, but it was a nice enough touch on a cold and drizzly June evening.

The menu was, frankly, overpriced for what we got, but interesting enough, and certainly a lot of interesting and winter-appropriate dishes on offer. The wine list was especially pricey (and especially for Geelong), which was a real disappointment. It also lacked variety and interest - well over half of the reds were Shiraz, for example.

Rack of lamb with baked polenta, baby beets, sautéed mushrooms and harissa was patchiness on a plate. The lamb was lovely quality and well cooked, the polenta fine, but could have been more seasoned. The mushrooms were a slimy disappointment, the beets little more than a garnish and the harissa? A spicy SLAP in the face. Totally out of character with the rest of the dish, it may have worked better cooked or blended with one of the other elements of the dish, but as it sat, cool in temperature and blasting in chilli heat, it was bizarre. A beef and Guinness pie was hearty and meaty, flavoursome and suitable for a winter's evening. The accompanying vegetables, however, were a bit sad - especially a couple of very unhappy looking potatoes. Really below standard for the prices (the lamb was $34, the pie $33).

The crowd I should have expected, but somehow didn't. Nearly all men, dining alone or in twos and threes, all dressed in jeans, collared checked shirts with a jumper over the top, and mostly wearing work boots. The joys of work travel eh? This crowd may have some answering to do for the high prices.
The service veered wildly from over-enthusiastic to slapstick incompetent via mediocre. A highlight of the night for me was overhearing a conversation when a waitress brought mulled wine to a lone male diner at a nearby table:
"What is it?"
"Mulled wine"
"But what is mulled wine"
"Um, I don't know really... Um, actually... do you know chai tea? It's like chai tea.. but it's wine..."

Brilliant. Should be an effective strategy for increasing interest and possible purchases of the winter specialty.

A little later confusion reigned as orders for two (or possibly three) tables' orders were confused, and the waiting staff returned up to three times to each table to reconfirm what had been ordered. By this stage we had finished our meals and sat with our dirty plates for an unreasonably long time while the staff tried to regain composure. One error as a result of the disarray, however, was a side order bowl of very nice green beans which arrived at our table uninvited and unexplained. Goodness only knows who missed out on their beans.

And the name? Black Salt? Well, yes, the eponymous item was on our table in a little dish and it tasted... salty? When we approached the counter to pay (a slightly odd system for a restaurant at this end of the price spectrum, but I guess most are booking up to their rooms?), we were given a lengthy explanation of the provenance and supposed advantages of the black salt. Sorry dear readers, the details now escape me. Especially odd to explain the salt after we had finished our meals and were on our way out.

Not for those with high blood pressure.

Lotus Living - (first review!)

I wasn't sure where to start for my first review - a big bang, fancy pants, special occasion restaurant? An old favourite? Somewhere brand new? So instead of letting the pressure of it all paralyse me forever, and since I have to start somewhere, I'll start with a Thursday lunch when I really needed to be out of the office and found myself at a restaurant that is also a day spa and also sells homewares.

Where: Lotus Living, 189 Moorabool Street, Geelong
Meal: Lunch
Day: Thursday
Drinks: Licensed

I ended up there (not that I need a reason) because I had walked past a few days earlier and the food looked fabulous, then, coincidentally, a colleague spontaneously recommended it. It's a bit of a strange set-up (with the day spa), but not unpleasant, although we were seated right in front of the door on an icy day.
Begin with the good? Ok. Firstly, the menu is great In fact, I am keen to go back to try out more items, the menu was a genuine step above average lunch stuff. I love a hot lunch, and there were lots of really nice options, ranging from pretty light to very hearty, with a good mix of veggie, healthy and gluten free thrown in to the mix.
The food we ordered lived up to expectations. A roasted vegetable tagine with quinoa met my need for something hearty enough to counter the hunger I had worked up after my luch date made me wait until nearly 2pm but also light and healthy enough to ensure I still felt weekday-virtuous. Tasty, hot, a bit different. I don't think we see quinoa on menus often enough here. I have been expecting it to take off for a couple of years, and it never seems to get there.
My lunch date, also hungry, but not feeling virtuous, ordered the steak sandwich. Big, well put together, accompanied by very nice fat chips (of which I obviously stole a few) and reportedly very tasty. He was, however, looking forward to eating with his hands - note it is only nominally an open sandwich - it's a steak and trimmings resting on one giant piece of bread. Also the bacon was burnt. Disappointing. 
The bad though, was service. Don't get me wrong, the staff were very nice (to our faces anyhow), pretty efficient, and seemed to be having a very fun time, but it is just never - never - good form to mock, criticise, or really, even talk about, your customers within earshot of other customers - and it happened repeatedly through our meal. I don't get it and it was really off-putting. Also a warning that the plate of my tagine was burning hot would also have been handy.
Can't report on drinks. My day at the office hadn't yet reached such a nadir as to warrant taking advantage of their liquor licence, and it turned out there was not time for coffee.
Oh yeah, and the prices were quite good I thought. Maybe a result of location?
I'll go back, but I'll be looking for a quieter table - and keeping my eye on the waiting staff when they turn their backs...