Wednesday 27 April 2016

Burger Adventures @ The Burger Block (Invited)

85 Willsmere Rd, Kew VIC 3101
9854 5771
7am - 3pm Mon - Fri
9am - 4pm Sat         
       Sunday Closed        

On the courtesy of Brenda, I was invited to The Burger Block to try out some of their signature burgers. Located on Willsmere Rd, Kew. the cafe is easily accessible by bus or tram, and even easier by car (which unfortunately I did not have).


I rarely travel to the Eastern suburbs as I'm from the West so this was quite the adventure for me.
Upon entering, we were greeted by friendly workers and a cozy atmosphere. With a display of burgers on their counter, there was so many delicious options to choose from

Red Lantern (JPN/THAI) ($12.9)
american cheese, bacon, spanish onions, lettuce, tomato & wasabi mayo

After spending a good 10 minutes deciding on what burger I wanted, I opted for the Red Lanttern. I find it pretty cool how the cafe labels their burgers with countries.

The burger was delicious!, packed with flavour, the bun was soft, juicy patty, everything worked really well together. Unfortunately I was expecting more spice as the burger had a 2 chilli rating on the menu. I wasn't able to get that punch I was hoping for, perhaps if they added jalepenos? or something with more kick then I would give it a higher rating.

 But overall a satisfying burger

(7.5/10)

The Black Jack (HK/JPN) ($13.5) (no tomato)
american cheese, bacon, grilled mushrooms, spanish onions, lettuce, black pepper sauce & jap mayo

My friend 'D' ordered 'The Black Jack'. the burger was just as great as the 'Red Lantern', but I preferred mine more whilst 'D' preferred hers. 

The black pepper sauce was strong, On my first bite I was greeted with a strong and delicious sauce which complimented the burger really well. 

Combined with the grilled mushrooms, spanish onions, bacon, cheese and the meat patty. Oh, it was a delicious burger. I would've loved to try this with tomato, but wasn't able to due to 'D' being allergic.

Perhaps next time :)?

(8/10)


Loaded Chips ($7.5) (Small)
Beer battered chips, aioli furikake (roasted seaweed seasoning)

I loved the 'Aioli Furikake', which was the roasted seaweed seasoning with I believe is with japanese mayo. It gave the crispy chips a lovely flavour. Though as you have more, the flavour can be quite overpowering, which happened to be towards the end.

(7.5/10)

Iced Chocolate w/ Ice Cream ($6)

Nothing to spectacular, the drink was nice, smooth and cold. The ice-cream added that extra element which made it more enjoyable, though I think the quality of the ice-cream can be better.

/7/10)

Iced Matcha w/ Ice Cream

Originally, I thought the 'Iced sencha & matcha green tea' was the iced matcha w/ green tea. Luckily, the girl working had a feeling that I wanted the Iced matcha, so she was able to get it for me. From my understanding, it isn't on the menu but you can order it.

The iced matcha was delightful, though it lacked in matcha flavour, it was creamy and delicious.

(6/10)

Food - 7.3 / 10
Ambiance - 7 / 10
Service - 9 / 10
Total FoOodie Points - 23.3 / 30


Monday 18 April 2016

Chinese Adventures @ Secret Kitchen

222 Exhibition St, Melbourne
9988 7778
11:30am - 3:00pm Everyday (Yumcha)
5:30pm - 11:00pm Everyday (Dinner)

Oh glorious yumcha, definitely one of the top cuisines which I absolute love. With all sorts of dim-sum, staple chinese dishes and desserts, what is there not to love?

To be honest, yumcha restaurant in the CBD cannot compared to the outer suburbs such as sunshine and springvale, therefore I didn't have high expectations when I came here.


I don't remember the price of the dishes but it's your standard yumcha style pricing where dishes are catergorized. Unfortunately the secret kitchen website also doesn't have a menu of the yumcha selection so i'll have to do it from bottom to top.

Chilli Pork Dumpling

Below average to be honest, didn't taste that good but the chilli packed a punch. 

(4/10)

3 Colour Prawn Dumpling
This is your standard take on the staple prawn dumpling (Har Gao) with the extra touch of the unique colurs. It was actually pretty good, though the downfall is that the dim sum was literally impossible to pick up without it falling apart or tear off.

(7/10)

Prawn & Scallop Dumpling
Definitely tasted prawn and the obvious scallop on top of the dumpling, I would say this was the best out of the 4. Delicious, hot and the scallop was tender and delicious.

(8/10)


XL Prawn Dumpling

Literally a prawn dumpling (Har Gao) but the size is a lot bigger. Nothing that great to be honest, average at best and just like the 3 coloured dumpling, it was impossible to pick up as a whole since it teared apart.

(5/10)

Chives & Prawn Dumpling

Majority of the dim sum literally tore off whenever I tried to pick it up, definitely a downside for this yumcha. The chives & prawn was nothing amazing but packed a nice flavour with the chives involved

(6/10)



Egg Tart

These aren't as good compared to many over yumcha establishments that I've been too. I felt that the pastry was a bit too try and overall it wasn't as flavoursome.

(5/10)


Mango Pudding

My childhood favourite, i've always loved mango pudding since my first time dining at a yumcha restaurant. You simply can't go wrong with it.

The mango pudding was pretty good, though it was overly sweet. Creamy with the extra milk complimenting the pudding, it was a satisfying dish.

(8/10)

I also had a few other dishes but unfortunately the food was devoured before I able to take a photo of it ;) but I do highly recommend the shark fin dumpling and chicken feet. 

Food - 6 / 10
Ambiance - 7 / 10
Service - 5 / 10
Total FoOodie Points - 17 / 30


Cafe Adventures @ Scarvelli Cafe (Invited)

143 Whitehorse Rd, Deepdene VIC
9816 8887
           7:00am - 4:30pm Mon - Fri
 8:00am - 3:30pm Sat
  8:00am - 3:00pm Sun

On the courtesy of Carlos, I was invited to dine at Scarvelli Cafe to try out their refined paddock-to-plate dishes. Located on Whitehorse Rd, Deepdene, getting to Scarvelli is easily accessible via the 109 tram.



Upon being greeted, we were seated at a specially prepared table for us which was pleasing.


The cafe has an industrial chic interior which makes you feel at home, with the front counter featuring some of their bakes and coffees, you'll be salivating at first glance.

Wood Fired Salmon ($21.5) (GF)
Torn wood fired salmon, caramelised onion, minted pea & caper frittata rocket, avocado & tomato corn salsa

The wood fired salmon had a mixture of strong flavours in the dish, the combination of the avocado and tomato corn salsa gave a unique flavour which my friend enjoyed but wasn't my cup of tea. The wood fired salmon was delightful and paired well with the rest of the dish

(7/10)

Scarvelli Burger ($21)
Wagyu patty, american mustard, jack cheese, burger sauce, red onion, sliced tomato & lettuce on a broiche bun with chips & aioli

The Scarvelli Burger was magnificent, the wagyu patty was juicy and tender, and every single ingredient worked really well together. I would definitely get the burger if I were to come back. 

What I did feel would've been a good improvement for the burger is by adding bacon, or the giving the option of adding bacon as I felt the burger could've been even more enjoyable than it already was if it had bacon.


The chips were crispy and seasoned well, you can't really go wrong with chips, because if you do, you're clearly doing something wrong.

 The aioli sauce was also delightful and added that extra flavour.

(8.5/10)

Cookies & Cream Milkshake

Simply divine, the cookies & cream milkshake which my friend ordered was delicious, sweet and was exactly what I was expecting. Though to be honest, I may have gotten cookies and cream or oreo milkshake mixed up. But if you ever do dine at Scarvelli, you'll know what it is and trust me, get it.

(9/10)

House Juice / Super Juice (Specials board)
apple, pear, celery, lemon & ginger

I on the other hand opted for something a bit more healthy. Suggested by Carlos, the juice was delicious, the combination of ingredients complimented well with each other, though to be honest for my own taste, I should've taken out the celery in the order as I simply dislike it. 

Nonetheless it was a delicious beverage and satisfied my healthy cravings.

(7/10) 


A special shout out to their new release; Scarvelli, Our Paddock To Plate. A book released, to my understand, by the owners of Scarvelli cafe. Carlos introduced me to it and after reading bits and pieces, I can say it's a great read.

Featuring stories, recipes, tips on all sorts of things. Scarvelli, Paddock To Plate is a fascinating read which is to be released in middle of April.


Food - 7.8 / 10
Ambiance - 8 / 10
Service - 9 / 10
Total FoOodie Points - 23.8 / 30

Scarvelli Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato 


Wednesday 13 April 2016

Cafe Adventures @ One Plus Piece

266 Whitehorse Rd, Balwyn VIC
9830 4459
8:00am - 5:00pm Everyday

A One-Piece cafe?! Did I hear that right?, when I first found out about this I immediately made plans to dine here as I am a pretty big fan of One Piece (even though i'm like 150 episodes behind) but nonetheless I was pretty excited.




A wall dedicated to One Piece manga?! it's so beautiful!


Those figurines too! so amazing!. Another cool thing is that the owner of the store actually has one piece tattoos.

\
The cups! I need one of these 


The drinks were on the specials board so I don't remember what they were besides the Iced Matcha Latte.

Iced Matcha Latte

To be honest it was pretty disappointing. The Matcha flavour was non-existent which resulted in the drink being bland and tasteless.

(3/10)

Sanji's Egg Benedict ($13.80)
12-hour braised pulled beef, poached eggs, house made hollandaise sauce

The Eggs Benedict was pretty average, the shredded apple added a nice flavour to the dish but didn't make up for the braised beef. The beef was quite dry and tasteless which, as the star of the dish, made the dish not as satisfying.

(5/10)

The Piece Force Burger

This burger is actually a secret burger on the menu. I found out after going through photos on Zomato and I immediately decided to tackle this beast. 

An awkward thing is that I thought the fried thing in the burger was fried chicken, but it turned out to be fried mushroom.

As expected, the burger was simply a mess to eat due to the size, the mushroom in my opinion didn't work that well with the beef as mushroom flavour overpowered everything else.

(6/10)

I also ordered chips to go with the burger but it never came out. After informing the waitress, she misunderstood me and thought I asked for just a drink and burger.

Whilst the food is not as great as the other cafes, If you're a big One Piece fan, then you have to try this place at least once :)


Food - 5.4 / 10
Ambiance - 8.5 / 10
Service - 5 / 10
Total FoOodie Points - 18.9 / 30

One Plus Piece Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato 



Tuesday 12 April 2016

Dessert Adventures @ Scroll Ice Cream

190 High St, Windsor VIC
0422 450 166
1:00pm - 11:00pm Sun - Thurs
1:00pm - 12:00am - Fri - Sat

Oh glorious ice-cream, where would I be without you. If you haven't heard of Scroll ice-cream and their awesome scrolled type ice-cream or all those cute instagram photos with the minions then you're clearly missing out. 

Recently just coming into popularity, these cute cupped icecream has everyone coming down to Windsor for some delicious instagram-able material


So many flavours!, a shame I was only able to try two of them


I don't know if this wallpaper is from a tv show but it's adorable.



The process of making the ice-cream which I assume, is that the mixture is put onto a cold-plate, which then eventually hardens.


After hardening, the ice-cream is then scooped into a scroll 

Banana or "Banananana" ($8 w/ student card)

To be frank, the ice-cream is average at best, the banana flavour was lacking in the ice-cream and didn't pair well with the other toppings. Whilst overall it was still an enjoyable dish, the hype of scroll ice-cream is because of the cute display with the adorable minion biscuits :)

Though I will definitely come back to give this place another try

(6/10)

Oreo Serious ($9)

Same as mentioned above, the Oreo Serious was average at best, though the flavours worked well with this one, the ice-cream itself wasn't as good.

(6.5/10)

Food - 6.2 / 10
Ambiance - 7 / 10
Service - 7 / 10
Total FoOodie Points - 20.2 / 30