Noodle Soup Cravings - Pho Chu The, Footscray

Loathed to raise this again, it's horribly cliché but Melbourne's frivolous weather continues to totally baffle me. A mere day ago we were sweltering through the city's hottest November day ever as the mercury hovered around 38°C for most of it, and yet this morning we woke to the wettest day in several years with temperatures cool enough to have to dig our sweaters out of the back of the closet again. If we'd a similar constitution to pet fish in an aquarium, this rapidity of change would've guaranteed to find us all floating belly up on the surface.

Bowl of phở bo mixed with herbage, lemon juice and plenty of bird's eye chilli just the way I like it!

The morning's rain and greyness had us lingering in bed till late but once up and thinking about food, the only brunch craving that insistently crept into mind for a need to be satisfied was a piping hot bowl of soupy noodles. Luckily for us, Footscray is only the next suburb away so it didn't take any deliberating to find ourselves walking into Chu The for large warming bowls of phở. As usual for the two of us, a medium bowl ($8.50) each of phở bo (beef) and phở ga (chicken) were promptly ordered, and I also fulfilled my first caffeine need for the day with a strong hot Vietnamese coffee syrupy with sweetened condensed milk. There's nothing much to share about the venue itself, it's a rack-standard phở joint albeit quite a small one and wholly dedicated to the Vietnamese breakfast staple. Springrolls to whet the appetite are about all you can stray away from the bowls of noodles. Choices are pretty much limited to one's preferred size of bowl, beef or chicken, and to what extend one would like to add associated offal and viscera to accompany the sliced meat (blood cubes, tendon or brisket for beef, and liver or giblets for the chicken). Order the Special for the complete experience. Lingering uncertainly over these selections when the waiter asks for your order will more than likely produce an impatient look to get with the programme.

We have visited the place quite a number of times and it's always full of local suburbanites on their grocery shopping break so there must be something going for it. Chu The produces satisfying enough bowls of phở, not the best and not the worst in Melbourne though I'm now somewhat surprised that I hadn't really been dedicated enough to have kept a phở track record. But here's my breakdown on Phở Chu The.
Pluses:
- Generous amounts of soup and meat, more so than any bowl one is likely to find in Vietnam.
- Beef slices always added to cook through in your bowl and thus served perfectly pink.
- Slices of chicken breast meat also tender and not overcooked nor grainy.
- Okay depth of flavour in the broth though lacks the heady spiciness and pepperiness of some establishments.
- Great rice noodles left with requisite bite.
Minuses:
- Limited variety of herbage with only basil and sprouts and wedge of lemon supplied.
- Chicken can include some pieces with gristle attached (and even non-chicken bits such as tripe!) if one does not expect or care for that; and beef can be untidily sliced and prone to clumping.
- Chicken broth always lacks the punch of the beef, though this is the case everywhere.

Walking outside warmly satiated and full of soup, we looked up and saw a patch of blue sky. Did they or did they not say it was going to keep raining!

Food: 14/20 - Phở or phở.
Service: 14/20 - Efficient, impersonal, inoffensive.
Value: 16/20 - Standard.
R-Factor: 16/20 - Sure, unless I can remember better elsewhere but close by.
Spot Score: 15/20 - See Pluses and Minuses.

Pho Chu The
92 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC.
[There's another outlet somewhere in Little Saigon, Richmond]

For Footscray local and Food & Travel writer, Phil Lees' take on Chu The, visit his food blog "The Last Appetite".

Lets Start With Something Sweet - Balha's Pastry

A selection of buttery filo, pistachio, semolina and syrupy goodness at Balha's Pastry

Yes I have been absent and neglectful for some time. I do admit to reaching a point where Blogger’s more annoying idiosyncrasies such as its unpredictable interpretation of command lines and tendency to spontaneously evaporate uploaded pictures into the ether, irritated me more than was rational. That and the grudging realisation that experiences were becoming more about the photo and blogability than food and companionship. So perhaps it had been timely hiatus. But the main excuse is really that life had been crazy busy including the purchase of our first home, then having to spend weeks overseas on my day job away from that same lovely, and equally neglected house! But in that time we have certainly not stopped eating and there had been quite a few interesting not to mention exotic food experiences. And I’m excited to tell again…

For those of us who love exotic sweet treats it’s hard to go past Balha’s Pastry in Brunswick, a palatial temple to Middle Eastern desserts complete with twin grand staircases that lead up to an upper floor for seat-in indulgence. What’s more, they remain open to 10 pm all week to cater for those occasional late evening cravings with strong, drink-this-and-forget-about-sleep coffees. The challenge at Balha's comes in attempting to choose from the endless arrays on display and waiting for ones turn to nominate that choice amongst the eager weekend crowds hungry for their buttery syrup fix. Our usual strategy is to grab a counter ticket before dodging in for a reccy of the displays. We’ll then hopefully be ready to point to our selections when our number is called! My current favourite is a generous ‘slice’ containing a soft labneh-like filling that is sandwiched between crispy vermicellied kataifi wafers topped with pistachio crumbs and drizzled liberally with orange blossom or rosewater syrup…whimper.

Spot Score: 15/20

Balha’s Pastry
761 Sydney Road, Brunswick, VIC.

What is Unctuous? - Hako Japanese Restaurant

The dining room of Hako Japanese restaurant is a pretty sexy place in the evening. And by that I don't mean brash bordello sexy as in red lace and black leathers (too bad if that's your thing), but rather a classy jazzy sexiness exuded by its monochromatic base colours and dimly lit aesthetic. Politely demure wait staff dressed in black, flickering tea-lights on tables and sparse moody rows of bare tungsten globes add to the romantic feel. Though I'm not sure whether noise reverberating off all those bare wood surfaces when the room is full would spoil it for romancing couples, since we ducked in unannounced just on start of Saturday evening service and the place was quite empty. But that meant we could nab a table provided we promised that we'll be done in an hour and a half. Fully booked out for anytime later.

Tea by tea-light at Hako, or could it be matcha with matches :)

We began with a Main serve of Sashimi ($27.80), which could've been more generously plated for its price. The usual suspects salmon and tuna, and two different white fish (swordfish and possibly snapper) were appealingly presented with specklings of tobiko (flying fish roe), some grated daikon and a little wasabi (though where's the pickled ginger?), and served with dashi and soy dipping sauce. Nothing too adventurous but at least two different cuts of flesh were offered for each fish, tastier and more sought after fatty slices from the belly region or equivalent were contrasted with the firmer almost springy muscle. And all sparklingly fresh as one would expect. Next was Nasu Dengaku ($9.80), a whole eggplant scored deeply at intervals and deepfried, following which a thick sweet miso glaze is slathered into the gashes before a brief charring under the griller. The slippery and savoury pulp that was punctuated by points of nuttiness from toasted sesame seeds was simple and delightful, as was the communal sparring of chopsticks required to compete for one's fair share!
(A recipe version of nasu dengaku using just the griller can be found here, though if large eggplant halves are used I'll be inclined to brush them with oil and pre-grill them wrapped in foil until a little soft before continuing. This should avoid over burning the skin while leaving the insides still insufficiently cooked).

Unagidon is a favourite and Hako's in-house version ($22.80) was quite satisfactory. A sweetly gelatinous length of Kabayaki eel fillet over a generous box of rice sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds. More sparring! It came with a bowl of surprisingly standard miso broth. The serve of rice with the unagi was appreciated and timely, since nothing else came with rice. A request for more was provided in a miserly amount in an already small porcelain bowl ($2); unecessarily stingy. Matcha (green tea) at $3.80 per person was more subtle larceny despite refills of hot water (which by the way doesn't quite work as successfully with powder as with tea leaves).

Sublime flesh offered by Hako's Chargrilled Kingfish Kama

Despite these glitches, the highlight of our evening came in the guise of the poster Special of Chargrilled Kingfish Kama (yellowtail kingfish collar) ($19.80), a great value-adding offering of the pectoral 'wing' and 'collar' behind the head of the fish. Based on other reviews of Hako, it seems to make quite a regular Specials appearance and now we understand why. To date, I have tried to avoid use of the word 'unctuous', a somewhat clichéd descriptive for what I guess applies to a slippery and deliciously oily (in a very good way) mouthfeel in certain foods. But the heck with it, I now have to get it out of my system! Hako's dengaku eggplant was certainly unctuous, the unagi was most definitely unctuous and brother, was the rich and flavoursome scalloped flesh that fell from that chargilled piece of kingfish ever bloody unctuous! I have no idea how they achieved the sublime effect of smokily charred skin yet leaving the generous amount of flesh within so devinely moist and um, unctuous! A light marination with oiled sake or mirin and white miso may also have contributed to the flavour but otherwise it was seasoned simply with salt and a squeeze of lemon. I'll go as far as declaring it as one of the more memorable dishes we've had out in the past 6 months. That it is a simple, carefully prepared street-style portion of chargrilled fish offcut makes this seem rather absurd and more than a little ironic given some of the establishments we'd been to in that time.

Food: 16/20 - Clean simple Japanese with some rustic surprises
Service: 15/20 - Polite and unobtrusive
Value: 14/20 - Cost over compensating with standard staples unecessarily spoils perception
R-Factor: 16/20 - Atmosphere and Specials will make us return
Spot Score: 15/20

Hako Japanese Restaurant
310 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC.

There seems to be a growing disenchantment in bloggers' accounts of meals had at restaurants of late, especially when judged in context with the size of the bill. But that doesn't change the fact that we all enjoy eating out in anticipation of a great meal or an eye opening dish. In the spirit of this enjoyment, will anyone else share and describe one surprisingly memorable dish that they've had eating out in the past 6 months or so, and where?

Forget In-Flight Food, and Detour to - Spicy Corner

Looking forward to that cold and limp herbed chicken sandwich for your in-flight lunch shortly after take-off? Or worst if flying budget, anticipate forking out $7 or more for noodles-in-a-cup and a drink that will leave you feeling even more ravenous? Well here's an alternative if you happen to be on the highway to Tullamarine from late morning (11 am) to about 2 pm, or in the evening (5:30 - 8:30 pm), and have 40 minutes or so to grab a meal before really having to be at the airport.

The exotic tastes of Sri Lanka at Spicy Corner

Just a short 5-min detour off the Mickleham Road exit but somewhat hidden within suburban Tullamarine is an inconsequential but surprising little Sri Lankan cafe and Takeaway named, 'Spicy Corner'. The eatery is located in a small quiet residential street and the corner tenant of one of those typical outer-suburban shop-rows that last saw heyday back in the 70's. From memory there's also a languishing fish & chippery there, a video store and the ubiquitous milkbar among a few other businesses. One certainly wouldn't just find yourself there unless you lived locally, or were told about or taken to Spicy Corner! So how did I come to know of this little Sri Lankan gem? Well I used to work close-by in a previous job and we visited it frequently for lunchtime take-aways and a regular Friday lunch eat-in. That was then, but even now KB and I will occasionally make a special visit out that way whenever we're hit with a craving for great tasting and terrific value Sri Lankan curry and rice.

The friendly 'ammaa' of Spicy Corner dishing out your curry of choice

The cafe itself is nothing much to look at of course. There are a few tables set for eating in and a large bain marie adjoining the counter to one side. But don't be discouraged by the bain marie (it's a curry place after all) or if there happens to be no one else dining there at the time, the majority of its trade is from takeaways to locals and workers from the numerous factories and warehouses located in the area. Having been somewhat of a regular there in the past, I can confidently assure that the food is fresh and prepared in-house daily. In fact, visit around noon on Fridays and be prepared to wait patiently in queue. Word of this place has definitely made its rounds among the local businesses. The food is genuine Ceylonese/Sinhalese home-style cookery (confirmed by a Sri Lankan friend missing his mother's cooking) with the 'small-plate' of the Daily Chef's Choice of curry (choice of chicken, lamb, beef or veg) served over rice together with an assortment of vegetable sides and condiments like mango chutney, pappadum, mallung, and coconut (pol) and chilli sambols, being the most popular. My fav is the chicken (skinless but on-the-bone thigh/leg meat) but the lamb or beef (cubes of meat) are probably most popular. And all for $7 for a great lunch! This is a genuine value for money 'Cheap Eat'. One can't even get a lousy regular burger meal at any of the multi-national burger joint-of-your-choice for that, and I certainly know which meal I'd prefer. Don't let the recommended choice of 'small' fool you either, it's a generous serving whether heaped on a plate or squeezed into a takeway container! And the curries, whatever your choice, are redolent with fresh aromatics like curry leaf, mustard seed, cardamon, cinnamon, green chillies and dry roasted coconut to name but a few I'd recognised. Vegetarians certainly don't miss out here either, their plates are heaped just as high as anybody else's. For the uninitiated, Sri Lankan dishes are unlike most Indian curries we in Australia may be more familiar with. Often spicier with chilli, more aromatic with coconut milk and lighter in taste and texture. In a word, delicious!

The 'small' beef curry and rice served with delicious sides and condiments!

Aside from the curries of the day, Spicy Corner also offers moreish finger foods including Vadai (fried spicy dhal 'cookies'), crumbed capsicum chillies with a spicy fish filling, Godumba and Pan rolls (spiced meat-filled rottis and pancakes) and Samosas, though at times these could be past being at their best (gone cold and soft) if you get there late. And for folks booking their visit on Saturday evenings, there is a Hopper Meal Special which includes a selection of curries and all-you-can-eat hoppers (fermented rice flour crepes shaped into a bowl with a crispy exterior to accompany the savouries). We are yet to try this, but certainly plan to do so soon!

Food: 16/20 - Fresh tasting spicy food just like home, if it was Sri Lanka.
Service: 13/20 - Family-business-friendly though can get confused and befuddled when busy.
Value: 17/20 - Difficult to name somewhere else better value for money.
Returnability (R) Factor: 15/20 - Though out of the way, we have, many times.
Spot Score: 15/20
(Note: I have decided to alter the sub-scoring criteria from this post onwards to allow more scope, though it likely remains just as subjectively meaningless)

Spicy Corner
49 Dawson Street, Tullamarine (Melway Ref. 15H1).
Tel. 93355650
(Closed on Mondays)

Note: I am happy to 'promote' this place more than usual as Spot4Nosh admires examples of genuine and unassuming small businesses such as Spicy Corner that offer great value for money 'real' food while seemingly resisting the easy temptations of lazy short- and cost-cutting. These places deserve to be customised and succeed to survive for us to return time and again.

This article has been cross-posted in Very Cheap Eats.

A Light on the Bay - belleZain

We stumbled upon belleZain Restaurant and Bar in Port Melbourne back on the Queen's Birthday long weekend, now a distant month ago! Feeling guilty for procrastinating indoors the entire day before, KB and myself had decided to spend Sunday with a slow drive down the length of the Mornington Peninsula. We spent a pleasant enough afternoon revisiting those bayside townships of Rye, Sorrento and Portsea although to be honest, with the jostling long weekend crowds they were more evocative in name than experience. However a walk we took around Point Nepean afforded us with some escape from the masses and good views of the Bay near the point of its escape into the Southern Ocean. I remember it being a rather bleak day, with a persistent chill in the air and a grey limpid sea that one learns to expect on a day at the beach in Victoria (slight lament from an expatriated Queenslander). We had been prepared and were appropriately wrapped for the weather but when the weak sun finally gave up for the day it was definitely time to find somewhere warm for a good hearty meal.

BelleZain wasn't initially on our cards for dinner. As we drove back down the coastal highway towards Melbourne we'd somehow missed the turn-off to the first place we'd thought to try and our second choice was inexplicably closed, on Sunday evening of the long weekend no less! In fact, we were all but resigned to heading back to a familiar 'cheap and cheerful' in the city when we spied the neon cursive of belleZain and decided to make a hasty U-turn. The restaurant was tenanted within an apartments development with an enviable location, separated from sand and sea only by Beach Road and with a clear outlook towards Station Pier. One can almost imagine whiling a warm summer's afternoon away on its large patio with beer in hand. Almost...because on that night I had fumbled with stiff fingers at a taut zipper in a hurried attempt to get us in through the clear PVC awning that protected the entrance of the restaurant from the biting evening chill! Inside was a modern chic bistro typical of many such establishments located in Port Melbourne. Basically, a dimly lit palette of chocolate, beige and burgundy interspersed with stained timber slatting and white linened tables. A continuous benchseat with a backing of large cushions ran the length of the floor-to-ceiling glass frontage, demarcated only by the separated table settings.

Lovely bayside views looking towards Station Pier from belleZain's doorstep. Not a bad place to grab last drinks and a decent meal before boarding that ferry for Tasmania!

The menu revealed that belleZain was available for breakfast, lunch, dinner and probably anytime in between. There was a selection of bistro type offerings which showed an attempt at lifting them above the usual standard fare and a section dedicated to semi-gourmet pizzas ($15-$19), suggesting that the place wouldn't be a bad choice for a daytime family stopover. Once the sun has set however, the feel was definitely 'adult' with an alluring bar dominating one end of the room and a large Specials Board at the other offering a more sophisticated selection of Mains and a choice of $14 cocktails. Both our Mains came from the Specials Board, from which I selected the Chargrilled Ribeye Steak with Vegetable Ratatouille and Red Onion Relish ($29) and KB the Spicyed (sic) Pressed Pork Shoulder and Potato Puree and Sauce aigre-doux ($29). We also ordered the Whitebait with Fresh Green Herbs and Preserved Lemon ($8) and the Deep Fried Goats Cheese and Sage Arancini ($9) to start, and a Pear, Rocket and Parmesan Salad ($7) to accompany our meal. Nice thick slices of bread with the requisite saucer of olive oil and swirl of balsamic arrived after orders were taken. Despite the intriguing list of cocktails and a wine list however, I settled for a local beer ($6). The chill had finally started to dissipate from our toes.

Truthfully, we weren't expecting much from the food as the one or two other bar-type restaurants we'd been to in the area, namely at nearby Station Pier, had been pretentiously overpriced while delivering totally unremarkable fare. So we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the dishes at belleZain. The goat's cheese arancini were nice and crispy on the outside and crumbly and soft in the middle, with each golden ball topped with a fried sage leaf. Even better were the whitebait which were crunchily more-ish and served abit differently tossed with a light scattering of dry-roasted chilli flakes and fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley. However the so-called preserved lemon was more like a scatter of not particularly thinly julienned raw lemon rind, and had to be picked aside as they were too hard and bitter to be eaten. On to the Mains, my medium-rare ribeye was chargrilled on the bone and laid over a bed of diced roasted vegetables and was delicious, although a minor misjudgement meant that some of the meat clinging to the bone was a tad on the blue side. But the combination of hard-to-see dim lighting and a very tasty garnish of sweated onion relish made me forget about that and continue to pick at it anyway. KB's dish consisted of a tight, meaty roll of cleverly marinated pork (we guessed at hints of five-spice) that was pan roasted to perfection, with filigrees of golden crispiness encasing the medium-cooked and very succulent meat within. The sauce aigre-doux (sour-sweet) was a faintly sweet balsamic-like vinaigrette which together with the drizzle of pan juices and creamy mashed potato, perfectly rounded out this surprisingly remarkable dish. Our generous bowl of salad was also well constructed, with a nicely subtle dressing binding together the dependable combination of rocket leaves, sweet pear slices and savoury Parmesan shavings. After the fine meal we were contented to linger a little longer for a coffee, so it was an added bonus to find that the restaurant hadn't just invested on a decent chef but also had a good barista on board. KB's flat-white ($3.50) had a strong creamy hit of caffeine and was served at the perfect temperature, hot enough to warrant a little caution at the lips without being scalding. This was remarkable only because so many places, including dedicated coffee dens, frequently can only come up with lukewarm and weak white coffees. As for me I'd splurged on the Affogato ($9), which arrived on a platter balancing a ramekin of vanilla ice cream, a shot of strong espresso and a shotglass of Amaretto (liqueur of choice). I must say I enjoyed these, using the style of a scoop of this followed by a sip of that or the other.

Service at belleZain was casual and efficient, despite there being only a limited number of wait-staff (two) servicing an evening that progressively got quite busy. But here is its main downside...the restaurant has the potential of being quite an intimate evening treat with its handsome look and decent food, so it's really a shame that it tries to cramp too many tables into its layout and so separate table settings are way too close to each other. Such is the proximity of neighbouring tables that one really does feel that personal space has been invaded, not exactly a relaxing way to dine. Just to press the point, to one side of us a group of elderly regulars that had arrived later struck up a conversation among themselves, and then with us, on the merits of our menu choices. "We should get some of the whitebait too, it's always delicious here...Isn't it?" Just as well we could agree wholeheartedly!

Food: 4 spots - Honest attempt at creativity and quality not typical of bar-restaurants.
Service: 3.5 spots.
Value: 3.5 spots - Cheaper meals can be found in pubs around the area but not bad value for more formal dining and a chic place for drinks with a view in Port Melbourne.
Returnability(R) Factor: 3.5 spots - Could well do.
Spot Score: 15/20

belleZain Restaurant and Bar
1 Beach Road, Port Melbourne, VIC.

Thursday a Go Go (Part I) - La Contadina, Cafe Zum Zum

Thursday's an odd day of the week in my opinion. Most of us would have just barely struggled over the summit of yet another hectic week, and now hoping to ease off the pedals to coast down towards the weekend. For KB and I it's usually when we start getting a bit lazy in our daily routine, including the process of pondering and preparing our nightly meal. Despite this, we rarely dine out in the middle of a working week...(though we do succumb to that 'home-late-from-work' take-out more often than we care to admit). However on occasions where for one reason or another we'd visited a restaurant mid-week, it would more often than not happen on a Thursday. After all the vegie crisper would be looking a bit barren by then and the thought of re-heating the remnants of that curry that was eagerly enjoyed on Monday and again on Tuesday, would now be decidedly unappealing to say the least. The big plus of Thursday dining is that pre-planning is hardly ever required. We seldom have problems getting ourselves a table despite having not made a booking. The following set of posts reflects on our experiences at three different local restaurants that we'd chanced upon during lazy Thursdays in the past couple of months or so. It so happened that somehow they were all located on the same street, which was also quite odd...

There are no lack of eateries scattered along Rathdowne Street as it stretches through the suburb of Carlton, although it does lack the dense concentration of places and late evening buzz of neighbouring Lygon Street...kind of like the latter's more introverted cousin. Anyway one of the places we walked by and decided to stop in for a meal was the La Contadina Italian restaurant. The feel of La Contadina is every bit the typical Italian trattoria, with rustic exposed bricks breaking up timber panelling that is everywhere else. Counters and walls were cluttered with Italian-feel memorabilia ranging from statuettes and vases, to Renaissance prints and photos. More than one section of wall catered to the Head-of-House's (one Giovanni Mico) narcissistic tendency for pining up trophy photos of himself with a parade of local and international personalities but despite that, the overall atmosphere was warm and homey. The restaurant is fully licensed and allows BYO wine but we did not choose to imbibe that night. We were however persuaded to start with the usual serve of garlic bread, which was fine if a little heavy on butter. KB not unusually, had a hankering for seafood so she ordered the Risotto with Lobster, Local Prawns and Moreton Bay Bug in Chilli Garlic Sauce, while I was craving something heartier and chose the blackboard special of Osso Bucco with Grilled Polenta. Both mains had substantial servings but both also turned out to be a bit of a let down, mine much more so. KB's risotto was a little too overdone for her liking and somehow lacked the richness one would expect if made with a crustacean rich stock base. The prawns may have been 'local' and were okay but the grilled lobster was anything but, with its flesh having that bland and mushy consistency of having been frozen (probably because it was imported). The amount of seafood was generous though. My veal shank was an imposing meaty chunk and tasted suitably rich as I started on it but working inwards, a disconcerting feeling crept in that the meat was getting colder. Then I had a taste of meat next to the bone and it immediately killed my appetite...it was cold, not in the way of talking too much and eating too slowly cold, but more like just taken out of the fridge cold. So much for looking forwards to sucking out the marrow...yes I do that, but doesn't everyone? I did let the waitress know about it and although I thought she could've been more apologetic, she did offer to get what was left re-heated for me. Bleah! I politely declined mainly because I've had enough Osso Bucco for the night and secondly, if I'd wanted to dine on microwaved left-overs I would've stayed at home in my PJs. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for pre-cooking a decent casserole and re-heating it the next day with the knowledge that flavours would even have improved. But I think that the initial half-hearted attempt at re-heating a dish for serving in a restaurant smacks of a definite level of jadedness in the kitchen in question and a lack of respect for paying customers, considering it wasn't even busy on the night. It definitely did not leave a good impression but we put it down to hopefully, an isolated oversight. We even stayed for after-dinner coffees and shared a Tira Misu, which must have been alright but not that memorable, because I don't remember it.

Food: 3 spots - Difficult to score because of my cold shank treatment, and so decided to be on the generous side.
Service: 3.5 spots - Our waitress was efficient and friendly enough without being warm.
Value: 3 spots - Prices were okay (Mains under $30) but again, value affected by food on the night.
Returnability(R) Factor: 2.5 spots - In an area renowned for its multitude of Italian bistros, not likely.
Spot Score: 12/20

La Contadina Ristorante Italiano
168-170 Rathdowne Street, Carlton, VIC.


I'm usually no fan of that occasional Thursday evening wander at the local suburban shopping complex. That's because it inevitably interferes with dinner time and sheer hunger usually coerces us into doling out not insubstantial sums of cash on the generally God-awful fare that lurks within foodcourt bains-marie. But on this particular occasion I was happy because I'd walked away from the Sales with a sparkling new Espresso machine, relatively content that I'd managed a great deal. Well that may or may not be so as I'm usually quite the skeptic of so called bargains at departmental 'Sales'. Anyone else notice that retailers seem to be having 'Sales of a Lifetime' just about every other week these days? As for our new coffee machine, it's great! The only drawback is that I haven't managed very much sleep since, as I stare wide-eyed at the bedroom ceiling fully buzzed from umpteenth shots of perfectly textured crema. But back to the night of its purchase, the need to mark the occasion with a proper meal helped us resist the lure of the foodcourt. Instead we decided it was as good a time as any to give Cafe Zum Zum in North Carlton a try.

This small quaintly named Lebanese & Middle Eastern orientated cafe/restaurant is located amidst residental suburbia at the the opposite end of Rathdowne Street to La Contadina. Although it was nearly 9 pm by the time we walked in seeking a feed, the place was lively with diners and we were lucky to be offered the only empty table left. The atmosphere was casual and friendly and a quick survey of occupants at the other tables hinted that this was a popular meeting place for locals in the know, regardless of which day of the week (we did find out the hard way on a previous unresearched and subsequently fruitless visit, that Zum Zum is closed on Mondays). The place was decorated with Middle Eastern and Asiatic trinklets and although small, tables were thoughtfully well spaced. There were also several tables located on the footpath outside the shopfront but even a month ago, al fresco dining appealed to no one. The two of us were hungry and quickly perused the relatively focused Menu to order Falafel Balls drizzled with yoghurt to start, and shared main plates of Harissa Spiced Chicken with Chickpeas and Grilled Snapper Fillet on Almond Rice. A surprisingly diverse drinks selection offering wines by bottle or glass and even boutique beers, rates a mention. We were impressed with the quality of the food. The falafels were flavourful well-spiced balls of crispy and crumbly goodness. The chicken dish was tasty especially the chickpeas, although the harissa lacked adequate kick and we would have preferred portions of chicken cooked on the bone, as I'm sure the spirit of the dish was meant to be. What's the deal with this pervading modern western preference for skinless and boneless but comparatively bland chicken breasts! The fish was a simply but superbly grilled fillet with skin on (yay!), which rested over a bed of almond rice consisting of steamed long grains infused with warm spices and toasted whole-almonds. At last a kitchen that knew how to handle fish with respect, no hint of overcooking or heavy-handed seasoning but instead letting the freshness of the moist white flesh shine through with just a tinge of lemony zing. The aromatic crispy edges of grilled skin accentuated the effect. Needless to say, we sparred forks over the last flakes! Overall, the food at Zum Zum was reminiscent of careful understated home-style cooking highlighted by its ethnic influences. It was invigorating to know of a place where we can go for simple tasty food prepared by folks who obviously care about what they offer from their kitchen! Alas my thoughts about their coffee and sweet offerings are a little more restrained. I thought I'll try the Arabic coffee since I witnessed them being served in intriguing individual-sized (they also have larger ones for more people to share) rakweh, long-handled metal pots in which Lebanese coffee is meant to be brewed. However while I was expecting a strongish caffeine hit with maybe hints of spice, the coffee was rather weak, nothing special and tasted slightly burnt to boot. In fact I doubt it was actually brewed over a stove in the rakweh since I could actually witness my order being prepared behind a large commercial espresso machine located at the bar! Anyway, I was convinced that I could've produced a much more satisfying cup at home, especially with our then new counter-top gadget waiting in the boot of the car! We also shared a bite each of a delightful enough cube of Turkish Delight...we had to woefully share one because at $4 a piece, it was already a rather cheeky ask. But don't let this minor whinging influence you. We recommend giving Cafe Zum Zum a try!

Food: 4 spots - Do yourselves a favour, gather a group, and share some great food!
Service: 3.5 spots - Friendly despite being busy.
Value: 3.5 spots - Can't argue with Mains round about $20.
Returnability(R) Factor: 4 spots - We're not local but we'll be back.
Spot Score: 15/20 - Recommended.

Cafe Zum Zum
645 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North, VIC.