Tavlin #678

After our brilliant experience with Danny’s we were looking forward to Tavlin – another Israeli restaurant that feature shasliks.  It is on the corner of Royal Parade – a street I lived in for about 3 years but never stepped foot into this restaurant.  The whole Israeli thing was a bit daunting, however, thanks to  this challenge, we walked boldly in and scored a window table. 

It is a rowdy place.  Loud groups arguing about whether it is safe for the 16 year old daughters to catch public transport to school each day, oldies eating huge platters in studied silence, young couples checking each other out.  It was all good.  I wonder what demographic Mark and I fit into? 

Nice light shade

We want these skewers

Our meal

 

We decided on ordering salad, dips, a chicken shaslik and a lamb kofta.  The latter came out on huge, thick skewers – we want some.  The Laffa (bread) was good and even better when dipped into the hummus.  Gee they can make unleavened bread.  The chicken was expertly marinated and the koftka full of flavor.  For salads we had “Ada’s corn salad”, “morroccan carrot salad”, “roasted beetroot salad” and mixed pickles.  Order the carrot salad. 

 

We spent the time waiting for our food by  listing our favourite restaurants so far.

 

Top 5 (in no order)

 

Danny's( #525),  Tandoori Valley (#245), Mexico City (#313), The more the better, Pad Thai

All up, this is a healthy cuisine and rather cheap - $51 with BYO.  Lovely service.  Recommended but if you can swing into Danny’s, I would go there first.

Red Shallot #680

This restaurant made Mark sweat – a lot. 

We thought we were going to The Little Hungarian Restaurant and were not really looking forward to it.  Hungarian always seems a bit “stodge”.  However it is not open on a Sunday night, so we skipped down , past countless hairdressers (no bad hair days in South Caulfield) to a rebadged old favourite, a “thai fusion” restaurant.  There was a banquet seat on one side with mismatched checked cushions – very groovy.  Not a sound of tinny thai music ringing from the speakers instead we were treated to slow crooning from the female side of the population.  On the table were plates with curved holes for the chopsticks – groovy and different.

So we stuck with the theme and ordered something different rather than the good old green curry chicken.

We ordered entrée number 10; Sabai which was 4 marinated tiger prawns in a light pastry served with sweet chilli sauce.   It was crunchy and fresh.

While we waited I did the obligatory checking of the lighting fixtures.  They did not let me down.  A classic chandelier hung near the door to the kitchen – we haven’t had one of those before. 

We chose 2 main meals to share; number 38 which was spicy lamb (with 3 chilli’s next to it – the maximum) and number 50 , a seafood salad.

This is when Mark commenced sweating.  The stir fried lamb was really, really spicy and we guzzled the water.  Ahh water

So, not having the normal green curry chicken and red curry beef to benchmark it with other thai restaurants, we cannot really tell whether this is good thai or not.  We will have to take the kids back and try all the normal suspects out before we make a decision. 

However, what really intrigued me was the tables that had inbuilt hot plates in them.  I have never seen this before and could not work out what dishes were cooked on them.  Again, Different.  That is how we summed up this place.

 

Princess #720

What a weird name for a Chinese Restaurant!

It is Saturday night and we have lots to celebrate;

Matt and Sally won basketball Grand finals and Lisa won her netball grand final, term 3 has finished and the kids are doing well.   All good.

We walk into this overly bright restaurant as an unhappy bunch; Sally dropped her phone on Lisa's head and we are never going to hear the end of it.  Really, people lucky enough to have iPhones should treat them with more respect.

As I mentioned, the restaurant was overly bright, sporting countless naked light bulbs in weird shapes.    A great big red coffee machine sits incongruously on a counter.  Chinese food and expresso coffee - it could only work in Melbourne.  The other noteworthy feature is a Barbara Streisand vinyl record and cover hanging on the wall.  Maybe that has something to do with the name "Princess"?  It is all beyond me.  To the food...

Chow Mein

Mark asks us what we want to eat and Matt replies with "meat".  We all laugh and the iPhone on the head issue is forgotten.

We order prawn dumpling and BBQ pork buns for entree.  Then we have cantonese beef, peking steak, chilli prawn, chow mien, chicken curry and fried rice.  The kids are given glass jars with a handle, lid and straw.  Very different.

No one is dining here.  It is just us and Babs.

Cantonese Beef

The pork buns are ok, maybe a bit rubbery.  The chow mien was fresh veggies with a deep fried something on top.  Not bad.  The cantonese beef is like popcorn.  Yummy.  The Peking Beef was the highlight and the special fried rice has pineapple on top.

A nice, simple chinese restaurant which will not break the bank with our bill reaching $125.  It is just a bot lonely sitting here with no one else.