Giardino #550

 

This is such a winner in our family.  It is usually full and buzzing with families and it is with great trepidation that we arrive here at 7pm.  More often than not we are gently turned away because tables are all occupied.  However, tonight the place is nearly empty.  We sit at a prized window table and marvel at the emptiness of it all.  We put it down to Dendy Park Carols by candlelight. 

To keep the running gag around light shades going, I will not that the lights are just the stock standard downlights.   We sit at the bare, basic,  wooden tables placed on the old terracotta floor tiles and listen to the phone ringing at the pizza station at the front of the restaurant.  Not flash, but neither are the prices.  This is the sort of bistro you take your kids to when you can’t be bothered cooking or need to celebrate the basketball end of season.

Sally orders a pizza and Mark orders a pasta – the usual yummy fair.  I go for something different and order lamb cutlets.  Basically, pasta or a large pizza is around $15, a bottle of wine at $20 and the lamb cutlets at $25.  So, it is a little bit of Lygon St but 33% more in price.

By the time I enjoy my tender lamb cutlet, people are spilling in and the happy murmur of voices ramps up.

Recommended.

La Piazza Allegra #572 - 574

Off to La Piazza Allegra we went on a Sunday night

We admired the orange pineapple rings that were the lights.

This place serves, pasta, parma’s, veal, steaks, pizza and seafood

And the waiter speaks fast and loose but not rude.

I’m not sure if having such a spread of food types is that great

They did win the 2010 “Battle of the Steak”.

These are very pricey at 33 dollars

In fact all of the pricing makes us a little hot under the collars.

 

Some oldies come in with a quaint “Décor” wine cooler colours lime

I haven’t seen one of these in a long time

It kind of sums up this whole place;

Stuck in the  ‘80’s and not kept up with the pace.

Lisa has the chicken and mushroom risotto –it’s good,

Especially if you like garlic in your food.

Sally’s lasagne features a generous amount of meat,

Matt’s pizza has jalapinos – quite a treat.

I have the veal and it looks like a bolognaise covered mess.

Once you scrape away the oil slicked sauce its ok, I guess.

Mark has an al dente fettuccini marinara, which isn’t too bad,

We chat about Monopoly Empire- our new gaming fad.

All up, the meal is satisfying and nice

However, Giardinos is just down the road at a much better price.

  

Kaga #580

Next up is a Japanese Restaurant which is great as I love Japanese and Glenhuntly Rd usually does it well because of the Japanese school nearby.

We walk in on a  Sunday at 6.50pm and it is empty, dead, bereft of people, morgue like.  We sit at a wooden table placed on tiles that look like rocks and stare at the boring light fittings.

There is no ambience.

To make matters worse, the waitress sits behind a bar like thing and just stares at us.  The whole time.  Just stares. ......And listens in on our inane conversation. ........And stares

She does stop staring for a minute and goes to fetch a free starter.  Bean things in oil and displaying a subtle hint of chilli.  Promising!

And then she gets back to staring.......

Next we have the Gyoza - 5 pieces of japanese style dumplings.  It is hot and light.

Staring still............

Then we have a Okanomiyaki , a japanese pancake made out of grated cabbage and stuff topped with BBQ sauce and that mayonnaise stuff.  I do it at home and this one is far superior.  Mark is not that impressed.

Staring...........

We then get stuck into Kaga Sushi and Sashimi set (for 2).  I curse myself for forgetting my phone.  This really needs a photo to illustrate it.  It is served on one of those wooden boat things.  Good stuff.

Staring, staring, staring

This place serves good food and it is amazingly priced - just $59.

However, there is no buzz, ambience and you get stared at .  A lot.

White Village #582

10 (actually only 7) Things I learned about Greece by eating at White Village

1. Blue and White is not just the colours on the Greek flag but also the colours that all Greek restaurants must be.  Blue walls and tablecloths with white, scribble worthy paper over the top of it.
   
2. People are happy.  The hum in this restaurant was jovial, generous and welcoming.  We seated ourselves at the round table at the front.  
3. Greek waiters are unflappable.  The service was amazing - just one man (I think the owner), who served 20 tables without a notepad and with great good humour.  He has clearly done this before.
4. The food is delicious.  We ordered the dips, marinated octopus, pan fried calamari, flounder, moussaka, lamb gyros and salad.  The marinated octopus was better than the stuff you buy from Queen Vic market - fresh and home made.  The deep fried calamari was crisp. 
   
5. They know how to cook lamb.  It was delicious - well seasoned and melted in the mouth.
6. They also know how to grill a fish.  Just YUM. I forgot to get a photo of the flounder - sorry - just come and order it yourself

   

   The flounder- sorry

7. You can experience a little bit of Greece in Elsternwick by going to this restaurant.  And it is cheap enough to bring the kids.

Coco Thai # 586

Do you know that feeling of having something that you have absolutely loved to bits and then one day you realise you are over it?  Like a favourite pair of jeans that are a bit different (covered in zips for example) and one day you put them on and realise you are completely over them.  You have moved on.

 

Or the computer game you have obsessed over for a year (yes, I am talking to you Sims) and one day you log in to your finely curated families and houses and realise you are over them.  You have moved on and zombie killing is your new thing.  You just don’t feel that thrill anymore.

Well Mark and I had that feeling tonight.

Actually, the first feeling we had was one of dread.  The next restaurant was an Indian one that we had not heard good things about.   However, rules are rules and we had to take the good with the bad.  We took the kids to distract us from the food.

The next feeling was one of joy.  We had walked in to the Indian restaurant which will remain unnamed and the lovely mono-browed waiter informed is that they did not have a licence to serve alcohol. Not even a BYO licence.  One of our rules is that it a restaurant must serve alcohol.  So we skipped out of there and went to the next one which is an old favourite; Coco Thai.

Rules are rules.

 

The décor is unextraordinary.  All 4 walls are different but align to a brown flower theme.  They don’t follow the extravagant light shades theory that most of the other Glenhuntly Rd restaurants adhere to and have installed plain downlights.  There is a weird plant that greets you as you walk in the door.  Lisa checked it out – it’s fake.  The Thai royal couple smile down on you from a photo on the wall.

We ordered all the old favourites;

Prawn Crackers, Mixed Entrée, Chicken Pad Thai, Green Curry Chicken, Steamed Ginger Fish, Duck curry, Massaman Lamb curry, Steamed rice.

The Pad Thai is oily but has a nice citrus tang.  We thought we would get a whole steamed fish but we just got rubbery bits of it.  Do not order.  The duck is tender and sweetened with pineapple.  It was voted “good”.  The green curry chicken is OK but even the kids believe it should have been spicier.  The lamb in the massaman was a cheap cut , expertly slow cooked.  The star of the evening.

This place really is a good, family friendly, basic entry level point into the world of Thai food.   But I think we have moved on to more  complex flavours and ideas like those found at Red Shallots.

Sorry Coco Thai, you have been relegated to the place where I put the Sims and those interesting  zippy jeans.

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.