Jan 30, 2011 @ 9:44 PM
Food in Melbourne and Sydney
What's in this post (in order of visit):
1. Koko Black Cafes and Chocolate: http://www.kokoblack.com/
2. Alcohol
3. Sofitel No. 35 : http://www.no35.com.au/
4. Orita's Japanse Fusion Cuisine : http://www.oritas.com.au/
5. Crown's Kitchen Workshop: http://www.crowncasino.com.au/kitchen-workshop
6. A cake from a Cafe in Melbourne. Forgot name.
7. Shoya Melbourne: http://www.shoya.com.au/
8. Yumei Japanese Restaurant (Sydney): http://www.yumei.com.au/
1. KokoBlack: I.e. Lisa's absolute favourite dark chocolate. Every other brand, she eats begrudingly when she's peckish.
The hot choc. I would've uploaded iced choc but it looked disturing after my sister was through with it.
There's a funny story about the 6 blocks of 73% Dark Chocolate KokoBlack bars i ended up with. I'd been whining about wanting to go KokoBlack to up my stock. The result was that my mum, my uncle, and my aunt all separately bought two bars for me without each other knowing. Oops. *Loves* :)2. Alcohol
The champagne that I had on NYE. My favourite so far. Experimented with different alcohols and have come to the conclusion I am fond of sweet alcohols. So sweet varieties of champagne and white wine. Sake is at the bottom of my list x.x3. Sofitel No. 35: So named for being on the 35th floor of the Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne. Only took photos of some of the desserts because its an all you can eat, and taking photos of my horrifically stacked dish would be embarassing. Personally, I think it is overpriced (80$/head) and overrated. I didn't find anything special about the food. However, the restaurant itself is pretty, and the view on the side with the ocean is spectacular according to my aunt.
4. Orita's Japanese Fusion Cuisine: Modern twist to Japanese Cuisine. There's a missing photo of the appetiser. Simple presentation but tastes nice. Unfortunately, after eating at Shoya, all other Japanese fine dining pales in comparison.
5. Crown's Workshop Kitchen: I neglected to take photos oops. Just visit the site. It was pretty good price for an all you can eat. But they were stingy with the seafood. Need to redeem seafood with a voucher (1 per customer). In comparison, seafood at garden buffet at Star City is unlimited, and theres a bigger variety of food there. So yeah.
But it was impressive when sunset came and all the blinds covering the windows at the side came up automatically.
6. Random Cafe: Melbourne has a leisurely lifestyle from what I see. Cafes everywhere, lots of scattered dining places, small winding European-esque streets. It's a very relaxed lifestyle. Enjoyment of food is an art it seems. You finish eating at one place, and then off you go to a nearby cafe for a drink.
6. Random Cafe: Melbourne has a leisurely lifestyle from what I see. Cafes everywhere, lots of scattered dining places, small winding European-esque streets. It's a very relaxed lifestyle. Enjoyment of food is an art it seems. You finish eating at one place, and then off you go to a nearby cafe for a drink.
7. Shoya: The best Japanese food I've ever had (including the food I've had in Japan). Maybe cause there was so much variety in one set meal, so perhaps I should be saying best Japanese dining experience. We spent over 2 hours here I believe. There's a missing beef tataki photo >.<>
The waitress and waiters explain what every dish is when they serve it. Unfortunately, I tuned out sometimes. Can't rant enough about this place o.o
Price: We got two set meals at lunch. One was 39$, which was the most expensive lunch set. We got all listed below (except that the ice ball which was a modification to the order, and the beet tataki which was a separate entree). Besides the 2 mains which are both shown, everything else was doubled because most of the sets were the same. I think....that it is really good in every way.
This is smoked salmon with truffle and a whole array of other things. Unique and delicious taste. (Though I admit I picked out the wasabi cubes).
Some cocktail. I wanted sweet. It was too sweet.
Truffle and egg mix
This...was awesome. I wanted to carry the ice ball home.
Quail egg and mushrooms with lemon? pepper. Surprisingly nice.
The waitress is in the background explaining the dishes.
Yeh, the outside greenery looks a bit too green. But it was really nice with the beef (medium).
The legs of some monster crab from Hokkaido 
Well done beef and chicken main. I am normally really against well done beef but it was still very juicy :)
Mini udon (avoided by moi, the udon hater) and my cousin in the background :D
Dessert. The closest is sea urchin cheesecake o_0 Tasted like normal cheesecake. Green Tea Ice cream
8. Yumei Restaurant
Found in the Capitol building where everyone likes taking sticker photos. Some dishes are expensive, but otherwise, the food me and Jamie had was nice. Forgot to take photo of Jamie's udon before she devoured it.
Seafood salad