Melba Restaurant

The Langham Hotel
1 Southgate Avenue
South Bank
1800 641 107

Located inside the 5-Star Langham Hotel in Southbank, the Melba Buffet Restaurant has long being a place to celebrate and relax. Although there are two schools of thought for 5 Star Buffet restaurants in Melbourne, Melba or Crown Conservatory, but Melba has always been winning the votes amongst our friends.

The seafood selection is typical for a buffet, you have your oysters, prawns and spanner crab. The oysters and prawns were fresh and sweet but the crab tasted a bit average.

One of the great inclusions of the Melba buffet is their own tandoori oven, this is kept busy with people lining up to order their freshly made naan bread. You can have garlic, herbs, chill BUT one must leave room for a chocolate filled naan bread for dessert with fresh ice cream, just ask the nice chef to make it (they will know what you mean). They also serve some pretty good Indian food.

The Melba also offer made to order fresh sashimi and sushi, the selection available includes salmon, tuna, octopus, swordfish and more.

In terms of hot food, you can have made to order pasta and noodles. The roast corner includes beef, pork, chicken and peking duck, but don't expect peking duck to be made the usual way. Instead of using the crispy skin, duck meat is used here.

In terms of salads and cold meats Melba has the full range. They have a great selection of cheese.

But the main reason people go to buffets is for the dessert I think and The Melba offers some of the best range of sweets. In bite sized servings one can grab more then one and still feel like they are being good to their tummy. The tiramisu is one of the best in Melbourne, creme caramel and creme brulee were both top notch. And what can you say about that chocolate fountain!

Would we come back? For sure, if only for the naan bread and that chocolate fountain. For those who still haven't chosen a place for Mother's Day, grab that phone and book Melba before everyone else does!

Match Bar & Grill

219 Little Lonsdale Street
Melbourne
9654 6522

Match Bar & Grill opened over a year ago in Melbourne, its first in Australia, located in the heart of the CBD. The bar offers great cocktails and no fuss wines. There is even a list of things you won't find at Match Bar like no pints, no happy hour and no 'apple martinis'. During the week it is filled with after work suits who enjoy a bit more class then the local pub, with a fully automatic wine cabinet stocked with wine selected from Matt Skinner you can try a shot, half a glass to a full glass of wine. Match Bar is spacious and offers a nice back drop of Swanston St in Melbourne when drinking on the outdoor deck during the summer.

They have recently updated their menu with thanks to Paul Wilson, never having had a meal prior to this change we are unable to compare. We ordered the olives which were supposedly marinated in rosemary, these sadly disappointed as the olives lacked flavour and were soft. The mushroom and gruyere croquettes were cheap ($1.50 each) and such good value, these were lightly fried and salted, the gruyere complimented the mushrooms so well, they sat light in the mouth with a burst of flavour.

Having not been to the Vic Markets for a few weeks and missing the bratwurst, seeing that Match Bar offered a hot dog we did bite and ordered this immediately. They serve this with the staples, caramelised onions, dijonaise and sauerkraut. The buns was nice and crusty however the bratwurst could have been spicy as it missed a bit of bite.

One of their newest menu items and one we heard so much about was their David Blackmore Wagyu burger ($25), these came with a side of fries. The burger had pancetta, cheese, lettuce and some nice pickles, the pattie was nice and moist.

Match Bar is a great place to visit after work being in such a great location and having a spacious outdoor deck, this place takes their wines, beers and most importantly cocktails seriously and with a new 'beefed' up menu there is no longer a need to drink and then walk aimlessly down Swanston St for that Chinese or souvlaki.

Ramen Ya

Shop 25G Melbourne GPO
350 Bourke St
Melbourne
9654 5838

After reviewing Ajisen Ramen only a month ago, we thought we would branch out and try the much talked about Ramen Ya, located at GPO and right next door to the wonderful Kenzan. Ramen Ya is very much its own restaurant, with the small menu consisting of 4 ramen noodles, a handful of bento boxes and some rice dishes and gyoza.

Since then, we have been there a handful of times now, for both lunch and dinner. Their specialty as the name suggest is Ramen 'yah'... pardon the comedic touch, but you too may find yourself doing this after having their intense pork flavoured tonkotsu soup.

As you wait for your meal, you are invited to partake in the ancient art of origami (paper folding), we managed to create a bunny.

The seafood gyoza were standard size, but very dense though the filling was light. I normally like my gyoza with a crispy base.

But Ramen was what we were there for, at $10 a serve this is a cheap healthy lunch or great dinner alternative to your pasta dish. The charshu (many variables on the spelling) is much thicker then Ajisen Ramen and we felt the fat helped enhance the flavour, you get 3 slices in a standard serve, but like Ajisen we recommend you ask for extra charshu for a few extra dollars. The ramen noodles are thick and tasty, but it's the soup that one comes to Ramen Ya for, the pork bone based soup is authentic and amazing.

Ramen Ya is packed at lunch time, so best to come early. They also have a happy hour for dinner (meal only) which entitles you to a 35% discount on your meal, but best to check with the restaurant on hours.

We heard from the wait staff that they are thinking of converting to a fine dining menu for dinner in the future. Let's hope this does not take off, we don't want to come across mean spirited but we do have Ramen Ya cravings at all times of the day... night and day.

Ajisen Ramen

130 Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000
9662 1100

After suffering Melbourne's hottest night, none of us felt like cooking and with the cool change having just arrived in the CBD it was perfect weather for ramen. We were at Ajisen Ramen only last week but did not have time to blog, so after two visits we feel it's a good time to write about it.

Ajisen not only do ramen, they offer a nice range of bento meals, rice dishes and mains. We thought we would stick with their popular ramens, their self named Ajisen Ramen was chosen as well as Yasai Ramen (basically Ajisen but with extra vegetables). The broth was very tasty and unlike some broths in the city not salty or with added MSG (a good way of telling is whether after the meal you feel thirsty). The dish consisted of Chasyu (3 slices of pork), half an egg, vegetables and lots of ramen. You can order a Chasyu Ramen which is served with extra Chasyu, we highly recommend this as the Chasyu is cut quite thinly. They are, however, very tender and tasty with just a hint of fatty goodness.

Ajisen Ramen

Chasyu Ramen (extra meat)

Some nice side dishes include salmon sashimi, this was great value with 6 thick pieces for $7. The Gyu Tataki ($8) photo on the menu enticed us to order it, sadly this was a disappointment, it was tasteless and a little tough.

We also ordered the Geso Karaage $6.50 (deep fried octopus tentacles with aioli), this was much tastier than the beef and would really go well with beer.

Seafood Yaki Ramen ($12) consisted of a selection of fresh seafood, calamari, fish, prawns and strangely massive mussels stir fried with ramen. The ramen was cooked well, not too sure what sauce they use for this, if anyone knows please let me know?

Ajisen Ramen is a great little place to visit as not many places in the city do any nice japanese noodles (udon, soba or ramen etc.) It's cheap and cheerful and service is quick and efficient. We have been told about Ramen Ya at GPO and it will be on our to do list.

Izakaya Den

Basement
114 Russell Street
Melbourne
96542977

Instead of starting with any of our favourite places, we thought we'd begin with the much-hyped Izakaya Den. This place has been reviewed often and is part of the so-called Izakaya invasion.

Our night started off down a difficult-to-find set of stairs, as dinners at Melbourne restaurants often do. Please keep in mind the Den does not take bookings. The fit-out is industrial basement chic. Seating is at the bar overlooking the kitchen, or benches along the LED-lit wall listing the specials.




























We firstly ordered the tuna tataki ($16). These were lightly seared slices of tuna on wasabi and chilli mayonnaises. It definitely was one of the most frequently ordered dishes. The mayonnaises were exciting and complemented the tuna very well.















The highlight of our night was the kingfish sashimi ($18) with asian style dressing (gotta love the vague menu descriptions in Japanese restaurants!). These finely sliced sashimi pieces were so flavoursome that we seriously contemplated ordering another serving. The sashimi was finished off with sesame and coriander.



The potato croquettes ($6) were a disappointment, we found these to be like Birds Eye potato gems.



We did however really like one of the specials of the night, stir fried peppers with konnyaku and chilli miso ($15). The addition of enoki mushrooms was a great surprise, peppers were still firm and the konnyaku was very tasty while the miso was good with steam rice.



The char grilled pork belly skewers ($16) were colourless and a tad too salty. There was nothing to differentiate this pork from any roast pork you would find in China Town, minus the crispy skin in this case.



Who would have thought deep fried sweet corn ($4) would be a star of the night. The corn was sweet and tasty, they went down really well with our beers. We wanted to take some with us to our movie (forget the popcorn).



Finally it was dessert time, green tea chocolate fondue ($14), accompanied by glutinous balls stuffed with macadamia to dip into the green tea and white chocolate fondue mixture. The green tea was able to balance the sweetness of the white chocolate and was a nice way to finish without being too heavy.



Overall the Den should be applauded for trying new things instead of sticking to the tried and trusted. Staff were friendly and a nice touch was the chefs bringing you the food they had prepared. Sitting at the bar allowed us to see the care that goes into each dish.

We will definitely go back and try some other dishes that looked appealing like the stir fried mushrooms, and the bresaola and daikon noodle salad.