Crust Pizza Party!

When the opportunity to host a pizza dinner party came my way courtesy of Crust Pizza and Retail Food Group, I jumped at the chance. Crust Pizzas are deliciously gourmet, and are reasonably sized and priced so there would definitely be big smiles all around. 

To liven things up in the office, and with a bit of encouragement, the dinner party became themed. Carnevale! Although, in hindsight, things ended up looking a little bit Mardi Gras instead. 

The Giant Mask

Twirly Decorations (also fun to play with)

Centerpiece

Masks for the Guests

We were eagerly waiting in anticipation for the pizzas that had been orders. Eight large pizzas that would satisfy our cravings with a varied range of toppings from salmon, lamb, chicken, beef, ham and vegetarian. When the pizzas arrived, they were hurried opened, and arranged nicely as dinner parties should be somewhat organised (although the primary aim is of course to eat lots of good food in great company).

Crust Pizza Party!

A little snapshot of what we consumed (with those doll tables included as I wanted to take photos before all the pizzas had been attacked):

Wild Mushrooms and Wagyu Beef

I loved the sweetness of the asapragus on this one - it offset the earthiness of the mushrooms and the richness of the beef perfectly! 

Pizza devouration in process

Pepperoni

Capricciosa

Peri Peri Chicken

More pizzas being devoured

Smoked Salmon

Smoked salmon is always interesting and this pizza was done well in my opinion (and relatively healthy too - all those omega 3s).

Mediterranean Lamb

A favourite with a few of the boys in the office!

Vegetarian Supreme

Unfortunately our only vegetarian pizza but the first to be completely consumed.

Prosciutto

The Aftermath

Don't worry, all the pizzas were eaten by the end of the night.

We were also had a pasta included in our order - and so while this was a pizza party and no-one felt the need for pizza, it was eagerly devoured for lunch the next day by a colleague.

Bolognese Verdi

No dinner party is complete without dessert - so dessert pizzas and surprisingly good ice-creams.

Blackforest Dessert Pizza 

Ice-Cream Pots

So, I'm declaring this a successful dinner party with all the required ingredients: food, drinks, dessert, good company. Crust's pizzas are gourmet quality and reasonably priced (just over $20 each for a large), deliver to your door and don't leave you feeling nasty afterwards.

Thanks to Crust Pizza and Retail Food Group (especially Amy!)

The Grain Store

I was pleasantly surprised to see an email from The Grain Store pop up in my inbox inviting me to their launch party. Even though they've been open for a month or so now, I hadn't even heard of them, so the invite could not have been more welcome. I'm always up for checking out new places to get fed.

The Grain Store

Their philosophy resolves around food that's nutritious, healthy, and always delicious. Taking inspiration from rustic, traditional European fare with a modern twist, I was looking forward to sampling the food on offer, as well as enjoying a fun night out with other bloggers and great friends. 

How could you not love this?

The girl responsible for the branding and some of the artwork in the restaurant was having a blast taking Polaroid pictures of everyone. It was a very quirky and welcoming touch! It wasn't long for the canapes arrived:

Quinoa, Cabbage in Witlof Cabbage Boats

 Refreshing, crunchy and very slightly bitter - a great start.

Polenta Chips

You can't really go wrong with polenta chips, and these had a nice 'cheesiness' to them too.

Prawn and Garlic Crostini

I didn't get to try these as I didn't want to risk inflammation after my wisdom teeth surgery, but by all accounts the prawn was sweet and fresh, and the crostini was perfectly toasted.

Chorizo with Sweet Sauce

Was this plum sauce perhaps? In any case, I'd never thought of pairing the salty richness of chorizo sausage with a sweet sauce that cut through quite brilliantly. Simple, but my favourite canape of the night.

House-Made Chips with House-Smoked Salmon

Crispy, salty chips and silky smoked salmon. So much better than Salt & Vinegar (and I love my S&V chips!)

Cheese Fondue Pots

Even with a warning, I managed to burn myself on these gooey parcels of cheese. Delicious, but risky.

Beef Tartare

Ignore my  hand in the picture, but these were well balance with a mixture of sauces, acidic elements, and most importantly, hand cut beef. We also had quite a few servings of the slow cooked pork cheek which was melt in your mouth tender and highly addictive, but we devoured those fairly quickly.

While I didn't sample the everyday menu, if the quality of the canapes provided for fifty or so hungry diners is anything to go by, The Grain Store serves up some impressive and (mostly) healthy food. With fresh ingredients and interesting flavours, I'm interested to see how the restaurant performs on a normal day. The venue is spacious and inviting with lots of wood and low hanging light, and I can see myself spending an enjoyable morning perusing the paper with a long black coffee.

Thanks again to The Grain Store for a very enjoyable evening with good food, wine, and many laughs. 

My guests and I dined courtesy of The Grain Store. 

The Grain Store
Mon-Thu 7am-5pm, Fri 7am-8pm, Sat-Sun 830am-4pm
517 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Oishi Kitchen

Sometimes you're hungry and end up walking into restaurants without really considering how good the meal is going to be. Because let's face it, sometimes getting fed is more important than what you're eating. It's always a nice surprise though when you find out that the restaurant serves pretty good food at decent prices.

 A few of us were walking around Chapel St looking for a late lunch when we walked past Oishi Kitchen. Seeing as a few of the group had recently returned from Japan and were missing the food, we walked into without too much thought. 

The lunch menu serves your typical Melbourne-Japanese eatery; bento boxes, don (rice) dishes and udon (noodle) dishes. We mostly ended up ordering fairly different meals, 4/5 of which were promptly served. 

Teriyaki Chicken Don

This was a fairly large serving, but was promptly inhaled none-the-less. 

Seafood Rice

As was the seafood rice dish (although I can't remember exactly what it was called). Oishi gets bonus points for attractive presentation too.  

The two of us that ordered bento boxes were also promptly fed, although I did find the presentation less impressive and slightly odd. 

Udon Bento Box

Beef Bento Box

The protein and rice servings were more than generous, but they seem to have skimped on the sides. Either that, or the bento box itself is too large. Regardless, the main attractions of eel and beef were well marinated and tender. Perfect for a quick lunch. 

The last diner spent a little longer waiting for his dish, but it was pretty impressive when it finally arrived.

Tempura & Prawn Udon

Tempura & Prawn Udon

Steaming hot broth with slippery noodles and lightly battered vegetables and prawns. Not a bad deal for under $15.

Oishi Kitchen was unexpectedly a tasty and cheap eat. Generous serving sizes and friendly staff is sure to make this relatively new restaurant a local favourite. Next time I'm hungry and in the area (during a tough day's shopping perhaps?), I know where to stop in for a quick and filling lunch. 

Oishi Kitchen

286 Chapel St, Prahran

Mon-Sun Lunch & Dinner

The Meatball & Wine Bar

I've just returned from a glorious (and much needed) road-trip holiday to South Australia with lots of winery stops along the way. Consequently, my posts have been even less frequent than usual, but the disconnect was good for me I swear!

In any case, before I left, Libby, Ames and I caught up for a warming dinner at the Meatball & Wine Bar. In organising this, it turned out Ames had just been there, but was happy enough to go back for seconds. 

The Meatball & Wine Bar

We'd arranged to catch up for a fairly early dinner (6 pm) but it was pretty busy by the time we got there, so we ended up sitting outside.Thankfully, the cold Melbourne weather wasn't hitting as hard as it could have.  

 

The Meatball & Wine Bar

As the name would suggest, this restaurant serves up a lot of meatballs. The standard way of ordering is to choose a type of meatball (Pork, Beef, Chicken, Fish or Vegetarian), a sauce (Red, White or Green) and then something for the balls to sit on.  

We ended up ordering two serves of meatballs. 

Chicken Meatballs with White Sauce and Homemade Pasta

Beef Meatballs with Red Sauce and Potato Smash

Going by memory because I didn't take notes, I'm fairly sure I've gotten these dishes right. In any case, the meatballs themselves were tasty and filling, with good amounts of meat. The sauces are fairly rich and flavour packed, but the one thing I didn't take a fancy to was the home-made pasta. I've had some great home-made pasta in my time, and have even tried my hand at making some myself, and this dish just wasn't the same quality. Which is a shame really, because I really liked our non-meatball dish. 

Ribs with Apple Coleslaw

Ribs. The delicious special of the day. The ribs were sticky, slightly fatty and very satisfying to eat without the help of utensils. I'm still looking for the perfect American ribs in Melbourne and while these aren't going to take out that honour, they're a pretty decent dish. The coleslaw was on the bitter side, but I had a heap of it regardless. 

We'd saved some room for dessert and ended up with the panna cotta special, although the Whoopie Mac did sound ridiculously tempting as a grown-up version of a Maxibon.

Grand Mariner Panna Cotta  with Figs, Blood Orange and Pistachio Crumb

I must be getting old - my memory is failing me on exactly what type of panna cotta we had. There was definitely some liquor involved which made generally light dessert more serious and decadent, and we all enjoyed the refreshing ending to a meat heavy meal. 

Overall I had a good time at The Meat & Wine Bar; great company, good food and generally efficient service (although paying for a meal turned out to be more complicated than it should have been). The wine list looked pretty impressive although I abstained for the night. Do have fun with the meatball dish combinations - the 'choose-your-own-adventure' aspect is half the fun! This place gets pretty busy though and doesn't take bookings for groups less than 7, so get here for a very early or very late feed if you can. Otherwise you'll be waiting for half an hour or longer to get seated. 

The Meatball & Wine Bar

135 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Mon-Fri 7am-1am, Sat-Sun 11am-1am

Henry and the Fox

It's been quite a few months since Henry and the Fox opened up on Little Collins St. At the time, there were numerous blog posts enticing me to go, but somehow I never found the time.

When it came to finding a place for a work lunch, it seemed ideal - classy enough and with enough space to accommodate the lot of us fairly noisy colleagues. Catering to the weekday business crowd for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the bright space is welcoming; all wooden tables, overhead lighting, and wait staff in funky berets.

Henry and the Fox

There are a lot of options on the menu that cover most tastes. I ended up ordering the confit ocean trout with quinoa, pickled vegetables, dill crème fraîche, flowers and pollen.

Confit ocean trout with quinoa, pickled vegetables, dill crème fraîche, flowers and pollen

Beautifully presented, it did seem overly fussy - who actually needs pollen in a dish? The amount of food was also somewhat insubstantial given the price ($18). Thankfully the flavours were all fresh so all was not lost, but as you'll see, the small serving sizes were unexpected for most of our group.

I did fare better than my colleague who ordered the whitebait dish without knowing what whitebait was.

Crispy whitebait, Szechuan pepper,grapefruit mayo & pomegranate salsa

Disappointing doesn't really begin to describe this; it looked terrible, it lacked substance with more batter than fish, and it was bland. I felt sorry for the guy who was stuck with this mediocre dish.

Others certainly fared better, with most enjoying their meals.

Fresh spaghetti, bottarga, chilli & garlic butter, parsley & pangrattato

Soft shell crab & avocado bruschetta, mango, chilli & coriander

Poached chicken & charred corn salad with lardons, cos, pecorino, croutons &white anchovies

Rare beef open sandwich, sticky shallots, spinach, roquefort & slow roast tomato

Portobello & swiss brown lasagne, pickled mushroom salad, black olives & sage

Spicy salami, roasted capsicum, scamorza, olives, tomato & oregano

Fox monsieur, serrano ham & smoked cheddar sauce on brioche with apple salad

Seared scallops, serrano ham & pea risotto

The resounding chorus was that the serving sizes were too small however. I guess we just didn't order enough sides. We really should have ordered more given they were pretty good, but it was too late once the mains had already arrived at the table to try and squeeze in more food during lunchtime.

Sweet potato & pumpkin wedges, saffron labne, cashews

[No cashews here as we didn't have an EpiPen on hand.]

Polenta chips w parmesan & aioli

Salad of radicchio, pear, walnuts, gorgonzola

Salad of rocket, parmesan & EVO

A few days later I even returned for breakfast. Small serving sizes seem to bother me less at breakfast than at lunch. I'm happy to say that the food was still tasty and fresh.

Corn fritters w poached egg, avocado, feta, chipotle sour cream & iceberg

The corn fritters were perhaps a little bland, but the chipotle sour cream was interesting and a nice accompaniment.

Egg white omelette w confit ocean trout, chargrilled asparagus, spinach, dill crème fraiche & fresh herbs

I was expecting this to be lacking in flavour but there was enough salt and herbs to make the dish interesting. Crispy asparagus was beautifully offset by salty ocean trout. I do like my ocean trout.

After breakfast and lunch visits to Henry and the Fox, a few things were very obvious: the food is great quality and is (generally) well presented, the serving sizes are very small, and the service is very slow. So, if you're not in a rush and not particularly hungry, then Henry and the Fox is a good choice doing the work week. If you're ravenous and in a rush, maybe a food court will still be a more rewarding option.

Henry and the Fox
525 Little Collins St, Melbourne
Mon-Fri 8am-10pm