bistro guillaume, melbourne, australia

bistro guillaume is the bistro of sydney chef guillaume brahimi and it shows.. that he's from sydney, that is.  first, he may not have been paying attention to his fit out when he was in sydney.  on warm sunny days, a variety of places in the restaurant will be directly in the sun's path.  the way the roof is designed means that there's little escaping the sun at some time of the day.  secondly, the bear bones table setting, appropriate in my view for a bistro, still left us finding the table dirty with crumbs... qantas needs you to bring your dustpan with you, mr brahimi.

but onto the food.  for entree, i had six beautiful sydney rock oysters.  there was also the option of pacific coffin bay oysters ($3.50 each), but i opted for the rock oysters i knew and liked.  they seemed freshly shucked and still full of juicy sea flavours.  they were served simply on a bed of ice with lemon and red wine vinaigrette.  i also tasted a beautiful salad of beetroot with asparagas and goats cheese.  simple flavours delicately balanced with a fresh and tasty beetroot ($18).

for mains, i had the berkshire pork belly served with lentils and taragon vinaigrette ($32).  the hero of the dish, as many of these cooking shows on tv will say, was lifeless and dead to me.  the pork belly made me sad for the rest of the day - what a waste of calories and of a good piece of pork - i could have gone to auction rooms for brunch instead!  the pork crackling was soggy and boring from a lack of rendering.  because of the taragon vinaigrette, the lentils had this strange aniseed flavour to them that (for me) didn't work.  having said that, others who tasted the dish said the pairing was nice.. a matter of personal opinion. oh my crackling.. i'm sad again.

the pork belly made me so sad that i didn't have the heart to try for dessert... i was afraid of what i would get and, sorry guillaume, i won't be going to your melbourne bistro any more.. maybe you should come south more often and see what's going on?  your sydney joint is much better.  for those of you who want to go to the bistro in melboune, perhaps try two entrees instead?  we seemed to have more success that way...

you can find more on bistro guillaume here:

for the love of food
the age
taste.com.au

st edmonds, prahran, australia

 st edmonds is a trendy cafe in trendy prahran.  unlike its south yarra cousin, prahran doesn't have the "sydney bling" and is, for me, a much more real place to visit.

the coffee's good and there's some interesting (in a good way) flavours to their menu.  brunch day consisted of poached eggs (a bit watery - i don't think they were drained properly), almost inedible potato gems due to their strange vinegary flavour, amazing mushrooms in a spicy salsa and equally beautiful chargrilled sausages and bacon.  the grilled tomatoes also came with melted cheese on top - i'm not a tomato fan, but i could see people who like tomato for breakfast loving it. it's a relatively pricey $24 for a big breakfast, one that i'm not sure many except the hungover could finish.  the mushrooms and sausages really made it for me - next time, i'll just get the poached eggs with them:

overall, a worthwhile visit to an established inner city brunch spot.

you can find reviews of st edmonds here:
urbanspoon
broadsheet
time out 

cumulus inc, melbourne, australia

who'd have thought that cumulus inc would have a good brunch crowd.  it doesn't have the waiting times of the outer city establishments, but its food is just as good and rivals cumulus' own dinner menu.  we arrived at around 10.00am on a sunday and easily found free on street parking (1 hour).

for breakfast, we had two dishes. the first was grilled lyonaisse sausages with beans and a poached egg.  the second was the cumulus inc breakfast, consisting of a boiled egg, toast with three preserves, berry yoghurt, organic orange juice and a coffee.  this came to a rescession proof price of $17.60.

if you aren't able to get into cumulus inc for dinner (no bookings unless you get the big table of 7), sunday brunch is a good substitute.

 

you can find other reviews of cumulus inc here:
almost always ravenous
gourmet traveller australia
time out magazine

hardware societe, melbourne, australia

hardware societe is tucked away at the arse end of hardware lane, away from the touristy restaurants and bars.  unlike many of melbourne's new hipster brunch places, the fit out at hardware societe is simple and modern.  in other words, no old wooden chairs or exposed brick in this place.  the coffee is great and the staff are attentive (perhaps too much).  the food is good but pricey for what it is... for that price, they should also accept credit cards... all up, a reasonable brunch place with good coffee and food, though i would personally question whether i got value for money here.

some hardware societe reviews can be found here:
Urbanspoon
Broadsheet
Sydney Tarts

mrs macquarie's chair, sydney, australia

going for a jog at 7.00am is made a lot easier when the sights are spectacular.  this is taken from mrs macquarie's chair, which has a good view of both the opera house and harbour bridge.  the run from the opera house through the royal botanic gardens to mrs macquarie's chair is around 5km return.  this is also the spot where sydney holds its moonlight cinema.  what an amazing background for an open air theatre.

hyde park, sydney, australia

walking through hyde park, sydney, after dinner in darlinghurst.

coin laundry, armadale, melbourne

coin laundry takes its name from its former use - as a laundromat.  nowadays, it pumps out some music, food and coffee instead.  my personal view is that the food isn't as good as many other brunch places in melbourne, but if i lived in armadale, i'd probably go more often.  otherwise, there's a heap of great brunch places dotted around melbourne that i'd go to first... though, their staff are all pretty hot...

some coin laundry reviews can be found here:

Broadsheet
The Age
Urbanspoon

crown atrium, melbourne

each year, crown casino puts something related to chinese new year on in its atrium.  a small light and sound show accompanies the display.  you'll be able to see a golden dragon near the bottom right of the photo.  2012 is the year of the (water) dragon in the chinese zodiac.

happy chinese new year!