Collins Kitchen Grand Hyatt Buffet

December 31, 2015November 15, 2018 ~ danib@eatmystreet.net

On Christmas Eve we had the privilege of enjoying the most grand of holiday dining experiences, the buffet lunch at Collins Kitchen in Melbourne.

I do not normally go for a buffet lunch experience, but this special family lunch called for a lavish setting with elaborate service and good food with variety. The Collins Kitchen special Christmas buffet seemed like the perfect fit.

Collins Kitchen Buffet Lunch included the following

sushi station with Korean fried chicken
a variety of meats from the carvery
a dumpling station
salad bar
an impressive selection of excellent and local cheeses and terrines
an assortment of roast vegetables
fresh linguini, pappardelle, penne napoli, pesto or brocollini cream sauce.
fresh seafood.
spectacular cakes, sweets and other desserts including plum crumble, spicy chocolate yule log cherry dacquoise, praline roulade peach & vanilla yule log.
fresh sorbet and ice cream.

Collins Kitchen Grand Hyatt Buffet

Seafood at Collins Kitchen Grand Hyatt Buffet

salad bar at Collins Kitchen Grand Hyatt Buffet

My favourite dish was the Korean friend chicken and the very excellent and varied cheese selection, including a lovely terrine.

cheese selection at Collins Kitchen Grand Hyatt Buffet

Dessert was also very special and we all spent quite a bit of time returning to sample the array of fresh fruit, cakes, ice-creams, freshly made pancakes and gingerbread.

dessert at Collins Kitchen Grand Hyatt Buffet

The food was very, very good for a buffet and service was excellent. We were seated in the lounge area of Collins Kitchen and it was peaceful, quiet and comfortable despite the busy surroundings.

We had an excellent lunch and I would recommend the Collins Kitchen buffet lunch if you are looking for a luxurious buffet dining experience where you can just take your time and enjoy your surroundings and feel spoilt for one day.

Collins Kitchen Grand Hyatt Buffet

Enjoy.

Dani xx

The details

Collins Kitchen Grand Hyatt Buffet

123 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone:(03) 9653 4831

Website

Dani B is a food and lifestyle blogger from Melbourne, Victoria. You can read about her favourite places to eat by clicking here. She also loves to cook and posts her favourite simple, tasty recipes every Friday. Read more about Dani B and Eat My Street. Or follow along on Facebook. Thanks for stopping by! xx

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Melbourne’s best coffee

December 29, 2015December 31, 2015 ~ danib@eatmystreet.net

Patricia Coffee Brewers

Melbourne's best coffee

Eat My Street recently visited Patricia Coffee Brewers, a cafe that scores a whopping 9.2 out of 10 on Bean Hunter and is consistently voted as one of the best coffees in Melbourne’s CBD. I would have to agree.

Reminiscent of a cafe in Italy, Patricia does not have a lot of space nor seats. Located on the corner of a little alley way you will happily find yourself drinking your coffee standing, mingling with everyone else in the small cafe space inside, or indeed leaning against a grey-stone wall in laneway outside. If you are really weary you might be lucky enough to nab a milk crate.

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The service is excellent, cheerful, friendly, committed and the barista’s here seem to love their gig. It shows in their coffee making too and you will be served a near perfect cup of coffee here.

You can also buy some rather excellent sweet treats.

Melbourne's best coffee and treats

Excellent coffee, excellent cafe and my vote for Melbourne’s best coffee 2015.

Melbourne's best coffee

The details

Patricia Coffee Brewer’s

Website

Cnr Little Bourke & Little William St.
Melbourne, VIC, 3000

Hours: Mon-Fri 7am-4pm

Dani B is a food an lifestyle blogger from Melbourne, Victoria. You can read about her favourite places to eat by clicking here. She also loves to cook and posts her favourite simple, tasty recipes every Friday. Read more about Dani B and Eat My Street. Or follow along on Facebook. Thanks for stopping by! xx

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Lee Ho Fook Melbourne

December 17, 2015March 3, 2016 ~ danib@eatmystreet.net

At the recent Taste of Melbourne Festival I met the very talented Victor Liong from the acclaimed Lee Ho Fook restaurant in Melbourne. Lee was presenting in the Electrolux kitchen stadium and was sharing his passion for his unique blend of Australian cooking which combines Chinese tradition with French heritage and then swirls it all enthusiastically together with a little Australian flair. This sounded like my dream cuisine and so I booked at table at Lee Ho Fook in the city.

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Located right in the middle of a Melbourne foodie sweet spot in Duckboard Place, my walk to Lee Ho Fook took me past some seriously great eateries.

A moments pause as my friends and I all failed the IQ test of the handprint responsive sliding door and then we emerged from a narrow flight of stairs to the dining room itself. The main dining room boasts exposed brick, timber window frame, pendant lighting and a few sweet little windows that help provide a sense of place and surrounding.

Lee Ho Fuk

We started with the Savoury tea egg, avruga and dill ($5-).

savoury tea smoked egg Lee Ho Fook

Then as I was ordering in a group, we sampled quite a few other dishes.

Peking Wagyu Beef and Carrots Sang Choi Bau ($38).

Sang Choi Bao at Lee Ho Fook

Sweet and Sour Pork ($32) with Lee Ho Fook Fried rice ($10).

The most delicious dish I tried was the Crispy Eggplant Cigars in spiced red vinegar caramel ($20). Salty, crispy, tangy and sweet, this dish provides everything your palate could ask for and it is one of those dishes that you “go back for.”

I can’t lie, the Chicken Crackling $8- was all sorts of fun and also hit some great notes of spice, salt, fat, freshness and crunch.

Chicken Crackling at Lee Ho Fook

Dinner was interesting and delicious with a great combination of strong, zesty flavours and more subtle and reliable notes. Service was fine and the dining room had a calm charm.

I have now had the pleasure of meeting Chef Victor Liong and tasting his food and I enjoyed dong both things. Pop along to Lee Ho Fook for the memorable eggplant dish and try some of his amazing, creative food.

The details

Address: 11-15 Duckboard Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone:(03) 9077 6261
Hours:
Thursday 6:00 – 11:00 pm
Friday 6:00 – 11:00 pm
Saturday 6:00 – 11:00 pm
Sunday Closed
Monday Closed
Tuesday 6:00 – 11:00 pm
Wednesday 6:00 – 11:00 pm

Happy Eating,

Dani B xx

Hello I am Dani, thanks for stopping by. I have a passion for all things food and I post regular reviews, events and simple recipes with big flavours. Read more about Dani B and Eat My Street by clicking here.

Taste of Melbourne Festival 2015

November 16, 2015March 3, 2016 ~ danib@eatmystreet.net

This weekend the Taste of Melbourne Festival 2015 came to town.

Thanks to Elextrolux, Eat My Street went along for the ride. I also got to give away tickets to some of my readers which was ten types of awesome.

Some of Melbourne’s hottest restaurants were there, along with more than 100 artisan producers. There was also live music, tastings on offer, Chef’s to meet and greet and produce to buy.

Some of my favourites included;

Zest Coffee Roasters. I may be a little biased as they are a local company. But also, check out that gorgeous smile! These guys were busy all day long on Sunday.

I tried myself a lovely iced-tea and it was delicious.

Pic’s peanut butter. Mainly because there is a slight peanut butter addiction going on at our house and Pic’s Peanut Butter ingredient list reads like a parents dream; Peanuts. The end.

Maggie Beer was there handing out free ice-cream.

Well actually, it was just a cardboard cut-out of Maggie but Maggie Beer is such perfection that even the cardboard version seemed nice.

The ice cream was real. Burnt fig, Chocolate and Salted Caramel and Affogato. Yum!

Miss Molly’s Cakes also made me a fantastic coffee, in style. Check out her cute cupcake filled caravan.

There was also live music, workshops, Chef’s Table classes, and heaps of great food to try.

I loved the BBQ pork, pickled cabbage and tomato roll from Gladioli Restaurant in Inverleigh.

I also had the pleasure of attending some of the live cooking sessions at the Electrolux Taste theatre, where I was lucky enough to meet Chef Matt Dempsey from Gladioli.

The Jolimont Cafe Forest Hill

November 11, 2015March 3, 2016 ~ danib@eatmystreet.net ~ 2 Comments

The Jolimont Cafe Forest Hill

This might be weird, but my perfect brunch fantasy involves finding a sweet, modern cafe serving awesome food and hot strong coffee, in a kind of unexpected, back street somewhere in the Suburbs. Maybe this is some kind of primeval hunter gatherer instinct at play and my subconscious is imagining me on an amazing, slightly dangerous adventure.

The coffee could be bad, Gasp!

Whatever the reason, I love a good find. And yesterday I stumbled upon one.

The very sweet and quite chic Jolimont Cafe in Forest Hill.

Thanks to an invite and tip-off from a lovely friend of Eat My Street, brunch was the order of the day.

We ordered Mexican Eggs ($15) with a Chai Latte ($3.80).

And a Steak Sandwich ($16) with a flat white ($3.80).

Both dishes had good, big flavours with finesse. #so pretty

Service was fantastic was Jolimont cafe and the coffee was good. I also enjoyed my Chai latte for a little bit of spice in my life.

Overall Jolimont Cafe is a cute little cafe in a quiet street in Forest Hill. What an awesome surprise.

Why don’t you check them out on Facebook.

Happy eating and happy hunter gathering! 😉

Dani xx

Details

73 Jolimont Rd

Forest Hill. 3131

Phone. 0438 333 595

Open Mon – Fri: 7.00am – 4.00pm & Sat – Sun: 8.00am – 2.30pm.

LuxBite South Yarra

October 11, 2015October 18, 2015 ~ danib@eatmystreet.net

Today I visited LuxBite South Yarra.

I think I have found found cake-y heaven.

LuxBite in South Yarra has the most tempting display of cakes and macarons all within a cute and colourful cafe on Toorak Road in South Yarra.

I tried the iconic Lolly Bag Cake which combines six classic Australian lollies; Bananas, Freckles, Musk sticks, Spearmint leaves, Jaffas and Redskins.

I also thoughtfully selected from the glass fronted macaron cabinet. My final choices were; Red Velvet, peanut butter and jelly, hazelnut, Milo and sour watermelon. All of them good, but the Red Velvet was probably my favourite.

The real miracle is how I managed to choose at all.

Coffees started at $3.50. Today I ordered a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate and my companion had Iced-Chocolate. They were both delicious. My hot choc was accompanied by a little jug of salted caramel sauce for me to add at my discretion. Turns out I am not very discreet, I added the lot and loved every silky mouthful.

It is a big call, but I think these are the best macarons I have tasted. The filling was creamy, smooth and full of flavour and the macaron melted in my mouth. Sorry other macarons, I have a new love.

I recommend a visit.

Happy Eating.

Dani B

Jam and Cream, Heidelberg

April 3, 2015March 3, 2016 ~ eatmystreet

The name says it all really doesn’t it?

Wait. No it doesn’t! Jam and cream may be two of the best food groups available but wait, there is more.

Jam and Cream in Heidelberg is a pink, sparkly vintage dream.

Miss being a child and visiting your Nan’s house? Well pine no more. Jam and Cream serves perfectly wobbly jelly slice, 18 varieties of scone, pink lemonade, flaky sausage rolls, chocolate crackles and more. If you are really lucky you can pop out the back and enjoy it all in the sweet, soft, lacy environs of a restored 1920’s caravan.

Take your daughters, take your sisters, maybe don’t take your local footy team. The food is made on site by the passionate, enthusiastic owners (the aforementioned Nan I believe). There is a lovely little gift shop area also so you can try and take some of the pastel hued goodness to your own home.

Check out their Facebook page for opening hours and more gorgeous photos.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jam-and-Cream/972221589471144

Happy Eating!

Dani xx

HuTong Dumpling Bar, Melbourne

February 6, 2015October 18, 2015 ~ eatmystreet

I have been blagging on about HuTong Dumpling Bar for years now and have loved the food on every visit. So of course when I invited a friend to eat here with me today, and we trudged for ages through a hot, dry CBD and I even stood swaying wildly on a packed tram with my nose stuffed closely under some strange man’s armpit, well it was not that fabulous.

Service was slightly gruff but most shockingly was this.

Slightly cold Shao-Long Bao.

These lovely little morsels are normally perfection itself, but today they were not quite up to standard.

We also ordered Special Friend Rice and Spinach Dumplings. The filling in the Spinach Dumpling was slippery and tasty, but the dumpling skins were a little chunky and uneven. 🙁

I decided to try something new today and ordered Spring Rolls from the Lunch Menu. They were….. a little bland, a little nice.

They take a pretty picture though don’t you think?

It breaks my heart to speak ill of the HuTong, but today it was not quite up to standard. Lunch was still tasty but for $45 (including soda’s) we could probably have had happier bellies elsewhere.

My taste buds are fairly loyal so I will probably be back to HuTong Dumpling Bar again to rekindle the glory days of hot, slurpy pork dumpling perfection. Just please don’t let me down next time Huut-D, or the hot date with a smelly tram will just not be worth the effort.

Dani xx

HuTong Dumpling Bar, Melbourne

Address: 14-16 Market Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone:(03) 9650 8128

Longrain

June 26, 2014October 18, 2015 ~ eatmystreet

There is not a lot left to say about Longrain. Everyone loves it, including me!

If you have to wait at the bar because of the long cues, you will be happy. Once your escorted to your table in the huge, open plan, but somehow still intimate dining room, you will be happy. Once the food starts arriving you’ll be even happier and your tastebuds might just sing.

Friendly, fun service kicks in at the front door and holds its pace until you leave.

Food bloggers drop their cameras and neglect to take photos, so caught up are they in just having a fantastic night (that actually might just have been me, sorry!).

Check out their menu here

https://longrain.com/melbourne

Longrain serves punchy, exciting flavours in their South East Asian food.

Experience it with a group so you can really sample their menu. Favourites so far for me are the caramelised pork, prawn, peanuts, sour pineapple. Or the Baby corn, snake bean, ginger, snow pea, tamarind, sesame dressing (its a salad). Or the slow braised beef cheek. In fact I have enjoyed everything served to me at Longrain and it is hard to pick.

Visit them at 40-44 Little Burke St, Melbourne.

Phone. 9671 3151

They only taken bookings for groups of 6 or more and a large group booking cane hard to get. So plan ahead. Or you could just turn up, enjoy one of their cocktails and wait your turn.

I have been four times. I have had an excellent, rollicking evening every time. I have neglected to take photo’s of the food every time because, well, I was eating……. The inter webs is chock full of photo’s though so you should survive without me this time.

Here is one of me and my friends in the cute little nook table they gave us last time we visited.

Happy Eating!

Dani xx http://facebook.com/eatmystreet

Cumulus Inc

April 27, 2014October 18, 2015 ~ eatmystreet ~ 1 Comment

45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.

I have five sisters. Yes, there are six girls in my family. No there are no boys. Yes it probably was hard on my Dad although he eventually gave up trying for a boy and claimed that six daughters was pretty special. He made the most of it I think. Lots of head rubs and cups of tea made for him and always sympathy from at least one person when he desired it.

All six of us are well grown now and some of us even have our own little brood. Every now and then we make an effort to meet together and it is always noisy and hectic and there is a lot of food involved and generally someone ends up sleeping on the floor next to someone they are not keen on. The best part of these little “sleep overs” are the shared make up tips. The worst part is the noise. There is no escape……

So this time the girls and I decided to get together sans children. We headed to the city for the night and stayed in a moderately dodgy hotel and visited Cumulus Inc for dinner. We were actually aiming for Mamasita but the line was sooo long and our chances of getting a big enough table were pretty slim anyway so we eventually just started walking along the hot spot that is Flinders Lane until we found something we liked. Committee eating is normally a failure but this time it was not. Yay!

We started our dinner propped up at the bar where a couple of us ordered cocktails. Now somehow the euphoria of finding a decent restaurant that we all agreed upon had gone to our heads and Kate and I ended up going “off piste” (it is a real phrase, look it up deniers) and telling the guy at the bar a few general ingredients that we fancied in our drink and then letting him chose the resulting cocktail. It went something like this. “I like lime and mint and she likes cranberry’s. Yes sure, whatever.”

Mistake.

$18.50 later we were handed two quite small ice drenched cocktails that immediately went to our heads because they were so strong (probably trying to ensure we did not notice the price tag).

Actually, it wasn’t me and Kate, it was “two of the sisters who shall remain nameless for the sake of their dignity.”

Eventually we were seated in the main part of the restaurant. We once again started the endless diplomatic negotiations to decide what we were going to order. The menu was fairly small and it was at this point that there was panic amongst the troops. Well it was only those of the troops who had not imbibed the gold lined cocktails, but still, there was restlessness. We had to just trust that what we were ordering was going to be good, because, well, it sounded pretty boring.

Olives $8

organic spiced almonds $8

Roast new season potatoes, confit garlic & oregano $12

I mean, take the words “organic” and “confit” out of the picture and it sounds a bit like Grandma’s shopping list.

Cumulus Inc has a great reputation. It has been awarded 1 hat by the Age Good Food Guide for 5 years in a row now. It was named number three of Melbourne’s Ten Most Influential Restaurants by non other than Matt Preston. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/masterchefs-matt-preston-names-melbournes-top-10-most-influential-restaurants/story-fni0fit3-1226751483236. Andrew McConnell is the chef and if you don’t know that he is some kind of rock star in the Melbourne dining scene then you have been living under a pretentious foodie rock (my husband- lucky he has me). So my point is, we just had to trust the restaurant and give it a try.

It was delicious. We loved every single dish. The whole slow roast lamb shoulder to share was AMAZING. We were all politely fighting over it.

“Does anyone mind if I? No, you first. Are you sure? Hey, who stabbed me with a fork?”

The potatoes were maybe even more popular (although I politely declined to explain what confit was to the more diet conscious eaters in the room.)

The service was also very good. Polite, informative, well timed.

The decor in the room was impressively unnoticeably sophisticated. Melbourne at it’s best I would have to say.

Overall we had an excellent night and the phrase “what happens at Cumulus Inc, stays at Cumulus Inc, may have been coined. Although I doubt that our giggly group of girls will be the first or the last to use it.

We didn’t even miss the superb mexican stylings of Mamasita. And that is saying something!

For more info you can visit their website. http://cumulusinc.com.au

Chin Chin

April 11, 2014 ~ eatmystreet ~ 2 Comments

I recently celebrated my 14 year wedding anniversary. To celebrate I headed into the city with my husband (I am thinking of trademarking that….. a noun to describe the man I am married to beside “other half” “himself” “MOTH”. I’ll let you know how I get on.) We in turn went to Chin Chin and ate dinner with two complete strangers (125 Flinders Lane, Melbourne).

Excuse me, how rude am I? They are not strangers, one of them was a backpacker out visiting Australia from Spain and the other was a young man who grew up in Melbourne with his sister before she moved to the Country, got divorced and then hooked up with the before mentioned back packer. I don’t know their names or anything because we were never formally introduced but we sat SO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER in the restaurant that I heard every word they uttered. If I were being precise (don’t worry I won’t make a habit of it) I would say that the young spanish gentleman was sitting closer to my husband than I was. At one stage they even offered to share their food with us. Wish I was brave enough to have pretended I did not realise he was joking…..

This is my prevailing memory of Chin Chin. Dinner with three dudes.

Now let me get to the food.

It was delicious, as befits the restaurant’s “hot as right now” status. Chin Chin’s has been hot right now for a while and I am desperately hoping that someone else will come along and steal their thunder so maybe they can concentrate on other things like separating their tables appropriately. How about Dutch food Melbourne? A restaurant in the shape of a clog in the forecourt at Fed Square. Croquette’s anyone? Lasagne with peaches in it? Oliebollen?

Hang on, shame on me for joking, Olibollen are actually delicious. Try them!

In the moments where my mouth could concentrate, I thoroughly enjoyed the corn and zucchini fritters with chilli jam. My husband ordered the Massaman curry because he always does. It was almost perfect. The meat was pre roasted and sticky and melty all at once. The onion and potatoes were also pre roasted and then they had gone all gooey in the massaman sauce. It was sweet and rich and probably had enough saturated fat in it to keep a whole family of walrus’ warm through winter. As always I benefited from his lack of interest in the health properties of a meal when ordering. I also ordered the Chin Chin pork roll ups ($18) and a chicken/ coconut salad. It was all very tasty and the highlight would be those fritters. Service was rushed and all of our food was brought out at once. I assume the line snaking out the door had something to do with this.

I really wanted to love Chin Chin’s and I thought I would. I had been turned back from the door before because the line was too long, I mean what is not to love about that level of popularity. All the cool kids seem to love it, the bloggers have gone mad for it. But frankly, it gave me the irrits.

I have been to LOTS of restaurants where it is all about the food and I am happy to ignore the decor and service (nearly every single dumpling house for instance). This was not one of them, nor were the prices reflective of this style of dining. This restaurant was reported to have ambience, je ne sais quois, X factor etc etc. But all I got from it was delicious food and a head ache.

Here’s a photo to distract us from my grumpiness (and I’m not even that old…..)

By the way, I think backpacker-guy (BG) and grew-up-in-the-city-but-sister-moved-to-the-country-guy(GUITCBSMTTCG) had a nice dinner. BG seemed to pass all the tests set for him by GUITCBSMTTCG (that is definitely too long). They enjoyed their meal.

It was just a pity that considering their proximity, I was not brave enough to sample their food. Maybe next time.

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