Idea Fine Food & Wine
Photos: Courtesy of YourRestaurants.comI often wonder why some Chinese restaurants (and Italian ones in Lygon Street) have girls in the front trying to pull customers in from the street, as it doesn't make the restaurant look more enticing, I think it actually has the opposite effort of making the hungry pedestrian think that the restaurants are desperate for customers. You don't see Flower Drum or Grossi Florentino requiring menu girls to pull customers...
I'm trying to think back on my travels whether such menu girls have ever enticed me to enter an unknown restaurant... no not really. The best bet to find a good local restaurant is to ask your hotel concierge or consult the WWW in advance.
The menu girl often is a deterrence for you to actually stop and look at the restaurant as well, as you may not want to be hassled. This is why I had never gone to Idea Fine Food & Wine until now.
Where was the menu girl this frosty evening?.... Maybe they decided that it wasn't working for them? Maybe... In any case, I got to stop and look inside the restaurant as I walked from work to meet friends for drinks and dinner. Shocked as I was, I saw how modern and elegant the interior was. That night, I vowed to convince everyone to go there for dinner that night. I succeeded.
There were no Chinese patrons in sight, not a good start for any Chinese restaurants that claims to have good and authentic Chinese food. Never the less, we bravely ordered from the surprisingly diverse menu of pan-Asian cuisine.
We ordered the Abalone Mushrooms with Chinese Broccoli, Singapore Chilli Prawn, Hua Hung Beef (not sure whether this is the correct spelling but something like this), and Vegetarian Fried Rice, with lovely Jasmine Tea. The beef was our favourite. Desserts were Crème Brulee with Black Sesame Ice Cream, and Fried Green Tea Ice Cream.
From this satisfying experience, my new gastronomical mission is to try all of the restaurants on Little Bourke!
Before I forget, Idea received 1 Hat from The Age's Good Food Guide, 2007.
Idea Fine Food & Wine
140 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
03 9663 8829
3 comments:
Great review! I'm not a fan of those girls either. They just make it awkward when attempting to select a restaurant. I've seen a lot of them in the touristy areas of European cities and they deterred me from trying a lot of places
I also agree, I hate people in front of restaurants trying to pull me in. I have only fallen for that once, and that turned out to be an awful experience. Good food speaks for itself and people will naturally tell their friends, who will pass it on if they think its good. There is a reason why usually only bad places have menu girls/owners trying to pull people in.
Hi Truffle and Thanh, I'm glad I'm the only one that feel that way!
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