French Fantasies

Best baguette; best loaves; best cheese cakes; best pain au chocolat; best decadent almond croissant that I've had so far (in Melbourne)! Simply, I love this place!

French Fantasies (next to France-Soir)
15 Toorak Road
South Yarra
03 9820 2818

Full Tummy

Although I've been to a few fantastic restaurant, I have not been able to review them here as I've just been swamped at work. Well I think I'm just not used to working so hard, having been in semi-retirement for 6 months.... It shows.. and I envy the younger people around me... *sigh*....

Instead of full reviews, I thought I would blog a little about the notably ones that I've been to lately:

Da Noi

Oh my gosh, what great food.... Although we didn't go for the degustation, which is a menu of 4 dishes, we really enjoyed our roast pork loin and perfectly grilled pork chop. I had the pork chop, so I can tell you in detail, how juicy it is and so full of flavour. It's not a good idea to go early as they were still preparing the menu and preparing some of the slow-cook dishes when we arrived at 6pm. We had to, as we didn't make a booking... We had lovely entrees as well, I had a kingfish carppachio and antipasto. Absolutely tasty. It's charming how they write out the menu by hand everyday... It's like eating at someone's house... someone who cooks well.... I think there are a lot of regulars there as many come through the door and are greeted by their first name... Nice personal touch. Definitely worth going again. Maybe next time I will be brave enough to try the degustation menu :P

Da Noi

95 Toorak Road

South Yarra

03 9866 5975

J-Cafe

The days that this place is open is erratic and I am absolutely madden by it. But finally we went there when it was opened and loved it. They have this fantastic original dish called Mentaigo udon (in soup)... Some of you may know that I absolutely adore mentaigo.. and of course I had to order this.... Mentaigo in soup taste very milky... and it's an interesting taste with udon... like having udon in savoury milk tea...weird but it's actually really nice! They also have the "sushi burger" which is only available there. It's basically rice paddies with your choice of filling, i.e. tempura, beef paddy, deep fried fish, chicken fillet, teriyaki chicken, crab croquette, grilled beef (Yakiniku), spicy tuna, and the list goes on.... The dinner set is good value, at around $20. I ate too much, yet again, need to cut down.. or I'm not going to fit into my suits anymore....

J-Cafe

167 Exhibition Street

Melbourne

03 9650 9877

Have been copying successfully Murasaki's miso pork hot pot....it is unbelievable how miso can go so well with pork! Delicious!

Have I blogged this already?? I will leave it here for now.. I will hopefully blog more before we leave for our belated honeymoon....

Da Noi

Yesterday night after a big dinner at Pacific House in South Yarra, we went to Da Noi down the road. We drove and didn’t really have to as it wasn’t that far. Such a nice little Italian restaurant.

I’ve heard good things about their Sardinian dishes but have never been. Apparently, it is up to the chef what you eat but they do enquire about your dietary preferences.

At least, last night we got to try some of the desserts there. We ordered a tasting menu that turned out to be one of the three menu desserts except for the biscotti.

First time I had Grappa as well… it smelled like Muscat but definitely didn’t taste like Muscat. It was beautiful though… a bit strong at around 45% alcohol but nice grapy after taste.

Back to the dessert, the meringue was lovely, and the mint and chocolate tart was balanced and delicious.

Da Noi
95 Toorak Road, South Yarra VIC 3141
03 9866 5975