Vamos, Lt Bourke St

We arrived at Vamos very early in the dinner service, so early that they had not even finished prepping. The waiter was setting up tables, fine tuning the stereo and probably did not expect anyone turning up so early in the evening for DINNER. Drinks, yes. But dinner? It was only 5:30pm. And Vamos is not the type of restaurant that attracts elderly people who have their suppers at 5:30pm then go to bed at 9pm. 

Vamos is a vibrant restaurant, with a live band playing Latin American music on the weekends, serves tapas with cocktails to their customers who would then presumably be so intoxicated by the zing in the music, food and drinks that they would dance unabashedly near their table (or perhaps on the table). 

We are not the typical 5:30pm diners either, but we had an appointment at 6:30pm and I was not willing to have fast food meant that Gaz had to do his research and dine me at a reputable restaurant before our appointment.

We ordered the wagyu beef skewers with roasted eschallots and roja salsa ($17). The beef was tender, and we really liked the accompanying sweet eschallots. 

Paprika and lime free range jerk chicken ($15). The amount of chicken was just nice in this dish.

Seared scallops on avocado ($15). The avocado suited the scallops well.

The waiter was very pleasant and asked about our evening ahead. The food was delicious and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. Maybe there is merit in eating and going to bed early after all!

Bankara Ramen, Doncaster

My friend suggested that we try the newly opened Bankara Ramen in Westfield Doncaster recently. Her friend's friend from Japan mentioned that he really liked the ramen and thought it the best in Melbourne. It seems like everyone has a 'friend's friend'...

We were warmly greeted by various waiters and waitresses shouting Japanese greetings to us two non-Japanese speaking females as we walked into the restaurant. They could have been shouting rude words to us and we wouldn't have known. But judging by the smiles on their face as they greeted us, it was highly unlikely. Oh wait.... but that's what I do to my boss in Chinese. Just joking. Spiked his tea, yes. But never say rude words to a colleague at work. That would be bullying :) 

I ordered the signature Bankara Ramen ($14) without the extra trimmings. There is the Premium option which includes pork belly, onsen egg, bamboo shoots and so on for $20. 

My ramen came with pork, bamboo shoots, scallions, and a piece of seaweed. The soup was rich and salty, but I had expected the salt and richness. I have had the real McCoy in Japan (incidentally cooked by a Japanese chef who had travelled Australia while working as a fruitpicker) and knew what it was meant to taste and look like. What I didn't get was a depth of flavour to the soup. This was not what I expected to a long braised pork soup. I also found the soup very oily, with lots of pork fat floating around the broth. 

Bankara serves three soup bases - their signature Bankara which is pork bone broth plus soy sauce; Tonkatsu which is pork bones boiled over high heat for long hours; and Chuka Soba which combines seafood to the broth. My friend ordered the chuka soba (not pictured) and declared I should order the Chuka Soba next time I visit since I was unimpressed with mine. Maybe next time....

South Society, Mt Waverley

My friend and I have a club going... It is the 'Let's go for a good lunch when we feel disillusioned about work' club. We meet up at least once a week, which probably tells you a little about my work...

Anyway, recently we tried a new place. We went to South Society on my suggestion. I had read about it in the papers, which introduced it as a hip, modern joint in the suburbs. It certainly did look hip. Minimalist furnishing, hard cement floor which did nothing for the noise levels, and a nice coffee machine humming right at the front of the cafe which gives an indication on the type of customers they would like to attract.

The cafe serves an all day breakfast menu, but we picked two items from the lunch menu being soft shell crab burger and chicken with bacon burger. 

This is my soft shell crab burger, served with chips ($22). The soft shell crab was fresh, it didn't have the frozen kind of taste that I have tasted elsewhere, and it was crispy perfection. 

My friend's chicken burger ($20), similar to BLT. Kudos to the cafe for serving a moist, juicy chicken breast, but the bacon did not have enough taste. The sweet potato chips were delicious. They had done a good job with the chips as sweet potatoes could easily have been over caramelized but these ones were crispy and tasted delicious.

The burger buns are home made as are the chips. The ingredients novel (my soft shell crab certainly was) but awere they worth the price tag? I'm not quite sure... but still, South Society is a good choice to have in the suburbs.

Maha, Bond St CBD

What is worse than committing a mistake? It is not admitting to the mistake. No one likes eating humble pie. It does not taste good. The pastry is soggy and most times it seems too big for one to finish.

If I have to imagine what the pie is like, it'll have a filling of large chunks of semi cooked bitter melon, with a mismatched sweet and sour sauce that is more sour than sweet encased in a dense wholemeal dough pastry case. Unsavoury as it may be, sometimes one just have to eat it, and with a smile on one's face.

So what has all these got to do with Maha? Read on.

I have been thinking of going to Maha for some time, ever since our company deemed it a suitable place to take our corporate customers there for lunch. I was thrilled when Gaz announced that has booked our next lunch at Maha.

Lunch is a set menu consisting of four courses and yes, we get everything as presented on the menu. No need to pick one of each plate for each course. I was already salivating over the thought of getting so many different plates of food.

The first course consists of little plates of (from top to bottom) chemen cured swordfish, truffled fava, village style borek, chickpeas with chicken.

The best dish here was the truffled fava which was so, so delicious. The aroma of the truffles was intoxicating. I could easily eat another ten bowls of this dish. It also had the sweet taste of the prawns in the dish. Shane Delia in his tv show used lobster meat, but prawn meat is good enough for me..

The second favourite dish in this course for me was the cured swordfish, though Gaz thought it was a little slimy for him. I thought it was different, and I like it with the kewpie mayo on the side.

Next up was the braised goat, and jerusalem artichokes (served separately in a little dish). The braised goat was not bad, but I really liked the artichokes. It was a good substitute for potatoes.

Next began the waiting game. We waited about 45 minutes for the next course, all the while watching as other tables got their courses before us. When we complained about the wait, the food was brought to us within 10 minutes, but by then we had already lost the mood and desire to eat.

To make matters worse, the waitress who brought our food did not seem to think it was strange that we should be waiting 45 minutes between course in a SET menu. When she came a little later to check on how we were doing, Gaz told her the truth and said that we did not expect to wait so long between the course and that we would probably not be able to make our next appointment because of the wait. Her response was decidely strange. She said to us that we should have told her that we have another appointment to go to, so that she can speed things up. Like it was NORMAL to wait 45 minutes between courses?

Here we have (from top to bottom) 12 hour roasted lamb shoulder which was very oily, salad and cracked wheat pilaf. Not pictured was the salmon, which was very delicious. The temperature of the lamb shoulder dish was not hot, as if it had been sitting on a bench for some time. After a time the oil congealed at the bottom of the dish, making it rather unappetizing. We did not manage to finish the pilaf and lamb, having lost our appetite during the wait.

Thankfully, our experience of dining at Maha was saved by one of the head waiters who was very apologetic and offered to bring us more beverages, and told us he will put our existing drinks on the house. We did not take up his offer for more drinks  and after a while, noticing this, he offered again. Finally we asked if in lieu of drinks, could we have something from their gift shop, which he very kindly complied.

We really liked the way he handled the situation and felt he was really genuine in his approach. If the other waitress had admitted to the mistake and not tried to cover it up by shifting the blame to us, we would not have felt as bad. Luckily her colleague recovered the situation well.

The last course was dessert which was orange blossom cake, chocolate fondant and doughnuts. We were too full, but we did enjoy this course a little more than the bitter third course.