Hare & Grace

So what can I say? When I read about some of the wacky combinations that Hare & Grace were whipping up in their restaurant, I knew at once that I had to try these quirky flavors out for myself! Amazingly enough, the fates were in my favor the day I decided to go as when I called Hare & Grace up, they said that they had a table just ready for me!

Starting from the top of the steps, I began my descent down towards the entrance and finally into the wonderland that was Hare & Grace. The interior had a very rustic feel to it with twigs and branches lining the ceiling and this made the restaurant look as though it had tree roots penetrating through it's roof. Because of these branches, it looked like we were standing underneath a gigantic tree in a rabbit hole and additionally, standing up at the front desk, in his own little jar was an adorable hare statue that reminded me of the White Rabbit, making the place seem very Alice in Wonderland-esque! 

The restaurant was split up into two spaces, the Dining Room and the Minibar and we were seated in the Dining Room. As expected from a fine dining restaurant, the service was impeccable and the friendly waiter kindly explained to us all the different parts of the menu so that it was easier to make our decision. The menu was definitely vague and only listed 4 to 5 ingredients at most so his help was definitely appreciated by me. 

While we were waiting for our composite dish to arrive, a basket (that was reminiscent of a bird's nest) containing bread was brought out along with the most perfectly formed quenelle of butter I have ever seen! Just looking at it sitting proudly on that slab of stone, I remember being so impressed and it actually tasted just as good as it looked. It was soft, creamy and worked perfectly with the bread and sea salt.

Seared Scallops with 'licorice', grapefruit ketchup and shaved pork neck - $22

When our composite dish came out, I had trouble containing my excitement and not digging into it immediately as it was actually the reason why I wanted to try Hare & Grace in the first place. Not being a fan of licorice, I was kind of skeptical as to how they would make all the elements on the plate work together as they were all so vastly different! Online reviews however, that I had read about this dish had all being really positive so I was very eager to see how they would pull this off. The scallops were cooked beautifully and had a delightfully crisp outside and translucent centre. Eating the scallops alone would've been perfect enough for me but with the addition of the ketchup and licorice, the dish became even more flavoursome and had a real punch to it. All in all, the different and interesting flavors actually complemented each other so well in this particular composite and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the dish. 

Otway Ranges Pork Belly with mussels, clams, cereals, burnt leek and ham bouillon - $39

For my principal dish, I ordered the pork belly as I'm a massive fan of pork belly and when I saw that the dish included my favourite types of shellfish in it as well, I knew I couldn't say no. While the pork belly was indeed enjoyable, I wished the crackling could've had more of a crunch to it when I bit down as I prefer my crackling crisp but besides that, the meat of pork belly was so mouthwatering and not overly fatty which I really liked. I generally don't mind eating leek but unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to finish the burnt leek in this dish, it just tasted so oily to me and I really wasn't a fan of the burnt taste that it had. Other than those small setbacks though, the rest of the dish was delicious and I found myself wanting more of the shellfish after I finished off my last piece. 

Sticks 'N' Stones Apricot Sorbet with chocolate, pistachio, cinnamon and rosewater curd - $15

Now it's time for dessert! How magnificent does this dessert look? It was a combination of beautiful apricot sorbet encased in squid ink with frozen chocolate ganache chunks, rosewater curd, pistachio crumbs, squid ink and cinnamon sticks. This dish was an absolute stunner both visually and taste wise. I'm so glad that Hare & Grace decided to switch out the wasabi ice cream for the apricot sorbet in this dish as I'm definitely not too fond of wasabi and the sorbet was really refreshing! While I did enjoy the squid ink (Movida has forever changed my outlook on squid ink and turned me into a devout follow), the best part of this dish was the frozen ganache, it wasn't overly rich and was just the perfect amount of chocolatey goodness for me. On the whole, I really liked this dessert and now I'm just further convinced that you can never go wrong with squid ink.

My trip down the rabbit hole was definitely an interesting and mouthwatering one! The entree and dessert were truly unforgettable dishes and I definitely want to come back here again to sample some of their other quirky sounding desserts. Overall I thought Hare & Grace's dishes were bold, innovative and had a molecular gastronomy touch to them which really made them stand out in my mind and made me feel as though I was eating food from an entirely different land. If you're looking for a memorable experience with quality food and want a place with an enchanted ambiance to share with someone, look no further than this wonderland hidden in the CBD! 

Hare & Grace

Location:

525 Collins St  Melbourne VIC 3000

Contact: (03) 9629 6755

Opening Hours:

Mini Bar

Coffee

Mon - Fri - 11:30am - late

Bar snacks and meals

Mon - Fri - 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Mon - Fri - 5:30pm - late

Dining Room

Lunch

Mon - Fri - 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Dinner

Mon - Fri - 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Mon - Fri - 6:00pm - late

Closed on Saturdays and Sundays

Pricing: $$$$

Have you tried squid ink before? Have you read Alice in Wonderland?

PM 24

While I've heard of Phillipe Mouchel's French fine dining restaurant before, I never expected our impromptu decision to eat out would eventually lead us there last Friday night. Originally aiming for a spot at Chin Chin's, our group arrived there at 10pm, hoping that there would be a spot for us but alas, we had no such luck. We were told we would have to wait for another hour and a half and so we begrudgingly left as we were way too hungry to wait around for that long. We decided to walk around and see where luck would take us and thankfully it led us straight into the warm arms of PM 24. Upon seeing the sign, I was extremely excited and insisted that we had to go in and try it out and thankfully they had a table just ready for us!

A sign from heaven, it literally started raining after we arrived

The interior had a very intimate and romantic feel to it thanks to the dimmed lighting and candles and oh boy, that service was absolutely exceptional. Our waiter had a rather heavy French accent but he more than made up for that as he was so attentive and accommodating!  Nothing makes you appreciate a dining experience more than having impeccable service and PM 24 really hit the mark for me with it's lovely staff. 

Look how fluffy the bread was!

 With the helpful assistance of our waiter, we all decided on our entree and mains. For the entree, I decided to try the snails as I've never tried them before and my friend (who had recently been to France) said she absolutely loved them and that I should give them a go. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we were served freshly baked bread with butter. I love love love the smell of fresh bread and when I pulled that bread apart, the smell was intoxicating. I've got to say, I've been served plenty of bread in my life time, but PM 24's bread was hands down the best I've ever had. Combined with their silky smooth butter, everyone just dug into their bread and collective sighs of contentment were heard from all round the table. 

Burgundy style snails served in garlic and parsley butter with mouillettes - $16.50 for 1/2 dozen

Before long our entree came out and I was filled with mixed feelings of anticipation and fear. I have a horrible fear of anything slimy and just bugs in general, so I was rather reluctant to try this dish out but since my friend had recommended it I decided to take the plunge and go for it anyway. The verdict? I should have stuck with my gut instinct and skipped out on it. The snails were really tasteless and rubbery in texture and I found the garlic and parsley butter that went with it to be really overwhelming in flavour. I suppose it was to make up for the lack of flavour in the snails but nothing about that dish impressed me and every time I chewed I could not stop thinking about the fact that I was chewing on a snail. If there was anything that let me down during my dining experience at PM 24, this dish would've been it.

Confit duck leg with leek salad, tamarind jus and sweet potato mousseline - $32.00

Luckily our mains came out really quickly and they blew away any thoughts or after tastes remaining from the entree! My duck leg was absolutely superb, the meat was so wonderfully tender, juicy and was practically falling off the bone. Combined with the tamarind jus and the leek salad, the dish had a very Asian spin to it which I really enjoyed. While I appreciate a good duck, the part that really won me over and had me picking this dish was the sweet potato mousseline. I love sweet potato and the sweet potato in the dish did not disappoint at all. It was SO smooth and creamy, I actually could not stop eating it or forcing my friends to try it out. The only quip I had with the dish overall though was that there wasn't enough duck! Not that I'm complaining about having too much sweet potato left over but I wish there could've been more of that crispy yet tender duck to go with it. 

From the duck leg going clockwise: Rotisserie chicken with lechefrite sauteed potatos and natural jus -$35.00

Hopkins River Black Angus Beef (Scotch Fillet 300g) with beef jus, Bearnaise and pommes frites - $37.00

Fish of the day (Grenadier fillet) - $37.50

The other mains were just as scrumptious as the duck and out of the three, my favourite was the fish of day that F had. I can't quite remember what the components of the dish were but it was divine, as all the other mains were! What PM 24 had in taste though, it didn't quite have in presentation.The presentation of the other mains were somewhat lacking when compared to the duck (which was quite lovely) and my godness, the presentation of that scotch fillet! K's face was actually so comical when they bought it out as it literally was just a fillet sitting in jus, the look on his face was just "you have got to be kidding me, that's it?". But thankfully for him, they soon bought out the Bearnaise and pomme frites and K demolished his dish just like everyone else did. 

K's Scotch fillet, how depressing does it look on the plate?

After those fantastic mains, I knew I had to have some of their desserts especially since I could see all the previous beautiful desserts coming out from their kitchen. After much deliberation, we settled on the crème brûlée and the chocolate soufflé, two of my top 5 favourite desserts! 

Tahiti vanilla crème brûlée with Grand Marnier - $16.00

My inner pyromaniac literally squealed with joy when they brought this out, how awesome does it look and that wasn't even the best part! When the fire finally died down, I eagerly cracked the crisp caramel layer on top and dug into the crème brûlée.  Everything and I really mean everything, was done right. From the perfectly thin and crisp caramel on top to the light and creamy vanilla custard underneath that melted in my mouth, I was legitimately in food heaven and even though it was meant to be a shared dish, I'm pretty sure I ate 80% of it.

Chocolate soufflé with coffee ice cream - $17.50

The soufflé was so incredibly fluffy and soft and when we dipped our spoons into its center  a river of chocolate flowed out from the center and oozed it's way down to the bottom of the ramekin. It was pure chocolate indulgence and every bite felt so good but oh so bad at the same time. If I had to choose between this and the crème brûlée though, I would probably still go for the crème brûlée because as good as it was, the soufflé was quite rich and even though it had ice cream to accompany it I know I would've passed out from sweetness overload if I had to eat the soufflé by itself. That being said though, it was honestly so delicious and the coffee ice cream that went with it had the perfect balance of sweet and bitter.

The chefs putting the finishing touches on the plates 

If you couldn't tell already by my crazed raving, PM 24 was an absolute pleasure to dine at and I would  definitely without a doubt come back here again. I find that the service at fine dining restaurants can be somewhat snobbish sometimes but PM 24 was nothing like that at all, it was welcoming, hearty and had such a homely feel to it. Honestly, even with that lackluster entree, PM 24 has still managed to convert me into a devout follower and that's really saying something. I highly recommend this place to anyone and if you're ever looking for way to impress someone, then take them on a date here. The food is phenomenal, authentic and worth every single dime, a huge thank you to Phillipe Mouchel for knocking our socks off!

PM 24

Location:

24 Russell St  Melbourne VIC 3000

Contact: (03) 9207 7424

Opening Hours:

Lunch

Sunday to Friday - 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Dinner

7 days - 6:00pm - late

Pricing: $$$$

 

What are your favourite desserts? Do you think presentation is important?

Station Hotel

After an early morning of trekking up and down 1000 Steps, a couple of friends and I agreed we'd reward ourselves that night with some lovely steaks. I've heard quite a few good things about Station Hotel but have never had the chance to actually try it simply because it's just so out of the way for me but luckily K volunteered to drive us that day so I finally got to try it out! When we first arrived, all of us were a little skeptical of it being a fine dining restaurant as from the outside it looked like a pub, but once the waitress led us to the dining area all of us ahh-ed at how nice it actually looked.

We were all pretty ravenous by the time we were seated so when the bread came out, we all attacked it like vultures. While the bread was tasty, the real breadwinner (hoho so punny) was the butter. It was sinfully salty but not overwhelming so and I couldn't help but slather more butter on another piece of bread to have another delicious mouthful of it. 

Not wanting to waste time on entrees, all of us flipped to the steak page of the menu and found almost an entire page of just steaks. Unsure of which one to choose, we asked the waiter for his advice and after some very enthusiastic selling of the steaks, he won all of us over with his description of the 300g Kilcoy (QLD) 120 day grain fed Black Angus scotch fillet. 

300g Kilcoy (QLD) 120 day grain fed Black Angus scotch fillet served with hand cut chips and salad - $38.00 I opted for the medium rare steak and could barely contain my joy when it finally came out as I was crazy hungry. While it was flavoursome, I found it to be too chewy at times and personally that made eating it very annoying for me. A also had the same problem, but unlike me who only had small portions of chewy fibres, half his steak's interconnective tissues hadn't broken down yet and it wasn't until he got to the final half that he actually got to enjoy his steak.The hand cut chips on the other hand were superb and the salad was refreshing although I definitely think it could've used with some more dressing as I ended up drowning it in sauce.

The steaks also came with a saucepan of peppercorn sauce which was somewhat of a disappointment for all of us. I couldn't taste the black pepper in it at all and the thing that really bugged me was they only gave us one small saucepan to share between the five of us. The waitress assured us when she first placed it down that she'd refill the saucepan when we were done but when we were she said it'd actually cost us an extra $3. Not sure what the deal with that was, but luckily for us we asked another waitress and she quickly gave us another saucepan.

From left to right: Seeded mustard, Dijon mustard and hot English mustard   Mustard was also served with our steaks and the waitress serving it was absolutely lovely! There were 3 types of mustard to choose from and being the indecisive person I am I opted for all three which actually turned out to be a good idea. K and A both decided to go for just hot English mustard and what a hilarious decision that turned out to be. The boys underestimated the mustard and so they drowned their chips in it only to find out that it was as strong as wasabi. Their reactions were priceless and I wish I could've captured it on film to show everyone, both of them teared up and were throwing their heads back in agony as the mustard burnt the insides of their mouths. 

K struggling with the hot English mustard 

Station Hotel, unfortunately, did not live up to the hype for me and I don't think I'll be returning here any time soon. While the steak was decent, it definitely wasn't worth the price tag and travel time for me and I felt really disappointed by the end of the meal. Keep in mind though, even though A and I weren't as pleased with our steaks, the others seemed to enjoy their ones, so perhaps we were just unlucky with our pieces.

Station Hotel

Location:

59 Napier St  Footscray VIC 3011

Contact: (03) 9687 2913

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sun 11:00am - 11:00pm

Pricing: $$$

How do you like your steaks cooked? What's your favourite cut?

Breakfast Thieves

Miss M

Upon waking up, I was feeling rather peckish as the night before, K and I had attended a ball and sadly it had only served up a 2 course meal. As we checked out of our hotel, I saw people walking by with coffees and food in their hands and was contemplating different ways to steal their food (key word: contemplating). Enter the idea of going to Breakfast Thieves.

Hidden away from the hustle and bustle of Smith St, we found Breakfast Thieves thankfully before the hail started. The interior was simplistic yet charming and we were quickly seated thanks to the communal table that could fit all five of us. I loved the fact that each table had a bright and full bouquet on it as opposed to the single flower you would normally see in cafes, it really brightened up the place and all of our moods... except for E's.

We called this piece, the juxtaposition of life and death, obviously E had too much fun last night.

Since the boys were too hungover to stomach any food only C and I ordered food and drinks, as per usual I opted for the chai tea while C went for the soy hot chocolate. The chai was decent overall and was nothing too special but I liked the fact that it came out in a teapot as I hate it when my chai tea goes cold and the teapot kept my tea nice and warm. 

Calmer Sutra Chai Latte - $4.00

While waiting for our food to arrive, C and I looked around the room and noticed this cute blackboard which said "Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues". I really couldn't have said it better myself, as there have been many a time when have I bitten into a raisin cookie expecting the sweet taste of chocolate only to taste nothing but disappointment and lack of faith in the world.

The food took its sweet time coming to us but when it did, it did not disappoint. I ended up choosing the Brioche Pain Perdu which was unusual for me as I never opt for sweet breakfasts but after this one I think I might just have to start to! 

Brioche Pain Perdu: French toast served with spiced wine poached pears, white chocolate mascarpone mousse and candied pistachio - $17.00

Look at that beauty of a dish, I loved everything about it!! Not sure if it was just because I was really hungry and slightly hungover but I thoroughly enjoyed it, the pears were perfectly poached and really helped balance out the heaviness of the french toast (which mind you was also very delectable). The pistachios added that much needed crunch to the dish and as for the white chocolate mascarpone mousse, I would have to say it was honestly the star on the plate. I am a massive fan of white chocolate and this one was just so wonderfully smooth and creamy. I hate it when white chocolate is overly sweet and sugary but this one was done just right. 

The Legend: Spicy baked eggs with spanish chorizo, roasted mushroom, green peas, feta, served with herbed garlic toast - $18.00

As for C, she took the savory route and ordered the baked eggs which turned out to be quite disappointing. While I liked the heat in the dish, I found it to be too salty and after a few nibbles I was already reaching for water. The eggs were also a little too runny for my liking but however they provided relief from the overwhelming saltiness and once C finished the eggs, she struggled to finish off the rest of her dish.

How cute are the little golden books? I used to love reading and collecting these as a child!

My experience at Breakfast Thieves was really enjoyable, the cafe had a chilled ambiance to it which was good for all our hangovers and my breakfast was absolutely delicious. So much so that I want to try more sweet breakfasts from now on as this one proved to be so good. But overall however, it was a bit of a hit and miss so if you do go be sure to try out the brioche rather than the baked eggs!

Also here's some snaps of K and I at our ball, apologies for the lack of updates from K as she's been super busy with her mid sem intensive course and med interview, she'll be back when our exams are over and done with!

Breakfast Thieves

Location:

Shop 1, 420 Gore St  Fitzroy VIC 3065

Contact: (03) 9416 4884

Opening Hours:

Mon - Closed

Tues - Fri 7:30 am - 4:00pm

Sat - Sun 8:00am - 4:00pm

Pricing: $$

Do you prefer sweet or savory breakfasts?