YOMG - Glen Waverley

Melbourne Glutton and I were fortunate to win YOMG's 12K instagram competition. This meant we both scored a meal on the house. This music to our ears. Melbourne Glutton is one of my favourite people to share a meal with. Just like me, she takes photos for her blog, so she is every bit my perfect dining partner, especially for places I want to blog about.

We got a burger each, fries and opted for froyo over milkshake. So we could try more variety, we got different burgers and fries.

MG got the Muffler. This was a pretty monster burger with beef patty, fried chicken, double cheese, bacon onion fries, pickles, bbq sauce and mayo. The chicken was crisp, the patty was juicy and well seasoned. The cheese, pickle and sauces finished it off nicely to balance out the meatiness.

I got the Kingsway. This was double beef, double cheese, secret sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion and ketchup. It's like a cheese burger but double the good stuff. The patties are not for the faint hearted so I recommend this for a hungry stomach.

With fries I didn't go too crazy and got the American. Fries topped with cheese sauce, ketchup, bacon and mustard. All the classic in a single dish of fries.

MG got the Shang-Fry. This is definitely different from the classical fries topping, it had pulled pork, toasted sesame, basil mayo, crispy shallots, chilli and spring onion. This was pretty much a meal in itself. There was a generous amount of pork on top, the basil mayo cut through the meatiness and the chilli was a nice kick.

As for froyo, MG and I both gravitated toward coconut. We both went a bit crazy when it came to toppings. The froyo was soft, creamy and not overly sweet.

Overall 17/20 I'm not far from YOMG and it is now one of my regular places to visit whenever I want a burger for a cheat meal.

Trei Cafe

Trei opened up late last year in Syndal. Its located on Blackburn road near the station, so quite a convenient location. I was quite happy to see it open there, as it gives many people in that area a new option for brunch.

D and I got there around 12.30pm on a Saturday and the place was bursting to the seams with people. There were tables outside and inside, we opted for an indoor table which meant a 30 minute wait. It didn't bother us too much, as it gave us time to drive to Woolies to get some groceries and come back.

Once we sat down we had our drinks order taken straight away. I ordered the Matcha Madness and D opted for water. The smoothie was made up of matcha, banana, spinach, chia, apple juice, lime, mango and topped with dehydrated coconut. It was a very filling smoothie and the banana taste dominated the smoothie so it's good if you are a banana lover.

The first thing I saw on the menu was Coconut Hotcakes. If you have been reading some of my post over the last few months, you would have noticed that I have started to go gaga over coconut flavoured things. The hotcakes came with vanilla nutmeg coyo ice cream, pistachio, coconut nectar, blueberries and shredded coconut. The hotcake was very thick and dense, the description may sound like a light option but don't let that fool you. It was definitely on the filling side.

D loves haloumi so when he saw the Big Brekky had haloumi, it was an easy choice. The big breakfast has the usual suspect of poached eggs, mushroom, bacon, spinach and avocado on toast. D was a bit disappointed with the haloumi, he found it to be too oily and the mushrooms were very moist, it didn't take long for the toast to get all soggy. Other than that, it did the manly breakfast item job and D was very full afterwards.

Overall 13.5/20 it is a good addition to Syndal, there was definitely room for improvement but we did visit in the early stages so I look forward to going back and seeing them shine in full potential

Shira Nui

On a late Saturday evening , D and I decided on an impromptu date night. We were both tired from all the cleaning and house moving so I decided to call and try my luck at Shira Nui. It must have been our lucky day because the restaurant was fully booked but they had 2 no shows at the bar so we snapped it up and were out the door driving there within the next 30 seconds.

Getting a seat at the bar meant we were restricted to the omakase and nothing from their a la carte menu, but that didn't bother us as it was what we wanted to order anyway. The communication that you will get from the sushi chef is generally very simple as well; either to eat the sushi with or without soy sauce.

First up was duckfish nigiri, this was a lovely white fatty fish with a delicate taste. With a bit of wasabi and soy it was a great way to start the set.

Second was pan fried salmon. This is a personal favourite of mine when we go for sushi, I love the teriyaki sauce on a piece of just seared salmon.  The sauce highlights the natural sweetness in the fish once cooked lightly.

Third was mackeral with seaweed. The sheet of seaweed around the fish was a sweet seaweed and acted to balance out the strong mackeral taste. The shimichi and spring onion within the wrapping added a heightened taste but personally I think the spring onion spoiled it with the strong aroma.

Fourth was yakiniku beef. This is nothing out of the ordinary but a classic goodie with the beef cooked medium rare. I loved the sweet chilli daikon jam on top of it.

Fifth was a fresh arkshell clam nigiri, this has a very bland taste on it's own and is more of a texture fish. This one definitely had to be eaten with soy!

Sixth was the seared tuna belly steak with chili daikon jam. I am normally not a big fan of tuna, but the chilli daikon with the shimichi was the perfect balance. It was more on the sweet side but that suited me just fine.

Seventh was the miso ocean trout belly. The sweet miso was infused into the flesh of the fish making every bite full of a miso flavoured burst.

Eighth was miso kingfish. Kingfish is my favourite fish when it comes to fresh Japanese fish related cuisines. I am generally skeptical of people adding too much to this fish as I find it just takes away from the natural flavours of the fish. However this time I was surprised as the miso with Kingfish was nicer than I had imagined in my head but I think the sugar content in the miso did slightly hardened the texture of the fish.

Ninth was an oyster mornay ikura (official last piece if you don't choose to continue). This was flamed in the kitchen unlike many of the other seared fishes. A big pocket of creaminess on rice. I would prefer the oyster to be slightly less damp but that is nothing major that would stop me from liking it.

Being the pig that I am, I chose to add 2 more to our omakase. The tenth was a salmon belly torched to give it a scrumptious, seared finished. With a bit of soy, it was a good salmon nigiri in my opinion.

Final nigiri for the night was the sea eel. This was a large piece of eel, lightly grilled with a soft drizzle of sweet soy on a tiny bed of rice.

To finish off we were given a fruity granita as a pallet cleanser.

Overall 17/20 I find that Shira Nui does well in what it aims to specialise in. The sushi plated up is fresh and the technique used is commendable. It is a classic styled omakase so it doesn't pretend to be fancy and add fusion in selection. It doesn't compare to the freshness you would get at eating in the fish markets in Japan but that is understandable. This place is an institution for a reason.